Rating: 
Summary: Promises much, but not quite making it
Review: Of the many writers breaking into the field, it takes a great deal of time and patience to build up a world and a character with which readers will struggle and triumph. This world is tangible and alive. Secondary characters give more to the inner eye than Rani Trader, our manuevering heroine, provides.The story is provocative, but Rani moves too easily among the castes. A simple addition of syllable and she is one caste or another. This makes me wonder why there are not simply multitudes of people hopping from caste to caste as it suits their needs. I enjoyed the story, and agree fully it is a grand effort and shows promise for the author. Still, with no passion for Rani's lack of major struggle, I can not give much of a higher rating. It is hoped Klasky will flesh out the main character more in the next effort that I am awaiting with anticipation.
Rating: 
Summary: I really liked this book.
Review: 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!
Rating: 
Summary: Depressing book
Review: Pretty depressing book. The basic storyline sounded interesting and somewhat novel, so I bought the book. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to its promise. For one thing, it was just to0 depressing. Also, I agree with the other reviewers, I really couldn't get into the character. It was decent writing, but there were no redeeming qualities to overcome these two major flaws. Don't read it. It's a waste of time.
Rating: 
Summary: A dark and suspenseful novel
Review: Rani lives in a world unlike ours where moving from one class to another is nearly impossible. For that reason her parents spend all the money they have to make her an apprentice to the Galsswrights guild, a place where she will have the skills to live a better life than as a simple merchant. But when she sneaks into the temple one day to watch a special ceremony involving the crown prince her whole life changes. Suddenly the prince is dead and everyone thinks she's the one who killed him. The Glasswrights guild is destroyed and the kings men are out hunting for her. Rani doesn't know what to do or who to trust. Running through the city streets she starts to learn about a secret government who speak of equality among the castes, a brotherhood that deals in murder. What can Rani do? Although the beginning of this novel at first turned me off it quickly picks up to a suspenseful pace. I was a bit shocked that there was no magic or any kind of sorcery in this novel, considering I found it in the fantasy section, but it did not make my reading experience any worse. If you're into medieval novels that are fast paced and don't necessary need to have magic in them this is for you. I'm looking foreword to reading the rest of Rani's books.
Rating: 
Summary: Mindy L. Klasky's Comments (mindy@klasky.com)
Review: Rani Trader's story grows out of my own love of fantasy fiction. Rani is descended from the heros and heroines I've met and admired in the novels of Anne Bishop, Katherine Kurtz, and Patricia McKillip. At the same time, Rani is a unique, high-spirited individual - a proud, strong young woman who takes charge of the often-mystifying world around her. I hope that you will come to enjoy Rani's company as much as I have and follow her on her adventures in and around Morenia! Please feel free to reach me by email at mindy@klasky.com or visit my website at www.sff.net/people/mindy-klasky
Rating:
Summary: A great adventure, a so-so fantasy
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Forrest Gump
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Where is Rani's common sense?
Review: The GLASSWRIGHTS APPRENTICE is about a 13 year old apprentice that is in the wrong place and time. After witnessing the death of the prince, her guild, her family, her career, her life, she latches on to the hope that her only remaining brother will help her; although it's clear to everyone her brother is a evil, murderer and the secret society that he his caught up in controls his life. It felt like the bad horror film where you cannot possibly believe that the characters could be so stupid. What made this book work was Rani's friends that she meets along the way; you could feel their compassion, and goodness that they tried to impart into Rani. The story is entertaining, and I will read the next, even if it's just to see if Rani develops more common sense.
Rating:
Summary: Ok
Review: The main character gets betrayed by pretty much everyone in the book! Either she is betrayed, or they betray her. How much betrayal are we to believe? Everyone can't be out to get her. The writing style is smooth, hovever, and I lost sleep over this book. However, if you don't mind too much of one plot device, it's ok.
Rating:
Summary: stupid character spoiled the book
Review: 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, the reason for which the author does not reveal) 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 (not quite) as stupid as Rani herself. DON'T read it, because it is NOT worth your while.
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