Hello Rad Readers!
Assassin's Blade is a compilation of five novellas that take place before the events of Throne of Glass, and it is so so so so great!
You are probably wondering if you should read Assassin's Blade before ToG and I would say definitely not. Though the events take place before, and there are things that happen in Assassin's Blade that are mentioned in ToG, but it is pretty clear that Assassin's Blade was not really meant to introduce us to the story. ToG is does a fantastic job at portraying Celaena to begin with, and introducing us to the characters and the world. Assassin's Blade doesn't really do that job because they are novellas, so I would definitely say that you should read the books in publication order: Throne of Glass, Assassin's Blade, etc... With Throne of Glass there was such an air of mystery around Celaena because though we knew she had an insane life before Endovier and coming to the castle, we had no idea what that life entailed. We were actually in a very similar position to Dorian and Chaol. We just know that she was an assassin. You can assume a lot from that, but there is so much more to her story that we come to know in this addition. It explains so much of her motivations, and I think, really helps you gain an understanding as to where the story will be heading as a whole.
I definitely think you should read this before you continue on with Crown of Midnight because there were already so many references to Assassin's Blade in Throne of Glass, and now I feel like I have a much better grip on the story and all the ins and outs.
I was super confused as well on which to pick up first, but when book series are a little wacky like this, (*cough cough* The Shadowhunter Chronicles *cough cough*) a general rule I always follow is to just read in publication order. Then you are sure to avoid spoilers.
SPEAKING OF SPOILERS... IF YOU HAVE NOT READ ASSASSIN'S BLADE, DON'T READ BEYOND THIS POINT!!!!!
In the first novella, I found Sam's story line to be really significant. It was nothing like Dorian's or Chaol's which is not what I expected. Him and Celaena were competitors and despised each other and I thought that was a good way to begin, because we know that competitiveness and anger is such an innate quality in her, it is very fitting and interesting to see where it had all stemmed from. Also, I absolutely loved Sam all throughout and the fact that we already knew how his story ended before it even started made things so much more tragic. He was literally the greatest and nothing Dorian or Chaol can do will even remotely amount to how dope of a character Sam was. RIP reader dudes... RIP...
Let's talk Arobynn Hamel... Oh what a journey we went on with him. At first I thought he was a good leader, and a good person in Celaena's life, because who would she really be without him, ya know? I thought he could be a bit like Chaol. Ohhhhh, how I was so so very wrong. I thought it was absolutely genius that the author portrayed him like that in the beginning and then slowly throughout showed us what an actually horrible person he was. I imagine she did that because she wanted us to experience that realization with Celaena.
A major reason why I thought this was such an important read in the series was because in ToG we see a completely heartless former assassin doing whatever she can to survive and be free. I LOVED that. I have said this so many times on this blog, but there is no better character trait in my opinion, then when a character has nothing to lose. It's fascinating, and exciting, and crazy. But anyways, we are introduced to what we assume to be a stone cold killer with no conscience, but in Assassin's Blade we see that she actually does struggle a lot with what she does and she does weigh her morals and thinks about what is right. Ultimately she chooses to do what will save her which I think is really dope because we see so many self righteous, 'I want to save the day and the entire world and put everyone else before me' characters and honestly it gets old. That also isn't who Celaena is. She's a fighter and a survivor. Celaena knows that her life is about freedom and fending for herslef. I think that is the coolest thing ever. Nonetheless I think it is interesting to know that is not in fact totally stone cold. We get to know he in much greater dimension this time around.
I liked how this did not feel much like a bind up of separate stories. Each novella was very related to one another so it certainly felt like there was a story arch. I also think that it made the pacing of the book much faster than that of ToG. My one complaint in ToG was that it moved fairly slowly sometimes. There were these epic moments of tension and violence and battle, and then these slow drawn out pages and pages of internal dialogue that I felt like we just couldn't get over. But anyways, each novella connected to one another seamlessly, so there was a story arch across the entire "book" I guess you could say, as well as in each separate novella. I really enjoyed being able to see how each novella touched Celaena's life in a different way, and how she carries the weight of these five events as she continues her journey in Throne of Glass.
Overall, between the amazing story and the fantastic writing, this was an easy 5/5 stars. I would 100% recommend it!
- C8 ;)
P.S. I know that this a bind up, so it is not technically part of the core series, but I absolutely recommend reading it after Throne of Glass. I have heard that the further you progress with the series, if you do not have this background and this foundation laid out from Assassin's Blade it doesn't make as much sense. I also think that reading this will add a lot to your reading of the rest of it. I have heard that Queen of Shadows and Tower of Dawn are far less impactful if you do not know what went down in Assassin's Blade.