Customer Reviews

The Glasswrights' Apprentice

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Mindy Klasky's first novel, The Glasswright's Apprentice, tells the story of Rani, a merchant girl in a caste-controlled society whose family sacrifices most of its wealth to buy her way into the guild. The book opens with Rani mostly feeling sorry for herself due to mistreatment by the guild instructors. In a moment of rebellion, she decides not to return to the guild one afternoon after being sent on a errand, and goes instead to the glamorous religious ceremony honoring the realm's prince. In an unfortunate twist of fate she finds herself the accidental accomplice in the assassination of the prince, and a sudden fugitive from the king's justice. She goes into hiding in the city streets both to survive, and with the hope of clearing her name by unraveling the conspiracy that murdered the popular prince. She will discover the conspiracy is far more complex than she would suspect, involving a secret Brotherhood who seem to have members everywhere she turns. I enjoyed the book for the most part. The many twists of the murder conspiracy kept the book interesting and the fantasy kingdom of Morenia, or at least this one city, was well-drawn. However, I had a hard time finding Rani a likeable heroine. As she moves from caste to caste, person to person, throughout the book, she makes and betrays loyalties, steals, lies, and even kills without too much of a backward glance. She also seems to get over too easily the deaths, mutilations and misfortunes that her family and friends suffer in her name. I'm sure we're meant to admire her for her "survive at all costs" attitude, and survive she does, but I found her to be a bit too cold-blooded and self-serving. The end of the book tries to patch more of a conscience onto her character a little too late. Traditional fantasy fans may also be a tad disappointed to discover there isn't a scrap of magic or any fantastic elements to the tale other than that it is set in a fantasy kingdom with its own religion and pantheon of a Thousand Gods. I don't need magic to find a fantasy satisfying, but without it, and without a lovable character to cheer for, too much depends on the plot alone. Still, it is an enjoyable book and an admirable first effort.

Klasky's first novel is set in a single city, rigidly divided into castes. Rani Trader falls afoul of the royal family and must use all her wits to survive.

I wanted very much to like this book. I enjoyed the atypical paucity of magic (although, contrary to a few other reviewers' comments, there is a minute amount of magic). Rani is an interesting, resourceful character whose effectiveness as a protagonist is somewhat hampered by her virtual amorality. Yet Klasky doesn't cast Rani as an anti-hero; rather, her deeds are apparently meant to give the impression that Rani is a good person struggling in difficult circumstances.

While the social setting was initially intriguingly described, it didn't seem to me that it held up well under scrutiny. I was disappointed by the ease with which Rani moves between the supposedly rigid castes, and I couldn't understand why the ruling family, described as ruthless and calculating, was apparently so vulnerable to outside attack. I also thought that the characters' motives were frequently unclear or unrealistic.

Klasky's writing is competent but not stellar. She frequently repeats words or phrases, and uses an enormous number of clunky dialogue attributions. (One character "grunted" two or three times on a single page.) The book was engrossing, although I frequently found myself shaking my head, and I would recommend it primarily to die-hard fantasy fans or to aspiring fantasy authors.

This book has a lovely cover, and a smart premise. The main character, 13 year old Rani lives in a kingdom with strict castes. Her family, a merchant family manages to buy her into the Glasswright's Guild, a step up the social ladder. However, she's in the wrong place in the wrong time when she witnesses history altering assassination along with a hundred other people. She however, knows more about the assassin than the rest of the populace because the assassins come from her guild.

The fantasy world was very interesting with its social system, its castes, and its royalty. The politics thrown in, the monarchy, the guilds, etc. were nice touches that give good situations for neat characters. The lowest caste- the Touched, a couple of Princes, people that died. . .Unfortunately many of the characters weren't as fleshed out as I'd liked them to be, but that's probably because the story is told in the point of view of Rani who doesn't seem to be able to judge people all that well. Or because some were killed before they got interesting.

I was drawn to Rani's situation as much as her world. She's the underdog, hunted for murder, living by her wits, surviving by being smart. Her talent is in her art of stained glass and recognizing patterns. Unfortunately, you don't see much of that intelligence in her mad dash from one debacle to another. She blunders from one caste to another seeking shelter and family, but after awhile, one would think she'd learn a little so that she wouldn't HAVE to join every underground organization in the city and end up betraying everyone. I don't mind the sort of anti-hero that does anything to survive, kill, betray, lie, steal, etc, but they at least have to know why they're doing it! She reacts to everything and everyone and is used throughout the book with no mitigating twist in the end. She is still as powerless in a most unsatisfying ending. I would still read the sequal because there's enough in the story to make it interesting. The writing is well done and while I didn't like the way Rani handled many things, it could be described as realistic. She IS only 13 and can't be expected to see through all the conspiracies and make all the right decisions, though I'd like to see a *little* triumph in the end. . . I can only hope that the sequal will unveil a much more mature and smart Rani that can manipulate puppet strings as well as she dances from them.

The main character of _The Glasswright's Apprentice_ is Rani, an apprentice to the Glasswrights' Guild. When the prince is assassinated, Rani, who is in the wrong place at the wrong time, is blamed. Rani runs and has to fend for herself.
I did NOT like this book, mostly because Rani was such a dunce. If a stranger stopped her on the street and told her that the moon is made of cheese, she would believe it. It never seems to occur to her that not everything people tell her is true. In one part of the book, a man she barely knows (and the little she does know is not good - he betrayed one of the characters and knowingly caused her death, which, by the way, the author never explains) tells her that a certain character, a soldier who has shown nothing but kindness to Rani, is plotting to kill her brother - he doesn't give her any evidence or reason - and instructs her to kill him. Rani willingly and unquestioningly does as she is bid, with almost no qualms about committing murder and hardly any regret before or after she acts.
Rani's stupidity wasn't the only problem I had with this book -the whole story, the setting, and all the characters were unbelievably unrealistic. In short, the book was almost ( though not quite) as stupid as Rani herself. DON'T read it, because it is NOT worth your while.

This first book is like a preview for the rest of the series, wherein the heroine stumbles along from one dangerous situation to the next, escaping with her life and virtue not due to any talent or cunning of her own, but through sheer dumb luck. "Dumb" being the key word here, because she doesn't appear to possess any of this thing the rest of us know as common sense. She opens her mouth when it's obvious she, and everyone around her, would be best served by her keeping it shut, she takes things at face value even when hard experience should have taught her better and she constantly acts without any consideration of the consequences, no thought involved whatsoever. She's just a puppet and everyone else is pulling her strings. That's not what I care to read about in a heroine.

Both sides in this story, the monarchy and the ones trying to overthrow it, are distasteful. I'm supposed to think well of an institution that orders the thumbs cut off of children to persuade people to talk? It may be realistic, but it's not my definition of moral high ground or a side I can view as just. There really are no "good guys" in this story, or in the series, and it's very off-putting.

I had to struggle through this book and the ones after it, and I finally gave up before finishing them all. The whole story just left me cold.

I had heard some good things about this book and the back cover made the story sound pretty interesting. However, it turned out this is what you call a "time killer" book: a blah book that turns OK because you don't have anything else to read.

To give you a glimpse of what you should miss, the story stars a blonde young woman by the name of Rani whose family is lower middleclass, but they realize their daughter has a talent for design, so they scrape EVERYHTING together so they can buy her an apprenticeship to the glass wright's guild. She gets in but soon she is enveloped in some sort of sinister plot by being in the wrong place at the wrong time and she's present for the assasination of the King of Morenia. Or the prince. Agh I can't remember and I'm a little glad that I've blocked out some of the badness. But anyways, there's all these hidden cults running amock in Morenia and she gets all mixed up with that nonsense and then she accidentally gets in the right place in the right time to get herself asked to the palace so she meets another prince who becomes her chum. And they both join one of the cults. lol yes you heard me. And I never liked the main character. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you can't create a good main character that the readership will connect with/ like/ or identify with, you might as well chuck the book and start from the beginning. I was really hoping the main character would somehow fail to live through the rest of the novel and the book could focus on the prince, who was far more interesting and a much better person on the whole. But no, you're stuck with Rani who is just a poohead. And apparently she lives through I think three more books afterwards. Darn.

Anyways, don't waste your money. THis book is only adaquately written and the main character is, as aforementioned, a poohead. I would recommend reading something from the Sevenwaters Trilogy or Elizabeth Hayden or Kristain Britain. But, as a precautioner, run away from this book and never look back. It's definetly not worth it.

The Glasswright's Apprentice has an engaging plot, intriquing setting and society, and vivid details. It is unfortunate that it is spoiled by the awkward and contrived situations that the heroine Rani is involved in. It's as if Forrest Gump had stumbled into this fantasy world, going from one milestone event to another, completely oblivious of their gravity or importance.
It stretches the imagination that Rani would not only be present and implicated in the assasination of the prince, but also by mischance a participant in his embalming! To be chosen for not only the highest honor conferred upon merchant and but also, dishonestly, as a "pilgrim" and become a member of the same royal family who want her executed? The series of unlikely coincidences left me struggling to finish the book--what an insult to any intellect who is looking for some semblence of reason.
And like Forrest Gump, Rani seems a day late and a dollar short in emotional and moral development. She goes from anger to gratitude in an instant as she is held back and then pushed forward to become the First Pilgrim of the New Year. Please!! The lack of emotional depth is amazing. Her occasional twinges of regret for the murder she commits and her lack of remorse for not coming forward to protest the torture of her fellow apprentices and the destruction of her guild is appalling. The murders of her own family members seem to affect her only when she has nothing else to think about--it certainly does not seem to impact her personality or approach to life.
A fantasy does not mean rubbish dressed up in an alien or other-worldly setting. When written well, it shows us human nature free of traditional settings, freeing us to see it more clearly. If this is showing human nature, it is very shallow and self-serving. I hope that Ms. Klasky will provide more dimensional characters to go with her plots in the future. As it is, I bought the sequel at the same time but decided after reading the first chapter to close it and delegate it to the rummage sale box, something I never do to my books.

Remember the first Indian Jones movie? The roller coaster ride that never seemed to let up? That's one of the strengths of this story of a teen-age apprentice caught up in a game of power politics and murder. In a fantasy kingdom where caste (one's "birthright") is all, Rani Trader has nearly bankrupted her modestly successful merchant family with their dreams of upward mobility (and her talent for design) when they apprentice her to the powerful Guild of Glassmakers. The Guild is pleased to take her family's money, but openly despise Rani and drive her unmercifully. One day of playing hooky, however, leaves Rani in the wrong place at the right time: She fails to avert a political murder, is considered a key suspect and narrowly escapes the ensuing pogrom. Before this book's intricate plot is resolved (with a surprising twist) Rani will have tried every caste from the highest to the lowest, solved the murder and found her true birthright. Rani is a rather ordinary young woman of no particular virtue, forced to survive multiple betrayals and betray to survive. She must challenge both her easy assumptions and her equally naïve rebellions. She's a bit like Kipling's Kim, only without either the heroism or the patronizing attitude. The exotic setting, complex murder mystery and page-turner plot make for a good adventure story.

Once I picked up this book, I didn't put it down. Rani's tale is one of a young teenager in a world of castes, where to move between them is expensive and unusual. Her world is suddenly turned upside down when the crown prince is publicly murdered, and Rani is implicated. She loses her family, her name, her caste and her ability to think for herself. She is so discombobulated by what has happened to her that she is easily influenced by those to whom she believes she owes something. I don't think she is amoral, as another reviewer wrote. I think she is trying to cope with so many major changes in her life that she clings to whatever hope presents itself, and thereby becomes a puppet to those with more power.

Throughout the book, I was continually reminded of J.V. Jones' The Barbed Coil, not because of a similarity in plot or characters, but because of the patterns, and the writing, which drew me in as completely as did the Barbed Coil.

The climax of The Glasswright's Apprentice is unexpected, but fitting. I found the end of the book, however, flat, open-ended and disappointing. It lends itself to a sequel. I hope there is one!

I'm a big fantasy reader, and I picked this book up because the book quote on the first page absolutely intrigued me. However, the plot goes somthing like this: An apprentice to an artisan's guild is framed in the prince's murder and subsequently brings down everyone around her, and then has to work her way back up. The basis was great, I really liked some of Klasky's ideas. One of the little details I loved was the set up of the caste system in Rani's (the heroine's) world, and I also enjoyed the set up of the princes murder. But after that, the book really petered out on me. The plot stumbled about aimlessly, and the end left me UTTERLY unfulfilled. I really truly got the feeling that Klasky got bored with the book and wanted to finish it off really quickly (I know I did), so just whisked out a cardboard ending. Still, it was a good learning experience for me on what makes or breaks a book.