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.