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Glass Sword
Glass Sword
Glass Sword
Audiobook14 hours

Glass Sword

Written by Victoria Aveyard

Narrated by Amanda Dolan

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

The #1 New York Times bestselling series!

Perfect for fans of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series, Glass Sword is the high-stakes follow up to the #1 New York Times bestselling Red Queen.

Mare Barrow's blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control. The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.

Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors. But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat. Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

Plus don't miss Realm Breaker! Irresistibly action-packed and full of lethal surprises, this stunning fantasy series from Victoria Aveyard, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Red Queen series, begins where hope is lost and asks: When the heroes have fallen, who will take up the sword?

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperTeen
Release dateFeb 9, 2016
ISBN9780062417305
Author

Victoria Aveyard

Victoria Aveyard was born and raised in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, a small town known only for the worst traffic rotary in the continental United States. She moved to Los Angeles to earn a BFA in screenwriting at the University of Southern California. She currently splits her time between the East and West coasts. As an author and screenwriter, she uses her career as an excuse to read too many books and watch too many movies. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling Red Queen series, and you can visit her online at www.victoriaaveyard.com.

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Reviews for Glass Sword

Rating: 4.091695501730104 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    OMG - this was another fantastic addition to the series, the pain and the torment that this heroine goes through - you can just feel the emotion and you cringe at every trap, every gruesome torment that the Silvers put our Red Queen through. It has a slight romantic underlying tale, but it is not the focus of our lead character, which is nice for the guys.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Pretty good, though not quite as much as the first one...

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Probably more like 2.5 stars. This book wasn't really what I wanted it to be. Mare annoyed me with her constant references to her power and how she was a total jerk to the people who had stood by her even though she disregarded how they felt. I thin the ending is the only thing that saved it for me.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Goodbye Mare Barrow aka the Lightning Girl. It's been fun. But I don't think I can read books three, four or five. Don't get me wrong. The writing is excellent. But the story seems to repeat itself. Go to battle, lose, get captured and taken prisoner. Only to escape and do it all over again. Instead of keeping her alive, why not kill her and be done with it. Oh wait, that would end the story. 3 of 5 stars for me.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Love the twist and turns. Never know what’s going to happen next
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is the second book in the Red Queen series and I enjoyed it but not quite as much as I enjoyed the first book. There are three books planned for this series. This book finds Mare spending the majority of her time fleeing from place to place with the Red Guard trying to rescue the other Red Bloods with powers life herself. The Red Guard doesn’t trust Cal at all and trusts Mare only a very little bit. This encompassed the first half of the book and was a bit slow for me. Mare seems a bit tired through this part of the book and reminded me a bit of Katniss in Mockingjay; just worn out and sick of being used. She’s just too complacent.The story picks up more in the second half of the book when Mare decides to actually do something useful with her status and power and I enjoyed this a lot more.There’s a lot of tension between Cal and Mare throughout; they’ve decided to focus on their mission and not each other which makes for some interesting scenes.I really do enjoy Aveyard’s writing style; it’s very engaging and easy to read. I do think that the first part of the story could have been paced a bit better and that the story as a whole was a bit bulky; but overall I enjoyed it.Overall a good addition to the Red Queen series. This is a wonderful epic fantasy of sorts (if also has kind of a sci-fi, superhero, and dystopian vibe to it). There are a lot of politics and sneaking around. I would recommend to those who enjoy YA epic fantasy. I will definitely be reading the third book to see how things wrap up.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This went downhill in a hurry. It lost all the pacing of the first novel, it was v. tropey, and the characterization was inconsistent at best. :( Was hoping for much better.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I am very glad that I decided to continue the Red Queen series. The first book I felt was a little predictable, but it was also the intro to the characters and the world so I wanted to continue.

    When you start Glass Sword you have Mare and Cal being viewed by the country as an evil lying temptress and a murdering prince who killed his own father. All of this is done by the machinations of the Queen, Elara, who has used her whisper abilities to read everyone's minds and control others to her will. She had been hiding some of Mare's antics with the Red Guard to her own benefit to kill the king and exile the firstborn son. Elara is a mental master, and her son Maven is not just her puppet, but her willing accomplice.

    Mare has gone through so much change since the initial moments of Red Queen, it really is like she is stuck between who she was, is, and will be when necessary. The first book she was a thief who had no other skills, that her own family was completely disappointed with. Then they made her into the fake princess, who had to be cold-hearted around everyone. Then they go and kill anyone associated with her so that makes her lockdown. She needs to protect people but she isn't capable enough to do it alone. In Glass Sword that is one of her biggest conflicts with herself. She wants to care and worry about everyone, but she knows from the previous experiences that if she does she will be crushed and broken. So she makes herself emotionally distant from everyone around her. Her personal struggle is very important. You see her at her weakest, her strongest, and how far she is willing to go.

    Another thing is seeing the characters around her and how their opinions of her change. They praise her and raise her to a pedestal, only to then completely turn around and abhor what she has become. And for different side characters, it isn't even in the order. That makes you wonder who knows more than she does, who has also changed during this book, and who is true to Mare or not. I will be honest, I'm still not sure how the next book is going to turn out. Which is a nice change from the predictability of the first book.

    I am currently reading Cruel Crown which is two novellas that you can read additional. I've only started and I think that it is worth it. I got it for $5 and was happy about that. I'm looking to get King's Cage soon I hope. I'm sort of hooked on the cliffhanger of Glass sword at the moment.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I am loving this series! I have been binge listening to it for the last few days and it's an awesome fantasy story.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I'm trying to figure out what to rate this one. It was trying so hard to be the next Hunger Games or the next Divergent. In both of those series the main characters suffered severe psychological damage after all of pain and war the went through, and so Victoria Aveyard makes Mare suffer severe psychological damage. The problem is that I don't quite know what Mare went through to make her this bad. I mean, the stuff in the arena at the end of book one was bad, but nothing compared with what Katniss and Tris suffered. Katniss was put in an arena and told to fight to death twice, and then she was practically forced to be the Mockingjay and lead a war effort, and watched her friends and family suffer and die. Tris lost both her parents in less then twenty-four hours, and basically lost her brother too. I would certainly understand if Mare had PTSD, but she is basically turning into a villain. At one point she calls Cal a hypocrite because he values silver lives above red lives (even though he was raised in that attitude and is obviously learning to value red lives just as much as silver ones, albeit slowly.) Yet Mare values red lives far above silver ones, and values newbloods even more than she values red, making her even more of a hypocrite than Cal. She was so self-centered that she continually forgets about her entire family except Shade, her favorite brother, and fellow newblood.

    I thought that Kilorn had the potential to get more interesting in this book, and I thought that he and Mare might actually work well romantically, but those hopes were dashed. Mare is just so psycho that I don't think she would work well romantically with anyone (and Kilorn probably deserves better.) As for Kilorn getting more interesting... Well, he's still one of the most interesting characters in this series, but he did not get any more interesting than he was in the first book.

    What surprised me is how interesting Shade and Farley ended up being. I didn't expect that at all. Unfortunately, things happened in this book. Shade died and, while I'm glad Farley is (most likely) pregnant with his child, that means that she will likely take a backseat role in the next book. To be honest, I am quite disappointed in the fact that Shade died. When there are really only three interesting characters in a series, it's a pretty big deal when one of those three is killed off. Especially because, now that I think about it, the reason I thought Shade and Farley interesting had more to do with the novella from Farley's point of view than with this book, so, lame. There I would have liked to see Shade's reaction to Farley's pregnancy, and we were robbed of that. We were robbed of most of their relationship, in fact, since Mare was too self-centered to notice until right before Shade died.

    There were no other interesting characters. Even Cameron, who was clearly supposed to be interesting, was just the typical gifted but stubborn, snotty teenager who has potential to turn villainous with her special powers and desire for vengeance. Maybe she and Maven will get together.

    I truly don't know how Mare ended up a psychopath. She killed unarmed people begging for mercy. If a silver had done the same thing to reds, she would call them a monster, but she thinks that she is allowed to do whatever she wants. And I'm sorry, no matter how important you might think you are for a rebellion, any character who keeps going on about how their running ahead to make sure they survive is justified because the rebellion "needs" them is automatically an unpleasant, self-centered, egotistical and unlikeable. I have never run into a character who thought like that. Katniss was fully aware that she was one of the most important people for the rebellion in Panem, but not once did she think that she needed to live more than Prim or Gale or even Peeta, just because of that. Harry Potter was willing to sacrifice his life to save others even in the first book. Even Tris, who is not one of my favorite characters, was willing to sacrifice herself to save her comrades. It's obvious that Aveyard was trying to make 'little lightning girl' and 'red queen' into the new version of 'the Mockingjay,' but sadly it didn't really work. When the creepy twin guys asked Mare to come with them to their kingdom, she asked them if they'd exchange silver masters for newbloods, but that question was out of character for her, because it seems to me that she would just love to be the all-powerful lightning queen. She even refers to herself as the red queen. She craves power. She has turned into a villain.

    The scene at the end happened too fast, and it felt completely forced. I thought that the writing seemed far too cinematic. Mare was also completely out of character. She gave herself up to save the others? Yeah, sure. Because Maven is really going to release her captured friends just because she says she won't fight. He had all of them under his control, he is not going to let them go just because Mare said to. It felt more like Mare wanted to look like she was a self-sacrificing hero then she actually wanted to be one. She knew Maven wouldn't let anyone go, so she decided to pretend to be brave and give herself up so that she would look selfless. Or, that's what it felt like to me at any rate.

    I will probably read the next book, but mostly because Victoria Aveyard's writing style is good (except for when she's writing a scene just because she knows it will look good in a movie,) and because the audiobook reader is good. Honestly if I weren't reading these books via audiobook I don't think I could have finished them. Hopefully we will see some more of the slightly more interesting characters, and hopefully they will continue to get more interesting. And hopefully the boring, creepy characters will get more interesting as well. Though if there's more than just one book left in the series and neither the plot, nor the characters get more interesting, I might just have to quit.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A strong follow-up to Red Queen. Mare and Cal escape their executions by the skin of their teeth and now Mare is determined to find others like her - Red-blooded citizens with the powers previously only found in the Silver-blooded. Making allies and enemies along her way, Mare's journey makes for fast-paced, gripping reading. Highly recommended to fans of YA dystopian novels.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Still very much like The Hunger Games, but unique enough that I really enjoyed it. The ending caught me off guard, I look forward to book 3.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    teen fiction (action/adventure) Kind of a cross between xmen, hunger games and game of thrones (minus the gratuitous HBO sex--actually, there is hardly a kiss in here, since Mare is too busy fighting a war). 2nd in the series; you must read the first one first (and probably should review before you tackle the 2nd one, if it's been a while).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really liked this book, not because it's all making sense. I don't get a lot of it. Hell, I don't think the characters even get a lot of what's going on either. Everyone is just running around being insane pretty much. But I want to know how it ends so badly. I'm completely wrapped up in this madness. I need the next book already!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    OMG - this was another fantastic addition to the series, the pain and the torment that this heroine goes through - you can just feel the emotion and you cringe at every trap, every gruesome torment that the Silvers put our Red Queen through. It has a slight romantic underlying tale, but it is not the focus of our lead character, which is nice for the guys.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Epic.
    Quick question though, am I the only one who's in love with Maven?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Glass Sword
    by Victoria Aveyard

    This is book 2 of the Red Queen series, which picks up after the first, and in the pages, we get to dive deeper into Mare's thoughts. Yeah, there's a lot of internal thinking, explanations, memories, etc. Some of it was necessary, but at other times it seemed to repeat what she had just thought, and other times it was mostly babble to add to the word count.

    But it was still a good story, moved very quickly and I had to force myself from listening to the audiobook, through Scribd, so I could do the other things I was supposed to do.

    The 'cat and mouse' game that's played between the king, Maven, and Mare, sometimes you don't know who is the cat and who is the mouse, which makes it very interesting.

    A few things that I didn't like was the lack of explanation on one very important part. I wanted to 'see', but it wasn't explained, it just happened. (I don't want to spoil it, duh...) The second thing was the cliffhanger, and now I have to read the third, it's already downloaded, but I hate cliffhangers, especially these types, and I despise them even more when the next book isn't even out yet. (Lucky me, I waited to start reading until the series was finished.)

    4 stars
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Shade and Farley are pretty obvious.
    I don't understand how Mare can be so dumb.
    She is so so dumb. She does so many stupid things. ugh
    Farley's "news" is also soooooooooooo obvious.
    I think Mare is is slowly going crazy. She reacts poorly to every situation.
    Although I'm not a fan of Mare, I do want her and Cal to get their shit together.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    3.5 stars

    This was only so so for me. Still good but definitely not as good as the first book. Definitely a bit second book syndrome. Most of the book was just going from one place to the next to recruit newbloods. Didn't feel like that much happened. I also had trouble remembering all the new characters and what their special abilities were. Mare got to be annoying and the drama with Cal got real old real fast. I wanted to yell at her to get over herself. Also, I was devastated by Shade's death. After Cal, he was my favorite character. So sad.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I really hummed and hawed over DNFing this one or not. Even ran a Twitter poll...most people said to DNF it.

    I was SO BORED by this book!

    I LOVED the Red Queen! I was a strong defender of it, telling everyone to not be so hard on it and all that. So Glass Sword was one of my most anticipated reads of 2016.

    But this was dreadfully dry. Nothing seemed to be happen except the passing of time.

    Understandably, everyone is a little beaten down. Mare especially. I really struggled with her character. Cal was so dull; and there was very little Maven.

    This is the very definition of a Book 2 slump if you ask me. It's just one of those bridging books that is a necessary evil to the series. Seems like something big happens at the end that I am curious about, but not curious enough to pick this one back up.

    It's been 8 months since I stopped in the middle of the novel and I haven't regretted it yet.

    Perhaps Ill finish it another time but as of right now, this is a DNF'd series for me.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I waffled while reading this book. I went from voracious reading to when is it going to end. Parts had me captivated, but others were meh. I read this as a group read (albeit late) and because I had read the first one. I am going to read the next only because of the cliff hangar at the end of this story. I am not sure if i like or loathe the character of Mare. She can be strong and altruistic one minute, and sniveling the next. Cal is pretty much the same. I think Kilorn is my favourite character in this book. He is strong, loyal and pretty much the only one that understands Mare. As they find and "save" more and more New Bloods, we begin to see what some of the special powers they possess are. Some of the allies in this book are pretty nasty and I am not sure if I would even call them allies at some points. That part is interesting. The ending leaves me wondering what is coming next. It was totally unexpected.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I found this one really boring compared to Red Queen. I think the plot just moved along too slowly.I also got confused a time or two when I misread a sentence because it wasn't immediately clear that Aveyard was referring to a character's ability. For example a sentence like "She saw two eyes" not referring to the body part, but to people who have the ability to see into the future. I think Aveyard should have capitalized those words (Eyes, Silks, Strongarms, etc.) to make it more clear and reading more smooth.Also, in my review for "The Hunger Games", I mentioned the belief Aveyard and Collins share that one cannot scream without a tongue. Sara (who was supposedly "unable to scream in fear") still has perfectly good vocal chords. She can still make noise through her mouth. She can't shape that noise into understandable words because of her lack of tongue, but she most certainly would be able to scream. The tongue has nothing to do with screaming.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The first book had me at the edge of my seat and so did this one. The thrill and anxiety I had during each mission completely overtook me. I was in there through it all and I loved every minute of it. The third book cannot come fast enough, definitely, this series will go down in my top 3 ones. Mixing X-men with Lord of the rings I am so in love with the series and I honestly cannot wait to see what happens in the third book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a fantastic middle book for a trilogy. The real war or storm is coming as new bloods are rounded up to fight the crazy king and try to right everything. I highly recommend this trilogy.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed the reading but I don’t think this book wast favorite felt like a very very long exposition which didn’t grant a whole book
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This second book still had me in tears at certain parts but I was disappointed at how Mare’s character just became unlikeable. I liked her in the first but here I couldn’t stand her. And it felt unnecessary.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not the best book in the series tbh. Took me a while to finish, it was still a good read though
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The first book was os good, i feel like this series actually the first book is the best and then it constantly deteriorates. The plot gets better as you go deeper into the series of but the characters get worse. Maven becomes really weird which we're suppossed to belive he always was, Cal becomes more balnd and Mare just becomes weird. Her best friend too.

    I mean ofc no hagte to the books or the author or anything but the books after the first book just arent that great
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Mare is still driving me crazy how she pushes everyone away. She again pushed away love while also trying to hold him close. Not too close of course. This book felt like a filler. Most of the characters introduced I have already forgotten. The ending though. Looking forward to the next book.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I read the first book. Then, I found out there was an audiobook available for the 2nd book. Here I was listening and I’m so excited to what comes next. However, I can’t even finish listening to it. Mare is getting on my nerves. She keeps talking about how powerful she is but yet she failed on all accounts. All the people that helped her escape multiple times and yet she keeps going back I’m so powerful.