Published by Bloomsbury on August 27, 2013
Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Retelling
From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.
Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.
Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie... and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.
The last time we met Celaena Sardothien she was fighting to win a competition that would one day set her free; I am very happy to say Crown of Midnight expanded, in a much needed way, upon Throne of Glass. This was everything I was hoping for its predecessor to be.
"Lord Nirall’s eyes flew open just as the King’s Champion raised her sword over his head."
The very first thing I noticed while reading was the lack of flashbacks or references to the first book. We begin this novel with a clean slate. Or, rather, a fresh start that it incredibly bloody. Celaena has taken to her work as an assassin and as a girl planning a dangerous game to take her freedom. Not only that, she has developed and continues to develop throughout the work. She is shown as a capable and clever assassin as she stalks her targets brings the king his proof and trophies. Gone is the young girl full of complaints and tantrums; gone are many of the frivolous dresses. They are replaced with a girl who has a job to obey, but feels in her heart there is something more.
We see friendship and tensions with Nehemia, our rebel princess, grow as the unrest outside the castle grows and they argue over the best way to attain freedom. Surprisingly, a heavy tone of morality and what is right versus what is wrong serves as the foundation of the work. We discover Celaena's reasons for fear and just how many secrets she is hiding while learning and seeing more development with Dorian, as well.
Our prince begins to turn a new leaf as the story progresses at break neck speed. He is no longer a pretty young man with idealistic views and a complacent manner. Dorian begins to not only see the error in his father's ways of ruling, but acts against the king in small ways. We see him fight to gather courage as his boyhood pining over Celaena turns into a deepening friendship and, in turn, he sees her struggles.
Sadly, I did not see too much actual development with Chaol as a character. He appeared to be more of a tool to propel the story forward. I found myself wondering while reading just what Maas plans to do with him in future books because the potential is unending.
Something else that was unending? The twists and turns. I cannot convey how strong the writing was with this work. There was more concrete world building as Maas took the story outside the castle to the closest town filled with slums and affluent neighborhoods; and then introduced imagery, descriptions, and ideas of other kingdoms and continents to expand upon what she had just established. Atmosphere was a critical element of Crown of Midnight; from the musty and damp dungeons to the crisp and clean snow crunching underfoot, Maas leaves us wanting for nothing with her immersive descriptions that create clear images and scenes.
"..she was a weapon forged to end lives...no one was going to walk out of that warehouse.”**
This. This is the gritty, nastiness that I had been waiting to find in the first book. I must say the wait and let down in Throne of Glass was well worth it, in hindsight. Maas proves herself as very capable of creating fast paced action scenes filled with strength and tension. It is with these scenes that we begin to see just why Celaena has garnered her reputation. Waiting to see what she was capable of was frustrating, but ended up being highly satisfying. Especially, due to a lack of unpredictability. Throne of Glass was easy, you knew how it would end. She would be the victor, there was no way she couldn't be and that created a dull. lackluster impact. Crown of Midnight was anything but predictable. We can assume she will win whatever conflict emerges, but at first we don't actually know what the conflict is nor do we fully know how much damage Celaena will take trying to achieve a resolution. And we certainly don't know who will get hurt in the process.
Overall, Crown of Midnight was everything I wanted but didn't think I would get while reading. The story Maas creates shows just how much her writing capabilities grew and just how elaborate we can expect her ideas to be. With a beautiful balance of action, lore, world building, romance and character development, and a cliffhanger I can sink my teeth into I have to give this a 5 out of 5.
** to keep from sharing spoilers this excerpt has had parts removed. I did not include the whole sentence because it gives away a critical story point.
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