Throne of Glass Collector's Edition: 1

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Nehemia was honestly my favorite character in here. She's powerful, cool, mysterious, intelligent, and courtly - basically everything Celaena was not. I also think it's ironic that Nehemia and Celaena had much more chemistry than Dorian and Choal did with Celaena combined. Too bad this wasn't an F/F fantasy romance. I would have totally shipped them. They were cute together. Celaena was almost tolerable when she was with Nehemia. *coughs* Almost. Overall, the concept of a strong female assassin in a slightly fantasy setting sounds appealing; however, Sarah J. Maas did not execute it properly in Throne of Glass. If you really want a strong female character in a fantasy setting, I highly suggest The Golden Compass or Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. Lyra beats Celaena every single day of the week. I’ve never really followed SJM but I feel like I should give her another chance (brain screaming: I WANT MORE DORIAN AND CHAOL). I’ll try not to let it influence negatively my coming judgment and consider this book an isolated case, and also this series’ chance to prove how sometimes books can upgrade in reverse, and put some more hopes into Crown of Midnight. Celaena bit down her laugh. Archery? It was an archery contest?' [Yeah, that was my reaction, too ... ]

Dorian peeled himself from the wall. For all her assassinating experience, she didn't notice him until he sat down on the bench beside her.' [Yeah, I can see why she's Most Baddest Assassinator EVAH! And who glued you to the wall, anyway, Crown Douche Bag?] I honestly felt bad for Kaltain - probably because it felt like we were supposed to hate her. But hey, I was tired of Celaena, too, so I can't really blame her for wanting to be rid of Lady Special Specialton, Eater of Suspicious Candies and Bragger of Little Merit. She was honestly one of the more tragic characters in here, and her narrative ARC reminded me a little of Anne Boleyn's. Ambitious women are rarely treated well in YA, particularly if they're sexual and/or beautiful. THRONE OF GLASS does its damndest to distance Celaena from such "unlikability" by making her childlike and sexually inexperienced, which I found extremely irritating and boring. I listened to the audio this time. It took a minute to get used to the narrator but I finally got settled in with her.

He looked at the fire, trying not to think about where she'd been only weeks before - and what that kind of loneliness might have felt like. There were no books in Endovier.' [I find it hard to believe that loneliness is your biggest problem when you're a beautiful seventeen-year-old girl slaving away in a salt mine, but ... what do I know? A BOOK!! A BOOK!! MY KINGDOM FOR A BOOK!!!!] Throne of Glass begins the sweeping saga of assassin Celaena Sardothien, who is serving a life sentence in the mines of Endovier - until a young captain of the guard offers her a deal. She will have her freedom, on one condition: she must fight to win a deadly competition to serve as the champion of the king. The king who rules his kingdom with a cruel and merciless hand. 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 four 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. I could go on and point out her inconsistencies, but this is getting much too long for my liking. In short, Celaena Sardothien is a Mary Sue. But even worse -- she is an unlikeable, vain, shallow, self-centred Mary Sue. And if you expect me to believe she's a deadly killer, then you better think again. But that is exactly the problem with Throne of Glass. The entire premise wasn't logical. By this I am of course talking about the King's competition.

But it was her golden hair that caught the attention of most, hair that still maintained a glimmer of its glory. In short, Celaena Sardothien was blessed with a handful of attractive features that compensated for the majority of average ones; and, by early adolescence, she’d discovered that with the help of cosmetics, these average features could easily match the extraordinary assets. She smiled at the young chevaliers as they passed--and smirked at the court women who eyed her pink-and-white gown. She couldn't blame them; the dress was spectacular. And she was spectacular in it. Even Redd, one of the handsomer guards posted outside her rooms, had said so. What was a "Champion" but a dressed-up name for murderer? Could she actually stomach working for him?And I suppose "assassin" is just a synonym for mercy-killer? But enough of her faults. Let's take a look at her more positive attributes. She's beautiful. In fact so beautiful that she drains the blood out of people who sees her: Second; this sounds more like something a ditzy princess-wannabe would say. Oh, after I win this competition, I'm gonna buy myself some clothes. For someone who has spent years suffering, who spent her childhood being trained as a ruthless killer, she comes across sounding so privileged.And the ending where Calaena breaks up with Dorian because she's the King's Champion and it would be inappropriate? We all know it's a ploy to squeeze in some kissy-kissy time with Chaol in the next book. And by being single, she doesn't look like a cheater.

I may not be a direct member of a royal family myself, but I know there are things such as court intrigue and hidden agendas and hell, there are hundreds upon thousands of discrete allegiances and plots being made left, right and centre. Respecto a la historia... DAMN GURL! No me esperaba para dónde iba a ir la novela. Me encanta todo el tema de persona elegida que va a una competición a destacar, que es un tropo o cliché bastante visto. Sin embargo, los momentos donde se comienza a incluir magia o historia ancestral del universo donde se desarrolla la historia... Gloria bendita. Menuda sorpresa. Se me eriza el pelo pensándolo, porque no me esperaba para nada que la historia realmente tratara sobre eso y que se vaya a dirigir hacia ahí. Sé que esto es tan solo una introducción, pero estoy deseando ver hasta dónde puede llegar, porque de momento estoy fascinado. Of course I want her," Celaena said, then realized what the implications would be. "But I want her trained. I don't want her urinating on everything and chewing on furniture and shoes and books. And I want her to sit when I tell her to and lay down and roll over and whatever it is that dogs do. And I want her to run - run with the other dogs when they're practicing. I want her to put those long legs to use." En líneas generales, considero que Trono de Cristal tiene un buen ritmo. No recae demasiado en descripciones pesadas, porque si lo hace es usualmente importante en algún momento más adelante. Hay un muy buen equilibrio entre la duración de los capítulos, las escenas, los diálogos, momentos de introspección de los personajes y momentos de acción. Creo que está todo cuadrado al dedillo y hace que te sumerjas en la historia sin ninguna complicación. She didn't falter a single step, nor did she seem to care about the many angry female faces that watched as dance after dance passed and they didn't switch partners.Also, since when do slaves have possessions? Why does some random slave (who immediately gets murdered by some random people, so yay for the Drama Llama) have enough salve to pass around as required? Who makes this salve? From what? Who are these slaves allowed to associate with that they can procure salve? What do they trade for this salve? Their bodies? Their hair? Salt they've squirrelled away from the mines? Yeesh! Explain yourself, Sarah J. Maas! Her eyes stung but she blamed it on the fierce wind and blinked away the dampness. "For making my freedom mean something.” Celaena, an 18-year-old master assassin, spent the last year as a salt-mine slave as punishment for her crimes.

She's slowly wasting away but one day, the prince (along with his guard) comes by to lift her from her bondage. Get up." Chaol ripped the pillows from beneath her head. "Now you're wasting my time." If he noticed how much skin she was showing, he didn't react. [That wasn't irrelevant at all ... ] Personajes como Nehemia, Dorian o Chaol construyen un universo alrededor de Calaena que me fascina. Cada uno de ellos está muy bien definido, conectas con ellos, sus emociones y sentimientos, y creo que todos aportan algo a la trama de una manera u otra. Quizá he echado de menos más personajes como Nox, es decir, campeones de la competición con los que Calaena se acercara, pero lo que aportan personajes como Nehemia creo que lo compensa de sobra. Celaena is as much an epic hero as Frodo or Jon Snow!” —Tamora Pierce, New York Times bestselling author on HEIR OF FIRE

In short - what I wanted: A less is more mentality. World building that does not only cover what is necessary to follow the main story arc. Subtle romance. Villains in different shades of grey. Assassins that actually assassinate. And do not only sit in their room talking or thinking about clothes and boys. What I got: A vain and mostly unlikeable heroine. Two men absolutely bedazzled by her presence. Hints of a love triangle. Lots and lots of descriptions of clothing. Flimsy world building. An overall poor execution writing-wise. Thank you. Next? In fact so beautiful that other ladies envy her and she has to shove that in their faces because you can't have a YA novel without other girls being envious of our heroine!: On a side note, I saw this took 10 years to write because it was originally published on FictionPress.net or something. Seriously? It took George. R. R. Martin to that long to write A Game of Thrones and look what he came up with! The story follows an assassin named Celaena who is caught and taken to the king's castle.There she finds out that she is there for a reason.They want her to participate in a competition with 23 other fighters,and the winner gets to be the king's Champion,also gets the freedom and money.She has wished her freedom for so long and it was her chance to take,so she took it.Now she has to stay at the castle where the competition is being and there she discovers new things,battles new forces,and finds new people,people she could never think she would care about.