Summary: After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best. Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.
Overall: A good read. I would recommend it to just about anyone. It has its pros and cons, but so does every book. Throne of Glass will not disappoint. This review turned into a bit of a rant, but oh well, I love this book so that was almost a given.
Thoughts: What's not to like about an assassin for a heroine? We're introduced to Celaena as she's being taken out of the salt mines and offered a chance at freedom. And guess what? After a year of slavery, she's still got a mouth on her and she's not afraid to use it. I think that's what really had me hooked on her character from the start. Also her inner dialogue on ways she could kill everyone.
She's really arrogant and that blinds her to some pretty crucial, and sometimes obvious, points and strategies, but she makes up for that in skill and small endearing moments. That doesn’t mean I didn’t want to strangle her at certain points, especially when she couldn't see the benefit of staying out of the tip top rankings during the competition. But those moments filled with arrogance lessened towards the end of the book until the point where she’s not entirely sure if she can survive the competition or the creature killing competitors in the castle.
The competition isn't center stage. The murders of the competing champions fills that slot, particularly since Celaena has the ghost of Elena, first Queen of Adarlan, giving her no choice but to chase down and stop whoever and whatever is doing the killing. This is where the fantasy aspect comes in.
The wyrdmarks are an interesting alternative to magic. Because as the character Nehemia, Celaena’s first true friend in this book and an admirable character herself, points out the wyrdmarks are not really magic. I think she says they’re an ancient language that when used correctly, can do all sorts of things like open portals and protect people. But the “not magic” distinction is important. Even though it’s basically magic.
More on Nehemia. Nehemia is awesome. First, she pretends not to speak the common language, making everyone underestimate her intelligence while simultaneously making them uncomfortable. Second, she doesn’t scrap her kingdom’s traditions, including her style of dress, just because she was sent to Adarlan to learn their customs. Third, she’s a rebel. A rebel princess who knows how to fight. How awesome is that? Especially since its made pretty clear her crown and her father’s crown are basically just Adarlan’s way of keeping Eyllwe under control. They have the titles, but Adarlan has the power.
I’ve heard this described as having a love triangle, and I guess there is, but let’s be honest, there have been way worse love triangles than this. Celaena uses Dorian’s romantic tendencies toward her more as a distraction, though she does care about him. Chaol is working up to truly caring about/loving her, but in this book, they’re not quite on the romantic relationship level and by Crown of Midnight, Dorian and Celaena’s kind-of-relationship has been over for a while.
Then there’s Celaena’s love of fine clothes and books. Most people talk about this as a turn off to her character, but I liked it. She knows how to use her beauty as a weapon and reading is always a good trait to have. And who hasn’t stayed up all night reading when they have an important test or something in the morning? I sure as hell have.
That doesn’t mean she neglects her training. If anything, she trains more than the other competitors because the mines ruined her body and she’s not healthy for a good chunk of the book. She vomits after short spurts of running and she doesn’t get her period for the first few months of her being at the glass castle, which is why the chapter where she gets her period is necessary. And really, how many books have you read where the teenage girl menstruates? I’ll bet you can count on one hand.
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