The Assassin's Blade

Read this book first!

Audible recommended this series. I read some of the reviews but wasn't sure which book to start with. sometimes prequel s give away too much of the later books. not the case with The Assassin's Blade. The stories were riveting and gave some great insight into the characters and land. Maas is an excellent author. I didn't care for the narration but thats me. I don't care for most female narrators, give me a hot European everytime!

16 of 16 people found this review helpful

Interesting Story, I'm game.

I'm looking forward to starting Book 1 (this was Book 0.5). I downloaded the rest of the series, even preordered Book 4 (September 2) as well as the kindle versions. This is an interesting story about a young girl rescued & turned into an assassin. It's reminiscent of the tv show Nikita only w/ Kings, Queens and Kingdoms. I liked the idea of it all and found the story interesting.

My only confusion or thing I graple with is this young girl is an assassin, how is it w/ her caution, care & training does she not catch on to the betrayal she is delt. I give her a pass based upon the fact that she is 16 when this story starts. I'm hoping to see her mature through out these next books.

Performance: Please forgive me, I'm picky. I'm an Emma Galvin, Therese Plummer fan. Some review I've read dislike my chosen narrators. It's just me. I feel Evans read Celina a bit too snotty but the voice for her is perfect. Make sense? I don't like how nasty she reads her at times when I feel Celina may have been being defencive not a brat. Her male voices are awful. But I'm sticking w/the audible & kindle version as I enjoy the story. Evans isn't horrid perhaps not my cup of tea is all.

29 of 31 people found this review helpful

Schlocky

I wanted action and got tricked into a romance. The protagonist was obnoxious with no redeeming qualities; her moments of grief or guilt felt disingenuous and did not convince me. Nothing about her screamed "world class assassin" as it seemed like luck and other people were responsible for her success or saving her life - making her narcissism even more unendurable. Then when the romance hit, the main characters all seemed to go stupid and saccharine.
Not my kind of fantasy novel ; it was not deep, exciting, nor did I learn or find a new perspective on the human condition.

33 of 37 people found this review helpful

Entertaining and annoying at the same time

Any additional comments?

As with all of the books in this series so far, I found the story to be good and entertaining, but Celaena's pride and anger are really grating! Maybe if I read the books, rather than listened to them with the narrators own interpretations and inflections, I might not find Celaena to be so hostile and prideful nearly every waking moment. Another thing I find silly is that she is supposed to be THE assassin, but yet she is so trusting of the wrong people and is so easily duped, and all the while she is not trusting the people that she should be. But those gripes aside, they are all good short stories and give you some insight into her life before becoming the King's Champion.

17 of 19 people found this review helpful

Even better as audio!

These novellas are amazing and this os my third re-read, first on audio and the emotional impact gets bigger every time!

The narrator does a great job even with the male voices.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Remember this book is a "back story"

For those who have not read/listened to the rest of the books yet, you need to understand 1 thing about this book. This is her back story, this is when she was still a teenager, acting like a spoiled brat with a history of anger issues. The whole point of this book is so you can understand why she does something and who her allies are in the rest of the series. You get to understand why she is so broken in book 1.

When I first started this series I had to stop listening to it for a while before I finally came back and gave it a chance. Sarah is character building through the whole series. You have to keep in mind this WHOLE series starts with her at 16 almost 17 and end with her in her 20 or almost 21(I believe). She is bringing this character to life, you will see her grow and learn from her mistakes and make more and learn from them again. The main character is whinny and emotional to the point of annoying but she is ridiculously kind hearted to a fault but doesn't like to show it so she puts on this "tough" face and try's to be someone deep down that she is not. You wont realize this so much in this book, but you will as the series continues and you watch her grow in the the amazing bada** person she is meant to be.

I HATE whinny characters that are supposed to be strong people, and I usually will stop reading a book if the main character doesn't start "growing up" or learning from their mistakes quick enough. BUT that is NOT what is in this book, this is a BACK STORY. This is just so the other characters in the rest of the series have more dept, and it helps you realize why she has such a love/hate relationship with the "King of the Assassins".

This audible book was not available when I got all of the other books in the series, so I had the privilege of knowing the story line before listening to this particular back story. You really could wait to listen to this one after the fact and still understand the rest of the series. This book just brings in the "AHHHH I get it now" when you hear the names of other characters in the story.

Give this book a chance or at the very least save it for like the 5th or last one you read/listen to. It gives you time to understand the growth of the character that Sarah brings to this story. Still one of my favorite character development stories.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Amazing and Emotional

If you could sum up The Assassin's Blade in three words, what would they be?

Amazing, Emotional and Insightful

What other book might you compare The Assassin's Blade to and why?

The Assassin's Blade is much like Throne of Glass as far as following Celaena's story but using shorter stories to do so.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Read within four days. Mostly because I wanted to finish before Queen of Shadows came out.

Any additional comments?

I love this series and Elizabeth Evans as the narrator. She is incredible in bringing not just the characters to life but the story.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

I can't tell if I like this or not

The narrator is not one I care to ever listen to again. She comes across as pissed off all the time. I can't get into the story because she's chosen to perform this book like an angry bitch. Once in a while if a character is upset it's one thing but every single line is done in a snarky, over dramatized, pissed off way. I can't even get through this book. I was hoping to find a new series based on recommendations but just can't do it.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Fabulous reader. definitely book one.

this book is listed as .5. read this as book one. such an amazing reader!!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Good for others, not for me.

I have it a high rating because I'm trying not to be biased. The story is great for an audience of teenage girls. Teenage conflicts, puppy love, lovers quarrels. Think of twilight, but with assassins instead of vampires. Like I said, great for teenage girls, not for this 34 YOM.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful