Throne of Glass Collector's Edition: 1

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The real clincher is what I call the 'Candy Incident'. There's a bag of candy left on Calaena's bed with no note or anything. This is during the period where a murderer is going around killing Champions and a couple have died already. And what does the 'greatest assassin in the world do? She gobbles them up immediately, going Oh, how I adored candies! She loves dogs because that's how we know she's a kind-hearted person. No evil person is an animal lover!: If it wasn't for the novellas, I probably would not have finished this book. And even with the novellas, I still might've discontinued, if it wasn't for the shared opinion among many that first couple of books being the weakest in the series. I hope, at least in time, these qualities would fade away. At this point, I cannot say that I liked the prose that much either, but I'm hoping that'd improve as well. I hateread a chapter from book five of this series with a friend. And I'm going to register my opinion that while it may have slightly improved in character development or worldbuilding or etc etc etc - I wouldn't know - it is, objectively, just as horribly written as this book. I could go on and point out her inconsistencies, but this is getting much too long for my liking. In short, Celaena Sardothien is a Mary Sue. But even worse -- she is an unlikeable, vain, shallow, self-centred Mary Sue. And if you expect me to believe she's a deadly killer, then you better think again.

Celaena es un PEDAZO DE PERSONAJE. Enamorado de ella desde el primer momento, en serio. No solo es decidida y se la sudan completamente cosas como la monarquía, sino que es despiadada, sangrienta, extremadamente inteligente y curiosa, y la mejor asesina del reino. Es brutal. Sin embargo, también tiene su corazoncito, y ese punto de inflexión en su personalidad me ha terminado de encandilar. In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. Celaena Sardothien has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not come to kill him. She has come to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three murderers, thieves, and warriors in a deadly competition, she will be released from prison to serve as the King's Champion. You read all that and tell me, do you imagine these thoughts coming from a renown, world-class assassin?For heaven's sake, you're an assassin, not a supermodel. No. Discipline doesn't just mean getting up every morning and training every day. It also means a discipline of the mind. It means self-restraint. It means keeping your head low. What kind of assassin wants to be the centre of attention?? To have her skills known?? If you want glory, then you're in the wrong career path. Be a damned knight. Someone," she said in between chews, "is very good to me."' [I just ... oh God ... I have no words! :D Cookie Monster strikes again?] The whole competition thing wasn't at all very thought through. In the end, it felt as if it was just there to get the story going, to get Celaena into the castle. The other characters didn’t really convince me that much (although no one got nearly on my nerves as Miss Main Character did), I felt like there could have been more work behind, just like the whole story didn’t exactly engage me from start to end for the very same reason.

Also, since when do slaves have possessions? Why does some random slave (who immediately gets murdered by some random people, so yay for the Drama Llama) have enough salve to pass around as required? Who makes this salve? From what? Who are these slaves allowed to associate with that they can procure salve? What do they trade for this salve? Their bodies? Their hair? Salt they've squirrelled away from the mines? Yeesh! Explain yourself, Sarah J. Maas!

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But that is the final problem I had with this book -- the narrator constantly tells us what to believe. I'm afraid it doesn't work that way; you don't get to tell me that this girl is an accomplished, feared assassin at the age of.... sixteen?.... but her entire mentality, her entire personality does not ring true of an assassin. As the plot develops, the storyline becomes more and more intriguing until it reaches a point where things turn out dark and fantastic. What seemed to me at the beginning as okay-ish turned out to be, towards the end, a great, imaginative story. I am beyond happy that I was wrong! ( That means the book is good because I rarely am wrong and I even rarely admit that I was wrong!). Simply dazzles. . . . The clamor for a sequel will be deafening. (Starred review Booklist on A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES) Once they'd finished their run, they trained in a private room far from her competitor's eyes. Until, that is, she collapsed to the ground and cried that she was about to die of hunger and fatigue.