Throne of Glass
Ratings1,071
Average rating3.9
DNF
I read the first few books in the series many years ago (when there were only a few books out) but had never completed the series. I thought I'd give it a go now since the series is done and I vaguely remembered liking the books back in the day.
Well I think I aged out of this series...I just read a few chapters into the first book and can't convince myself to finish it. Too bad since I like the concept but the main character is frankly an immature annoying teenager. How the heck did some girl become the most feared assassin when all she talks about is clothes and reading and complains every time she has to do anything remotely physical? Also, she just came back from a year of hard labour in a prison camp but she's totally not affected at all by this!? No trauma response or behaviours, not even internal monologue that would show she's freaking out on the inside but trying to play cool on the outside.
Overall, I think this series is probably fine for a younger audience but the characters are just too superficial and the author doesn't explore the fight to the death assassin competition enough for me. Like I said I remember liking this when I was younger and I know the series gets more politically and emotionally charged later but I just can't force myself to read “until it gets good”.
I could not put this book down. As soon as I got the two books in the mail I devoured them a book a day! I don't care much of who Celaena ends up with, I just want more badass characters just like her!
When I decided to get back into reading I decided some light and breezy YA would be the perfect place to start. I logged into TikTok for maybe the fifth time in my life and searched for the book recs of the yout and this popped up. Without knowing anything except it contained romance and fairies I downloaded the eBook and my god it's an irritating read. Dreadfully composed, with dialogue that makes me convinced that the author has never actually met a human person, I would not have advanced so far if it wasn't the only entertainment that I can access on my phone when I've got no 4G on the tube. Obstinately refusing to download another because I'd spent money on this one, I recently had the revelation that it's worth the £8 or so to read something, anything else and I probably won't complete this after all.
Brief plot summary:
Calaena Sardothein, a well-known assassin is brought from Endovier, where she worked in the salt mines, to Adarlan, to become the King's Champion. However, she has to compete in a competition before becoming the King's Champion. She only does this as she is promised freedom after her service for the throne.
My Review:
This was my first read for Sarah J. Maas, and it did meet my expectations, but not exceed them. The overall plot was great, the characters were well written, along with the love-triangle between Dorian, Calaena and Chaol. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Calaena's character, she didn't have this weak persona, like how other authors would portray their female main characters. What I didn't like was how the events were very slow-paced, and this mostly removes that one star from my four-star rating. Despite it being four-stars, I didn't really get bored.
3.5 stars – there were a few bits that seems ridiculous. I'm not sure why people are so in love with this series yet.
That being said, I see some potential foreshadowing and hints of more to be revealed in the future. So, I'll read the next one soon.
Great read, loved the characters and the story got me thrilled to the very end.
As soon as one might start to think that the plot is getting repetitive, BAM! you get a plot twist that makes the story stay fresh.
I got emotionally invested in the characters and their relationships, and i am happy with how things have turned out at the end.
I will certainly continue this series.
here we fucking gooooo 4.5/4.75 (the exclamation points really got under my skin)
2.5/5 Well, I didn't end up totally hating it! And, once the story picked up (ahem, 44 chapters in...), it made me eager to get into the next books. Am I in a a cult? Probably.
I love the idea of a story like this regardless - there's legit so much to play around with here. My problem is the author does nothing to drive any of the plot, waiting until the end to get things moving, and wrapping up with lengthy exposition dumps. I'm sure someone will bark at me that Maas was a child when she wrote these (which kudos to baby Maas btw) but she writes the same in her later books as she does in her earlier work so... maybe let's not make excuses just cuz the candy is yummy - it's still making us fat and rotting our teeth. Aside from that, the romance was cute (if not meh), the fighting was cool, and I'm eager to learn more about the magic of this world.
Mostly I'm in it to see what comes of Fleetfoot
Why did it take me this long to read book 1 i dunno but that was actually really good!? I am officially hooked and loved everything about celeana and chaol and dorian. Nehemia was my favorite. All and loved it from start to finish. If you havent read it you need to!
Es estrictamente un buen libro de introducción.
Para ser el primer libro de la autora, destaco dos cosas. Primero, el ritmo: a pesar de contar con un único punto de vista, los capítulos logran un buen equilibrio entre el desarrollo de personajes, la trama y la duración que tienen. En segundo lugar, Celaena es una protagonista con un gran potencial de base; su leyenda es fundamental para la historia, pero no hay momentos en los que realmente pueda demostrar su capacidad y, aunque se debe a la propia limitación de la trama, es frustrante. Por suerte, a su alrededor tenemos varios personajes que no se encasillan en su posición, crecen a lo largo del libro y empujan a la protagonista y a la trama a mejorar.
La trama tiene un problema que corrige un poco tarde. Si bien Celaena tiene que ganarse una posición que le conducirá a la libertad mediante unas pruebas, estas son más estilo “Humor Amarillo”/”Grand Prix” que “Juegos del Hambre” (de nuevo, la situación no le exige a Celaena en ningún momento hacer honor a su leyenda). Llega un punto en que la prueba son 3 líneas o se omite, pero para aquel entonces ya no importa porque la trama fantástica ha absorbido toda la atención.
En definitiva, Trono de Cristal es una buena manera de empezar una saga de fantasía. He escuchado cosas positivas de la autora, así que tengo ganas de ver la evolución de la saga junto a su forma de escribir y que, más pronto que tarde, Celaena sea esa protagonista de fantasía que deja marca.
Took me a while to get into, felt like a very basic storyline tbh but I enjoyed it enough to attempt to continue through the series.
Celaena is arrogant and a little dumb, but significantly more enjoyable to read about than Feyre. I liked Nehemia a lot (and I thought she had much better chemistry with her than with both Chaol and Dorian combined). In fact, I'm not entirely convinced they weren't developing feelings for each other. Speaking of feelings, I don't really like love triangles, so Chaol and Dorian fluctuated between annoying and tolerable, but they did improve as the book went on.
Nearly everybody else was kinda meh. Nox seems cool. Cain was whatever. Perrington is a creep. Kaltain is a bitch, but she's being taken advantage of in all the worst ways (she didn't deserve her ending imo and I hope that at some point she gets her revenge on Perrington). The Queen is whatever. And so on and so forth.
I do like the King. He's a terrible person but a fascinating character. Definitely want to see what happens with him and why he is the way he is.
All in all, if you, like me, hated ACOTAR but wanted to see what all the SJM hype is about, give this a shot. It is a little juvenile/YA, but has enough dark adult themes to keep me intrigued.
Come with the intention of reading a fantastical YA book, and the somewhat poor writing that entails, and you will not be dissatisfied. Very much enjoyed this book for what it is.
I don't know how to feel about Chaol and Celaena. I just don't understand the relationship - I get her and Dorian, not Chaol. Aside from the ridiculously unnecessary triangle, I mostly enjoyed the story, and I'm glad Celaena got to experience a real friendship through Nehemia. I was a little disappointed though bc I was expecting a little bit more idek, not exactly action but, something!
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I miss sam! I'll give this a 4 bc it left me intrigued and bc shes like 18 and I keep forgetting how young she was when she was adopted by Arobynn and sent to Endovier
me ha gustado pero me esperaba un poco más (?) no siento que pasen muchas cosas (aunque también entiendo que es el primero) y el final es bastante predecible, pero está entretenido
Idk kind of... boring? But I'm gonna keep going bc I know people love this series
Slow build up. I have a lot of questions, which I assume will be answered by later books, so I'll stay patient.
Contains spoilers
💬:“He swung, but Celaena struck, ramming her fist into his arm, sending the blade soaring through the air. In the same breath, her palm hit his left arm, knocking it aside, too. As he staggered back, her leg came up, and Verin’s eyes bulged as her foot slammed into his chest. The kick sent him flying, and his body crunched as it hit the floor and slid out of the ring, instantly eliminating him. The hall was utterly silent."
Maas, Sarah J.. Throne of Glass (pp. 217-218). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
📖Genres: fiction, fantasy, young adult, romance, romantasy
📚Page Count: 423
🎧Audiobook Length: 13hrs 04mins
👩🏾🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 3/5
TW - <spoiler>Misogyny, Blood, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Cursing, Grief, Murder, Gore, and Violence</spoiler>
The Throne of Glass is the first book in the series of the same name, Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas. Celaena Sardothien is an assassin who is being tasked with killing 23 mercenaries, thieves, and warriors in a competition held by the king. Celaena agrees to fight in this tournament in order to win her freedom. Suddenly, the competitors starts dying one by one outside of the competition and Celaena has to wonder, "am I next?" Something evil may be in the castle and Celaena is determined to find out but she's also determined to survive.
There were somethings that worked for me in this story and then there were somethings that didn't work for me. I was very much expecting this book to be more adventurous and have more action than it did. We're reading about an assassin in a combative tournament, I just expected more fight scenes. What I didn't expect was the political intrigue and the focus on going to fancy balls and events held by royalty, I found these parts to be particularly boring.
There was a romance element in this story and I don't think it worked for me, but I almost think everything else in the story worked just fine. At one point the author tries to fake the reader out and she starts to write what could be see as a love triangle and this just doesn't work for me. I feel like Celaena has nothing in common with the prince and I find that the captain of the guard seemed to mesh well with the main character more than the prince did.
I liked that there was sort of a mystery as to who's killing off the contenders and what's lurking in the castle. I found the fighting scenes and the investigative scenes to be the most interesting parts of this book. The ending was fine, just a standard cliff hanger ending to lure you into reading the rest of the series.
I think that overall, this story was okay. There were some elements I didn't like, like the romance and the love triangle stuff. There were other things I really liked, like the fighting scenes and the parts that focused on the mystery at hand. I do plan on reading the second book in this series, book two will probably determine if I listen to the entire series. I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 3/5
I listened to this audiobook on [LibbyApp.com]
Wow I can already tell I'm on the journey of a lifetime with these books and can't wait to see where it goes.
I waited a while to read these books because well the Maas-iverse is definitely hyped a lot. It didn't let me down though.
This feels like Hunger Games meets Game Of Thrones with a little bit of Harry Potter nostalgia mixed in. I love a great epic fantasy and loved this beginning of what I can tell is going to be a great tale.
5/10
How do you write a whole fantasy book without even accidentally creating a likeable character?
I liked the premise/plot, but not much else. Feels a bit like wasted potential.
I think I'll have to read the next one, rather than listening to the audiobook. The narration for this one was very cringe indeed.