I COULDN'T STAND IT...

How she would yell the first few words then softly speak the rest. EVERY SENTENCE WOULD BE... The same. A PAUSE BETWEEN... The yelling and speaking

7 people found this helpful

best books and boice actor!

omg! I love these books!!!!!!! the voice actor is the absolute best! I like the other series more but this was grrat to and gave the story more body anf now I want to listen to the other books all over again!

2 people found this helpful

Captures ones inner fantasy

Started off slow i.e. I felt the characters were somewhat stereotype. The banter and wit from Celina felt cheesy and over the top at times and one almost felt feminist power being forced onto the character.

However.....the story started to become captivating... the Celina character starts growing on you like getting to know someone... she starts to show vulnerability and you find yourself hoping that she does not loose dominance... you want her to be near superhuman.

It ends leaving you almost flat and miserable.. I almost didn’t want to read the second book... but oh my how the second book compliments this first one...

I love the subtle innocent sexual tensions and love the fact that it does not dominate the story... it is a pure, well written fantasy... and pleases those purest when it comes to fantasies.

Great book... please make a movie with a great budget to compliment the characters and their unique and well developed personalities.

1 person found this helpful

loved it

I honestly love this whole series, I finished with assassin's blade and knowing what I do now it would have been nice to have read it sooner in the series. But I honestly love the whole story and the characters. The narrator did a great job.

1 person found this helpful

amazing

Omgod makes me wanna read the whole series from the start again because I know her tragic history in more depth now! great narration as usual. epic storytelling!

unattractive main character but interesting story

the main character is 15 and behaves accordingly with unregulated emotions rollercoastering. what is concerning is, having already read the sequel to this, the girl shows not maturation of emotional development, remaining an impulsive and reactive young teenager, which, as someone who is more than 50 years out of adolescence, I found difficult to stomach such that i didn't care what happened to her.

Great introduction into this world

Book 0.1 - The Assassin and The Pirate Lord 3⭐️


The Assassin and The Pirate Lord is the first novella in The Assassins Blade book collection, which is a prequel to The Throne of Glass series.

This is the first book I have read by Sarah J. Maas after be recommended it. I wasn’t sure which one to start. But I thought I’ll give this one a go as I love a good female assassin and would like to read about one.

I did like getting to meet Celaena, this 16 year old assassin that is the best of the best, surpassing her peers. Sam was a whole other subject, I’m a little unsure of what to make of him, at the beginning of the book he seemed like he hated Calaena. So I’m waiting to see how things go with them.

Celaena Sardothien a 16 year old female and was Adarlan’s Assassin, the right arm of Arobynn Hamel. Everyone knows of her but no one besides the Adarlan’s Assassin know who she really is or what she looks like. She is feared, and is always wearing her mask and cloak, which makes her look like a demon.

Sent on a mission with fellow assassin Sam by the Assassin’s Guild to collect a debt owed by Lord of The Pirates Rolfe. But what Calaena thought was supposed to be payment in money turns out to be in slaves instead, her mission changes. She will risk everything including her life to right the wrong.


Book 0.2 - The Assassin and The Healer 3⭐️


The Assassin and The Healer is the second novella in The Assassins Blade book collection, which is a prequel to The Throne of Glass series.

Ok, I’m still really not sure what my thoughts are about this series as this is the second book I have read by this author. But being a novella they are not usually the best books to use to make the best decision on an authors writing skills and capability, so I will continue to finish these novellas and see how I go.

After ruining the Assassin King’s slavery trade deal with the Pirate Lord in ‘The Assassin and The Pirate Lord’, Calaena is being sent to the Red Desert. Having had to wait two days for a ship to arrive at this port town Innish, Celaena is bored and itching for a fight. Sitting in the back of the inn wearing a hooded cloak, a ruby broach and weapons, she was hoping to catch the eye of someone wanting to steal her gold, weapons or broach she wore.

Yrene Towers wanted to be a healer like her mother, had set off on a journey to get to Antica, where she could train at the Torre Cesme, the Great Academy for healers and physicians. But had ran out of coin and ended up at The White Pig Inn working as a barmaid where she had plan to make enough money to continue on her journey.

On her last night before leaving Innish, Celaena finds Yrene in trouble with mercenaries behind the inn and saves her. As a parting at the end of the novella Celaena leaves a leather pouch on Yrene’s bed in hopes it will help her with her future.


Book 0.3 - The Assassin and The Desert 3⭐️


The Assassin and The Desert is the third novella in The Assassins Blade book collection, which is a prequel to The Throne of Glass series.

After ruining a deal between her Master and The Pirate Lord, Celaena Sardothien had been punished to travel to the Red Desert to train with The Silent Assassins to learn obedience and discipline. It had been two months since Celaena and another Assassin Sam Cortland had been sent to Skull’s Bay to claim an unknown payment of slaves. Not sitting well with it both Celaena and Sam helped release the slaves. But not without consequences to herself. After return back to the Guild her Master Arobynn Hamel had given her a beating, then sent her on this mission. Now a month later the bruises and cuts were healing on her face. After making it to the Hidden Fortress of The Silent Assassin’s, Celaena is introduced to Ansel, who would be her roommate whilst staying there. They soon become friends along with the Masters son Ilias and Mikhail.

This book would have to be the best so far of the novellas that I have read. I loved the Mute Master, he is kinder than Arrobyn Hamel and treats his assassins better than Arrobyn ever will. The Silent Assassins are more of a brotherhood and worked together, they all seem to get along. No one ever seems to try out do the other unlike the Adarlan’s Assassins. Being sent to the Red Desert to be trained obedience and discipline might have been the best thing to happen to Celaena as the change of setting, atmosphere and Master allowed her to think about her life and treatment she was receiving from her Master whilst also improving her skills.


Book 0.4 - The Assassin and The Underworld 3⭐️


I really enjoyed this book more. It seems the more I read from Sarah J. Maas the more I enjoy her work. The Assassin and The Underworld is the fourth novella in The Assassins Blade book collection, which is a prequel to The Throne of Glass series.

Celaena Sardothien was finally back home to the Assassin Fort after being sent away to the Red Desert to train with the Mute Master of the Silent Assassins. With trunks full of gold to pay off the debt she owes to her master for her freedom, with her own apartment waiting. But she is unable to get the words out to tell Arobynn Hamel, he apologises and showers her with gifts. He even gives her a mission to help save some slaves. So wanting to trust her master and redeem herself after ruining the last mission he sent her on, Celaena is going to make sure that this one is a success.

I do feel for Celaena, she has been dealt one bad hand after another. She doesn’t know anything better than what she has be told and shown from her master, she is supposed to be his successor but he hides things and is constantly lying to her. But then the way he lashes at her at the end, I just wanted to strangle in. But she is lucky she has Sam.

When I first meet Sam in The Assassin and The Pirate Lord I wasn’t a fan of him. I felt like he was a snake in the grass waiting to strike. I did have a feeling that he did like Celaena but I thought he wanted power more. But as the book went on my feelings towards him changed. But then this book changed my opinion of him completely. He really does care for her and as it shows she does care about him as well. It’s young love, it’s sweet, innocent and beautiful.

Arobynn is such a massive @#!+% hole, he treats both Celaena and Sam terrible and he lies and deceives them around every corner.


Book 0.5 - The Assassin and The Empire 3⭐️


The Assassin and The Empire is the fifth novella in The Assassins Blade book collection, which is a prequel to The Throne of Glass series.

A month after finally being free from her Master Arobynn Hamel, after paying her and Sam Cortland’s debt off, living in her own place away from the Guild, Celaena Sardothien thought things would work out. She’d walked away from her life as Arobynn’s protégée. A decision she did not regret especially not after he had betrayed her, he’d humiliated, lied, and used her. Then to top it off he used her money she paid to free herself to win Lysandra’s Bidding just to spite her. But now she wanted a fresh start to move away with Sam but she needed Arobynn’s blessing to do so, but what would it cost her this time to do so?

I have been on the fence with these novella’s as I’m not real sure about how I feel. I’ve never really been a fan of novellas as I don’t feel that the story is able to be portrayed to its best ability when it’s limited on pages. But I do have to admit that as the books went along the stories did get better and better and more enjoyable.

Celaena has grown so much on me over these past 5 novella’s at first I found her to be very immature, stuck up and very childish and erratic. But now as she has grown her eyes have opened and she isn’t just blindly following orders. She has gone through so much from loosing Ben a friend in the first book, being lied to about a debt collection, being beaten, sent to a desert, lied to again, betrayed, lost a loved one Sam 😭 and now set up and sent to the Salt Mines. How is she going to be able to get herself out of this mess?

Noooo, not Sam. Just when I started to like him and enjoy having him around you go and do this to me...

Great Beginings!

Deep story with memorable characters and that builds you a desire to follow the series... 😊

I’m a fan but.....

Hey I’m an adult and I love young adult fiction. This is a great story and the novels to come are great I love the Iron Witches. I just get really annoyed at how clueless Selena is for a master assassin. She had very little deductive analysis which surely must be an attribute of an assassin. Anyway good fantasy and if she wasn’t so clueless at times new plot lines wouldn’t develop

Excellent listen

Elizabeth Evans does an excellent job with this, thoroughly enjoyed it.

10/10 would definitely recommend.