The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

[Sylvia]

Okay, for those who are keen to read along with Maddison and Meredith, then this is the place to discuss the book.

[Maddie]

We're starting 1st or 2nd of March.

[MadameZelda]

March 1st! I can do that too!

[Maddie]

Awesome! I may be a few days late, but I'll see what I can do.

[David]

Enjoy! These novellas are really cool :)

[Maddie]

I'm probably picking this up on Wednesday. I'll try and start it then as well.

[Maddie]

I'll probably be starting this in a week.

[Maddie]

You started yet?

[Maddie]

I don't know when I'll start.

[MadameZelda]

I finished reading the first two novellas which are the shortest. I am not a fan of any kind of novellas -- just a comment.

[Maddie]

Oh how come? I love them!

And do you have any thoughts on them?

[Maddie]

And you've read quite a bit. I haven't even started, and got no idea when I will. I'm planning on this month though, I hope.

[MadameZelda]

I haven't read book 1, but I did read the synopsis. So just by reading the two novellas, I can tell where Assassin's Blade is heading.

These two novellas are kind of open-ended which suggests to me that some of these characters will return.

Why I am not keen on novellas? I enjoy world building which is impossible with q short. Then there is hardly any character development.

If anything, I got the feeling and emotion of Caelaena's anger, arrogance, compassion and her hard upbringing. The various names of places just meant nothing to me and so I just had to let them go from my mind or I'd be frustrated.

I'll comment more after I read the bulk of Assassin's Blade.

[Maddie]

Alright thanks. I'll post my thoughts chapterly as I go. Hopefully it won't be fruitless.

[MadameZelda]

Maddison, I'm sure you'll enjoy the shorts. I'd actually like to dive into Book 1!

I skip novellas and to right to the books in all series I've read.

[Meredith]

I made it through the first 2 stories, I think, before the checkout period on my ebook ended! I had read the first couple of chapters of TOG before starting The Assassins Blade and I liked what I read of TOG much better. I agree with MadameZelda that the world building and character development is lacking in novellas - I think they would be much more satisfying once you've read the novel and know more about Caelaena and her world.

[Sylvia]

I feel the opposite to you ladies. I actually found that the novella's for me did in fact allow for world building and character development. I was actually enthralled and found them to actually open up the door to the main story, and I usually prefer to read the novella's after a series too but for some reason, a friend of mine suggested reading this first before starting the series, and I'm glad I did. I guess we all have different tastes and preferences :)

[Maddie]

I normally read novellas as they occur in the series, or if they're prequels then I read the first book before the novella so I have an idea of the land and the characters before I start reading, so hopefully doing it this way won't have a negative effect on such an apparently good series.

[Meredith]

Maddison, I saw your comment on another thread that you are going to put aside Assassin's Blade for a bit and focus on Throne of Glass. Let me know when you want to pick it up. I finally found time to finish AB and I think the 3rd one (the Assassin and the Desert) is so good! I think reading all 5 was really like a whole novel, without the filler to connect the stories. So, I kind of take back my earlier comment, about the stories lacking in world building and character development. There's enough meat in all 5 stories to definitely flesh out the characters and create a believable environment.

[Maddie]

Yeah I don't know when I'll get around to reading this.

[juli❀]

I bought this a couple of days ago and can't wait to start reading!

[Tracy]

Juli wrote: "I bought this a couple of days ago and can't wait to start reading!"

I need to finish this series.

[Sylvia]

Juli wrote: "I bought this a couple of days ago and can't wait to start reading!"

Hope you enjoy it ☺️