Celaena Sardothien is an 18 year old assassin, possibly the best her world has ever seen. Yet she made one mistake and got caught which led to her being imprisoned in a death camp. Half-starved and beaten, she has an unexpected visitor. The king has chosen to hold a contest to find someone mighty enough to be his champion, and so all of the leading nobles must choose a person to compete. Celaena is the choice of the crown prince, despite the reservations of those around him. Given a chance to earn her freedom, something she longs for more than anything else, Celaena agrees to go with the prince and live in the castle to train and hopefully make it through to the final round. Whilst there, she discovers a hidden darkness along with a taste of romance, a hint of the past and a terrifying power.
One of the first things that struck me about this book was the fantasy feel. It's in the style of writing as well as some of the strange names. The names themselves took a bit of getting used to as it's not necessarily clear how to pronounce them. It's also a little weird that Celaena is often referred to as "the assassin" quite a bit, even after she's been properly introduced. As this seems to decrease the further you get into the book, it has the effect of helping you feel like you're becoming more and more familiar with Celaena, which I'm guessing may have been the author's intention. A little bit further in, I experienced a sense of deja vu as I felt the beginning of a predictable plot and romance. Thankfully this turned out not to be the case. There are some elements of the plot that come as no surprise but the journey makes them fit well, plus it's not quite as predictable as it first seems. The world is believable and it was easy to picture the surroundings from Celaena's experiences. The romance element is nicely balanced with the rest of the story and, unusually, doesn't come mainly from our female lead. It also keeps you guessing and by the end you're still not sure which path it's going to take. The contest itself doesn't receive as much coverage as I would have expected and it might have been nice to have had a bit more detail. This is something I also felt about our brilliant assassin as she doesn't really do many assassin-like things and spends a lot of time being a girly girl with some angry thoughts. However, there is excellent potential for this character as she's definitely deadly and will have some tough choices to make in the future. The bad guys are also nicely dark and scheming and so I am looking forward to finding out what happens next. It also had that slightly addictive quality that meant I struggled to put it down and looked forward to the moments when I could pick it up again. It was an enjoyable read and is great for those who love a bit of fantasy with a strong female lead.
Overall, the best thing about this book is that it contains all the good ingredients of a brilliant fantasy but with an excellent twist in the assassin that just gives it that hint of something a little bit different.
I give it 8/10 :)
Title: Throne of Glass
Author: Sarah Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Teenage Fiction
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