Novella Review - The Assassin and the Empire (Throne of Glass, 0.4) by Sarah J. Maas (4.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 298 KB
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Release Date: July 20, 2012
ASIN: B008HRMAPG
Stand Alone or Series: 0.4 novella in the Throne of Glass series
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

This is the fourth novella that takes place before the first Thorne of Glass novel. I really enjoyed it alot. It gives excellent insight as to how Celaena finally found her way to the Salt pits.

Celaena and Sam are finally free and living on their own. They want to escape the city they grew up in once and for all and set up their trade as assassins in a different city. In order to finance this they decided to take on one last Assassination job. This is the job to finally get them their freedom and of course it goes all wrong.

Celaena has developed from a very vain character to one that actually cares for others. Here we see both aspects of her personality, the one that loves fine things and the one that cares about her friends. It was interesting to compare who she was at the start of these novells to who she is now, and then compare that to who she becomes in the Throne of Glass. She is a strong and yet flawed character, that is easy to engage with and love.

We see a lot more of Sam in this book as well. His devotion to Celaena is solid and wonderful, yet he has his own flaws. He is also stubborn and proud.

This novella follows Sam and Celaena as they plot their final job together. So there is lots of strategy and some action. There are a couple excellent fight scenes too.

As you can imagine from where things start in the Throne of Glass series, thing go horribly wrong and Celaena ends up in the salt mines.

This was an excellent continuation of these novellas that tell us about Celaena's life before when went to the salt mines. It was well written, engaging, and easy to read.

Overall I enjoyed this novella a lot. I love these characters, especially Celaena who is courageous and loyal, yet flawed. I love the setting and the writing as well; these books/novellas are so wonderfully written and easy to read. This whole series is strongly recommended to those who love fantasy novels, they are really well done.

Short Story Review - The Assassin and the Underworld (Throne of Glass, Novella 0.3) by Sarah J. Maas (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young AdultGenre: Fantasy
Size: 1827 KB
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Release Date: May 1, 2012
ASIN: B007N6JEQ0
Stand Alone or Series: Third novella prelude to the Throne of Glass
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 4/5 stars


This is the third in a series of four novellas that take place before the Throne of Glass by Sarah Maas. All of these novellas tell about Celaena and her adventures as an assassin before she ended up where she was at the Throne of Glass. I didn’t enjoy this novella quite as much as The Assassin and the Desert, but it was a still a good read that does an excellent job of developing Celaena as a character.

Celaena returns from the desert to confront her master, Arobynn, about the beating he gave her before she was sent off. She has enough gold to buy her freedom, but is confused when Arobynn treats her with the utmost respect showering her with gifts. Then when Arobynn offers her the chance to assassinate someone high up in the chain of slavery, Celanae accepts the job excited to use her assassination skills for good.

Celaena comes off as a bit naive in the story. I was somewhat disappointed that she wasn’t more committed to leaving the abusive situation she was in with Arobynn. I was also a bit disappointed that she didn’t do more background checking on the assassination assignment she was given. After all Arobynn did to her she still blindly trusts him.

It was great to have Sam back in the story again. Him and Celaena have a prickly relationship, but he is always respectful and steadfast to her. Things do heat up between her and Sam, which was a fun turn for the story to take.

This is the novella where you finally start to see how Celaena ended up in the situation she was in at the beginning of Throne of Glass.

Overall an excellent addition to this world and series. I love Celaena as a character and have really enjoyed reading about how she gets to where she is in the beginning of The Throne of Glass. All the novellas/books in this series are highly recommended to those you enjoy adventure fantasy with a strong female lead.

Novella Review - The Assassin and the Desert (Throne of Glass, 0.2) by Sarah J. Maas (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 1785 KB
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Release Date: March 30, 2012
ASIN: B007O61DVI
Stand Alone or Series: Novella 0.2 in the Throne of Glass series
Source: Bought
Rating: 5/5 stars

This was the second novella in the Throne of Glassseries; there are four novellas that take place before the Throne of Glass novel and this is the second of those. I really enjoyed this novella even more than the first one; it gives the reader a good look into how Celaena became who she ends up being in the Throne of Glass novel.

Celaena is in trouble following the events of the The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, where she lost her master a ton of money because of all of the slaves that she freed. As part of her punishment she is sent to a well known assassin school in the desert. She is supposed to get a certificate of training from the head master there; instead she gets pulled into politics between the assassin school and the local nobility.

This was a very well done novella. Watching as Celaena learns and trains with the assassins is interesting and intriguing. The whole time you are trying to unravel the mystery behind the headmaster. The tension as to whether or not Celaena will get what she needs from him really propels the story forward.

The plot is well done and has some excellent twists and turns. This is the first story where we get to see a good picture of Celanae’s loyalty to those around her and also get a sense of her determination to succeed. I felt like this story gave us a better glimpse as to who Celanae will become in future stories (and in the Throne of Glass novel).

There is a tiny bit of romance, but it is definitely not the focus of the story. There are some truly awesome action scenes and getting to watch Celanae in action is fabulous. I also really enjoyed the scenes where she trained with the Headmaster.

Overall I really enjoyed this novella. It takes us further along Celaena’s path to how she got to where she was in Throne of Glass, both as a person and as a journey. There is some great action, some wonderful characters, and a wonderful world. Highly recommended to fantasy fans, as is the first novel in this series Throne of Glass.

Novella Review - The Assassin and the Pirate Lord (Throne of Glass, Novella 0.1) by Sarah Maas (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 69 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Release Date: January 13, 2012
ASIN: B006ZVW3T4
Stand Alone or Series: 0.1 Novella in the Throne of Glass series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the first of four novellas all featuring Celaena that are leading up to (and take place before) The Throne of Glass. It’s a well done fantasy story that was engaging and easy to read. It gives the reader a good glimpse into Celaena’s past.

Celaena Sardothien and Sam have been sent to the pirate lord’s island seeking retribution for their master. The Pirate Lord killed a number of Celaena’s master’s assassins and she thinks that the retribution will be paid in gold. She is shocked and appalled to find out that her master is requesting slaves and is determined to foil the deal.

I did this a bit backward; I actually read Thorne of Glass already to review it and then came back to read these stories. The difference between Celaena in this story and Celaena post salt-mines is shocking. The Celaena in this story is arrogant, obnoxious, and not all that likable. Yes, she has guts and bravery and she is darn good at what she does, But the Celaena here is sooooo irritating.

It was wonderful to read about the “old” Celaena and one of her adventures as an assassin for her guild. This story was filled with intrigue, action, and some witty quips as well. Celaena is darn good at what she does and watching her in motion was fantastic.

The writing is well done and easy to read. The story engaging and the plot moves quickly. All in all an excellent introduction to Celaena. It was fun to go back and read this after reading Throne of Glass. If you think Celaena is a bit of an ass in this story, don’t give up on Throne of Glass because of that...she changes.

Overall definitely recommended. This is a good introduction to the world and to who Celaena used to be before she was punished in the salt mines. It also gives a lot of great background about how Celaena got in enough trouble to get sent to the salt mines in the first place. This is a solid and well written fantasy read. I definitely recommend this whole series to fantasy fans YA and older.

Early Review - Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, Book 1) by Sarah J. Maas (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 416 pages
Publisher:Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Release Date: August 7, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1599906959
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Throne of Glass series
Source: eGalley through NetGalley.com
Rating: 5/5 stars

I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley(dot)com. This is the debut novel by Maas and the first book in a planned trilogy; although it is preceded by four novellas (all of which I have purchased but have not yet read). The story itself is very loosely based on Cinderella.

Celaena Sardothie has served a year in Endovier for her crimes as an assassin when suddenly she is called on by the Crown Prince. She is offered an opportunity she can’t resist. She is to be the Prince’s entry into a contest to see who will be the King’s champion. If she accepts she will compete in a number of challenges, if she wins she will have two years of service to the king and then blessed freedom will be hers. Of course, nothing is as straightforward as that.

This was an absolutely excellent novel. It is supposed to be loosely based on Cinderella, but really reads more like an epic fantasy than a fairy tale retelling. Celaena is a fabulous character; she’s tough and has survived some horrible things...but despite all of that she can still laugh and still care about people. It was wonderful to see her go from the starved wretch that was drug out of the mines to something so much more.

All of the supporting characters are incredibly well done; they all have histories, complex personalities, and are so easy to engage with. Prince Dorian is charming and seems to be a bit of a ladies man, but at times he is incredibly sincere. Captain Westfall, who trains Celaena, is gruff and stiff but seems to understand Celaena like no one else does. There is a foreign princess who befriends Celaena who is a warrior in her own right and an endearing character.

Really every character in this book is just so well done. Even Celaena’s competitors are well filled out and interesting.

The world is wonderfully done. Complex and epic, but never too hard to follow. Magic is forbidden in this world by order of the king. But when Celaena stumbles upon Wyrdstones throughout the palace she finds that Magic is still present in secret ways. Watching Celaena try to unravel the mystery behind this magic was fascinating; magic is present in a fairly subtle way but has a huge impact on what happens in the story.

The plot is complex and well done as well. It is not as complex as say Sanderson or other epic fantasy authors, but it is more complex than you typically find in YA fantasy. I really enjoyed it, I loved the world developed here and had so much trouble putting down this book! This book wrapped up very nicely, no horrible cliffhangers or anything like that.

Overall this was just a fantastic YA fantasy read. I highly recommend to fans of fantasy, especially epic fantasy. While this story is a bit lighter than most adult epic fantasy, it still has many of the elements that make epic fantasy so wonderful. There is a complex plot and world, wonderful magic and mystery woven throughout, there is intrigue, mayhem, and murder. This is one of those rare books where even side characters are incredibly well developed and have wonderful depth. I loved this book. I immediately went out and bought the four preceding novellas and am on pins and needles to see what happens in future novels in this series. Highly recommended!

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge
- Debut Author Reading Challenge