Eoin Colfer meets Rick Riordan—with a little Margaret Peterson Haddix sprinkled on top—in this hilarious new sci-fi series from award-winning authors Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman.
I know this has been said before but if you want a good substitute for Harry Potter because obvious reasons, may I suggest Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan? It’s a bigger series with lots of sub-series and actually loads of fun, specifically if you were ever interested in Greek/roman mythology #books#bookstodon#BookSeries
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Assassin's Blade
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: Throne of Glass (Book 6/8)
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: Sarah J. Maas
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Young Adult, Fantasy
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: October 23, 2023 @ 3:35 PM
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★☆
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Assassin and the Pirate Lord
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★☆☆
This one is about 16 year old Celeana acting like the bratty teen that she is, her silly little antics come off as annoying rather than understandable because “she's young and this and that” though her actions did almost cost the lives of her and Sam. I didn't find much thrill reading this part of the book but it was still a fun short read because c'mon, assassins on a mission to find their fellow guild members in the territory of pirates? Great idea and could've been done in a very whimsical way but still better than the next one.
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Assassin and the Healer
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★☆☆☆
This is just filler, there was nothing about this that intrigued me or gave me any worthy information for when I read the main series again. This felt more like a one shot fic that's tagged hurt and comfort, not to say that fanfiction is in any way shape or form a lesser media, there are tons of fanfiction out there that have the potential to be their own novels and some being better written than the series that they are a fanfic of. But this was like, a fanfic without the strong feeling of a fanfic. It wanted to evoke softness and compassion, but it couldn't reach it.
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Assassin and the Desert
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★☆
Now this is the part of the book that is about Celeana's character development. She reaches the Silent Assassin's fortress and meets the Mute Master wherein her stay makes her slowly realize all the abuse that she had gone through in her life and how all of that suffering and pain was not normal nor okay. The side characters here were also more fun than the first two stories, they had a certain way of writing in them that made them sound more believable at least to me, more human than just characters. Or maybe it was because of the tone of the book, who knows? 🤪
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Assassin and the Underworld
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★☆
She's back at Rifthold and she's with Sam. Like, there is nothing more I could say that would explain the four stars. Celeana and Sam is my pre Celeana and Chaol. I don't understand why SJM chose to write her with someone like Rowan, there isn't a reason for them to be together. Also, fuck Arobynn.
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: The Assassin and the Empire
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★★★☆
The start was very dry but the moment the feel rolled in, it steamed on without mercy. Sam and Celeana plan to leave from Rifthold and perhaps start a life somewhere else but they need money to do so, luckily they are offered a job that will make them both rich. Seems like a pretty sweet and simple plot about two teens trying to make it out of their shitty lives hoping for better in the future, UNTIL THE PLOT TWIST AND THE ENDING. This part of the novella alone can go against the entire main series and win istg. 𝘐𝘛 𝘞𝘈𝘚 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘗𝘓𝘖𝘛 𝘛𝘞𝘐𝘚𝘛 𝘈𝘕𝘋 𝘐𝘛 𝘞𝘈𝘚 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘌𝘕𝘋𝘐𝘕𝘎
𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Queen of Shadows
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: Throne of Glass (Book 5/8)
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: Sarah J. Maas
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Young Adult, Fantasy
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: October 19, 2023 @ 11:57 PM
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ★★☆☆☆
At first I thought that once I read this book, maybe it'll clear out what Empire of Storms was all about and maybe once I finish, it would make me less angry. It did not. The shift between this and Empire of the Storms hurts because this book was as close to the original story as it can get, there was the idea and there was character. There was a yearning for love and intimacy that was never present in the next book. There were emotions, despite being the emotions that you wouldn't understand why the character is feeling that way, you'd still go along with it because those parts are what makes them a character, the way they act and feel predictable and unpredictable at the same time makes them sound realistic and grounded with how we perceive parts of people and their own ways of feeling and living. There were parts of this book that was never present in Empire of Storms and it just cemented my anger.
Chaol is present in this book and this is the part where he and Aelin meet each other again, and oh boy, I love the way that their characters had this friction because of how Chaol is going through this arc of trying his best to find where he must stand in the conflict and Aelin heartbroken because the person that she once loved sees her as a threat and as monster. They never miss, when they're together it's always so personal and character driven and I love every bit of it. This is also the part where they break up and it kinda pisses me off on how it was only a single page long when the author can manage to write 17 pages long of unfiltered sex scenes. It's weird but okay, sure why not.
𝖳𝗋𝗂𝗀𝗀𝖾𝗋 𝗐𝖺𝗋𝗇𝗂𝗇𝗀: 𝖲𝗍𝗂𝗅𝗅𝖻𝗂𝗋𝗍𝗁, Asterin Blackbeak, Manon's cousin reveals that she fell in love with a mortal man and got pregnant. She carried the baby full-term, which is rare for witches. But the baby was stillborn. Manon’s grandmother was furious and beat her, branded her with the words “unclean,” and cast her out of Blackbeak Keep. I did not expect such a thing to happen in a book like this, it is not that shocking at least to me because it is a story about war and all that, but something like this in a YA book caught me off guard. Not to say YA mustn't include topics like these but the way that it goes:
In the middle of it all, why must you add in the description of her breast? Not to say that you can't and you shouldn't, but it made it sound so weird especially when the scene is literally about the trauma that a woman went through in giving birth that also led to her family casting her away. That it was the moment that I realized, SJM would randomly describe boobs in random. Even with the way that Aelin wears a necklace, boobs would be shoved it there for no reason. I would understand it if it was for imagery, but the way that it's phrased and handled in context sounds more like the way that men write women more than anything.
Which is absolutely hilarious to me because in the following book, she exactly becomes that foolish and stupidly unaware because they had sex in the middle of a war on a beach. It altered my brain chemistry in a way that shouldn't be. And this is the first and last time that the book acknowledges the age difference between the two, hell, it ain't even an age difference at this point, it's a whole century gap. The Twilight era never disappeared, it only evolved. Dear heavens... This is one of the main reasons why I took out a star from my rating, it could've been an easy three stars but this had to be in the story.
One of the things that I adored about this book though was about Chaol and Dorian, their bond was solidified in this part. I don't want to get too detailed in case someone wishes to read the series P̶l̶e̶a̶s̶e̶ d̶o̶n̶'t̶ h̶a̶v̶e̶ m̶e̶r̶c̶y̶ o̶n̶ y̶o̶u̶r̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ but when one of them was severely hurt to the point of death, but they weren't actually dead, one of them thought that they were and they lose absolutely every bit of patience and sense of honor in their soul and they go absolute apeshit. Like YES! THE TROPE OF ALL TIME. I love them your honor, they deserve the world. 𝗜 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝘆𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸.
I decided to start with Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas that is a fictional young adult book that is part of the series with the same name. The first of the eight books in the octology as well as the first book I've read that is written by her.
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ﾟ。𝙈𝙞𝙣𝙤𝙧 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝘼𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙
ﾟ･｡･
I have to say, I like the way that the book starts off immediately with something going on, the characters are introduced in a scene that is relevant to the plot unlike in other books where most of the time there's this short chapter that explains the background of the characters and what they're going through and I appreciate that, it's been a while since I've read books that start off that way. It goes as Celeana Sardothien, the main character, is presented to the king of the kingdom of Adarlan in chains, where she simultaneously meets and develops a crush on Prince Dorian Havilliard. There's also this stoic, no nonsense Captain of the Guard and childhood friend of Dorian, named Chaol Westfall that often banters with Celeana. The main character is a well known assassin that was thrown into a salt mine as a slave and was given a chance of freedom if she would become the King's Champion.
After that quick start, the story started slowing down. The pace of the progression is not continuous, at least for me. The champion is chosen through a competition with different stages of elimination (killing will result to disqualification), but it doesn't start until 30% into the story. It took its time to write Celeana's passion for reading and training sessions that are basically random warm ups and common sparring, nothing new or magical or shows the progress of each warrior's fighting style, but it does give way to Celeana's internalized monologue that is mostly about her trying to solve the sudden mysterious deaths of the competitors during the entire competition. The other characters of the book don't seem to care as much as her about the deaths of those people which is just odd.
She also took on a different identity as Lilian Gordiana, a jewel thief from another city, to avoid unnecessary attention (a tactic used by Dorian while Celeana disliked it). In her time training and reading, she meets Princess Nehemia Ygter and they become close friends. The friendship between them is so adorable, they always have each other's backs, and they both care so much about their friendship. I love how the book kept them that way instead of going down the path where one betrays the other because heaven knows we need more female friendships and women solidarity in books.
The characterization meanwhile was a bit flimsy, Celeana is written as this badass warrior assassin when she's canonically 18 years old and is even commented by one of the characters to have undisciplined form of fighting. Dorian and Chaol are written as obvious love interests and potential love triangle when in every turn, Dorian has no chemistry with Celeana with their sparks of interest are only ever physical while Chaol is made as her evident real love; their banter are fun, goofy and their serious conversations have layers, they aren't confined to just “I care for you just because.” I also do not understand why and how Celeana became interested in reading, I understand the idea of “not everything is as it seem” but a character that was thrown into slavery to the mines since they were 8 years old having this intense fondness of reading is just weird, how did she manage to hold such likings when assuming that she had never had the opportunity to hold books as much as she held a knife or a pickaxe. And no, it isn't because she was deprived of education and she wishes to obtain more knowledge through reading, which is a far better explanation than nothing at all, she's literate but inconsistent.
The author also seems to like including balls and parties into her work because this book had one that is lowkey reminiscent of Disney's Cinderella, I assume that it was intentional considering that A Court of Thorns and Roses is based around a retelling of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
All in all, it's everything that the young adult genre is known for, light fantasy with a badass female main character that gets in a love triangle and all that shazz. Not that hooked with it, but thankful that it made me go back to reading. (It was a request from a friend)
I am not sure when I will pick up the next book of the series or if I would read a different book afterwards though.