Rating: 
Summary: Riveting first novel
Review: "The Glasswright's Apprentice" is a fast paced adventure through a caste-ridden land.Each incident of Rani Traders young life tumbles from terror to anxiety to danger. The reader races along with her as she tries to find out why her world has of apprenticeship as a Glasswright has suddenly exploded in bloodshed.The characters are well drawn; the language is precise and colorful. This was a delightful story......but it will cause you to lose sleep as you cannot wait to see how it ends.
Rating: 
Summary: A Different Reading Experience
Review: After reading so many fantasy books about epic wars and lost loves, I went searching for something different. What I found in The Glasswrights' Apprentice was just that. This is not a tale about cataclysmic wars and galactic struggles between opposing powers, but a tale about a single girl who is trying to return the honor of a broken guild. Though the entire book is virtually nothing but thoughts to herself, those thoughts are interesting and further the plot. Action and suspense run rampant in this book; sometimes they run faster than Rani does at times. For something fresh and new, this book is a definate read.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put this book down!
Review: Although fantasy mysteries are not my usual genre of reading fare, once I started this book I couldn't stop. The vocabulary is rich, the writing engaging and sophisticated, the cultural mileiu vividly depicted, and the story line irresistible. My family thought that I was planning to vacation with THEM, but once I started this book they were on their own. It's a winner!
Rating: 
Summary: There's a reason why there's so many used copies for sale...
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: just ok
Review: I had no problem with the writing style or the basic plot. It would have been an enjoyable read except for one problem: the main character. I agree, she is selfish. But even worse, she is just an idiot. She is one of the stupidest characters I have come across in literature. Her choices are completely irrational and confusing; we are given no reason why she acts in such unbelievable ways. I prefer to read about characters whose actions are based on the their personalities and experiences, not random choices for the sake of the plot.
Rating:
Summary: Not Great
Review: I just didn't find the book very interesting. I found it long and rather dull; lacking in action and too confusing to follow at times.
Rating:
Summary: Good first novel, but....
Review: I love the qurkiness of first novels, but this one suffers from "muddle in the middle." That doesn't make it a bad book. It was quite readable. What bothered me perhaps more was that it was marketed as a fantasy novel without a clear element that could be called "fantasy." Other than taking place in another place and time, there wasn't really anything of the genre in the book. For a truly excellent first novel published in the genre in 2000, take a look at Carol Berg's Transformation. That said, I'll read Ms. Klasky's other books and see how she progresses as a writer. She clearly has some very interesting ideas.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome book
Review: I love this book. The caste system is so interesting. Especially how they use their names to identify themselves as beggers, or the Touched, merchants, guildsmen, soldiers, or noble-priests. I'm always more interested in the culture as well as the story, and this book builds a whole different world for you. I think this is an excellant book.
Rating:
Summary: A gripping tale
Review: I must admit that I picked the book up almost randomly. I am, however, quite glad to say that it certainly was not a waste, and I would strongly recogmend others to purchase the book as well. Ms. Kalsky weaves an intricate tale filled with lessons about the machinery of power and the cogs that get ground by opposing forces. The heroine, Rani Trader, is quite fully developed, and the tensions that wrack her are visible and strike directly at the heart. It is, however, quite certainly a work not intented for young readers. Some of the content is disturbing, but that is to be expected, and the elements serve to further the plot and tensions rather than simply to provide bloody entertainment for the reader. It is wonderful to see such high quality work in Ms. Klasky's first published novel, and I eagerly look forward to any further creations.
Rating:
Summary: interesting twist
Review: I pulled this book off the shel randomly, and I loved it. It involves a girl being chased for a crime she doesn't think she commited in a fantasy world where all revolves around a rigid caste system. After witnessing the murder of the crown prince, Rani is forced to flee from her family and friends, taking refuge in the various castes of the city in order to escape pursuit and possibly find her brother; the only member of her family left alive. Eventually, in a final trial scene, she must choose between loyalty to her family and loyalty to the crown. It wasn't until I had finished the book that I realized what was so strange about the ending. Rani's brother (whom she turns in to a traitor's death in the end) is a member of a revolutionary group determinded to destroy the castes and make all men equal. In any other book, she would persuade the king that the castes ARE wrong and they would be abolished, making for a nicely politically correct story. Not so here; at the end of the book, there is nothing to signal change in the city's hierarchies. Rani is prtrayed as a yound girl trying to reconcile her upbringing which tells her that loyaly to her caste and crown is everything, and her heart, which tells her that everything is not right the way it is. And yet in the end, she bows to tradition and the ways she has been indoctrinated with. this make her a believable character and the book stick out in the genre of fantasy.
| 
