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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
It was a fine book. So much fun world building a bit hard to get through I read it 3rd
Pros of reading 3rd- I felt I had the snippets of stories and it was nice to be able to see the full scope of them.
Cons- hard to take a break from the main story after the ending of crown of midnight
I know the whole debate is 1st or 3rd but honestly wish I read it after throne of glass. I think that would’ve been best
Pros of reading 3rd- I felt I had the snippets of stories and it was nice to be able to see the full scope of them.
Cons- hard to take a break from the main story after the ending of crown of midnight
I know the whole debate is 1st or 3rd but honestly wish I read it after throne of glass. I think that would’ve been best
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I read this first before the rest of the eries because I am someone who goes by numbers and I wasn’t aware that it wasn’t published first. I really love Calaena and this poor girl was put through so much. I like that each novella can be read together as one long story with varying time jumps and I like how we see how Calaena’s decisions and the decisions of people around her get her to the events of Throne of Glass. I also like that while each challenge she faces seems to get progressively worse she finds a portion of her true self and not who she was created to be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I didn't feel quite right giving this 5 whole starts, but 4.5 is pretty darn close. This was pretty darn awesome in so many ways, but there were a couple things that held it back from being perfect.
Celaena still annoys me as a character. She has her really good moments (and when she's good, she's really good), but these parts get somewhat soiled to me when her arrogance and her blatant selfishness get in the way. I can't get over the fact that she is really an incredibly selfish protagonist, despite all her good traits. I suppose it might just be me having to get used to something different, but I find it hard to sometimes when lines like "and she really was the best" or "she was Celaena Sardothien, for god's sake!" keep popping up. Those need to stop, IMO. There really isn't anything I've seen from her that proves she's the BEST assassin...the narrative just says she is rather than shows how she is better than everyone else. She's good, but how is she BETTER, than say, Sam? They fall for the same trap, after all.
Speaking of Sam, he's my big other issue. I thought he was a cool, kind character, but I feel like there was so much more potential for him. He had the written in limits of being Celaena's love interest, but not a character really outside of that. Just her love interest. His love for her (which I also think didn't really make sense, given how crappily she treated him for so long, but eh, I have a feeling this is going to be sort of a thing with her) literally motivated every one of his actions throughout the novel. While I do enjoy him more than Dorian, I really don't jive well with these types of characters. I just wanted something more from him. A complex past, some massive flaw, something other than his love for Celaena going on in his life. But, he was perfect and since he's dead, we can never get anything else. Nonetheless, I think he did fulfill his purpose in the story, and it really does suck to see such a nice guy so....brutally, brutally ended like that.
Now to get into the positives, because that's really all I have to complain about, and Celaena's character is just something I'll have to get used to and really isn't that much of an overall detriment. Arobynn, however, was my favorite character in this book. I know that's horrible, but he's just so interesting and conniving, and I was here for it the entire time. Even though I totally knew it was him that betrayed her to Farran, I was still excited every time he popped up in a scene. Such a cool character. I hope he comes back later in some way. He HAS to, if Celaena is going to somehow get her vengeance. I also really liked some other characters in here. Yrene Towers was cool, Rolfe was interesting, and omg Chaol and Dorian's cameo was fabulous. All the Desert characters were great as well.
The setting Maas has created with this story is fantastic. I love the different environments explored here. After being stuck in the glass castle for the near entirety of Throne of Glass, it was refreshing to explore pirate coves, assassin keeps, rich merch houses of Rifthold, port towns, the Red Desert, and even a bit of Endovier. That was so great and I kept wondering where the story was going to transfer its characters next. The plot really was great, too. There were so many twists (some anticipated, some really surprising) and I really was kept on my toes throughout. Big chunks of time would pass where I couldn't really put the book down. I guess that counts for something about Maas really knowing how to craft a good story. She really fleshed out the pieces of Celaena's past as a killer and really helped me a) understand this character who I have always had mixed feelings about and b) explained a lot of the stuff mentioned in Throne of Glass, like Sam, Arobynn, her training in the Red Desert, etc. HOWEVER, there is still that big chunk of her past in Terrasen missing, so hopefully that gets exposed soon, because I'm waiting for that.
The biggest plus to this book, for me at least, is that we got to see Celaena and co. actually doing assassin like things. I gripe I had with the first novel was that we just heard about how great she was, but we never really saw her do much. We definitely saw more from her here, and honestly, thank God. It would have bugged me a lot if we never saw this.
So, to break it down, I thought it went something like this:
The Assassin and the Pirate Lord: 4 Stars
The Assassin and the Healer: 4 Stars
The Assassin and the Desert: 5 Stars
The Assassin and the Underworld: 5 Stars
The Assassin and the Empire: 5 Stars
In short, 4.5 stars. Very solid read. Crown of Midnight, here I come.
Celaena still annoys me as a character. She has her really good moments (and when she's good, she's really good), but these parts get somewhat soiled to me when her arrogance and her blatant selfishness get in the way. I can't get over the fact that she is really an incredibly selfish protagonist, despite all her good traits. I suppose it might just be me having to get used to something different, but I find it hard to sometimes when lines like "and she really was the best" or "she was Celaena Sardothien, for god's sake!" keep popping up. Those need to stop, IMO. There really isn't anything I've seen from her that proves she's the BEST assassin...the narrative just says she is rather than shows how she is better than everyone else. She's good, but how is she BETTER, than say, Sam? They fall for the same trap, after all.
Speaking of Sam, he's my big other issue. I thought he was a cool, kind character, but I feel like there was so much more potential for him. He had the written in limits of being Celaena's love interest, but not a character really outside of that. Just her love interest. His love for her (which I also think didn't really make sense, given how crappily she treated him for so long, but eh, I have a feeling this is going to be sort of a thing with her) literally motivated every one of his actions throughout the novel. While I do enjoy him more than Dorian, I really don't jive well with these types of characters. I just wanted something more from him. A complex past, some massive flaw, something other than his love for Celaena going on in his life. But, he was perfect and since he's dead, we can never get anything else. Nonetheless, I think he did fulfill his purpose in the story, and it really does suck to see such a nice guy so....brutally, brutally ended like that.
Now to get into the positives, because that's really all I have to complain about, and Celaena's character is just something I'll have to get used to and really isn't that much of an overall detriment. Arobynn, however, was my favorite character in this book. I know that's horrible, but he's just so interesting and conniving, and I was here for it the entire time. Even though I totally knew it was him that betrayed her to Farran, I was still excited every time he popped up in a scene. Such a cool character. I hope he comes back later in some way. He HAS to, if Celaena is going to somehow get her vengeance. I also really liked some other characters in here. Yrene Towers was cool, Rolfe was interesting, and omg Chaol and Dorian's cameo was fabulous. All the Desert characters were great as well.
The setting Maas has created with this story is fantastic. I love the different environments explored here. After being stuck in the glass castle for the near entirety of Throne of Glass, it was refreshing to explore pirate coves, assassin keeps, rich merch houses of Rifthold, port towns, the Red Desert, and even a bit of Endovier. That was so great and I kept wondering where the story was going to transfer its characters next. The plot really was great, too. There were so many twists (some anticipated, some really surprising) and I really was kept on my toes throughout. Big chunks of time would pass where I couldn't really put the book down. I guess that counts for something about Maas really knowing how to craft a good story. She really fleshed out the pieces of Celaena's past as a killer and really helped me a) understand this character who I have always had mixed feelings about and b) explained a lot of the stuff mentioned in Throne of Glass, like Sam, Arobynn, her training in the Red Desert, etc. HOWEVER, there is still that big chunk of her past in Terrasen missing, so hopefully that gets exposed soon, because I'm waiting for that.
The biggest plus to this book, for me at least, is that we got to see Celaena and co. actually doing assassin like things. I gripe I had with the first novel was that we just heard about how great she was, but we never really saw her do much. We definitely saw more from her here, and honestly, thank God. It would have bugged me a lot if we never saw this.
So, to break it down, I thought it went something like this:
The Assassin and the Pirate Lord: 4 Stars
The Assassin and the Healer: 4 Stars
The Assassin and the Desert: 5 Stars
The Assassin and the Underworld: 5 Stars
The Assassin and the Empire: 5 Stars
In short, 4.5 stars. Very solid read. Crown of Midnight, here I come.
3.5✨ I decided to read this book first so I could do TOG series in chronological order and don’t get me wrong I did enjoy this but I didn’t feel that much of a connection to the characters! I felt it was very predictable what was going to happen and as I didn’t have that strong connection to the character’s, it didn’t hit as hard..
I did loved the whole plot and storyline but just something was missing for me or maybe because this is sooo hyped I was expecting more? I feel like once I start reading the other books and then look back at this one I’ll want to rate this higher but for now it will be just a 3.5 read for me
I did loved the whole plot and storyline but just something was missing for me or maybe because this is sooo hyped I was expecting more? I feel like once I start reading the other books and then look back at this one I’ll want to rate this higher but for now it will be just a 3.5 read for me
Not crazy about the detailed violence but the story was pretty good.
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes