Novella Review – The Assassin and the Empire (Throne of Glass, 0.4) by Sarah J. Maas (4.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 298 KB
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Release Date: July 20, 2012
ASIN: B008HRMAPG
Stand Alone or Series: 0.4 novella in the Throne of Glass series
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

This is the fourth novella that takes place before the first Thorne of Glass novel. I really enjoyed it alot. It gives excellent insight as to how Celaena finally found her way to the Salt pits.

Celaena and Sam are finally free and living on their own. They want to escape the city they grew up in once and for all and set up their trade as assassins in a different city. In order to finance this they decided to take on one last Assassination job. This is the job to finally get them their freedom and of course it goes all wrong.

Celaena has developed from a very vain character to one that actually cares for others. Here we see both aspects of her personality, the one that loves fine things and the one that cares about her friends. It was interesting to compare who she was at the start of these novells to who she is now, and then compare that to who she becomes in the Throne of Glass. She is a strong and yet flawed character, that is easy to engage with and love.

We see a lot more of Sam in this book as well. His devotion to Celaena is solid and wonderful, yet he has his own flaws. He is also stubborn and proud.

This novella follows Sam and Celaena as they plot their final job together. So there is lots of strategy and some action. There are a couple excellent fight scenes too.

As you can imagine from where things start in the Throne of Glass series, thing go horribly wrong and Celaena ends up in the salt mines.

This was an excellent continuation of these novellas that tell us about Celaena’s life before when went to the salt mines. It was well written, engaging, and easy to read.

Overall I enjoyed this novella a lot. I love these characters, especially Celaena who is courageous and loyal, yet flawed. I love the setting and the writing as well; these books/novellas are so wonderfully written and easy to read. This whole series is strongly recommended to those who love fantasy novels, they are really well done.