The Assassin and the Pirate Lord: A Throne of Glass Novella (Throne of Glass, #0.1)

by Sarah J. Maas

Celaena Sardothien, feared assassin, has come for retribution.

Celaena Sardothien has been sent by the Assassin's Guild to a remote island in a tropical sea in order to collect on a debt owed by the Lord of the Pirates. But when Celaena learns that the agreed payment is not in money, but in slaves, her mission suddenly changes-and she will risk everything to right the wrong she's been sent to bring about.

• ISBN10: 1599909545
• ISBN13: 9781599909547
• Publish Date: 13 January 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
• Imprint: Bloomsbury Childrens Books
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 38
• Language: English
• URL: http://bloomsbury.com/

Reviews

[FranJessca @ A Book Lovin' Mama's Blog]

This will be a short review of The Assassin and the Pirate Lord (I read in The Assassin’s Blade, which includes all the novellas to the Throne of Glass series.) This was the first time I read the novella, and I’m actually doing a re-read of the Throne of Glass series, so I can finally read the last book in the series. I’ve been holding off for so long because I loved this world that Sarah J. Maas created. 

I liked being able to read the beginning of Celaena Sardothien’s story in The Assassin and the Pirate Lord. I forgot how young she was in the beginning and how she became a part of the Assassin’s Guild. I was also introduced to Sam Cortland and Arobynn Hamel. It was great to get to know Sam Cortland since he’s only a memory in the series. Arobynn Hamel is not someone I would want to mess with after what Celaena and Sam did in this novella to him. Celaena may be young, but if she knows something is wrong (like slavery in this novella), she will do anything to make it right, even defy Aryobynn. 

Would I recommend this novella? This was a short novella, but it gave me a glimpse into Celaena’s world before the first full-length novel in the Throne of Glass series. I give it four stars and recommend it to readers who want to get to know the main character of the series better. I’m so happy for finally diving back into this series, even though I know there is an ending to it. I need to re-read it and finally read the last book. It’s time.

[readingwithwrin]

This was my first book ever read in the Throne of Glass series and I get the hype around this series. Sure the main character can be a little annoying with how confident in herself she is, but that's also a good thing when you consider her age and that she is supposed to be the best.
I'm glad I decided to read a novel as my first book in this series instead of one of the huge full books.

I'm still unsure if I'll continue on with the series, but I did really enjoy this one.

Short and sweet introduction to Celaena. Celaena was okay, seemed a bit flat in some respects, kind of bland. But her heart seemed to be in the right place. And she grew on me the more I read. I liked Sam well enough.

[Berls]

My Initial Reaction...

I really enjoyed The Assassin and the Pirate Lord - it was neat to see Caelena before the events of Throne of Glass.

The Good...

I feel like The Assassin and the Pirate Lord was just a great way to get to know Caelena better. You definitely are fine jumping into The Throne of Glass without reading this, but you get a much better sense of who she is here. You also get a sense of how she's changed. I mean, I remember her being an arrogant girl - but I feel like it's tempered a bit between The Assassin and the Pirate Lord and The Throne of Glass and I can only imagine that the events inbetween the two books had something to do with that.

I'm also enjoying getting to see a bit of the Assassin's Guild that she belonged to and especially the other people. I'm pretty sure that the character I just got to know in The Assassin and the Pirate Lord - Sam - was the person she talks about a lot in The Throne of Glass, I just have to wait and see how the rest of the novellas unfold to be sure.

The story for The Assassin and the Pirate Lord was really good too - it's a novella and yet it managed to have a lot of action, great dialogue, and character building.

The Bad...

If I were to have any complaints about The Assassin and the Pirate Lord - and I really don't have many, this was a solid novella - it would be that I don't like Caelena as much at this point in her life as I did in The Throne of Glass. The mask/hood getup was ridiculous and her attitude was a little over the top. But she redeems herself for me because she cared so much about the slaves.

Also could it have gone on just a little longer, please? I wanted to know what happened when they went back home!

Concluding Sentiments...

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord was a solid novella and amps up my anticipation to read more of the series.

[Stephanie]

Really a 3.5

[e_rodz_leb]

This was supposed to be our first glance at Celaena, and what a great introduction it is! We get to know a little bit about Arobynn and the way Celaena was raised. I have to say that it was a very hard childhood, full of violence, and competition that very few people would have survived. Regardless of this fact, Celaena remains a beacon of light, she is stubborn, compassionate, loyal, and all the way awesome! Sam is a great character that cares for Celaena a lot, he was raised also by Arobynn and fierce competition between him and Celaena was encouraged and expected. I love the way that both her and Sam where on the same page regarding slavery and how they worked together to free the prisoners of war and intimidate the Pirate Lord into letting them go unharmed. Of course now they have to go home and deal with the fact that they didn’t obey Arobynn’s orders…

[lizarodz]

This was supposed to be our first glance at Celaena, and what a great introduction it is! We get to know a little bit about Arobynn and the way Celaena was raised. I have to say that it was a very hard childhood, full of violence, and competition that very few people would have survived. Regardless of this fact, Celaena remains a beacon of light, she is stubborn, compassionate, loyal, and all the way awesome! Sam is a great character that cares for Celaena a lot, he was raised also by Arobynn and fierce competition between him and Celaena was encouraged and expected. I love the way that both her and Sam where on the same page regarding slavery and how they worked together to free the prisoners of war and intimidate the Pirate Lord into letting them go unharmed. Of course now they have to go home and deal with the fact that they didn’t obey Arobynn’s orders…

Review originally on Oh, For the Love of Books!

Celaena:
One word: Sassy. And I loved that about her! Not to mention the fact that she's an assassin so she's awesome by default. She was sarcastic and witty. Sure she was a bit high and mighty for my taste but she had that handed to her a couple times and she didn't go overboard. She is good, no doubt about it, and while she could sometimes be a bit cocky, at least she had a right to be. But she didn't always let it go to her head. She knew she was good, but not invincible. What is really liked is that we get to see her heart in this novella. She thinks she is going to see the pirate lord for one reason, but instead is there to negotiate a trade of slaves. She learns to take charge and stand up for what she believes in no matter the cost. She ended up being truly admirable.

I liked the background of the characters and how they all became assassins. You don't get the full story, but you get little glimpses that keep you interested. I look forward to seeing which characters will be in the actual book.

Also, this may only be 40 pages, but I felt like it was a fully written book! The plot was fantastic, plenty of action, and developed characters. That's a grand accomplishment for so few pages. The only thing really was the lack of worldbuilding as a whole, but that's to be expected for lack of pages. I can tell that we'll learn more about the world in the actual book.

Overall:
I thoroughly enjoyed this novella! While it may have only been a novella, it felt like a whole book! If I can expect this awesomeness from Throne of Glass, it'll definitely be in my top books of 2012!!