Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1) in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Oct 03, 2013 Nadine in NY Jones rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, based-on-a-folk-tale, fantasy-and-sci-fi, cotton-candy, series-i-don-t-love-but-keep-readin

This book and I are not starting off on the right foot. First of all, the names are stupid and sound made up (I mean, "Celaena Sardothien"? seriously??). Never the sign of a good fantasy. Second, each character is introduced by his/her full name. ugh. Never the sign of a skilled writer. Not to mention, why do I care what their full names are? Throw it in later, if you must - have someone call out "hey Mr Fullname!" and you've got it. But instead, we've got needless repetitions of FullName FullNa ...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Lydia Presley rated it liked it

Shelves: 2022, 2012, fantasy, young-adult, fiction

2022 Review: It's been ten years since I picked up this book for the first time. I remember vaguely being excited over this and I was in the peak of my loving YA time (I still love YA, but I really saturated myself in it back in the day).

I still found a lot of the same issues. The cockiness of the main character, the writing really pushing on us how she can do absolutely no wrong and is the best at all things (tm). The weird love triangle.

Still, the story was enjoyable when I put aside my snob 2022 Review: It's been ten years since I picked up this book for the first time. I remember vaguely being excited over this and I was in the peak of my loving YA time (I still love YA, but I really saturated myself in it back in the day).

I still found a lot of the same issues. The cockiness of the main character, the writing really pushing on us how she can do absolutely no wrong and is the best at all things (tm). The weird love triangle.

Still, the story was enjoyable when I put aside my snobbishness and just put myself into the mindset of a pre-teen/teen girl who wanted a good story.

2012 Review: I was excited to pick up Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas for two reasons: 1. It's fantasy, and I love me a good fantasy, and 2. It was referred to in several places as "Game of Thrones for Teens."

I'm here to tell you right now, if you are picking up this book for the latter reason, please be warned that this is not the case. George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy is filled with complex writing, relationships, and world-building and, although I understand that Sarah Maas tried hard to create a solid, strong female lead, she's nothing like those in GRRM's books. Rather, this book is very, very "Fantasy-lite."

What do I mean by that term? I've used it before to refer to a few books and it's not necessarily a bad thing. It means that the world is easy to grasp, there are no strange terms, that the characters seem a lot like people we would know in real life, and that the magic concepts (if any) are very simplistic. This is fantasy for people who have never read fantasy before. Like I said, not a bad thing - but definitely not what I expected after being told it was like GRRM's books.. which are hardcore fantasy.

Now, all that aside, there were a few other issues I had with Throne of Glass. The main character, Celaena, was beyond cocky. One of the most important things I've learned in writing courses (which seems to be the basic rule of writing) is to show and not tell things. Sarah Maas did an awful lot of telling and, as a result, Celaena came off as cocky, proud, and generally unlikeable. I was confused by the love triangle, but I think a lot of that was because I was confused by Celaena herself. I wanted to like her, but she was so off-putting that I just couldn't get myself to care that much.

Was I entertained? Sure - the story is filled with action, moves at a fast pace, and had a bit of a mystery that I wanted to get to the bottom of - but the potential was there for so much more. In fact, this book reminded me a lot of a sub-par Poison Study (by Maria V. Snyder). I just wish that Celaena could have gotten her butt handed to her a few times to teach her some humility. ...more

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Dec 09, 2017 Genesis Hansen rated it it was ok

Enjoyed elements of this, but the writing needs work and it just didn't stick with me after I finished - I've heard the series gets better but I'm not feeling compelled to keep reading. ...more

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Dec 19, 2013 Julie rated it liked it

Shelves: teen, fantasy-scifi

I enjoyed the premise of the book and there was a lot of action, but there wasn't enough details and world building for a fantasy novel for my taste. ...more

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