Review: "If you can learn to endure pain, you can survive anything"
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 28, 2012
This is the second of four novellas that serve as prequels to Throne of Glass. I will quickly add that I maintain my suggestion to read the full novel first and then these prequels. Not that anything is given away but the allure of Celaena's mysterious past is one of my favorite elements of the full novel. Reading these after is helping me see why she acts the way she does later on but I am glad to not have known these details at the time.Another reason why I would strongly suggest the reading of the full novel first is because we are seeing a completely different side of Celaena in these novellas.  We all know that Celaena is in the prison of the salt mines at the start of Glass of Throne.  Before this she was a bit... shall I say... stuck up and cocky?  Yep that about sums it up.  Her attitude is not bothering me as much because I know how Celaena will be once she gets knocked down a peg or two.  But if I had not read the full novel first I am unsure if I would really like Celaena in these. Although we do still get to see how noble she is in her beliefs and her hatred toward slavery so we do see a glimpse of the real Celaena behind the walls she puts up around herself.The Assassin and the Desert picks up very shortly after The Assassin and the Pirate Lord.  We find Celaena being punished for her act of treason against her master, Arobynn Hamel.  In the main novel we do learn a bit about Arobynn and get the idea that he was not a kind man.  Well... if there were any questions about that then this novella sure helped dispose of the doubts.  What a complete jerk.There is no Sam in this novella which was a bit sad, I was hoping to see more of him and Celaena.  She has been sent by Arobynn to the red desert to train with the Silent Assassins.  The story is fast paced and as always full of adventure and betrayal.Another quick fun read!ChristineRainy Day Reads[...]