Oct 28

Oct 28 Throne of Glass (Entire 8-Book Series)

Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from my Bookshop.org shop, which supports independent bookstores (not Amazon). You can also find it via your favorite indie bookstore here.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She 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 competition, she will be released from prison to serve as the King's Champion.

Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

As dark forces gather on the horizon-forces which threaten to destroy her entire world-Celaena must fight to protect everything she holds dear, thrusting her into the epic, heart-stopping fantasy series that turned #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas into a worldwide phenomenon.

TL;DR Review

It baffles me that SJM can write so many series with terrible first books that turn into my favorite series of all time. Believe the hype (and stick with it until it gets good, because it gets SO GOOD).

For you if: You love a sweeping fantasy series with magic, romance, incredible characters, and everything in between.

Full Review

This is a spoiler-free review of the entire 8-book Throne of Glass series.

Up until now, I’d only read SJM’s main ACOTAR trilogy and the first two Crescent City books; I’d been meaning to read Throne of Glass, but eight books is a huge commitment, and I just never got around to them. But with Crescent City 3 upon us in only a few months (IYKYK), it was time. So I finally worked my way through these books, one per month, alongside a few friends doing a reread. TLDR? Consider me converted.

If you’re tangentially familiar with the SJM fandom, you’ve probably heard that the first few books of the ToG series are…not great. But like me, you probably also have some friends whose opinions you trust without question telling you that they do eventually get extremely great. I am here to add my voice to that chorus. (SJM does this with ACOTAR too, which like…how this woman has built such a big fandom with such terrible first books is beyond me, but here we are.)

Books 1 and 2 are ROUGH, my friends. Where was her editor? Who let her use so many exclamation points? How many cliche characteristics (prodigy deadly assassin who also inhales novels, plays piano secretly, and will eat anything chocolate) can one MC have? Then — if you follow the same reading order I did — you go back and read The Assassin’s Blade, a prequel made of short stories, which is fine, but quick, so it’s all good. And then you get to Heir of Fire, and you go, “OH.” You’re definitely more into this now, AND you understand the plot justification for why the first three books were so frustrating. So THEN you get to Queen of Shadows, and you are ALL IN FOREVER. And what joy, dear reader: There are still three more (plenty long) books after that.

“Deedi, that is a LOT of books for me to read just to get to the good part. Is it really worth it?” Reader, it is. I got to the end of this 4,761-page series and was truly devastated that it was over. Even though I’d been reading new material every time I turned the page, these books had come to feel as comforting as rereading old favorites.

It’s actually kind of enraging, because at this point being an SJM girlie is so cheesy, but the fact of the matter is that she is really f*cking good at this. The SCOPE. These CHARACTERS. The number of times I SOBBED. The number of TWISTS she pulled off right under my nose. It’s all just so damn good.

If you are on the fence, as I was, take the leap. At the end of it all, you won’t regret it one bit.