“Throne of Glass” is the first book in the series by Sarah J. Maas. Maas’ first novel about the Assassin of Adarlan. If you have read “Assassin’s Blade,” you can follow Celaena’s story in this first book. If you have not read the previous volume, you will meet Celaena Sardothien. A former protégé of Arobynn, she was betrayed and imprisoned in one of Adarlan’s most terrible mines. Yet, at the age of only 18, she survived a full year in the camp’s unforgiving conditions. Now she is just one step away from freedom. All that is expected of her is to win the royal competition and become a royal champion. Will Celaena bow her head to the murderer of her parents, the tyrant who enslaved her homeland?
Book Review: Throne of Glass
- Author: Sarah J. Maas
- Series: Throne of Glass #1
- First published August 7, 2012
The Tournament
All kinds of madmen take part in the king’s tournament. Participants must pass a series of tests, dropouts pay with their lives or return to where they were recruited. Soon it turns out that a vicious killer is at work in the palace, eliminating the participants. Without knowing it, Celaena is drawn into the investigation of the murders. In the process, the heroine encounters ancient powers and magic that everyone thinks is extinct.
Celaena is torn between the two. The only time she has allowed herself to love and trust, her life comes apart at the seams and she finds herself in the death camps. Sam is dead and her heart is broken. Celaena is physically weak and mentally tormented. To unmask the perpetrator and survive the king’s games, the assassin must become whole again and discover the joys of life. Celaena will open her heart and find people she can trust and who she soon realizes mean something to her. If only the son of her worst enemy did not offer her the only way to redemption…
An explosion of action in Throne of Glass
For me, the series has a high sentimental value. It started my fascination with the genre and I would not say anything negative about it. The book is packed with suspense and thrills. Sarah J. Maas has managed to weave many individual events into the story that lead the reader imperceptibly to her overarching plot idea. The story is magical, even though we are told from the beginning that the magic in Erilea has gone out. It is also a mystery that we follow with interest and that is the basis of the plot. And you will not find out in this book.
The world Maas builds in this series is barely hinted at in Throne of Glass. We only get a fraction of what she has in store. The author has always managed to impress me with her boundless imagination, and you can be sure that Erilea is a world full of magic and fantastic creatures, just you wait.
Sarah J. Maas knows how to capture the imagination of her readers with a dark side all her own. The black, forbidden magic she reveals to us and her hideous creatures will surprise you. For although the A Court of Thorns and Roses series is a sweet romance novel, there are dark forces here that might make your hair stand on end.
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.
