The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas
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.
In my review of Heir of Fire, I was debating at what point I should read these novellas. In terms of publication dates, this collection was published after Crown of Midnight and before Heir of Fire. After reading this collection, I think that’s a good point to read these novellas. It doesn’t ruin anything for Heir of Fire, but provides more depth for the events of Crown of Midnight. Though the point I read it at wasn’t bad either.
The publication of novellas seems to be trend among publishers. Feeding readers novellas while they wait for the next one in the series. Sarah J. Maas is not the only one to have gone down this path. Victoria Aveyard published Cruel Crown which contained two Red Queen novellas, Tahereh Mafi published Destroy Me and Fracture Me, two separate Shatter Me novellas, and Veronica Roth published Four, a collection of Divergent novellas. Lest you think this is limited to YA, George R.R. Martin has written several Game of Thrones novellas contained in the collection A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. So if you didn’t think world-building and character backstory was important before, now you know that if you publish a best-selling series, most likely you’ll be called upon to turn some of your private notes into a series of novellas for public consumption!
Not that I’m dragging on The Assassin’s Blade. I thought it was great! Five novellas that encompass the pivotal events that led to Celaena’s capture and sentencing to Endovier. A very interesting look at those events and the character’s thought process and how that contributes to her development and our understanding of her. Also, I kind of want more of these. Celaena’s like a cross between James Bond and Assassin’s Creed – I want to see more of her adventures as Adarlan’s Assassin before the events that start with Throne of Glass!
