Leuk en spannende verhalen.
Ik heb de andere verhalen van de glazen troon serie nog niet gelezen maar ik kijk naar uit.

In deze kortverhalen wordt het leven van Celaena beschreven een sluipmoordenaar.
Het eerste verhaal gaat over een missie met slaven. Ze moeten een schip vol slaven brengen naar hun meester Arobynn. Celaene wil dit echter niet doen en zal de slaven bevrijden samen met Sam haar collega. Het lukt hun maar Arobynn is woedend en straft hen beiden.

In het tweede verhaal en derde wordt Celaene naar de woestijn verbannen door Arobynn als straf voor haar eerdere daden. Ze mag niet terug zolang ze geen aanbevelingsbrief heeft van de meester van de tempel van de stille sluipmoordenaar. Al snel blijkt dat in de woestijn niet alles rustig en kalm is. De tempel wordt namelijk door een van de volgers verraden. Celaene weet een ramp te voorkomen en krijgt haar aanbevelingsbrief.

In boek 4 zijn we terug bij de sluipmoordenaarsgilde. Celeana krijgt een opdracht om twee delen van een lijst te bemachtigen van schuiladressen van slaven. Hierdoor komt ze diep in de problemen en Sam kan haar maar net op tijd redden. Uiteindelijk blijkt dat de personen die ze moet vermoorden de beschermers zijn van de slaven en dat Arobynn de lijst wil om de slaven te kunnen onderwerpen. Ze verbrand dan ook de ene helft van de lijst en slaagt dus niet in haar missie waardoor Arobynn niet blij is.

In boek 5 zijn Sam en Celeana geliefden en willen ze zich vrijkopen uit de gilde. Om zich vrij te kunnen kopen moeten ze nog 1 missie voltooien. Deze missie mislukt echter en er is geen goed einde voor Celeane. Sam sterft, en Celeane wordt in de val gelokt door Arobynn en opgesloten en verbannen naar de zoutmijnen van Endovier als straf voor het vermoorden van een belangrijk man.
( )

Really good, I loved the short story format. While it did leave me excited to read the next book, and it does stand up on it's own, I felt like there was something I may have been missing by starting here. It stands on it's own, but the stories are still using the later books to lean on. ( )

Assassin's Blade is the first step into a world that from the first page you can tell will be massive and enthralling. I chose to start here for Throne of Glass after finishing ACOTAR as it felt that a great place to ease into the massive world I could tell was lurking in these books. I had no idea.

Instead I found stories of love and lose that ripped my heart to shreds, I found the start of an epic world and a young Celaena who I was immediately captured by.

If you are coming from ACOTAR and looking to get into Throne of Glass be prepared that this world is so much larger and the characters so much easier to fall in love with. This first entry into the world despite being short stories already had me falling in love and wanting more. I can't wait to see what the characters go.

..... Sam though, I will never get over Sam. ( )

"This girl wasn't like wildfire—she was wildfire. Deadly and uncontrollable."

I think this one was interesting for getting some background on Celaena. It was interesting seeing her role within the Guild and how highly Arobynn thought of her. I really think this one does a good job of showing that she has this side of herself that she is slowly accepting, which disagrees with the tasks Arobynn gives her. She begins to act on these, and I think seeing how events unfold in this book, we are able to better understand why she is always so reluctant to act in the rest of the series. I have to admit though, compared to the first 3 books in the series this one was hard for me to get into. They really drug by and nothing much seemed to happen in the story really until we get to the last two novellas. I think in those a lot happens that starts to relate to the series, which makes it more interesting. It was the redeeming nature of the last two that earned a four star rating.

The collection of novellas tell an overall story, so you really need to read them all to understand the development of things, but honestly the only two I found interesting were the last two in the book. And boy those were intense and painful to read. I think the book shows a whole other side to her, but I also hope we get to meet some of the characters who appeared in this book again in the rest of the series. I loved watching the development of the relationship between her and Sam. Arobynn really intrigues me and I need to know more. I think my biggest issue with this one is it feels so slow going compared to the rest of the series and really doesn't serve much purpose other than getting to know about Celaena. ( )

One of my favorite books ever!! Starts off a bit dry but by the end of the first event you'll be on board. Links to the rest of the books so I suggest reading after the second or third book. Such a heartbreaking ending and I'm still recovering from it after years. ( )