The Assassin's Blade: The Throne of Glass Novellas (Throne of Glass, Books 0.1-0.5)

by Sarah J. Maas

Celaena Sardothien is her kingdom’s most feared assassin. Though she works for the powerful and ruthless Assassin’s Guild, Celaena yields to no one and trusts only her fellow killer for hire, Sam.

When Celaena's scheming master, Arobynn Hamel, dispatches her on missions that take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, she finds herself acting independently of his wishes—and questioning her own allegiance. Along the way, she makes friends and enemies alike, and discovers that she feels far more for Sam than just friendship. But by defying Arobynn’s orders, Celaena risks unimaginable punishment, and with Sam by her side, he is in danger, too. They will have to risk it all if they hope to escape Arobynn’s clutches—and if they fail, they’ll lose not just a chance at freedom, but their lives . . .

A prequel to Throne of Glass, this collection of five novellas offers readers a deeper look into the history of this cunning assassin and her enthralling—and deadly—world.

Included in this volume:
The Assassin and the Pirate Lord
The Assassin and the Healer
The Assassin and the Desert
The Assassin and the Underworld
The Assassin and the Empire

• ISBN10: 1619633612
• ISBN13: 9781619633612
• Publish Date: 3 December 2015 (first published 4 March 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 18 January 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Imprint: Bloomsbury YA
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 464
• Language: English

Reviews

[neurospicybookworm]

“My name is Celaena Sardothien, and I will not be afraid”

[pamela]

The Assassin's Blade was a fun-filled romp, and my first introduction to Sarah J. Maas a writer. It was well-written, but simple, and just generally fun to read. I must admit though, for someone who is meant to be a top assassin Celaena is...not very good at it? All her enemies seem to always see or hear her coming or find it pretty easy to get the drop on her.

I wonder how I'll find this overall, given that I haven't read any of the series yet. Will it change the way I experience it, or would reading it in publication chronology changed my reading of it? I'm looking forward to finding out!

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog: www.thepunktheory.wordpress.com

First of all, bear in mind that all of the stories are just novellas, they are only loosely linked and don't have as much scope and depth as a full-fledged novel!,That being said, I completely enjoyed The Assassin's Blade. The stories are a nice addition to the TOG series and despite the short style, SJM managed to break my heart as well. (but more on that matter in my upcoming rant-post!)
A few aspects of the stories felt far-fetched, and not entirely realistic. (Even when I consider everything else SJM came up with for the book series). However, I am inclined to forgive those flaws, as The Assassin's Blade is hell of a ride.
Despite the fact that I liked The Assassin's Blade, I'm not sure whether it was really necessary. Maybe the stories could have been added as flashbacks in the TOG books at some points. Nevertheless, I am happy with the way it is.

I am not sure what to think of this book. Some of the stories were just ok, nothing special, nothing interesting. I did not particularly care for the relationship between Celaena and Sam, because their romance seemed too sudden for me. She went from hate to love overnight. I tried to care about it, but I was not invested in their relationship. However, I did like the fact that their relationship had its flaws. They were absolutely no perfect couple, Celaena was selfish and he was stubborn, which made it feel real, realistic in comparison to all the perfect relationships we often see in books.

Sam did grow on me. He was such a loving character and the reasons behind his actions made a lot of sense. I understood where he was coming from, and often agreed with him. However, I did not feel connected to Celaena's grief, because her feelings for him did not feel real to me.

The small stories were not my favorites, but the overall story was very interesting. I never suspected Arobynn to be a good person, so the final plot twist and his betrayal were not surprising to me. However, I had not expected that he was so obsessed with her. It even felt wrong to read about it, how he thought about her and how he had always been obsessed with her and had used her. How he only cared about himself.

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Okay SO;

Star Rating: 4.7 Stars
I just didn’t like the first novella enough to give it a whole star so it loses .3

[girlinthepages]

Back in April when the title of the final Throne of Glass book was released (hey there, Kingdom of Ash!) I decided I better kick myself into gear and finally get around to reading the books in the series I had been avoiding- The Assassin's Blade (because I'm not a huge novellas person) and Tower of Dawn (because I am definitely not a Chaol person). I thought I'd be bored reading the novellas because I had already read through Empire of Storms, but I found myself pleasantly surprised, as I really enjoyed reading more about Celaena's life before the series officially starts, and now have WAY more context about who some of the folks in the series are. I enjoyed revisiting the TOG universe so much that I'm aiming to reread the entire series before Kingdom of Ash is released so everything is fresh in my mind. Since everyone and their mother has probably already read these novellas but me, I'm just going to do a quick, casual round up of my thoughts on each story.

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord

This is arguably the most important novella in my opinion because it plays so much into Empire of Storms when they return to Skull's Bay, and we also see the formative beginnings of Celaena's deep, deep hatred for slavery. While Rolffe was hilarious (I admit to having a bit of a soft spot for him), I didn't LOVE this story because I think I got so bored with Empire of Storms that I easily tired of the Skull's Bay setting.

The Assassin and the Healer

I feel like not much really happened in this story?? It really just felt like filler for Celaena to help out another female, and I can't really even remember if the healer character makes an appearance later on in the series. Also, Innish sounds disgusting. ***Just came back from checking the TOG wiki and it turns out the healer from the story turns up in Tower of Dawn, so just another reason why I finally need to put aside my Chaol hatred and read it.

The Assassin and the Dessert

I think this was my favorite novella in the entire collection! I loved seeing how there was another group of assassins outside of Arobynn's rule and that Celaena saw that there were other ways to train that weren't cruel and manipulative, and that the Silent Assassins truly felt like a family. Also, Ansel's character was pretty tragic, and I appreciate that Sarah made me simultaneously hate and feel pity for her.

The Assassin and the Underworld

I have warring thoughts on this one. On the one hand, it's the first novella that actually takes place in Rifthold and readers truly get to see the manipulative ways of Arobynn. It's actually super fascinating how he straddles the line between cruel and caring, and it reminded me a lot of how someone with an abusive partner would feel- just enough cruelty and violence to inspire fear, but the lure of safety and secruity and kindness at just the right times keeps Celaena bound to him. I was also super unimpressed with Sam??? Maybe I just wasn't emotionally invested because I knew he was going to die, but I just felt like the romance felt rushed and that they wouldn't fall for each other after so many years of animosity.

The Assassin and the Empire

Again, no real feels about Sam here other than feeling sad for Celaena's grief, but it was super interesting to see her apartment which plays a big role in Queen of Shadows. I also got major feels when she gets sent to Endovier (even though TOG picks up just a year after and I obviously know what happens) but her whispering "I am Celaena Sardothien, and I will not be afraid" just broke me. Ugh I may love the ACOTAR series more as a whole but I do believe I prefer Celaena as a protagonist to Feyre.

Overall: These novellas helped to paint a much more comprehensive picture for Celaena's character and I'm currently rereading Throne of Glass as I read this and am finding that I'm enjoying it a LOT more than the first time I read it, which I think has a lot to do with having read The Assassin's Blade first. Also, I'm sort of surprised that there were a LOT of hints dropped in the novella's about Celaena's true heritage (more so than in TOG I'm finding so far). I'm hoping that my unexpectedly positive experience with The Assassin's Blade means I'll enjoy Tower of Dawn a lot more than I think I will too!This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages

[Pigpen.Reads]

The stories in this book have been mentioned in the first two books of the Throne of Glass series.

Finally we can understand what happened in Celaena's past and just who Sam was.

Going into this, I knew what would happen to Sam. I wasn't expecting to root for Sam as much as I was, I didn't think reading his story would effect me.

But it did.

Sarah J Maas is an excellent author!

[Leah]

Oh, holy crap. This was epic! For those who say they don't read or like novellas, The Assassin's Blade is a must-read for the Throne of Glass series! To read what happened to Celaena before Throne of Glass is a necessity because it's what makes her who she is, and it's ridiculously good. Like blow-my-brain-up good. I closed it feeling all the feels possible.

The story between Sam and Celaena is just heart-breaking. We know, from reading Throne of Glass, that Sam is dead but we don't know much of how it happened, and it's heart-breaking, I swear. There's a BIG, BIG part of me hoping it's a fakeout? And he'll come and pop out alive in one of the next five books. PLEASE.

I loved how each of the novellas carried on from the last, and I just lapped it all up! it was epic! I felt like I was right there, with Celaena, although I would have been absolutely useless as I cannot fight at all. To read all these things that makes Celaena, Celaena was absolutely epic, I'm STOKED to get into Crown of Midnight! I am raring to go to devour the rest of this series!

[Katie King]

Really mixed feelings...I liked the ending but the beginning was kind of hard to get into (minus Ansel's section, seriously gtfo Ansel).

[Amber]

This review was originally posted on Books of Amber

While I'm not really a fan of short stories or novellas, and I rarely read them even if they are part of my favourite series or companions to my favourite books, I picked up The Assassin's Blade before I read the masterpiece that is Queen of Shadows. I was told that The Assassin's Blade is an essential read for the Throne of Glass series, especially if you're about to read the fourth book. I 100% agree. The Assassin's Blade provides backstory for Celaena and shows what her life was like before she was sent to the mines, and why she was enslaved in the first place.

I don't have anything substantial to say about this book because, like I said, it's a bunch of novellas that show different moments and parts of Celaena's life before she was enslaved and, later, freed at the beginning of Throne of Glass. It was amazing to get some backstory on the character that I have come to love, and also to meet various other characters like Sam, Arobynn, and Lysandra, all of which are important later on in the series. I imagine certain other characters are going to show up later on as well, so I'll be keeping an eye out for them.

As far as reading order goes, I would recommend reading The Assassin's Blade before Heir of Fire. I personally don't think it matters if you read it before or after either Throne of Glass or Crown of Midnight, although some trustworthy people think it would be best to start the series off with The Assassin's Blade. But as long as you read it before Queen of Shadows, I don't think you can go particularly wrong.