What it’s like to read The Assassin’s Blade: a haiku

Oh look, 5 lil books!

What is all this? Backstory?

Ouch, my emotions.

I enjoyed these glimpses into Celaena’s origins, even though I was dreading the end the entire time. I’m still not sure that reading this collection of novellas in the middle of the series for “maximum emotional impact” is a good choice. It’s certainly a choice. I think I may have had more patience and been more excited by all of these stories had I not known what was coming for a certain character. 

That said, my favorite of the five was The Assassin and the Desert aka Celaena re-enacts the Karate Kid. I just love a montage moment when a character goes through a huge change and I enjoyed the setting and finally getting the story on the Asterion-horse-stealing adventure that Celaena refers to so often in the rest of the series.