Name: The Assassin and the Desert
ISBN: 9781408834213

Sarah J. Maas

The Silent Assassins of the Red Desert aren't much for conversation, and Celeana Sardothien wouldn't have it any other way. She's not there to chatter, she's there to hone her craft as the world's most feared killer for hire. Quiet suits her just fine - until she begins to suspect there's a traitor in the fortress, and she must determine which of the mute and mysterious assassins is her deadly adversary.

A Throne of Glass Novella

The Assassin and the Desert

Celaena Sardothien is the assassin with everything: a place to call her own, the love of handsome Sam, and, best of all, freedom. Yet, she won't be truly free until she is far away from her old master, Arobynn Hamel; Celaena must take one last daring assignment that will liberate her forever. But having it all, means you have a lot to lose . . . This fourth fantastic e-novella gives readers an inside look at the characters who appear in the full-length novel THRONE OF GLASS. Don't miss out!

The Assassin and the Empire

Jess

The Assassin and the Healer

aleksandra

2.5/5

Probably my least favorite story. It was boring, but it was nice to see Celaena be a girls girly here. 

I didn't finish this series. because when I realized that the sixth book was about Chaol, I didn't want to do it myself and stopped reading. There are people who like him, who hate him and who just weren't a fan of him. I'm in that last category. This time I will try to read it, because that's my goal for this year.

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best. Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

4.5/5

Amazing. I loved the dessert setting and the plot sucked me in from the beginning. Hidden gems about Celaena liking expensive lingerie or Ansel's armor made me want to cry knowing what was going to happen in the future.

I was laughing at the end of the fact that she was basically collecting people to help her out in the future.

Madison Keiran

Aelin making her first ever female friend :’)

** spoiler alert **
           The reveal in KoA that it was Aelin that gave Yrene the money and the note made me fall to the ground

I liked this one much more than the first novella

Amanda Autumn Berrey

Emma resodihardjo 

Amelia tobin 

I rlly loved this one it is my favourite so far 
I love t

Megan Lowe

I loved these prequels. The first time I read them, I read them in the middle of the TOG series, so obviously there were spoilers. What happened in this book was so sad, but so necessary for the series as a whole. A great set up.

I like this book. We get a better idea of who Caelena is and what she’s about. A great lead in into the tog books.

Another story of Caelena Sardothien being Caelena Sardothien. I love reading about her before and have a feeling we may meet Yrene again.

jess

heck yes girls supporting girls i am so for this

soph

lo diosa que es celaena, espero que yrene vuelva y sean amigas

Dios no me esperaba nada de esto, pensé que sería aburridísimo pero es el que más me ha gustado.

Ansel yo no olvido ni perdono, TE AMABA

Laura

“When we die, I don't think the gods will even know what to do with us.”
#0.1: The Assassin and the Pirate Lord ★★★★★
#0.2: The Assassin and the Healer ★★★★★
#0.3: The Assassin and the Desert ★★★★★
#0.4: The Assassin and the Underworld ★★★★★
#0.5: The Assassin and the Empire ★★★★★
#1: Throne of Glass ★★★☆☆
#2: Crown of Midnight ★★★☆☆
#3: Heir of Fire ★★★★★
#4: Queen of Shadows ★★★★★
#5: Empire of Storms ★★★★★
#6: Tower of Dawn ★★★★★
#7: Kingdom of Ash ★★★★★

“For wherever you need to go - and then some. The world needs more healers”
#0.1: The Assassin and the Pirate Lord ★★★★★
#0.2: The Assassin and the Healer ★★★★★
#0.3: The Assassin and the Desert ★★★★★
#0.4: The Assassin and the Underworld ★★★★★
#0.5: The Assassin and the Empire ★★★★★
#1: Throne of Glass ★★★☆☆
#2: Crown of Midnight ★★★☆☆
#3: Heir of Fire ★★★★★
#4: Queen of Shadows ★★★★★
#5: Empire of Storms ★★★★★
#6: Tower of Dawn ★★★★★
#7: Kingdom of Ash ★★★★★

Yrene is easily one of my favourite characters in this series.

“Words could be just as deadly as steel.”
#0.1: The Assassin and the Pirate Lord ★★★★★
#0.2: The Assassin and the Healer ★★★★★
#0.3: The Assassin and the Desert ★★★★★
#0.4: The Assassin and the Underworld ★★★★★
#0.5: The Assassin and the Empire ★★★★★
#1: Throne of Glass ★★★☆☆
#2: Crown of Midnight ★★★☆☆
#3: Heir of Fire ★★★★★
#4: Queen of Shadows ★★★★★
#5: Empire of Storms ★★★★★
#6: Tower of Dawn ★★★★★
#7: Kingdom of Ash ★★★★★

Andrea Cabezudo García

Terri Arnold

Tegan Anderson

I knew it was coming from the first novella, but I was still completely unprepared for what happened. This novella was too much for me to take. It was so painful and heartbreaking and brutal and even if I knew that the ending was not that bad, I still shocked when I was on the last page.

Sam and Celaena take a mission which is hard for any assassin. You don't have to even know Sam's fate to see that their mission was going to be a complete failure. Celaena thinks she can do it, and that she’ll earn enough money for them to start their new lives. Arobynn is still a treacherous bastard. His scheme is far from perfect, but tricky enough to lure Celaena in. Sam, on the other hand, is changed to a point where I almost don’t recognise him. I had no idea why he was so different, but he was.

Although the murder scenes were as bloody as usual, I think the Crime Lord of Rifthold was truly sadistic and, in some ways, a highlight of this novella. Imagine a human being enjoying torturing his victims and playing with their corpses until they didn't have any blood to splatter. Farren disgusted me most, for his unmeasurable cruelty and extreme brutality, and his sick personality. And again, Celaena fell right into their trap, just like her last time. I pitied her, but also hoped that she would think twice before she leaped.

I’ve read Throne of Glass before this and now everything makes sense. What happened to Celaena was so unbearable. It explains why it is so hard for her to keep herself together whenever she remembers her past, especially when she was betrayed by someone she couldn’t point out. After reading this novella, I felt her rage and the need to find justice. Despite the horrible things that happened to her, everything was perfectly executed by Maas. I couldn’t stop admiring her writing style and how it carried me away and stole my heart.

“She would tuck Sam into her heart, a bright light for her to take out whenever things were darkest. And then she would remember how it had felt to be loved, when the world had held nothing but possibility. No matter what they did to her, they could never take that away.”

“My name is Celaena Sardothien,” she whispered, “and I will not be afraid.”

I’m writing my review a few months after I read this and just realised I haven’t read the second novella. Celaena’s aim in this story is to make her way into a vaguely Middle Eastern desert and get a letter of recommendation from the leader of the Silent Assassins. The Silent Assassins seem to borrow very heavy from George R. R. Martin's Faceless Men, and it's almost funny how closely this story arc mirrors Arya's training under Jaqen H'ghar.

I thought I started to understand Celaena’s character in the first novella, but now I’m back to being confused. She’s supposed to be the best of the best, doesn't actually do much that's badass. She does very little assassinating for a series with ‘assassin’ in the title of every novella. How does killing people of adultery weigh more than killing people who are essentially selling into prostitution (per pirate lord)? She should have killed Rolfe, but she didn't. And when Ansel betrays her in this book, because of course she does, Celaena doesn't even kill her. She lets her get away with betraying all the people who took her in. She even manages to get herself drugged/poisoned by quaffing food that's put in front of her.

I know I’m complaining a lot, but the scenery descriptions are much better here than the other prequel novella I’ve read, and all of the side characters are interesting. The way Ansel is treated in this book is basically identical to Nehemia: Maas seems so reluctant to portray healthy female friendships and it's becoming a pattern. Nehemia was the best part about books one and two, and we all know how that went down.

The Assassin and the Desert A Throne of Glass Novella