Began reading: 16.9.2015
Completed reading: 22.9.2015
Overall rating: 4.1 stars
Celaena Sardothien was brought up in Rifthold, and trained to become Adarlan’s Assassin. Celaena is duty-bound to Arobynn Hamel, who provided her with a home at the Assassin’s Guild and taught her the deadly skills she needed to survive, and I required to carry out tasks from pirate-infested island to lonely deserts. The Assassin’s Blade is a collection of novellas, served as prequels to the Throne of Glass series. (Note: To skip the summaries, scroll until you see the three asterisks).
The Assassin and the Pirate Lord is the first novella. Celaena and her rival, Sam Cortland, are sent on a mission to seal a deal in the slave trade with the pirate lord, Captain Rolfe, Lord of the Pirates. Refusing to seal the deal, Celaena and Sam must find a way to free the two hundred slaves without attracting attention from Rolfe or have word reach Arobynn.
The Assassin and the Healer follows on from The Assassin and the Pirate Lord. After being beaten by Arobynn for disobedience, Celaena is sent to the Deserted Land to train with the Mute Master and his Silent Assassins for a month. While waiting for the ship to take her to the Deserted Land, Celaena meets Yrene Towers — a healer, working as a barmaid, and wishing to seek further education for her abilities. After an attempted attack, Celaena teaches Yrene how to defend herself for when she decides to leave for a better life.
The Assassin and the Desert follows on from The Assassin and the Healer. Being sent to the Deserted Land to train with the Mute Master and the Silent Assassins, Celaena must learn to impress the master if she’s to receive his letter of approval. During her training, Celaena makes friendships with Ansel of Briarcliff, Mikhail and the master’s son, Ilias. Following a betrayal by one of her new friends, Celaena must decide how she will deal with the disappointment while staying true to herself in order to obtain the letter of approval.
The Assassin and the Underworld continues on from The Assassin and the Desert. Returning to Rifthold and her life at the Assassin’s Keep, Celaena finally runs into Sam, only to find that he’s been spending time with Lysandra, a courtesan whom Celaena has despised since she was ten. Celaena and Sam are sent to assassinate Doneval and his business partner for attempting to arrange a way to improve the slave trade. Following a staggering deception from one she trusts the most, Celaena must gather courage to fulfil her wish to move out of the Guild and begin again.
The Assassin and the Empire follows from The Assassin and the Underworld. After paying off her debt to Arobynn, Celaena moves out and brings Sam with her. In order to escape the hold that Arobynn has on her, Celaena must complete one more mission: to assassinate Ioan Jayne and his sadistic guard, Rourke Farran. Aware of the disturbing and deadly consequences of being caught, Celaena and Sam decide to work together to accomplish the mission. Celaena will receive the ultimate betrayal and lose what she holds most dear.
***
The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas is a young adult novel with a combination of fantasy, romance and adventure. I wasn’t going to purchase this book, because I didn’t think I would find it in stores, and because I usually learn what is important from the books. BUT I LOVED THIS COLLECTION OF NOVELLAS!
The book was well-written with a heap of great quotes, including:
‘…Life isn’t easy, no matter where you are. You’ll make choices you think are right, and then suffer for them’ (p. 103).
*WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILER* Even if she didn’t put the sword through Ansel’s neck, she’d still lose her. She’d already lost her.
But maybe the world had already lost Ansel long before today (p. 217).
‘If you can learn to endure pain, you can survive anything. Some people learn to embrace it — to love it. Some endure it through drowning it in sorrow, or by making themselves forget. Others turn it into anger…’ (p. 222).
The game had been played, and she had lost (p. 422).
The characters and storylines were JUST. SO. GOOD! I loved how we were taken on the missions with Celaena, and saw how she developed relationships with other characters. We were also shown Celaena’s flaws, which I loved. There was enough information about each of the characters that people have made insightful wiki pages on them.
There was just SO MUCH EMOTION. In The Assassin and the Empire, Celaena lost what she held dear, and it just broke my heart. I’m pretty sure I cried a river! Maas, WHY?! It was so sad, but I loved how it made me realise how attached I had become to the characters.
My favourite character was Celaena Sardothien. She is such a badass, yet she can be so compassionate. Some examples:
*Celaena, discussing the slaves* ‘We kill corrupt officials and adulterous spouses; we make it quick and clean. These are entire families being ripped apart. Every one of these people used to be somebody’ (p. 41).
Rolfe: ‘Why go to so much trouble for slaves?’
Celaena: ‘Because if we don’t fight for them, who will?’ (p. 74).
I also loved her rivalry with Lysandra because I felt Celaena knew that she was better than her. I especially loved Celaena’s final interaction, which can be found on page 328.
Sam was my second favourite character, and I found his background story interesting: his mother was a famous courtesan. She was murdered by a jealous client, and left Sam orphaned. Because she was Arobynn’s favourite courtesan, he decided to take Sam in and train him as an assassin.
My favourite parts of the novellas were when Celaena spent a month with the Silent Assassins, when she approached Doneval at a party, and whenever she interacted with Sam.
Recommendation time! If you like “Countdown” by Michelle Rowan, or “Carnival of Souls” by Melissa Marr”, you will love this book. Also, I recommend this book to anyone who likes Kill Bill and Kill Bill 2.
I will also be reviewing the rest of the Throne of Glass series: Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire and Queen of Shadows. Keep an eye out for those!
Happy reading!
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