Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas is the first installment in what is currently a five book fantasy series for young adults. The story centers around a skilled assassin named Celaena Sardothien who becomes involved in a competition to become the King's Champion. This series has drawn comparisons to other fantasy series that are heavy on violence and political intrigue, like George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones. The idea of a complex young adult fantasy series centered around a non-princess character initially appealed to me, and rave reviews of the book from fans on the internet sealed the deal. I picked up the the 400 page tome and dove in.

The story begins with Celaena being rescued from a forced labor camp in the barren salt mines of Endovier by Prince Dorian Havilliard of Adarlan and his Captain of the Guard, Chaol Westfall. The prince presents her with an interesting proposition - a chance to compete in a competition to become the King's Champion. If she is able to defeat all of the other competitors in a series of challenges held at the imposing glass castle in Rifthold, she will win a contract to work for the king for four years. Once her contract has expires, she will be free to do as she wishes. Unable to refuse such an opportunity, Celaena sets out with the prince immediately.

Much of Celaena's background is left shrouded in ambiguity. The reader is made to understand that her past is very painful to her, and thinking about it brings back memories and feelings that she is unable to process. What is clear is that her parents were killed when Celaena was very young, the King of Adarlan was somehow involved, and she was trained to become a world-class assassin by the man who discovered her struggling on her own as an orphan. She has a fearsome reputation as a killer-for-hire, but not many know what she looks like. Wishing to maintain this advantage over her competition, she competes with a false name and backstory.

Upon reaching Rifthold, Celaena begins training with both Dorian and Chaol, and performs well in the initial stages of the competition. However, as time goes by, mysterious deaths start occurring in the castle. Someone is picking off the competitors one by one, in a particularly gruesome fashion. Fearing for her own safety, Celaena is drawn into the mystery as she fights to protect herself from the unknown killer in her midst and to win the competition that will secure her eventual freedom.

Having finally finished this novel, I have very mixed feelings on it. Despite having an interesting premise and a strong female protagonist, I was never truly drawn into Celaena's world. This should have been a three or four day read for me, and it ended up taking weeks because I simply wasn't excited to read it. The length was an issue. While the plot was definitely complex, this book didn't need to be 400 pages. There were long stretches where not very much of note happened. I have no objections to reading longer books, but this felt over-long to me. Even so, there were enough great and interesting scenes to prevent me from giving up on it entirely. I was still interested in seeing how the story ended, but I wasn't particularly enjoying the journey.

I also found myself rolling my eyes a bit at some aspects of Celaena's character. I loved that she was strong, independent, and able to take care of herself. However, I hated that she was so good at almost everything. Her list of talents is seemingly endless, and includes the ability to wield any weapon expertly, to play piano beautifully, to speak multiple languages, to analyze crime scenes like a modern forensic expert, to get along with any animal, to dance like a lady of the court, to read more books than anyone else, and to woo any man instantly with her charms. Even worse, within the first hundred pages of the novel, both Prince Dorian and Chaol Westfall are deeply in love with Celaena, setting up a love triangle that grew very tiresome. I found myself cringing through scenes of awkward flirting, wanting to get back to the murderer-running-loose-in-the-castle part of the story.

In her zeal to make Celaena a strong character, Maas went overboard on giving her talents. To be a strong woman doesn't mean that you have to excel in everything you put your hand to. That is just as unrealistic as a female character that can't do anything and is constantly in need of rescue.

An interview with Sarah J. Maas was included in the back of my edition of the novel. In the interview, Maas explains that this book took something like ten years to reach its final form, and she started writing it in high school. That, I think, more than anything else helps explain the issues I found with Celaena's character. It does feel like a high school girl designed her personality - too many super-cool traits and basically no flaws. This probably also explains the length. Ten years is a long time to keep thinking of things to include and adding them in. This novel needed some trimming down, but maybe cutting big sections is too painful to consider when your been working on a project since you were a kid.

Despite these annoyances though, the story was still interesting enough to keep me reading until the end. It was an okay read for me, but not a favorite. I don't think that I'll be interested in picking up the rest of the series, since they are all just as long as the first one, but I do think that young adults who are into fantasy and mystery will love Throne of Glass and all of the other books that come after.