The Assassin's Blade - S. J. Maas

The beauty of this collection of Novellas is that you don't need to have read Throne of Glass, or Crown of Midnight to have an inkling of what on earth is going as is often needed with companion/prequel novellas, usually because the author assumes some level of pre existing knowledge on behalf the reader.

This book however could easily stand as the first book in the series and has all the flair, wit and panache of the main series. Its also a master piece in character devolution. Going back to a Celaena before Endovier we are introduced to an arrogant, stroppy teenager with the world at her feet and an indestructibility complex.
Over the course of the 5 stories we see her evolve and develop a conscience, admittedly one that can still justify killing for money, but grow into the young woman whose shards we see at start of TOG in Endovier.

I got my hands on these shortly after posting the first post about this amazing series. It's taken me this long to recover from the end of this, the realisation of just HOW Celaena ended up in Endovier, to write this review.

Blade's novella's introduce us to The Assasin's Guild, we finally meet the much referenced Arobynn Hamel, Sam Cortland and even meet some characters that I suspect will return and be instrumental in the chaos and undoubted carnage that will occur in the next three books as Celaena realises her destiny and rattles the stars as Nehemia always said she would.

The novellas themselves are rip-roaring yarns of pirates, ninjas, treachery, backstabbing, love and betrayal.

Oddly though my favourite is the one not told from Celaena's perspective but rather from one of the character's that I'm very convinced we'll seen again. (Update: in the time since I wrote this, Queen of Shadows came out, if we don't see this character in Empire of Storms I will be VERY surprised.) It's a quiet but determined story and it's a nice interlude from the brutality, both physical and upon the reader's emotions, of the main storyline.

Personally, in terms of when to read this, I agree with the publisher's decision of putting it out between Crown of Midnight and Heir of Fire. Reading this book first would tear a lot of the heart and and a lot of the mystery of the first two books (Update: it's almost essential to have read it to understand things that happen in Queen of Shadows.)


Overall The Assassin's blade is an excellent addition to Celaena's world and gives us a chance to see more of Erilea, and gives us tantalising hints of things to come, adversaries in the making and takes us behind the curtain, giving us an understanding of Sardothien's fury.


This Celaena before Aelin, this is Adarlan's assassin at her very best, this is the genesis of the character that blew you away in Throne of Glass and an must read for any fan of the series.

Bethx

Heir of Fire: a blazing follow up.

Hello blog fans! I found this post oddly unpublished so I have decided to post it now because it's all still relevant.



You may remember my raptures about the first 2 books in the Throne of Glass series. Well I have the 3rd book now. And I met the author, and some lovely, similarly hooked Ladies who made the wait see seem like no time at all, and similarly understood my bookish foibles. It was a very exciting occasion even if my phone nearly ruined it by being glitchy. Although Sarah loved it because it has an R2-D2 case on and she's as big a Star Wars nerd as I.

Once again I was sucked back into Celaena's world totally. With the new book comes new characters. 

Notably Manon Blackbeak and Rowan Whitethorn. Both of them very interesting characters. The new book sees Celaena away from her native Erilea, and on the continent of Wendlyn, the land of her Fae ancestors, and she's given up all hope. Naturally she changes her mind but not after a lot of persuasion. 

Back on Erilea in Ardarlan, tension mounts as Dorian struggles with his power and Chaol with his feelings, whilst newcomer Aedion adds plenty of twists and double bluffs of his own. 

Despite pulling back the curtains on most of the mystery surrounding Celaena's past, there's still plenty of mysteries, questions and heartbreaking cliffhangers. 

Trying to review these books objectively is very difficult. It isn't often that you get so drawn into a world that you find yourself so fully immersed that you actually find yourself wanting to be the main character. Not least of all so that you can have her boyfriend...  

Anyway... the narrative naturally is split into two strands this time because of the characters' geographical locations. I.E Not near each other.

Just as with the previous two books some little more of the King's plan is revealed, and this time we find out just how deep the doodoo is. 

Once again Maas produces a spell binding read with twists, turns, much stabbing in the heart for certain "shippers" in the fandom, and an ending that caused me to immediately message my new friend Becky and share my book hangover. In fact we both agree that a year is just far too long to wait for TOG4 (Queen of Shadows). 

I have issues with certain aspects of the book, but that is mainly to do with my own "shipping" preferences rather than any true writing issue, although I and several others did struggle to buy into certain aspects of Dorian's personal storyline.

Despite this is another top effort from Sarah Maas!

Bethx