Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J Maas
The Assassin’s Blade
Throne of Glass
Crown of Midnight
Heir of Fire
Queen of Shadows
Empire of Storms
Tower of Dawn
Kingdom of Ash
In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king’s champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass - and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.
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Note on reading order: I read this book in chronological order with Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn in a tandem read. I’d highly recommend it this way to get the most out of the plot. One thing I wished I did was revisit the prequel after I got to know the characters a little better so I’d enjoy it more.
Minor spoilers ahead**
I finally tackled this eight book series and it. was. a. challenge. Of the whole, I enjoyed myself and I loved these characters. Does that mean it was faultless? Absolutely not, but it was something I could easily lose myself in and enjoy so that’s why I’m going to focus on. I started with The Assassin’s Blade because I, personally, like hearing/seeing/reading a story in chronological order from start to end. My only regret with that was that I didn’t care enough about the characters yet so I didn’t appreciate the prequel as much as I feel like I would now having finished the series. The first two “official” books in the series were slow going and it wasn’t until midway through COM that I felt we were really getting anywhere plot-wise. But once I was on QOS there was no stopping my spiral into losing myself into this world. The best part? There are SO MANY ships to sail with in this series! Also, SJM just has a talent for exciting “action” scenes. Dismiss her writing all you want, you can’t deny that.
What I liked:
The world was fantastic, it took a while for me to love it since we spent most of the first half of the series in one grubby city, but once our characters broke further into the world it was magical and I would definitely move to Terrasen if I could. The female characters who broke a lot of stereotypes were great and I loved that our main heroine was unapologetically cruel at times in order to survive. She did what she needed to, and she had the confidence and swagger of a mediocre white man. She killed it.
I also really loved the focus and emphasis on “side” characters. There were so many great characters and storylines that came together and so many great relationships from that. It’s a shippers dream! Personal favourites were, surprisingly, Nesryn and Sartaq. Everyone told me I’d hate Tower of Dawn but because of those two characters I highly enjoyed it. Yrene and Chaol were also great. The characters that stood out the most to me were Elide and Lorcan, that plot was fantastic and seeing Elide go from this helpless mess to one of the saviours of Terrasen was so amazing to see.
What I didn’t like:
There were quite a few things, especially early on, that screamed “juvenile writing” but one thing that stayed static throughout the series was Aelin’s title “fire breathing bitch Queen” …. does that not sound like a 9th graders insult? Because to me it does. That kind of phrasing scattered throughout the books were a real quick awakening and yanked me right out of that world very fast. Also, the speeches. In huge life or death situations, SJM for some reason NEEDS to have her characters explain everything they did instead of showing us and it got old and tiring very fast.
My last complaint, the diversity and the problematic characters. Near the end of the series SJM slipped in a few diverse characters but she didn’t elaborate nearly enough on them to make it feel purposeful and not just something that was done to appease critics. But my biggest beef was her forgiveness of majorly problematic characters. Manon was great at first, and at the end, but in between, she was so complicit in so many horrendous things that I don’t think she apologized for nor redeemed herself for. So she “changed her mind” and joined the “good” side… but what about her involvement in slaughtering villages for the bad guy? And her willingly giving up her own people to be bred like cattle? And don’t even get me started on Rolfe. Are we supposed to just conveniently forget that he was a slave trader? I don’t think so. I wish SJM would have had a better acknowledgement of redeemable qualities/characters and if the endgame was always to have them as characters we’d eventually like, then make their crimes something that might actually be forgivable.
Overall:
The world was neat, I grew attached to the characters, and the actions scenes are always thrilling with this author. I’m glad I read it but I also won’t be blind to the problems this series contains. If you’re looking for a good long immersive YA fantasy read, this is great, the characters themselves are a reason to stay. Also, Elide/Lorcan is supreme. Who was your favourite?