Synopsis: After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men—thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the kings council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.

Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. 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.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead… quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.
-Goodreads

Review: Throne of Glass is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year, and my most unexpected BEA love so far. There were definitely similarities between this book and Maria V. Snyder’s Study series (which I also love) but Throne of Glass held its own.

Ever since The Hunger Games hit shelves there has been a non-stop barrage of books with some sort of competition element, so it’s not too shocking when you find out Celaena has to pass a series of tests that are designed to weed out the weak and test all manner of assassination related skills. Still, I thought it was all engaging and managed not to be overly predictable. You will never feel bogged down in minor details of the competition, instead it is just one piece of a greater whole.

Celaena is a great female lead. She’s had some pretty tough times recently so unlike a lot of fantasy women she is absolutely not in her prime. She has a lot of work to do but she does it because it needs doing. This is a girl you would want on your side in any kind of end of the world battle. She has her priorities right where they should be and is great at what she does because she has worked for it. That’s something we need to see a lot more of in not just YA but pretty much any genre.

A significant chunk of that whole of course involves the characters. There were only three or four central characters, all of whom were well fleshed out and the kind of people you could see yourself going to get a drink with. What really made the narrative stand out was the endless supply of people milling about in background of the story, all playing their role. Some only got a passing mention and others became personal favorites, but right through until the last page it feels like this world is truly alive and brimming with people.

There are some romantic elements to this book as well but they are never shoved down your throat. This girl is fighting for her life and dealing with a lot of other drama, if the most important thing on her mind had been her latest crush I doubt I would have loved her even half as much. I’m fairly certain that the love interest I would pick for her won’t be the one that she ends up with, but I still want to see how it plays out in the rest of the series.

What made it obvious to me that this was no ordinary teen fantasy novel were the political elements. This isn’t a land of peace and prosperity, and the King is a bit mad with power but change could be always be around the corner. The building blocks for future conflicts were laid out perfectly in this first installment and I can’t help but hope that a kick-ass revolution is on its way.

Finally, I want to touch on the magical elements that were used throughout the book. Throne of Glass is unquestionably a fantasy novel but in a much more subtle way than most stories. No one is running around with magic wands wreaking havoc, but there are dark forces and fae hidden away in the background manipulating things to their needs. I’m hoping this is something that will be explored more as the series continues.

Not sure yet how many books will be in this series but I’m confident Throne of Glass is going to make a big splash so I’m hoping to be following these books for a long time coming. This was a perfect lead in that always had you wanting more and asking questions about the bigger picture.

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Rating:

Second Opinions:
@Two Chicks On Books
@The Readers Den
@Pen to Paper