Author: Sarah J MaasEdition: HardcoverRelated Reviews: The Assassin's BladeRating: 5 Stars
SO, I've read this book five times now? Which is why I can't really do another review for it (see last year's: here) but one thing I have noticed is that every time I read it I seem to change opinions about certain things and I always get something different out of it. Here's what I got out of it this time:
The king isn't so scary anymore. In fact, I think I read him as more human and less overpowering, general scary, force of nature that I have been reading him as the last four years. Part of this, I think, has to do with the way that Queen of Shadows ended, but a bug chunk has to do with the fact that I've been reading a lot more diverse fantasy that has been giving villain's more of a three dimensional role so I've been able to visualize him as a more three dimensional character.
I don't ship Celaena and Dorian anymore. They have always kinda been my ship (even though I love Rowaelin, don't get me wrong) because I always loved their relationship in this book. But this time around it just wasn't doing it for me. If anything, they're best friends. Maybe, to cross the borders into another book for a moment, like parabatai. But, no, I don't ship them. Dorian is, as always, my little cinnamon role and absolute favorite character.
Perrington, Kaltain, and Cain all look different in my head. I don't know exactly how I pictured Kaltain before, but this time it was more vivid and she was clearly a court lady. Not as ugly, maybe? I think knowing, again, the way Queen of Shadows turned out really changed my opinion of her, and therefore how she looked in my head. For Perrington and Cain, they both used to be super bulky characters in my head with little to no defining characteristics. This time around they were much clearer, and while Cain is still rather bulky, Perrington isn't so much.
Elena is really annoying. Or, more specifically, Celaena's constant harping on her and the mission she has granted her was really annoying. It was sort of background noise to me, I guess, and I just was kinda bothered by it because I never really liked that plot line itself. Oh well.
So, yeah, that's my reaction to it this year. Since I'll be rereading all the other books before Empire of Storms you can look forward to seeing my reactions to all of them.
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I understand what you mean with the King. When you compare him to other vilains, he's not that impressive.
ReplyDeleteI've never shipped Celeana and Dorian, I was team Chaol from day 1 haha. I don't know, they have this connection in ToG and there's this one very cute scene in Crown of Midnight, they were so good together ! But yeah, Rowan came and I forgot all about their couple haha. SJM's magic, I guess !
Ugh Rowan just takes the cake. Crazy twist that I never saw coming but obviously fell for lol
DeleteI really need to continue this series. I really enjoyed this one when I read it.
ReplyDeleteI think you'd really enjoy where the story leads.
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