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Markus's Reviews > Royal Assassin
Royal Assassin (Farseer Trilogy, #2)
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Buddy read with Alexa!
Come, hunt with me, the invitation whispers in my heart. Leave the pain behind and let your life be your own again. There is a place where all time is now, and the choices are simple and always your own.
Wolves have no kings.
After the harrowing experience in the Mountain Kingdom, FitzChivalry returns to Buckkeep and the Farseer court. Having barely survived his first real mission as a royal assassin, Fitz first vowed to renounce his oath to King Shrewd and abandon the shadowy world of intrigue completely, but his destiny eventually takes him back to the very place where his journey began, and back to the life of an assassin…
Royal Assassin is more of what happened in Assassin’s Apprentice. We have the same enemy raiding the shores of the Six Duchies, inflicting the same horrors on the same people. We have the same antagonist, leashed but not put down. We have the same protagonist taking his lessons from the same people and essentially doing exactly what he did in the first book. And except for a character or two, there is little new.
For the first seventy percent of this book (yes, seventy), nothing happened. The first book was also incredibly slow to get the plot moving, but really not this slow, and in that book it had a purpose: introduction of characters, plot and setting. In this one there is no excuse.
The book also includes a lot of horrible characters. Fitz himself has become less likeable; Molly reminded me of a combination of Nynaeve and Egwene from Wheel of Time (to those of you who haven’t read my WoT reviews, that is about as bad as it can get); Chade has apparently become a stupid old man who is unable to see that his loyalty to his king must come before his loyalty to other members of the royal family; and the Fool has become blinded by his devotion to the same king.
That does not mean that the book was completely horrible. Hobb’s writing is good, and at least some of the characters are interesting enough to read about. And while the first seventy percent were utterly and completely boring, the last thirty were the complete opposite, with intrigue and death and excitement around every corner. Another positive thing was Fitz developing his abilities with the Wit, and even finding a strong companion who was one of the most interesting characters of the book.
Overall though, this was in my eyes a rather typical case of second book syndrome. The first book was great and I hope the third one will live up to it, but Royal Assassin was unfortunately just not good enough.
Come, hunt with me, the invitation whispers in my heart. Leave the pain behind and let your life be your own again. There is a place where all time is now, and the choices are simple and always your own.
Wolves have no kings.
After the harrowing experience in the Mountain Kingdom, FitzChivalry returns to Buckkeep and the Farseer court. Having barely survived his first real mission as a royal assassin, Fitz first vowed to renounce his oath to King Shrewd and abandon the shadowy world of intrigue completely, but his destiny eventually takes him back to the very place where his journey began, and back to the life of an assassin…
Royal Assassin is more of what happened in Assassin’s Apprentice. We have the same enemy raiding the shores of the Six Duchies, inflicting the same horrors on the same people. We have the same antagonist, leashed but not put down. We have the same protagonist taking his lessons from the same people and essentially doing exactly what he did in the first book. And except for a character or two, there is little new.
For the first seventy percent of this book (yes, seventy), nothing happened. The first book was also incredibly slow to get the plot moving, but really not this slow, and in that book it had a purpose: introduction of characters, plot and setting. In this one there is no excuse.
The book also includes a lot of horrible characters. Fitz himself has become less likeable; Molly reminded me of a combination of Nynaeve and Egwene from Wheel of Time (to those of you who haven’t read my WoT reviews, that is about as bad as it can get); Chade has apparently become a stupid old man who is unable to see that his loyalty to his king must come before his loyalty to other members of the royal family; and the Fool has become blinded by his devotion to the same king.
That does not mean that the book was completely horrible. Hobb’s writing is good, and at least some of the characters are interesting enough to read about. And while the first seventy percent were utterly and completely boring, the last thirty were the complete opposite, with intrigue and death and excitement around every corner. Another positive thing was Fitz developing his abilities with the Wit, and even finding a strong companion who was one of the most interesting characters of the book.
Overall though, this was in my eyes a rather typical case of second book syndrome. The first book was great and I hope the third one will live up to it, but Royal Assassin was unfortunately just not good enough.
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Reading Progress
April 4, 2014
– Shelved
September 2, 2014
–
Started Reading
September 3, 2014
–
3.0%
"Always I have possessed the loneliness of one raised amid intrigues and clustering secrets, the isolation of a boy who cannot trust the completeness of his heart to anyone."
September 4, 2014
–
23.0%
"This has been a lovely little tale of day-to-day life in and around Buckkeep. But when does the story begin?"
September 5, 2014
–
34.0%
""Nighteyes," he corrected me. "My mother named me Nighteyes. I was the last of my litter to get my eyes open.""
September 7, 2014
–
51.0%
""I set off to find my place in history, and choose where I would thwart it. This was the place I selected; the time had been destined by the hour of my birth. I came here, and became Shrewd's. I gathered up whatever threads the fates put into my hands, and I began to twist them and color them as I could, in the hopes of affecting what was woven after me."
Definitely the best scene in the book so far!"
Definitely the best scene in the book so far!"
September 10, 2014
–
67.0%
"Prince Regal is so reminiscent of Lancelot from the Warlord Chronicles, they're practically the same person!"
September 11, 2014
–
79.0%
"This book went from boring to unputdownable in just a few short chapters!"
September 11, 2014
–
89.0%
""Let the whelp run inland with his tail between his legs. Here is where the wolves shall stand and fight."
Duke Brawndy is awesome. I just wish Fitz would listen to him... just like I wished Ned Stark would listen to Renly."
Duke Brawndy is awesome. I just wish Fitz would listen to him... just like I wished Ned Stark would listen to Renly."
September 11, 2014
–
Finished Reading
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Alexa
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rated it 2 stars
Sep 12, 2014 03:22PM
Aw. You had to go and write a coherent review! Now I look bad :P
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Alexa wrote: "Aw. You had to go and write a coherent review! Now I look bad :P"Lol. I just tend to write all my reviews in the exact same style. Probably out of habit, or brainwashing, or something like that. But in your defence, I think your review described the book better :P
Great review. It does sum up the book well.
Good review Markus. A lot more happens in the last book plot wise.
Thank you, guys! Looking forward to reading it!
David Sven wrote: "Good review Markus. A lot more happens in the last book plot wise."Oh thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you... the idea of reading another door stopper just to virtually know nothing at the end of it was killing me.
*here comes the party pooper* The last book was hard work in parts for me, so much of the same happened for the first 300-400 pages, though saying that I still enjoyed the book and the series as a whole.
Richard wrote: "*here comes the party pooper* The last book was hard work in parts for me, so much of the same happened for the first 300-400 pages, though saying that I still enjoyed the book and the series as a ..."That's rather unsettling. I also noticed Rab's ratings of both books, and I must say I'm a bit frightened, lol. But I suppose I'll see for myself when we read it :)
I forgot about Rab's scathing review! I gave it 8/10 in the end if that helps, just need to plough through those tricky parts. Each to their own too, you may pick up on loads that I missed which might add to the experience. Look forward to your thoughts
I totally agree with your assessment of Molly and Chade - they are 2 characters I just have a hard time with. I actually really liked this book, but the third one I had a really hard time with. A lot of the questions that you have upon reading this series don't even really get answered until the Tawny Man trilogy. That being said, I don't know, I think I had a soft spot in my heart for the day to day stuff happening at Buckkeep. Too often I feel like books are always off on an adventure and you don't really get to a chance to see what life is like for them, so that's kind of why I really loved this book. But I think your review is absolutely fair and I look forward to seeing what you think about the rest of the series! :)
Going off this review I think you might be disappointed with the third book in the series...Most of Hobb's novels seem to take quite a long time to get going but that has never bothered me to the point that it does with others. In fact it's one of the things that I quite enjoy about her writing, spending time in the day to day lives of Fitz and the Fool. Also not sure why there is so much hate for Molly, she's not that bad. Maybe it might have a little to do with Molly getting in the way of quite a few readers fantasies of Fitz and the Fool hooking up ;)
Ashley: While I was disappointed that there was nothing happening, I liked the day to day stuff at Buckkeep well enough, which was one of the reasons why I gave this book a 3 and not a 2. And I'm looking forward to reading more, of course :)Damian: I'll stay optimistic, considering that it'll take a lot to disappoint me more than this book did :)
And while Hobb's novels are no slower than for instance Wheel of Time, the characters and the world in which the story takes place are much more interesting in WoT than in these books. So when the WoT books feel slow, I'm still captivated, but when these books feel slow, I'm just bored.
And Molly is that bad. Not because she gets in the way of anything, but because of how she acts towards Fitz. Add to that the fact that Fitz is completely neglecting Molly in favour of his duties, and you have a romance that only makes the reader terribly frustrated.
Damian wrote: "Maybe it might have a little to do with Molly getting in the way of quite a few readers fantasies of Fitz and the Fool hooking up."What? o.O People ship the strangest couples these days...
Combination of Nynaeve and Egwene! That really can't get any worse. I'm close to starting this series, is it worth the read?
We really do not have similar tastes do we? :D Her books are never plot driven. Don't expect much action :) She focuses on characters and their emotions. To me this was the best in the series.
Now I begin to wonder how much rating book 3 will get from you :D
Casey wrote: "Combination of Nynaeve and Egwene! That really can't get any worse. I'm close to starting this series, is it worth the read?"Exactly! So far, I think it's worth reading. But ask my reading buddy the same question, and you might get a different answer :)
Anirudh wrote: "We really do not have similar tastes do we? :D
Her books are never plot driven. Don't expect much action :) She focuses on characters and their emotions. To me this was the best in the series.
..."
Haven't we agreed on that already, Anirudh? :)
I realise now that the books aren't plot driven, and that's fair enough, but the characters just aren't good enough to warrant more than three stars from me. I still like the series, though!
To me this was the best book in the series. The last one I didn't like for a number of reasons. But she certainly has great writing skills :-)
Anirudh wrote: "To me this was the best book in the series. The last one I didn't like for a number of reasons. But she certainly has great writing skills :-)"Can't argue with that!
I have started her Live ship traders series. Very innovative stuff :-)
Anirudh wrote: "I have started her Live ship traders series. Very innovative stuff :-)"It does seem interesting. Reading all of Hobb's works was always my intention, but I'm not sure about when yet. Let's see what I think about the last book in this trilogy first :)
Yeah Even I plan to do the same :-) But I wanna take breaks between reads. Her books require time and concentration. So I don't read her books back to back :-)If you read something like Abercrombie, GRRM, Scott Lynch along with or right after her works, the difference is apparent
