Title: Thrones of Glass
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Also by this Author: Crescent City series
Series: Throne of Glass book 1
Age Category: Young adult
Published by: September 2014, Bloomsbury Publishing
Pages: 565 p.
Genre: Epic fantasy
About Throne of Glass
Ten years ago, magic disappeared from the world of Adarlan, a kingdom ruled by a vicious king on a glass throne. He wants to conquer the world and needs an assassin to do his bidding.
In the slave camp of Endovier, awaits an assassin who wants her freedom, she enters into a contest to become the King's Champion, to be released from the hell she was living in. Twenty-three killers stand in her path to freedom, can she defeat them all and become the King's Champion?
But something evil lurks in the castle and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying, horribly, one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival. And a desperate quest to root out the source of the evil before it destroys the world.
My thoughts on Throne of Glass
The first time I read Throne of Glass I was blown away by it. The second time I read it was equally mind-blowing. While I am rewriting this review, which was first published on my other blog, Ice Cold Passion, I am still astonished at how well it still holds up.
The story starts in the mines of Endovier, it is here where we meet the arrogant main character of this book, Celeana Sardothien, an assassin who has been captured and is paying off her debt in the slave camp. Until one day the crown prince and the captain of the guard show up at Endovier with a proposal Celeana just could not resist. Fight for your freedom in a contest of killers and become the King's Champion, the King's Assassin.
Celeana can't resist such a proposal and become's the crown prince Dorian's assassin. In the first part of the book, there is a lot of training and some smaller challenges, it is relatively fast-paced even though not much happens. The second part of the book is much more interesting, I love that Celeana is growing as a character, and making some new friends along the way. I love the character Nehemia, she is such a lovely character.
I understand why this series has become such a hyped book, although I think the hype for A Court of Thorns and Roses is a lot bigger. I think that TikTok has gotten something to do with this. I feel that Throne of Glass has been forgotten a bit by the Sarah J. Maas fans as we now have two more series to set our teeth in. However I am yet to finish any of the series by Sarah J. Maas, so I am starting at the beginning. It all started with Throne of Glass.
The feeling I got when reading this book for the first time, I had not found in a book since Twilight and L.J. Smith's work. The getting so caught up in a book that you forget that you had other things planned, forgetting to eat and drink, reading until deep in the night because you just have to know how it ends. That feeling is the greatest compliment I think you can give a book/author. It tells me that something was good. It also makes it very hard to write a review about such a book. These feelings are so hard to describe to anybody who hasn't had this experience.
I pointed out before that the book is mainly focused on Celeana for this story, but there are Chapters from different points of view as well, such as Chaol the captain of the Guard, and Dorian the crown prince. Another character who makes an entrance is Kaltain, one of the nobility who madly wants to win the crown prince's heart. I like that it is not written from a single point of view, which in my opinion can sometimes limit the world-building of a story.
When Throne of Glass was released, there was a lot of hype around it, mainly in the English-speaking book world, it took a long time before it was translated into Dutch. At that time the English hype for it had ended, I have the feeling that it did not get the same amount of hype in the Netherlands as in other countries, and I kind of feel sad about that because it is a series worth picking up. I think in the Netherlands it missed its mark time-wise. Also, the Dutch original covers are ugly as hell, this does not help either. I am glad that I own the beautiful original covers of all the Throne of Glass books.
Rating Throne of Glass
This book is amazing, with great character building, a very addictive writing style, and a fast-paced story for you to devour. I love all the characters even though Celeana can be a bit of a bitch, but because we also learn a lot about what she went through this is still explainable.
I love that this story has multiple points of view, it helps a lot with the world-building and makes the story that much more enjoyable to read.
I also like that this has a well-rounded ending, there is room for the next book, but this part of the character journey is done. It does not end on a major cliffhanger, which I have come to appreciate. I will be continuing the series, and I hope to finally finish it in 2024. Overall you can already guess what this one is going to be, 5 stars for Throne of Glass.
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