Throne of Glass #0.1-0.5 (Prequel): Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

Genre: YA, high fantasy, romance
Released: March 2014
Read: September 2019

READ IT BECAUSE...

Continuing the series. But this can also be read as the first book of the series. I read somewhere that Maas said that this book can be read in two spots-either first, before Throne of Glass, but that didn’t happen since it didn’t exist when I started reading the series… But even as I was starting to reread the series in order to finish the series, I still started with Throne of Glass instead of this one. I don’t know why, because I knew it was mostly back stories and I wanted to move forward? But apparently, Maas has also said that it could be read in publishing order: after book 2 (which if I had been desperately reading ToG as it was coming out, that would make sense too)… But I didn’t do that during this rereading either-I finished Book 3, and THEN I looked to see that Assassin’s Blade came out after Book 2. Woops. But I think it’s fine… It’s just sort of like where in the story you choose to interrupt the line of events. Because the series really is just event after event after event. The poor girl.

So I wasn’t expecting to have as many feels as I did.

THE REVIEW

Assassin’s Blade is a collection of novellas, short stories that she released as e-books (?) online—I think also after Throne of Glass came out, but still, she’s had these story ideas swimming in her head long before. So I still think that the way they fit together was so good. I think part of my hesitancy to read it was that they would read too much like novellas, like separate stories, choppy. But there still is a timeline to the whole book, and it’s sort of nice in that there isn’t like chunks of boring stuff to pass time. There’s only a tiny bit of repetition, as in repeated pieces of info to recap the readers of what previously happened, so it wasn’t too annoying.

I only realized now (I sort of noticed it before but definitely in this book) that Maas likes to describe how colorfully, etc that people swear and curse (sometimes under their breath or without being fully heard)… Also, a lot of people are often “armed to the teeth”… But it’s fine, we get the point, I supposed she doesn’t have to always describe where all the many many weapons that people have on them are. (Hahahaha).

[[UGH. I typed more but then I accidentally clicked away?! So it didn’t save -_-. Why do I type in here??]]

Anyhow, I do like the feeling of having read the current/future events first and then having everything fit into place afterwards. It felt satisfying like pieces of a puzzle sliding into place… Since it was five mini stories in one, it felt okay to stop at the end of each and just absorb. If you read this as the first book, I think it’s a good amount-small portions at time, to prepare you for what’s in store.

So then I read the first and the second stories slowly. And then once I got to the 3rd, I gobbled up the 4th… And then it was 3AM and I had to go to sleep. And I knew what was coming in the last one, so I couldn’t indulge so late at night because I knew my eyes would be tired but frantic and I didn’t want to be skimming or anything. So I took a break. And do you know what happened—how much knowing what was coming impacted me? I had a dream. I would tell you it here, but it becomes a spoiler, so I guess highlight below to read.

SPOILERS

(highlight below to read)

“So this right here isn’t a book spoiler completely, this is a miniblog about my dream. It was late so I had to go to sleep. Lately, driving my ba around SB area, I sometimes look out to the ocean and see the Channel Islands. If you watch the news, recently, there was a diving boat with over 20 people on it that caught on fire and most of the passengers died. So I guess that’d been floating around in my unconscious yesternight. That along with the fact that I knew Sam died. And so when Sam didn’t die in the 4th novella, I knew what it was coming in book 5. I knew that it would be a trap, and that Celaena would go and try to get revenge and that Wesley would try to convince her not to go, ish, and then she would go and get caught and then be thrown in Endovier…. But Sam… who I ended up liking a lot more than I thought I would. Because Chaol. And you know I even liked Celaena with Dorian briefly.. But in this rereading (of books 1-2-3), I have decided that I officially ship her with Chaol because Chaol… And Sam, based on books 1-2-3, was already dead. Reading the whole book, I knew Sam was already dead. But I liked him a lot more than I thought I would. Their mostly-hate-but-playful-ishy relationship was something I could imagine easily.. And then when she constantly thought of him throughout the novellas. And when she described what happened.. Arobynn had men holding him back, she thought that Arobynn was going to beat him—but he beat HER, and they had to hold SAM back and Sam was saying, “I’ll kill you!” omg.

And and, let’s not forget when she had that small piece of spidersilk, and everyone thought that she was going to have the guy sew it into HER suit, but she said, “Could you incorporate it into one of these uniforms?” and “As long as it guards the heart” and omggg.. She meant HIS heart. Because he was her heart. Omigoddd goosebumps thinking back. So sad. And when he says that he loves her for the first time. And then when she sells Kasida (her Asterion mare) in order to buy Sam’s freedom. It all fits in so nicely.

And SUPER EW when Arobynn won Lysandra’s bidding with Celaena’s gold. Ugh. Ick. Ick. This courtesan world is mad messed up :(.

But anyway. It was Arobynn who planted the trap. BECAUSE. HE DIDN’T WANT TO SHARE CELAENA WITH SAM??????? AND SO HE DIDN’T WANT CELAENA EITHER? SO MESSED UP. Obvs hes the King of Assassins, so he is messed up and the way he manipulates Celaena and everything is just so so messed up. But… How could he do that… (Because he’s messed up…)

Anyhow. Halfway through writing the first paragraph of the spoilers, I realized that this was totally me atm..”

I’m always like this, but this time I caught myself doing this, like physically—typing—I knew I was doing it.. And I didn’t stop!!!

“Anyway. So in my dream, knowing what was coming in the book combined with the Channel Island boat fire news… It was so weird. There’s been articles talking about how people suspect that too many electronics (i.e., batteries) on the boat-if not caused the initial fire, then-cause the fire to grow. In my dream, my ma was traveling somewhere by herself (as in, without anyone else in the family).. Maybe to Taiwan? And then she was in a boat accident. It was weird, because we saw a diagram.. Something about two electronics cause some spark or whatever and she was in the middle of it and there was a fire. And then we also heard of this man that ran in to save my ma… Only to succumb to the flames himself. So at least my ba and I were running to the hospital and we get there and we see this man sitting and crying. And it was like silent at first. It was really strange, like an awkward moment because what could we do… But I recognized, somehow, that that man was the fiance of the man who ran in to save my ma. His fiance had died trying to save my mother. And so I went up to him and hugged him and we were crying together… And then all of a sudden, it wasn’t my ma who died —it was Wei. And I could feel the man’s sadness… Because I also felt the shock of knowing that I would message Wei and he wouldn’t ever reply again. He was gone. And. What.

And then I woke up and I wasn’t crying—I think almost teary—but I felt so somber. Like.. Silent. I had to pee, but I didn’t get up right away (it was like 7am) and I just recalled what happened in my dream. I was quickly able to distinguish that that was a dream so that was okay. But holy pie. That feeling of loss that I had in my dream was so intense. Even trying to think of it now—I can’t. Because it’s not real. But in my dream, it felt so real and the sadness and emptiness I felt was so unbearable. Thank goodness it didn’t last long before I woke up.

And that, my friends, is what Celaena felt as she was thrown in the royal dungeons. That poor thing.

Sam :(.”

</spoilers>

OVERALL

- Did I cry? No, but this is with knowing the outcome of the book—I suspect if you have feelings and you read this book FIRST, before Throne of Glass, then you would likely cry a lot of bit… !! And my dream, for heaven’s sake. What on earth :(.
- Should you read it? I don’t know where I would recommend reading it… Because I feel like it effects how you feel towards some characters later on maybe ish but not a lot but also a little bit…. It’s so weird. But anyway, that’s WHERE. As for should you read it, then the answer is yes, of course.

-huay