Whenever a book is compared to A Game Of Thrones, I get really excited, because HELLO Game Of Thrones is such a badass book. When Throne Of Glass by Sarah J. Maas was being touted as A Game Of Thrones for a YA audience, I was totally pumped to read it. However, I think the comparison does the book a diservice. It’s similar to Martin’s series in that it’s a fantasy, set in a fantasy world. Other than that, I personally think as someone who has read Game Of Thrones that Throne Of Glass is nothing like it. That’s not to say Throne Of Glass is bad, just don’t walk into it expecting direwolves and characters, even the safe ones, dying right and left.
Celaena Sardothien was once the most famous assassin in Adarland. THEN someone sells her out so she’s sent to prison camp to be a slave in the salt mines of Endovier. Most people don’t make it a month in Endovier, but Celaena makes it for like six months. When all hope seems to be lost, she is plucked out by Prince Dorian and Chaol who is captain of the royal guard. You see, Prince Dorian is going to put Celaena fourth as his champion in a competition to serve as the king’s champion. Y’all, the king is totally a BAD GUY. Anyways, Celaena competes and makes friends and has a little competition in her heart between Dorian and Chaol.
I wish my ARC of Throne Of Glass included a map. I’m not entirely sure if there is a map in the final copy, but I really think it would enhance the reading experience. Anyways, the entire land the characters live on is called Erilea and the country or city they are in is called Adarland. The king of Adarland has basically annexed a bunch of kingdoms including the one Celaena is originally from. PLUS there’s a visiting princess at court who becomes close with Celaena who is from an area that is super sunny. Also silent assassins from the desert are mentioned and I just think a map would really have been effective for me. I did like reading about a certain ancestor queen named Elena though and some of the legends of Erilea, which made the setting seem fascinating.
As for Celaena, she makes a passable main character. She is very kick ass and not at all modest about it. I appreciate a bit of arrogance in the characters I read. What I really liked about her is that not only does she like fighting and being a total boss, but she also likes to be pretty. I mean, yes it’s fun when girls dress like boys in books, but sometimes I just really like it when a character enjoys having long hair and being dolled up. It shows me that it is okay to be feminine but also tough. PLUS YOU GUYS! She is a huge reader. How cool is that?
How do you guys feel about love triangles? If you hate them, you probably won’t enjoy Throne Of Glass. If you are like me and have grudgingly come to accept them as a norm in YA literature, you probably won’t mind the love triangle. I know I didn’t mind it. Prince Dorian has pretty eyes and is kind of a cad, but he finds himself really attracted to Celaena and plus they like the same books. He sees her as his equal. Chaol really fights his attraction to her and totally thinks she’s going to kill them all in the night at one point. YOU GUYS! At this point I have no idea which of the suitors Sarah J. Maas created that I want to win Celaena’s heart.
Straight up though, I have to admit to you all, it took me forever to get into Throne Of Glass. I thought the beginning was not very well written. There’s a ton of exclamation marks, at least in my copy, and overuse of EXCLAIMING! in books turns me off. I know, I know, hypocritical of me to say. The pacing of the beginning is super slow though. For me, the ball really started rolling once the competition started and we got some romance in the air. Then I tore through Throne Of Glass.
Given the mixed reviews, I am a little tiny bit embarrassed to say that I throughly enjoyed Throne Of Glass once I got past the clunky beginning. However, because my blog is totally a safe place, I will freely admit that I was so torn on the love triangle. I wanted to be friends with Caelaena. ALSO! A dog appears and does not die. In all, for me, Throne Of Glass by Sarah J. Maas was an enjoyable read and I am dying to get my hands on the sequel.
Disclosure: Received for review via Netgalley.
Other reviews of Throne Of Glass by Sarah J. Maas:
Anna Reads Books – “Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to my favorite book so far this year: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas.”
I Swim For Oceans – “delivers heart-pounding suspense and theatrics page after page, wheeling and dealing as it spins you into its suspenseful web”
Girls In The Stacks – “Â boasts a female heroine that is smart, strong and super fierce”
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I wanted you to love it a bit more than you did, but I’m glad you got on board by the end. PS: TEAM CHAOL, obvs.
There is a map in the final copy. Also, I think the prequel novellas are better than Throne of Glass, and that’s saying something because I loved the book.
That is awesome to hear. I wish my copy had come with a map. I guess this means I will have to seek out a final copy AND the novellas. Thanks for stopping by, Travis!
I may have petted my final copy when it came in the mail… but your review really summed up nicely all my feelings towards it, minus the insane fangirling I did. I really had a hard time getting past the first part and thought “okay, why is this such a huge upcoming read?” but once I got past that it was a doozie in the awesome way. I really am not a fan of love triangles, mostly because 85% of them aren’t even really triangles; they’re more girl-loves-one-boy-second-boy-loves-girl-girl-likes-second-boy-as-friend. This is one of the first love triangles I’ve come across in a very long time where I had NO idea who to choose. Glad you enjoyed it and am glad this is your safe place to admit you loved it 🙂
Haha yes to your last paragraph especially! My friend said she was surprised I like this one so much because it does have it problems but IDK, I AM REALLY INTO GIRLY ASSASSINS, I GUESS. It was just super enjoyable for me and I can’t wait to read more of this world.
I couldn’t even finish this one. I thought this was spectacularly awful and I did not like the main character at all. I also felt she spent way too much time reflecting on beauty versus ugly and her appearance. She is definitely no Arya Stark.
Awesome, awesome review. I adored Celaena for all of the reasons you listed. Kickass indeed. I was also extremely torn with the love triangle. Seriously – I kept going back and forth between the two guys.
It’s so weird because I didn’t notice how many ~exclamations there were in the novel until someone pointed it out AFTER I’d read the book. But anyway, I’m really glad that you enjoyed it in the end! 🙂
I only read a couple of chapters of Game of Thrones and I was highly skeptical about the comparison so I’m glad to have someone who has read the full book agree that it’s shaky. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book, mainly around Celeana’s character and the plotting, which made this book a longer than I think it should have been. I’m still processing all of my feelings after finishing this last weekend.
Thanks for setting the record straight re: GoT vs. Throne of Glass. Good to know!
So glad you did enjoy this, but like Anna wish you liked it a bit more. It had been a (long) while since I read a book with castles & princes so this kind of swept me away. I could NOT stop thinking about the world when I finished. Read slump ensued because I wanted more. BTW, if you’ve got good recs for more castles & assassins & badassery books, I’d love them. 🙂
I enjoyed it too. Not as much as some, but it definitely held my attention. Celaena was my favorite part. She had such a great attitude! 🙂 But yeah, NOTHING like GoT.
Dude, it is totes hilarious to me that readers seem to be completely split on Celaena. Like either you think it’s utter crap that she likes pretty things and puppies, and a sign of weak characterization OR you think that’s what makes her such a great character. I am totally with you in the latter camp. There’s nothing that says she can’t like to save puppies and kill people.
Wow, I now know that I do not notice EXCLAIMING! Hmmm.
The love triangle didn’t used to be in it, I heard. I totally know which one is going to win, but I will leave you to be surprised. :-p
Chaol, obviously, is the better choice. FOR REAL. But I’m glad you ended up liking it even though the beginning of the book is a bit hard to get into…
This one sounds like something I’ll love. I can’t believe I haven’t gotten to it yet! It’s high on my list!
I totally feel you about this one. It was good, but something about it wasn’t as AWESOME as I thought it would be, and even though I like confident characters, sometimes Celaena’s arrogance irritated me. But I did like her plenty by the end. I can understand how you’d be torn over the triangle, but I’m totally Team Chaol. I wasn’t really feeling the romance between Dorian and Celaena so much. But obviously I’ll be reading more. A badass fantasy heroine is something I’ll never pass up!
I completely agree on the Game of Throne Comparison. I haven’t read the books, but I’ve watched the shows and this book is nothing like them. I still loved this book though.
The love triangle annoyed me though. I liked both of the guys. I feel if she was just interested in one of them it wouldn’t effect how into the story I was. I still wan’t to know what happens next and that has nothing to do with what boy makes her breathe all heavy. *sigh* But I guess that will play more into the story later.
Maybe she will decide to give up on men and hook up with her princess friend.