Megan's Reviews > Assassin's Quest

Slow and depressing, the story plods its way to a less-than-satisfying conclusion. Fitz spends most of the book being self-absorbed and stupid, most of the secondary characters spend it sniping at Fitz for being self-absorbed and stupid, while also being unhelpful and demanding Fitz sacrifice every piece of himself. SO much of this book is wrapped up in tedious travelogues and endlessly obsessing over who wants to sleep with who. For a good chunk of the book, there are only six (human) characters that matter, and the only one who isn't tangled up with at least two other of the characters in a love triangle/quadrangle/spider's web is the reaaaaallly old lady (and even then, you get the feeling that if she was still young...) It got very, very, very old.

This book basically existed to make me despise all the characters that Book One (and to a much lesser extent Book Two) made me love. Patience is barely in this one, although at least her character is burnished, not tarnished, by the absence. Chade, Burrich, and Molly are not nearly so lucky, being given no nearly enough page time to remedy the poor writing they got in the last book, and coming off quite badly in what they do get. (The slur against Burrich is the only one I really resent). Kettricken, one of my favorite characters, gets stripped of almost everything I liked about her - her energy and optimism, her will to actually do things and not slip into the same fatalism that grips everyone else, her selflessness, the wholehearted way she throws herself into her relationships - and becomes this coldly pragmatic creature of pain and grief. I wondered how she could ever possibly again become the Vixen Queen that the Six Duchies needed. Verity is more of a concept than an actual character at this point, and he makes so many of his important decisions off-page and without connection to other characters that its hard to feel that any of the bonds he claims with others actually mean anything at all. Considering what a huge disappointment he was in Book Two, I really needed this book to redeem him for me, and I was massively let down.

Fitz, as said earlier, is an absolute idiot, just like he was in Book Two. This book attempts to paper it over by having other people call him out for being an idiot, (as opposed to the last book, where the book seemed under the impression he was smart), but it doesn't make him any more enjoyable to read about. (These other characters also don't act any smarter, and several of the "shocking twists" are telegraphed so obviously it makes me think it's not the characters who aren't smart enough) I was also seriously unimpressed with his ability to stay faithful to Molly. While he didn't actually cheat on her, the pattern of Fitz going "oh, I love my not-quite-wife (view spoiler)[ and baby daughter (hide spoiler)] soooo much I can't bear being separated" and then within five pages being confronted by some woman who just wants to sleep with him, it doesn't have to mean anything, and Fitz almost going along with it, only for the mood to be killed somehow. Like, once, I could maybe understand. But this happens at least four separate times. I also can't fathom how the narrative can expect us to regain any kind of liking for a woman who hits on a man minutes after he confides in her he has a wife (view spoiler)[ and child (hide spoiler)] he loves and can't wait to get back to, takes offense at being rejected, then hits on his close friend, is resentful at BOTH of them when she is rejected again, and then hits on Fitz AGAIN, and comes extremely close to not taking no for an answer. Being (view spoiler)[ a rape survivor (hide spoiler)] does not absolve her of being a crappy person. Imagine if the genders were reversed. The situation would read so despicably, I like to think the author wouldn't dare try to pass this character off as one of the good guys.

Nighteyes is one of the redeeming lights in this book, as is the Fool (although even he/she/they tried my patience in this book, as did the author's refusal give any clarity to how the Fool's gender and sexuality should be interpreted. Over all, though, I feel I have wasted my time and energy with this trilogy, and the author has thoroughly squandered all the goodwill I eagerly handed over with the first book.