Among the Wreckage: Blog of SF/Fantasy and Horror

Throne of Glass

Sarah J. Maas

Bloomsbury USA Childrens

 (August 7, 2012)

2/5 Stars

       So I just finished reading the first book in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.  She is a very popular Young Adult author.  Not on the level of Suzanne Collins or even Cassandra Clare.  But she is quite acclaimed.  I mostly decided to read this book due to the fact that Goodreads had given the third book in the series the Best of Young Adult Fantasy on Goodreads.  Which I thought interesting considering that Uprooted by Naomi Novik lost to it.  Which was odd to me considering that Uprooted, in my opinion is hardly a Young Adult book.  The main problem with the book is that the main character is supposed to be a renowned assassin.  A cold blooded killer.  She is none of those things.  She probably should have just been some girl that had some warrior training.  After all that she had been through in life and considering what an amazing assassin she was supposed to be.  She seemed little more than an inexperienced girl in all things in life.  And quickly gets embroiled in a love triangle with the Crown Prince and the Captain of the Guard.  As much as most people don’t like the cover above, it’s much more accurate than the cooler, more attractive cover.

        Why did Sarah Maas decide that the main character need to be an assassin?  Why is the Prince such a weakling?  I don’t hate the book, except that in principle the book is lazy.  There are so many inconsistencies and things that make the characters seem to be caricatures not characters that have depth and interest.  There are certainly good examples of books where the main character is female, strong, interesting, etc…  Without making the mistake descending into the pat of love triangles and artificial affectations like trying to make a 19 year old girl an assassin.  Not that, I don’t think this is possible or even a good idea.  In fact, the summary for this book sounds absolutely wonderful.  But in execution, it seems more an exercise in girly drama rather than action. Being an assassin really doesn’t lend itself to being a pretty princess, which is exactly what the main character seems to want to be.  She even gets a puppy during the book.
       So Sarah Maas seems to want guys, to want to read her book; But then when they discover that book is 2/3 romance novel and 1/3 everything else.  They are immediately turned off.  The interesting part, is that a lot of women seemed unimpressed and rather repulsed by the main character.  I was more or less fine with the main character’s attitude which is what women mostly seem to hate about it.  But let’s try at least making sense if we are to make a story where an assassin is the main character.  Like maybe making the main character as interesting in chapter 1 as in chapter 30.  Which is one of the main issues I have with the book.
       There are two more books in this series and apparently the second book is much better than this one.  But I really can’t bring myself to bother considering how much better stories there are out there.  But I will give Court of Thorns and Roses a try.  Perhaps that will be better, but I don’t have high hopes.  But one never knows…