I’ve heard
varying things on the books of author Sarah J. Maas, having been recommended
her Court of Thorns and Roses series, yet also having been told that Throne of Glass
is apparently quite bad. I got this book for pretty much free in a trade with a
friend, so I decided to give my thoughts on it here. Spoilers below.
Meet Celaena
Sardothien, the world’s greatest assassin. After serving years of slavery as
punishment of her past kills, she is offered an opportunity out: If she were to
become the champion of the kingdom’s prince, named Dorian, and participate in a
game of battles against various other skilled folk, she’ll have to serve him
for four more years before being granted her freedom. She jumps on this
opportunity, only for her to find out that participant after participant is
mysteriously found dead, and she might just be next.
I’m kind of
mixed on this book, honestly?
I’ll get
the good things out of the way first: the author’s writing voice was very easy
to get into. I had no trouble getting invested in the story or having to adjust
to Maas’ style of writing, which I usually have when reading a new series. I
also quite enjoyed some of the characters, the world building (which was kind
of standard, but still okay) and the idea of the tournament arc.
However,
there’s several things that make this book fall kind of flat as well. First of
all Celaena is not an interesting character. She’s kind of bordering on Mary
Sue if you ask me, if she isn’t one already. She’s continuously described as
beautiful by a lot of the cast despite having some horrid scars from her time
as a slave at Endovier and even being coated in dust and earth when some of the
characters meet her. She’s also said to be the world’s greatest assassin, yet there
isn’t a lot of specifics dedicated to what exactly makes her so skilled and
sets her apart from others. She does some things, sure, but I don’t see what
really distinguishes her from the other participants in this.
Most of the
other characters are also just kind of there. Nehemia was definitely my
favorite character out of the entire bunch, but I really couldn’t be brought to
care about many others in this story. We’re obviously supposed to root for Celaena,
but since she’s such an OP character I really don’t care much for her. Dorian I
found quite insufferable at times, Chaol was nice but nothing more. There’s
definitely a whole bunch more, but I honestly can’t even recall most of them, which
probably means that they’re just too bland and didn’t stand out.
The love
triangle was… there, of course. You know me, I hate the triangles. I liked her
chemistry with Chaol okay, I suppose, but not enough for me to buy this ship in
the slightest. The one between her and Dorian I really disliked, and there’s
also a power imbalance between those two, so that’s a nono for me.
I also wasn’t
that invested in the climax, which is obviously a problem. I also never doubted
that she was going to win the games, so that isn’t exactly what you want in
your tournament arc book.
I guess
that this one both has quite a few positives and negatives. I don’t hate it
like I’ve seen quite a few people do, but it’s not one of my favorites, either.
I guess it’s just sort of in between? I may check out the sequel books, may
not, who knows.
Rating: 3/5
No comments:
Post a Comment