The Assassin's Blade

Interesting Story, I'm game.

I'm looking forward to starting Book 1 (this was Book 0.5). I downloaded the rest of the series, even preordered Book 4 (September 2) as well as the kindle versions. This is an interesting story about a young girl rescued & turned into an assassin. It's reminiscent of the tv show Nikita only w/ Kings, Queens and Kingdoms. I liked the idea of it all and found the story interesting.

My only confusion or thing I graple with is this young girl is an assassin, how is it w/ her caution, care & training does she not catch on to the betrayal she is delt. I give her a pass based upon the fact that she is 16 when this story starts. I'm hoping to see her mature through out these next books.

Performance: Please forgive me, I'm picky. I'm an Emma Galvin, Therese Plummer fan. Some review I've read dislike my chosen narrators. It's just me. I feel Evans read Celina a bit too snotty but the voice for her is perfect. Make sense? I don't like how nasty she reads her at times when I feel Celina may have been being defencive not a brat. Her male voices are awful. But I'm sticking w/the audible & kindle version as I enjoy the story. Evans isn't horrid perhaps not my cup of tea is all.

21 sur 22 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Schlocky

I wanted action and got tricked into a romance. The protagonist was obnoxious with no redeeming qualities; her moments of grief or guilt felt disingenuous and did not convince me. Nothing about her screamed "world class assassin" as it seemed like luck and other people were responsible for her success or saving her life - making her narcissism even more unendurable. Then when the romance hit, the main characters all seemed to go stupid and saccharine.
Not my kind of fantasy novel ; it was not deep, exciting, nor did I learn or find a new perspective on the human condition.

25 sur 28 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Entertaining and annoying at the same time

Any additional comments?

As with all of the books in this series so far, I found the story to be good and entertaining, but Celaena's pride and anger are really grating! Maybe if I read the books, rather than listened to them with the narrators own interpretations and inflections, I might not find Celaena to be so hostile and prideful nearly every waking moment. Another thing I find silly is that she is supposed to be THE assassin, but yet she is so trusting of the wrong people and is so easily duped, and all the while she is not trusting the people that she should be. But those gripes aside, they are all good short stories and give you some insight into her life before becoming the King's Champion.

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Read this book first!

Audible recommended this series. I read some of the reviews but wasn't sure which book to start with. sometimes prequel s give away too much of the later books. not the case with The Assassin's Blade. The stories were riveting and gave some great insight into the characters and land. Maas is an excellent author. I didn't care for the narration but thats me. I don't care for most female narrators, give me a hot European everytime!

4 sur 4 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Even better as audio!

These novellas are amazing and this os my third re-read, first on audio and the emotional impact gets bigger every time!

The narrator does a great job even with the male voices.

3 sur 3 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Amazing and Emotional

If you could sum up The Assassin's Blade in three words, what would they be?

Amazing, Emotional and Insightful

What other book might you compare The Assassin's Blade to and why?

The Assassin's Blade is much like Throne of Glass as far as following Celaena's story but using shorter stories to do so.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Read within four days. Mostly because I wanted to finish before Queen of Shadows came out.

Any additional comments?

I love this series and Elizabeth Evans as the narrator. She is incredible in bringing not just the characters to life but the story.

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WoW that story has major Problems

Would you try another book from Sarah J. Maas and/or Elizabeth Evans?

Yes but, I am really dishearten from this book. I have over a hundred book in my library and this is by far one of the worst book.

What was most disappointing about Sarah J. Maas’s story?

The major problem with the story is it's believability. The main character is supposed to be the best assassin in the country. If Sarah did not remind you of this every 5 min you would totally forget this and swear the it was about the country's WORST and DUMBEST assassin. I'm still asking myself why would she portray her character in such a way. It was like a running joke. "I'm the country's best assassin" Then she immediately runs off and does something to contradicts that statement. Also her training in the desert was almost a total waist. She should have come back to town and shocked them with her new skills. She also should have gotten better skills while training. Not that the leader of the other assassin's guild proved in anyway that he could do anything well besides be quite. I REALLY fell that this book was a big joke.

Which scene was your favorite?

My favorite scene was when she realized she was being played for a fool for the ten time in a row. Wait!!! that didn't happen.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The narrator was great I just don't know how she was able to finish the book.

Any additional comments?

Just because you say your the best does not mean your the best.

18 sur 26 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Remember this book is a "back story"

For those who have not read/listened to the rest of the books yet, you need to understand 1 thing about this book. This is her back story, this is when she was still a teenager, acting like a spoiled brat with a history of anger issues. The whole point of this book is so you can understand why she does something and who her allies are in the rest of the series. You get to understand why she is so broken in book 1.

When I first started this series I had to stop listening to it for a while before I finally came back and gave it a chance. Sarah is character building through the whole series. You have to keep in mind this WHOLE series starts with her at 16 almost 17 and end with her in her 20 or almost 21(I believe). She is bringing this character to life, you will see her grow and learn from her mistakes and make more and learn from them again. The main character is whinny and emotional to the point of annoying but she is ridiculously kind hearted to a fault but doesn't like to show it so she puts on this "tough" face and try's to be someone deep down that she is not. You wont realize this so much in this book, but you will as the series continues and you watch her grow in the the amazing bada** person she is meant to be.

I HATE whinny characters that are supposed to be strong people, and I usually will stop reading a book if the main character doesn't start "growing up" or learning from their mistakes quick enough. BUT that is NOT what is in this book, this is a BACK STORY. This is just so the other characters in the rest of the series have more dept, and it helps you realize why she has such a love/hate relationship with the "King of the Assassins".

This audible book was not available when I got all of the other books in the series, so I had the privilege of knowing the story line before listening to this particular back story. You really could wait to listen to this one after the fact and still understand the rest of the series. This book just brings in the "AHHHH I get it now" when you hear the names of other characters in the story.

Give this book a chance or at the very least save it for like the 5th or last one you read/listen to. It gives you time to understand the growth of the character that Sarah brings to this story. Still one of my favorite character development stories.

1 sur 1 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Fabulous reader. definitely book one.

this book is listed as .5. read this as book one. such an amazing reader!!

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I read this before the main series...

So this world is all new to me. It's a decent collection of stories, with decently flawed character personalities. I hate it when characters too perfect and don't seem relatable. A couple of plot holes and some things you see coming from miles and miles away, but overall, a good read.

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