Throne of Glass- Flash Review

What is not to love about a fantasy series about assassins, fae and witches? This is such an exciting, fast-paced, action packed book. I literally could not put it down. It was a great start to a series, with plenty of dynamic characters, intriguing concepts and a taste of the relationships to come. And, interestingly, not everything works out the way you would expect- making it true to life and thrilling in equal measure. I never knew quite what would happen next.

Some critics have complained about the main character’s vanity, arrogance and pettiness- but I did not have a problem with that. For starters, I don’t want a perfect heroine. Usually, characters designed to be faultless come across as unrealistic or irritating or irritatingly unrealistic. Besides, the faults balanced out her talents and were logical flaws for an especially gifted character to have. I found all the elements combined to give her complexity. And, for all her talents, it’s not like the main character has it easy- everything is still challenging for her, despite her skills.

The main flaw with this book was that the fantasy elements seemed a bit random as most of the world did not have magic. Explanations seemed vaguer than I would have liked. When I first read this book, I assumed that this was because the author was just finding her feet. It becomes apparent in later books, though, that this was intended as building blocks for future plots- so don’t be put off!

I whizzed through this series, so expect the next review in a couple of days!

Rating: 4/5 bananas