Review: The Assassin and the Empire

Title: The Assassin and the Empire (A Throne of Glass Novella 0.4)
Author: Sarah J Maas
Publication Date: July 20 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
ISBN: N/A
Length: 96 Pages
Link to Synopsis: Goodreads
Source: Purchased (Kindle Edition)
Buy It: Amazon US / Amazon UK

My Rating: 4 Stars

This was actually my favorite of the four Throne of Glass Novellas.  We finally get to see how Celaena ended up in the Endovier salt mine prison and we get confirmation of who double crossed her to send her there.

I continued with my observations that Celaena acts like a brat in this book. Yes I know that sounds harsh... I do love her as a character I really do but there were just a few more scenes that I was finding it hard to connect the girl from these novellas to the girl we get to see in Throne of Glass.  There was one scene where Sam (the man she loves) hugs her and she smells her lavender soap on him.  They are discussing their future and moving away from Adarlan and from under the thumb of Arobynn Hamel and all she is thinking in her head is about how she needs to hide her nice soap and put inexpensive soap out for Sam.  She is quite obsessed with fancy clothes, nice things, etc... I just didn't get that vibe from her in Throne of Glass, but again that novel was after her year in the salt mines so I am sure she had a bit of an attitude adjustment during her time in prison.

Spoiler Alert:

As I had read the full length novel first, I already knew Sam's fate from the start of the first novella. But that didn't stop me from falling for him during these novellas or from getting upset when he was murdered in this one. It was a very sad scene when she finally sees his body. She did love him, although I do not remember a time where she actually said it to him. Sam has said it to her but she never repeats it. Obviously she showed him her love by picking to be with him over Arobynn but she never actually said the words from what I can remember. But it is not until his death that I think she really realized just how much she did love him.

As before, I am very happy that I read Throne of Glass first and then these four prequel novellas rather than the other way around. I would suggest this order to everybody it may be a good idea to spread the novellas out over the next year. As book 2 is not due out until 2013 (as of right now no date has been set) it would be nice to read one every so often in order to help lead up to book 2. I did like reading these I just found toward the end that reading all four in one go was a bit much.