Publication: March 4th 2014 by Bloomsbury Childrens
Source: Purchased
Goodreads Summary: 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.
Goodreads Page
My Thoughts:
Overall, this book was okay. It didn't wow me or shock me in any way but that is perhaps because I read it after the third book where most secrets in these novellas have already been revealed. It was nice to be able to read what led up to Celaena's fate and beginning of the first book in the series and I appreciate that Maas took the time to write these for us.
I really liked meeting Sam in these. After hearing so much about him and him being a very big part of Celaena in the first and second books, I was really happy to actually see his character. Although Sam was different from what I pictured, and his and Celaena's relationship was different than what I imagined, I still enjoyed reading how their love came about. It's always neat to see what led up to a moment that you already know about as a reader and this was no different. It was also fun to see the history behind some habits of Celaena's and the circumstances that made her who she is in the series. I'm also guessing that some of the characters we meet in these novellas are characters we meet in QoS so I'm looking forward to that as well.
I also have to say I think that if this was the first book you read out of the series, you wouldn't really get the same impressions about Celaena. In ToG, Celaena appears very mysterious and unpredictable and I really enjoyed meeting her like that and then digging deeper into her character as the series goes on. I really think you'll miss out on that if you read this first so I definitely would advise against it.
I'm just reading this now! I'm on the first novella, The Assassin and the Pirate king, and it's really interesting to see Celaena before her time in prison, and before her journey in the TOG series. She seems a lot more heartless or stone cold in this book, but I think it's so interesting to see her progression as a character.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed The Assassin and the Healer! She seems even more so heartless in that book and it was really interesting to see Celeana through another character's eyes. :)
Delete