Throne of Glass
Juvenile Fiction
Bloomsbury USA Childrens
March 03, 2015
Hardcover
464
Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, she's sworn to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer for hire, Sam. In these action-packed prequel novellas to Throne of Glass, Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and avenge tyranny. But by acting on her own terms, will Celaena truly free herself from her master, or will she suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery? This bind-up features all four of the previously published e-novellas along with a story now available in the US for the first time, The Assassin and the Healer.
WrensReads Review:
Finally I am getting around to reading the adventures of my dear Celaena Sardothien. LOWKEY, I kind of love the assassin more than the queen, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love the queen.
I wanted to read it before I read Empire of Storms BUT I kind of got distracted with other books that were coming out around the same time. I am not a huge fan of novellas, but I do know that some of the characters introduced in the last book were first introduced in some of these novellas in The Assassin’s Blade. And because I love Sarah J. Maas’s story telling and her writing, I am going to go ahead and read these beauties.
So, with that said, I am going to read and rate these so I can finally be completely caught up on The Throne of Glass Series: Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows, Empire of Storms, and Tower of Dawn.
The Assassin and the Pirate Lord (Throne of Glass, #0.1)
What an introduction my dear Captain Rolfe, Lord of the Pirates. I now understand why you hate Celaena so much and might I say, it is pretty funny. And might I add, you are the absolute worst kind of person.
If an assassin, the most feared I might add, and her colleague, Sam, are disgusted with even the idea of slaves, then what is your excuse Rolfe?
I mean really, you walked into the mess that is Celaena. She may be an assassin, but she has good intentions. She may love throwing temper tantrum, but always be aware that she has something more dramtic up her sleeve for you.
This was a lovely novella. It sheds a lot of light on Empire of Storms, and why The Pirate Lord was being such a baby about things.
I would encourage anyone reading this series to read the novellas before Empire of Storms to save you any confusion.
P.S. I already love Sam and I already know my heart is going to hurt when I am done with these novellas.
The Assassin and the Healer (Throne of Glass, #0.2)
This story was less interesting than The Assassin and the Pirate Lord.
I will say this though: You do see Celaena having a softer side to herself. She sees this healer as helpless and pathetic, but when she realizes she could actually benefit from a thing here and there and could make a difference for someone in return… well, let’s just say she may help but not in the way that is expected of her. She’s a little rough around the edges to say the least.
The Assassin and the Desert (Throne of Glass, #0.3)
So this novella is also one that needs to be read before you read Empire of Storms, because it sheds a lot of light on certain characters that are going to be introduced.
Celaena and her actions from previous novella The Assassin and the Pirate Lord have gotten her sent to The Red Desert with The Silent Assassins. She has to come back with a letter of approval basically from the Master of the Silent Assassins after training with him, only getting him to train you is actually super hard.
ENTER ANSEL:
She meets Ansel, who is the lady introduced in Empire of Storms. She is basically Celaena in my opinion. They are both really proud of themselves and know they are hot stuff. They become really close friends in the month that Celaena is there. They even commit some crimes together, which is what true friendship is.
But there is someone who wants The Master of the Silent Assassins’ head on a platter for them, and there is someone in the keep ready to take it in order to get what they want.
I liked this novella enough. I felt as if there were some filler paragraphs and I found myself yawning at some points, but it is a very needed novella if we are going to talk more about The Red Desert, The Silent Assassins, Ansel and even about the witches (because we get to learn more about them in this book too).
I want to feel spider-silk. That’s all.
The Assassin and the Underworld (Throne of Glass, #0.4)
I am set up for such heart break right now. I am completely and utterly in love with Sam. SPOILER ABOUT ME: I never really have shipped anyone with Celaena Sardothien. Dorian was cool and adorable, Chaol was a great rock for Celaena’s personality, Rowan was LIFE to begin with, but then he kind of became “ehhh” to me. I mean, I am so happy that Celaena/Aelin is happy and with someone who cares about her and such, but I never really had an opinion if that makes sense.
Well, I have an opinion now. His name is SAM
Well, not that Sam but you know who I am talking about.
He cares SO MUCH for her, even when she is a little brat (which is most of the time).
“The moment I woke up after he beat me, I realized I had to leave. Because I was going to kill him if I didn’t. But I couldn’t.” He studied her face. “Not until you came back. Not until I knew you were all right – until I saw that you were safe.”
Just slit my heart open, Sam.
There is a lot of trickery in this book, but there is a lot of satisfaction as well. You’ll want to kill Arobynn even more than you wanted to before you read this, but that is to be expected.
Oh and you’ll also be setting yourself up for the worst thing in the world to happen, according to everyone I have talked to who has read the 5th installment of The Assassin’s Blade. This should be horrible.
The Assassin and the Empire (Throne of Glass, #0.5)
Heart is ripped out and barely beating on the table in front of me.
This is absolutely horrible. Maas just wanted to make us sob for days.
Like I feel as if Aelin/Celaena should have brought down more hell than she did in the series. She is the fire-breathing QUEEN. Arobynn deserved what he got (in the books, not in the novellas which would just be a lot of money basically) and like a thousand times more.
You don’t like sharing your things? Well Aelin should have showed you just how much of “your thing” she is. For the life of me.
On the other side of things, this is me every time I see Lysandra
Like she’s pretty awful in these novellas but I still kind of love her.
I just can’t bring myself to talk about this one. I’m sorry but really I’m not because if you can talk about what happened in this book you don’t have a beating heart.
WrensReads | Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram
Leave a Reply