Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas. ISBN: 978-1599906959

July 11, 2013

Meh.

 

Interesting concept, shatteringly unsuitable execution (no pun intended).

 

I really like the plot idea, and the idea for the main character.  I even don't mind the "magic is gone/no it really isn't/oh, there's something DEEPER than magic instead!" switching around.   

 

Instead, I mind (spoilers, lalalala) that a child found sleeping beside two traumatically-murdered parents and then raised by a heartless assassin master for 10 years, then caught with her lover who dies while she's sent to a salt mine for a year and brutalized by the guards while she's there, and then thrown into a life-or-death competition when she's still violently out of condition is presented as the vapid, clothes and beauty-obsessed twit we see on display here.

 

I don't mind the snarking and taunts. I don't even mind the penchant for candy and puppydogs.  I mind that she's not acting like she has been trained at all by anyone, and that she seems way too comfortable with all these nobs around, and much too casual about a killer on the loose.  I mind that other than one instance before the climax, we don't get to see any substantial evidence of her vaunted skills in action. 

 

I mind the writing choices.  If the competition is important to the plotline (it's the macguffin, but still) then for the love of goats, actually focus on it more than twice, and show us some consequences.  When the losers lose, they just vanish, no idea what torments they're going back to or not.  If the contests are continually so easy for our heroine, then there should be more than one scene of her holding herself back.  Likewise, if the gruesome murders are important, then show us them more than once.  If the evil king is evil, show it!  If the mysterious princess is mysterious, then SHOW IT TO US.

 

Also, I'm getting really sick of literal deux-ex-machina (or deus-ex-hallucination).  It takes chutzpah to do it at all, and real talent and writer's craft to do it well.  This one fell with a thud - you even knew it was coming, but it still didn't really seem inspiring or powerful, just inevitable.

 

Sad, because the world and the villains seem really interesting, but not enough to suffer through more court-inspired romantic drivel to see them get their comeuppance.