Review of the Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas
Prequel to the Throne of Glass Series
Synopsis:
The Assassin’s Blade is a prequel to the Throne of Glass series and can be read in first or third place. The storyline follows Celaena through five novellas, which complete the full story of how she became an assassin and the journey she is sent on by her master.
I did read this book as the third in the series, this is something that is highly debated in the “Throne of Glass world”.
Genre: Fantasy Fiction
Strengths:
Background information: I think that this book was a great way to learn more about why Celaena acts the way she does and what happened before the main story begins. Since I read this after Crown of Midnight it gave me perspective and filled in holes that made me connect with the main character more. If I had read this first I do not think it would have made a difference besides one detail relating to a certain phrase she says. I think not knowing why she says these ascertain words over and over and then finding out who she got the phrase from in this book made it more emotional.
Weaknesses:
Pacing: This book was incredibly slow for me. There was a lot of unnecessary summarizing and I feel like the storyline was not built up as well as the other books making it harder to read.
Relationship building: I think the relationship building was really bad. There were major jumps when it came to romantic relationships that did not make sense to me. Celaena is very stubborn and does not seem to make she would fall in love as quickly as she did and I feel like there was a lot of trust-building and convincing left out of the plot.
Repetitiveness: After every novella was finished the next one recapped the whole story before beginning the new story. With a little googling, I found out that each novella was originally published separately and this could be the reason for the recap at the beginning. I think this book would have been stronger if the summarizing at the beginning of each novella had been edited down when they combined them all into one book.
My Recommendation: I think that this book is important for the entire series so if you are going to take on Throne of Glass then I would recommend reading it. I would also recommend reading it first in the series because of how slow the pacing is. If you do read it first then please keep in mind the series gets better and the Throne of Glass book will make the wait worth it.
Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/ 5
Spice Level: 0 / 5
Content warnings:
Murder
Death
Killing
Violence
Drugging
Torture
Slavery
Sex work
Series Order:
*All are linked to Amazon*
Throne of Glass (can be read second if reading The Assasin’s Blade first)
The Assasin’s Blade (Can be read first or third)