Book Review – The Assassin’s Blade

Title: The Assassin’s Blade (Throne of Glass #0.5)

Author: Sarah J Maas

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children’s

Publication date: March 4th, 2014

448 pages

4/5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis

Contains all five novellas.

Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan’s most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin’s Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas – together in one edition for the first time – Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn’s orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out.

Review

She was fire, she was darkness, she was dust and blood and shadow.

sarah j maas, the assassin’s blade

First off, this cover may be the best out of the entire series, don’t @ me. The blue background with the purple cape is exquisite and Celaena looks amazing. Next, I appreciated the novellas – they weren’t too short that it seemed the story wasn’t developed, but they weren’t overly long either. Getting the background into Celaena’s history was very helpful and it explained some things that weren’t fully clear in Throne of Glass. I know there’s debate on what order to read these – so for me I read TOG first and then TAB and then on to Crown of Midnight and the rest. It worked for me, but I know some say to wait until after Crown. I don’t personally see how it could matter.

I think this book does an even better job of showing the different facets of Celaena than TOG. You really see her softer side, whereas TOG is really showcasing her ruthlessness and assassin abilities. TAB gives you more of her thought process in relation to her work for Arobynn because when TOG starts she is already done working for Arobynn. Basically what I’m trying to say is: The Assassin’s Blade is worth it to read as part of the series.

I particularly loved the story of her in the desert learning from the other assassins. I could where that history will play a part in future books, and that foreshadowing is exciting. I’m very much looking forward to continuing the series.

Happy reading, folks!