Royal Assassin

Royal Assassin

Continuing in the tradition of her first book (Assassin’s Apprentice) Hobb propels the Farseer saga into its second installment with irresistible plotting and memorable characters. Fitz is a trained assassin in the service of King Shrewd and also the king’s illegitimate grandson. He is sworn to protect heir to the throne Prince Verity and Verity’s new bride, but his task is complicated by an invasion of vicious barbarians who turn helpless captives into zombie-like Forged Ones. The home front is no safer, with an ailing King and usurpers to the throne waiting in the wings. Romance, sibling rivalry, battlefield exploits, betrayal, political intrigue and telepathic magic insure that there’s never a dull moment in the Kingdom of the Six Duchies. Through deft description and characterizations, Hobb manages to create a kingdom that looks like a fairy tale but feels like the real world?which makes it almost impossible not to become immersed in Hobb’s fantasy epic. The ending clamors for a sequel-and hopefully sooner, than later.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars frustration at every page
Overall the story is a page turner that will have you staying up all night to read. Characters have a good depth to them; with 5 or 6 with very realistic personalities that will stick with you throughout the story. The bad guy is a perfect example of a villain that will have you turning page after page to see his demise.

On the other hand this story introduces staggering amount of problems with no resolutions. The ending is one of the most wretched i have yet to encounter in a trilogy; basically the worse form of a “to be continued”.

The characters have all these amazing powers that develop through the story (char development, key to all great fantasy books), also trained as a assassin. All of the “good” chars are supposely the to be fear types that are capable of great feats. Yet the “good” characters are completely impotent in using any of there abilities. The entire story is about them running around and avoiding confrontation for 400+ pages… Its like a story of complete wimps, the frustration you feel while reading is almost unbearable, many times i thought of putting down the book and picking another author…

I finally get to last chapters, and there is no END!!!! Just bigger issues are introduced and advertisement for buying the next book. If you do make the plunge and purchase this book, be sure to buy the third at the same time…

Then ending was so upsetting, i trudged out of my room, downstairs, booted up the ol’ puter to write this review…

5 Stars A boy and his dog, part 2
I must start by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed book two, a bit more than one, though that was a 4 star book. I would have liked to see more expansion on the magic elements of the story, and suspect that is to come in book 3. But having said that, Fits has grown into an amazing and durable character. Challenged by faith, stamina, and character in ways we can not imagine enduring ourselves. Prince Regal goes to extreme lengths to grasp and claw for power, even to gain the throne. Night Eyes the wolf has a jaw dropping surprise to aid Fitz. All the multilayerd characters develop nicely into believable people you care about. Robin Hobb has it right, this trilogy will become a permanent part of my library to be enjoyed over and over.

5 Stars First Rate Fantasy
Ever since I first read Lord of the Rings, I was hooked on fantasy. Since that fateful day many years ago I have read many of the conventional fantasy series most notably the Wheel of Time series. This trilogy really breaks all bonds of convention and makes way for innovation, creativity, and a strong dose of realism. The characters in these stories feel so real it will take your breath away. Never have I ever been so emotionally involved in a character as I was with Fitz. I literally could not wait to pick up the book again after putting it down to find out what direction he would be thrust in next, and whether or not he would get out of it.

At first, I did not think I would enjoy reading the first-person narrative style of Hobb’s writing, but now I actually find it quite enjoyable and adds a whole dimension to the story and further connection to the character. Her structure is fantastic. Even when things may seem a bit slow, it is done for a reason, usually because you begin to feel anxious and impatient just as the narrator is.

These books are definitely page turners that are well worth a read. One of my favorite fantasy series to date. I look forward to reading the rest of the adventures of Fitzchivalry Farseer.

4 Stars The Emotional Roller Coaster Continues
Truly after having become instantly enamored with Assassin’s Apprentice, Royal Assassin had me hooked before I even finished the first page. I will begin this review with my sincere puzzlement in the fact that there is so much overhyped fantasy in the world by highly decorated (see award winning) authors that it amazes me to no end how the Farseer trilogy tends to slip through the proverbial cracks. This series is easily on par with the efforts of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire and perhaps some of the finer moments of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time.

That said, this tale picks up literally where the first book ends (with no recapping) and continues in the first person narrative of Fitz Chivalry as he recounts his life in effort to document the history of the Six Dutchies.

Like before, the imagery is just stunning and Hobb once again demonstrates that her greatest strength as an author is through development of incredibly rich characters that the reader can’t help but feel like they know personally.

Perhaps therein lies the greatest source of frustration mingled within the beauty of this series: Robin Hobb isn’t afraid to let the bottom drop out and does so very frequently. They say that hopelessness is a powerful literary tool (and certainly a motivator to turn the pages in effort to find resolve). The trouble some have with Hobb is that resolve is painfully slow to come (and often times doesn’t come at all). Readers were treated to a taste of this in the first book but it pales in comparison to the mental and physical torture they will endure through Fitz’s eyes in this one!

Without giving away too much of the plot’s key moments, let me just summarize by saying that nearly everything Fitz has worked for comes crashing down by the conclusion of this novel. How Robin Hobb plans to tie up all of the loose ends of the saga in the third entry (Assassin’s Quest) is truly anybody’s guess. Although I must confess that it will be nearly impossible for anyone (regardless of how frustrated) to finish this book without desperately seeking the third entry with ravenous passion.

Upon completing Royal Assassin last night, I concluded that:

1) Robin Hobb may just be one of the most powerful authors in our time and certainly one of the most under appreciated in the fantasy genre.

2) This series is absolutely gripping in every sense of the word but requires a reader willing to “ride out the storm” in the distant hope that resolve will come.

3) Readers who rely on fantasy to escape the drudgery of daily life/ world affairs may want to steer clear of this entire melancholy-riddled saga. This book has the ability to cast a gray cloud over the mood of even the most optimistic reader (that can follow into real life).

4) If you decide to forge through this book, have the third entry handy- it ends on such a note that you just may find yourself standing outside the bookstore at dawn waiting for them to open.

2 Stars King of Angst vs. Spoiled Palace Brat: Round 2
(WARNING, SPOILERS!)

I always finish any series that I start. I can honestly say that I’ve never regretted this policy so much as when I was reading Robin Hobb’s latest hack-work of fantasy.

The problems that plagued Assassin’s Apprentice remain. However, it Royal Assassin, a new problem has arisen, namely, the characterization. Heavens above, how anyone can read this and call Robin Hobb anything but a lousy writer is beyond me.

Molly is probably the best example of this. I could almost see the strings that Hobb was using to direct her bizarre actions to whatever she wanted her to do. When the protagonist, Fitz, meets up with her in Buckkeep after thinking she was dead, she immediately becomes pissed off with him, because she apparently thinks he’s a drunk(?) and was annoyed that he abruptly took off for the Mountain Kingdom instead of courting her, despite that she’s a bit too old for him and he thought she had fallen for someone else.(Whoops . . .) She brushes him off and her does some more of his characteristic whining and angsting. However, shortly afterwards, when he breaks into her rooms to be sure that his nemesis, the Spoiled Palace Brat, hasn’t killed her, she suddenly forgives him everything and falls into his arms.(Man, why do female authors seem to think that this creepy stalker behavior is so hot? This is beginning to read like the Twilight Series.)

Rinse and repeat. They develop a relationship that follows the same formulaic pattern throughout the book: Molly gets pissed off at Fitz, he angsts, he talks to her, and she suddenly melts into his arms and everything’s okay, without any resolution as to why she is suddenly fine with what had previously driven her away from him.

If you don’t believe me, pick up this book and read the chapter, “Tasks.” If this isn’t the most golden hodgepodge of abrupt character development, horrendous dialogue, and bad writing in the world of literature, I fear for the writing world.

I should also leave a warning: This book has some very adult content. I counted seven(!!!) fade-to-black scenes in this book. Of course, they are all very modestly described. When one of them commenses, Fitz stops narrating what’s happening and recites some obscure poetry, monologues that scream, “CENSORED, CENSORED, CENSORED.” Hey, Mrs. Hobb, why not just say Fitz is having hawt secks and be done with it?

Of course, all that is just one example. Burrich, Kettricken, Shrewd, and Verity seem to have forsaken their traditional archetypes in favor of inconsistent behavior that makes them seem like puppets on strings rather than actual characters. One shining example: The main characters’ lives are threatened again and again, but they refuse to take action because, “The King didn’t order it.” Well, the King didn’t give his stamp of approval to you sleeping with one of the servants, did he, Fitz?

Another one of my favorite examples: It is repeatedly hammered into the heads of the readers that it is not possible to be a King’s man and to have a wife or significant other at the same time. This is absurd. We know from Fitz’s life that being a King’s man does not require his 24/7 attention, and I think loyalty to your monarch is a good deal different from romantic pursuits on the side. Royal Assassin would have been better off with this ridiculous preaching removed.

The plot is also screwed up. The beginning starts at a snail’s pace, with little or no premise to the coming conflict save that the Raiders are still at it, and remains tortuously boring through half the book. Most of the plot consists of Fitz making his rounds to the different people of the Keep and chatting them upwith virtually no excitement happening save for some Forged Ones appearing around Buckkeep, which wasn’t that exciting anyway.

“But,” the rabid Hobb-disciple will argue, “this is a CHARACTER driven story! It’s all about the intrigue!” Well, the intrigue isn’t that good. You want to know what the intrigue in this book is about? Basically, 90-95% of all the “intrigue” in this book boils down to one of two things: Either the Red-Ships are causing trouble, or Prince Regal is up to no good. Even the few times I thought I glimpsed something that might be an original twist, it turned out that Regal was again the mastermind in the shadows.

Question raised: Why isn’t the Skill working for Fitz?

Answer given: Because Regal had one of his cronies, Galen, damage it with his Skill.

Q: Why did Kettricken slip and fall on the stairs?

A: Regal greased them.

Q: Why was Verity able to leave on his quest so easily?

A: Regal supported this move so he could snatch the throne while Verity was gone.

Q: Why haven’t the Skill messages from the coast reached Buckkeep in time?

A: Regal has taken control of the Skill network and is using it to his own ends.

Q: Why is King Shrewd wasting away? Sickness?

A: Nope. Regal had two of his minions skill-drain him.

Repeat this over and over again throughout the entire book: The Spoiled Palace Brat is behind everything. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the third book, it was revealed that he’s secretly working with the Raiders.

In conclusion, Royal Assassin isn’t any better than the first book, and if anything, worse. It’s a real shame that such an untalented writer is able to bag such critical acclaim with these loser works. The last 50 pages were defintely the best in the book, but just weren’t enough to make up for the +600 pages of boring I suffered through to get to them. It was satisfying, however, to get to see the Spoiled Palace Brat beat the s**t out of the King of Angst at the end. ; )

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