Assassin's blade - Sarah J Maas Review & Summary
I wish I started here.
“My name is Sam Cortland... and I will not be afraid.”
As a word of introduction: Before I started reading the Throne Of Glass series - I have especially googled the “right way of reading this thing”. I have been presented with the order of:
Assassin’s Blade
Heir Of Fire
(It continues, but I’ll stop here. Links will take you to my existing reviews.)
So after reading the Assassin’s blade - I have to say… I WISH I READ IT FIRST. Why? Because after reading the first 2 - I knew how it’s going to end, which in my brain flipped the switch of “well, we don’t care that much”.
So if anyone asked ME - I’d say the right order so far should be:
Assassins Blade
Heir Of Fire
Which actually made me worried for my own book series, because it seems that my book 3 will be the book 0.5… Which may be fun for the future references of “the right order of reading”. Anyway…
To the review though… NO SPOILERS
Assassin’s blade is a collection of “short stories” which line up nicely into a story of everything Celeana Sardothien has done before the Throne Of Glass events. This includes her story with Sam Cortland, which is mentioned in Throne Of Glass and Crown Of Midnight.
It’s a story of a teenage (17) Female Assassin and some of the life-changing events in her life that ultimately brought her to a way different place than she could have ever anticipate. While I will agree that 17 year olds have their own ideas of life and success - some of what was happening in the book got me slightly confused or actually… mad.
It may be because I am old now.
“Everything has a price.”
I felt for Sam and Celeana. The learning curve these two had to go through to survive is probably beyond my wildest imagination, but there are a lot of lessons hidden here and there throughout the book. One of the most important ones is “everything has a price”, and they obviously learn it the hard way.
The book is written in a light language and it’s a pretty quick read. I spent some evenings buried in the story, but it was not as draining as some of the books can be.
Generally it’s a good read. I just really wish I started there.
Here’s how I reacted to the book on a video (Short on YouTube)
SPOILERS REVIEW BELOW THE PIC
Star review
Fantasy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Writing: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Storyline: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (some of it was… too obvious. DELULU hat was on)
Plot twist: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Again, delulu)
World-building: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Characters: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Teenage drama: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Internal turmoil: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
”I don’t like sharing”: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Evil. Really evil)
Overall… A solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Have you read it already or are you holding it on your TBR list? What’s the order you’ll read Throne Of Glass in?
SPOILERS REVIEW
Ok, since we are in the safe bottom of a review - let’s talk spoilers and discuss this book.
I understand that Celeana and Sam are 17 years old and they have been prepared to be assassins from a young age, but there are some things that really made me question the… intelligence of assassins(?).
What I did not get:
The whole “I love you” moment was bizarre. I am not sure where it came from and why would Sam be in love with her for *checks notes* years? It felt a bit forced. It lacked a build up to the entire thing. I was as shocked as Celeana was in a way (but apparently everyone else noticed).
Why would they not think that their job was a trap is beyond me.
Why would they think everything will go their way?
Control issues (Celeana towards Sam)
For an assassin Celeana is bizarrely prude
Don’t get me wrong, but… Grooming much?
But the book was GOOD
First of all: In the first story I hated Celeana’s guts. I was even cheering for the pirate that wanted to kill her. I was on his side (even though I knew she survives). I even thought “and she really haven’t seen her end coming?” - she had enough enemies (and powerful enemies) to be more careful.
Her redeeming trait (saving the slaves) was… meh considering everything else she was doing, saying, and how she was treating everyone around her.
The second story: It was fun. Brand new world, some interesting traits and her humanity showing up. She needed some humiliation and general life experience that was certain. I liked the story, did not think it would end this way, but I also never fully trusted the girl. The romance factor? Again, a bit forced. This one at least had a little build up (such as longing looks, yet no conversations).
There was some serious personal growth involved in the entire story, and I liked it a lot. Yet I saw a lot of the negative traits of Celeana and I was wondering if someone is finally going to put some humility into that blonde head of her. Like for real… she was annoying me.
Then things went to the abyss
I understand the rest of the story - she came back to where she belonged and came back to her “usual life”. This time though she was acting a bit weird towards Sam. In a way “I wanna be your friend” but then also “you suck”. It’s a type of love/relationship I’d anticipate to read about in a teenage drama (where the characters are… 14/15) not in an assassin story where yes, she is 17, but her kill list is probably longer than my grocery store bill. In a way - they should be more… mature and grown up considering their jobs and general life experience.
But maybe that’s just me. It’s one of the situations where an author that knows no bilingual people tries to write bilingual people. It’s forced, and not real. Absolutely not how it really looks like. In which case - I wish for Sarah J Maas to be not traumatized as a child.
For me it was pretty obvious that she was not going to become free any time soon. Neither was Sam. Especially not both of them together. Not in this way. Not ever.
But again… I may be too experienced for this.
The end of it all was dreadful and I would probably feel more if I started with this book. But then again - since I read the other 2 first… I knew it will go downhill and end up finishing one, precious life. The way in which he died - sad. I felt for Sam more than I did for Celeana still.
I actually liked the plot twist. While I knew who organized it all (it was pretty obvious) it still hit me when Arobynn said he doesn’t like sharing (here - grooming and pedophilia? Yes, she’s an adult now… but… you know where I’m going with this).
One thing that kind of bothered me
I think this is a theme that goes through all 3 of my reviews now. Celeana is said to be so clever, intelligent, and special. But she is acting as if she knew nothing about this world. She jumps straight into traps, she thinks that everything will go her way… she even understates Arobynn’s intentions despite knowing him her entire life. Like… You should have known better than that, girl. At least see it coming instead of… still believing that Arobynn would still go and save you.
Delusional is an understatement. DELULU HAT was on for a lot of this book!
What are your thoughts on Assassins blade?