Author: Sarah Maas
Length: 12 hrs 24 min
I guess it's normal, expected even, for a series to have a sophomore slump. For me, this book was definitely slump worthy. It's hard for me to pinpoint exactly why I dropped my rating for this one by 2 stars. One of the differences was that I listened to the audiobook version, and the narrator has a haughty tone that makes everyone sound conniving and/or conceited. And okay, so that might be the case actually, but hearing it versus reading it usually isn't a problem for me. Here it was hard for me to have the same connection with Celaena that I had in the first book when I pictured her sounding tough yet vulnerable. The narrator made her sound almost petulant. And she may be written as somewhat of a brat at times, but I preferred my own projection versus the audiobook version. It was just a little off-putting.
The second problem was that there was SO MUCH SETUP AND INFORMATION packed into this book that it doesn't leave much for action. We learn more about the Wyrd written language introduced in Throne of Glass and Wryd keys and where they came from and what they mean and information about the king and things he might be working on, and more background history on the war that "ended" magic, and history on Celaena herself. If you're not paying very close attention, it's easy for things to get convoluted. So that was another audiobook issue for me. I can pay attention while listening, but when there are names I need to learn and complicated family and world history I need to remember, it's better to see it in writing and take the time to process it. Maybe I could have appreciated it better or felt more of an impact from the new information if I had read it instead of listened to it.
As for my comment about not leaving room for the action - okay, so there is action in this book. But I felt like it was limited to a few big events rather than being exciting throughout. One of the big events throws Celaena completely off her rocker, and she spends a lot of time deep in thought and grief. It's supposed to affect the reader in the same way I guess, but said event was something that I expected to happen eventually (I felt a character was only put there to be taken away) and wasn't that devastating for me. The next big event that I remember happening is about 80% into the book, and after finishing the audiobook in the same sitting, I actually went back and re-read this part via the kindle version. I just felt, again, like it gave me a deeper impact to read it without the narrator's influence.
Buuuut, despite the narrator, this book just didn't do it for me. I'm guessing it was the information overhaul combined with the lack of Celaena-doing-her-badass-assassin-thing that made it fall kind of flat. And that's another thing - Maas is very good at telling us how great of an assassin Celaena is. It's mentioned as a recap i.e. telling us she just killed countless people on the king's orders, but we didn't tag along on those kills. The ones we're privy to always involve Celaena getting injured and/or caught, and I just wish we saw more of her being the best assassin in the world and all that. I know that wouldn't be as exciting if we saw her get away with it every time, but a little more could be done to help us believe all this praise.
Points for the bomb dropping, though, at the very end of the book. So many complications stem from this cliffhanger!
Despite the fact that this won't be my favorite book in the series, it won't deter me from continuing what is still an exciting story. I jumped right into #3. I have both the audiobook and kindle version to Heir of Fire, and I'm still going to listen to the audiobook version on my commutes to help me get through it faster, but other than that I think I'll stick to reading the book since that was part of why I enjoyed Throne of Glass so much. I am 75 pages in at this point and already liking it more than Crown of Midnight!
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