It’s the first checkpoint for the #TWOTOGCountdown read-a-long! By now I hope that everyone participating has had the time to get up to the end of Chapter 14. If you haven’t, beware of the spoilers below!
Crown of Midnight starts off with a bit more of a bang than how I felt Throne of Glass started, and for that I’m thankful. It’s nice for Celaena to have a bit more free-reign and to see her outside of the castle, but it’s nicer to start off the book with her being an assassin.
Or… sort of…
Given her friendship with Nehemia, I’m not surprised that Celaena is playing by her own set of rules, and saving the lives of the people the King wants dead if they’re willing to play her game. At the same time though, parts of her inner thoughts feel a bit soft. She’s a hardened assassin who was/is known as the best in the lands, so why does she have such a hard time with her job all of a sudden?
Not surprisingly, Chaol and Dorian have been acting like children, being not-so-subtly mad at each other (and Celaena) just because they are boys who like the same girl. It’s a plot point I look forward to being done with quickly since it’s really juvenile considering both of them are supposed to be rather mature. I mean, Dorian is the heir to the throne and on the council, while Chaol is the captain of the guard! While Dorian’s upset make at least a little bit of sense, to me, Chaol needs to get over himself. He killed a bad man and is in a position where that is his job and he should have had to kill many men to get it.
Which honestly leads me to the King. What kind of king has children running his court? The council seems to be old men and Dorian, his personal guard is the same age as his son but is also unaware of half of what goes, and his personal assassin is younger than both his son and his guard! I honestly don’t understand this reasoning.
Now, all that being said, I am actually enjoying this book. The writing feels a lot more solid and I’m liking our new friend Archer so far (even if he is a bit of a coward). I look forward to seeing more of the politics game being played outside of the castle as well as inside with the introduction of Dorian’s skeezy cousin, Rolland. I want to know more about who everyone thinks Aelin is (my money’s on Celaena) and what this rebellion is about. I want Nehemia to spill some beans that I know she’s keeping secret. But I think most of all, I want to know if the eyes at the end of our stopping point belong to a certain someone that the fandom is obsessed with.
What are your thoughts so far? Leave a comment!
(first posted on Lucien's own blog)
