Books: Throne of Glass - The Journey

Sometimes the things you look forward to can really bite you in the ass.

Really? We never would have guessed that from your previous Mass Effect posts!

Ahem.

But I do want to share something I’ve also been really excited about for the past four years. Not kidding. Four years of waiting excitedly, forgetting, being reminded again, becoming giddy once more and then reverting back to the excited waiting. And now the waiting is over.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: 

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

About ten years ago, a sixteen-year-old girl started posting a story on Fictionpress.net. It was a story that came to her while listening to the soundtrack of Disney’s Cinderella. In fact, the idea came from a single set of notes in the sequence where Cinderella flees – a curiously ominous tone which made the girl wonder whether Cinderella wasn’t running for another reason.

And from that Celaena Sardothien was born. An assassin who is pulled out from her hellish prison with an offer of freedom dangled in front of her if she performs a task. A task that she is exceptionally suited for.

The story grew, becoming a trilogy that took six years to finish. It garnered a following of hundreds of readers from all over the world and thousands of upon thousands of chapter reviews. It made such an impact that, at one point, there was even a wiki entry about the story and the attention it was receiving. And then, bolstered by the enormous support, Sarah J. Maas, at the age of twenty-two, took off her story from FictionPress and set her feet on the terrifying and exhilarating journey to become a published author.

And now at twenty-six, she is exactly that. And the storms of supporters are still there with her, just as passionate as they were when she was still posting her story on the internet.

Sarah J. Maas

As someone who writes, I cannot imagine how Sarah must have felt not only sharing her beloved story, but receiving that much exposure. I can’t imagine how terrifying it is to effectively cut you off from that steady stream of affirmation to dive into the unknown and often disappointing world of publishing. And I’m not a fan girl in the strictest sense of the world. I am excited and have been for a long time, but more out of admiration and support. I have been rooting for this woman to step up and step out and share this really good story.

It isn’t the best I’ve read. I’m not going to go all Twishite and start rooting for one of the men Celaena encounters in this series and start joining “Team Whatshisface”.  But there was an undeniable charm to the story. I laughed, I cried, I frowned, I rolled my eyes.

I responded.

Now, I’m never one who enjoys a story for its main characters and Queen of Glass (as it was known back in the day) was no different. But fortunately – as with all the other stories I’ve enjoyed – there was always a character nearby that kept me reading.

And so here’s the real question: Will Throne of Glass measure up to what Queen of Glass was?

I don’t know. I’ve only seen rave reviews, but I don’t know. If there is one reason I hesitate to start reading the book that I finally have in my possession, it is the fear that I’m going to be disappointed. I have no doubt in my mind that the story will be exceptionally different. Things are going to be added and things are going to be left out. A beloved character might not see the light of day.

But I’m more concerned about how young she’s going to pitch it. A lot of YA are remarkably mature. They take on subject matter that makes it surprising to find in the ‘youth’ section. I want Throne of Glass to be one of those books.

I guess there’s only one way to find out.