Title: The
Assassin’s Curse
Author: Cassandra Rose Clarke
Series: The Assassin’s Curse #1
Published: 2 October 2012 by Strange Chemistry
Length: 320 pages
Source: netgalley
Other info: The
sequel, The Pirate’s Wish, should be out this year. There’s a novella called
The Witch’s Betrayal. Cassandra also wrote The Mad Scientist’s Daughter.
Summary : Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when
her parents try to marry her off to an allying pirate clan: she wants to
captain her own boat, not serve as second-in-command to her handsome yet
clueless fiance. But her escape has dire consequences when she learns the
scorned clan has sent an assassin after her.
And when the assassin, Naji, finally catches up with her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse — with a life-altering result. Now Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work together to break the curse and return their lives back to normal. Or at least as normal as the lives of a pirate and an assassin can be.
And when the assassin, Naji, finally catches up with her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse — with a life-altering result. Now Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work together to break the curse and return their lives back to normal. Or at least as normal as the lives of a pirate and an assassin can be.
Review: Ananna’s parents have arranged a marriage to
Tarrin. She’s not very happy about this. And so she steals a camel and runs
away. Tarrin’s family aren’t very happy about this. They send an assassin about
her. then she accidentally saves his life, binding them together. They go on a
quest to sort this out.
From the first few pages, I’d decided I liked Ananna.
Throughout, she’s very strong, stands up for herself, and is generally awesome
and independent. Naji is really very adorable. He’s also mysterious, and
there’s lots of things to learn about.
Together, they work excellently together. Their first
encounter is not quiet and calm, but there’s a lot of them getting used to
eachother, and also a lot of action. I like the fact that the romance is very
slow-Ananna doesn’t realise she’s in love for ages.
Ananna has a really distinctive voice/dialect/way of
speaking. It didn’t take me long to get used to it, and that’s part of what
made me love her- I could imagine her, sitting next to me, talking at me. It’s
not very often that I can literally hear a character/narration. But it happened
here.
I love the mix of pirates, assassins and magic. Also, the
physical/cultural setting-the mix of middle eastern culture plus the desert is
a really magical place to be in. I really really loved this world.
I like where it ended. And I didn’t. It ends at a natural
place, which is a good set up for The Pirate’s Wish. But at the same time, it’s
sudden, it hasn’t wound down to a stopping point for one book, and if you hadn’t decided you were going
to read The Pirate’s Wish, you may be a bit let down by the ending. You’re
expecting more things to happen but it just cuts off. I think Strange Chemistry
should release an omnibus edition to improve the flow some day.
I’m sorry this review is so short. Actually, it's not too bad, but I feel there's more I should be able to say about this book.. You know there's just that quality to some
books where it’s just “I love this because reasons which I cannot articulate?”
this book has it in spades.
Overall: Strength 5 tea to a magical adventure with
excellent characters.
Pirates and deserts, you say. Intrigued, says I. :D
ReplyDeleteI've read nothing but really good things about this book, I really must pick it up and see what I think :)
ReplyDelete