Royal Assassin

Royal Assassin was a strong sequel to Assassins Apprentice. I felt way more connected to Fitz and the stakes felt higher throughout the book. His character has really grown through the first two books and I love how that growth is communicated through his changing relationships with the other characters. From when Burrich returns to Buckkeep until the king-in-waiting ceremony is some of the most exhilarating reading I’ve done. The conclusion didn’t quite live up to the buildup, but it left me wondering where the story goes from here and more excited than ever to find out what Fitz does next.

There's only so much negativity that I can take before I decide that a book isn't worth it. Considering the fact that I really liked the first, I had high hopes for this one; But the whole air of hopelessness that hangs over every single event in Royal Assassin just makes it hard to swallow. I'd have imagined the lead character ‘Fitz' to have grown up a bit for this second book but, if anything, he's more of an idiot. Some of the decisions made by the good guys just make no sense whatsoever.

MINOR SPOILER ALERT

We're told in this book that Fitz is strong in the ‘Skill', but because of how he was traumatized by Galen's teachings, he's somehow blocked his own powers. We're also told that the King-in-waiting - who desperately needs strong Skill-users - simply has no time to teach Galen how to to use his powers. I'm simply not able to swallow that load of rubbish! Practically all of the problems in this book follow from our dear Fitz being powerless to do anything!

Then there's how the Verity and Shrewd manage Regal. If one of your sons just tried to (and nearly did) kill the other - I imagine there'd be a bit of an issue raised. In Robin Hobb's world, the worst that the perpetrator can expect is a slap on the hand and a (gentle) reminder that it isn't polite to kill one's siblings.

Oh, and don't even get me started on the ‘Fool' character - Hobb tries so hard to make him interesting, fascinating, and all that - but the fact that his cryptic clues always leave our poor dim-witted Fitz scratching his head... it just makes for really poor reading material.

So... I'm definitely not picking up the third book and, possibly not any R.H. books - for a very long while.

Wolves have no kings
 
Royal Assassin is the second book in the Farseer Trilogy. To be honest this book took me two attempts to get through, because this story starts out at a very slow pace, yet it builds tension throughout the entire novel to the point where the last quarter is almost unputdownable. I think a big part of my enjoyment this time around came from me reading smaller parts of the book, maybe a chapter or two, at a time. Because even though the plot moves rather slowly overall, many chapters still had me in awe at how they juggled the large cast of characters, setting up the intrigues, foreshadowing later events, letting the story breathe and have nice character moments and interactions.

The supporting cast of characters is really great: Burrich, Lacey, Patience, Hands, Rosemary, Duke Brawndy, Chade, Wallace, Celerity, Cook, besides many others all feel real and have their own strong motivations. And this is especially true for the main cast. Molly is the weakest point of the book, while still definitely being bearable. I hate Prince Regal, hate him with a passion! Robin Hobb's antagonists do not disappoint. The Fool on the other hand is wonderful and incredibly intriguing. The Farseer family, King Shrewd, King-in-Waiting Verity, Queen-in-Waiting Kettricken and Bastard FitzChivalry serve up one of the best political intrigues I have read recently. Nighteyes was one of the highlights of the books for me, I won't say anything further than that.

The world-building is very convincing, the threats feel real and dangerous and I like the epigraphs that often offered interesting bits of lore, because they acted as an elegant way of giving bits of exposition. It was especially satisfying when these bits of the world would show up in the chapters and be relevant. The Skill and Wit are well executed soft magic systems.

Robin Hobb is a master of prose, especially writing strong emotions. Reading Fitz seeing a white ship, instills in you a deep sense of his horror. Joy and desperation are both prevalent throughout this book and are written so that you feel them alongside of Fitz. The twists and turns of the narrative are foreshadowed well and don't feel unearned while still mostly being surprising.

Being the second book in a trilogy the book leaves a lot of questions open, that the conclusion has to answer. Nonetheless the ending is at a fitting point. I recommend this book and trilogy, but only for people in the mood for something that has a slow pace.

As I read this book, I found myself deeply annoyed that I didn't have more time to read it. Finally, I had a Saturday and instead of doing any of the work I absolutely need to get done today, I found myself burning through the last 200 pages. It takes a lot to get me interested in political intrigue (It generally takes a Tyrion Lannister), but this one is gripping.

I loved the first book, but put off reading the second because A)The first book had a neat ending that left a sequel necessary but not immediately compelling and B)I can't handle any books in which bad things happen to dogs at this time in my life. This book has no such neat ending and leaves far more questions than answers. The summary on the back of book three does nothing to allay my agitation, and I want to get through this months S&L pick before reading it. Probably good for me; I need to settle down.

Things I like about Robin Hobb:
1) Her world building is lovely. Buckkeep is very real to me as is its magic system and the rules surrounding it. It's easy to understand and doesn't bend for plot convenience. I also like how utterly gender-neutral the world is. Soldiers are women as frequently as they are men. It's a little thing, but something I enjoy.

2) The way she writes animals. Hobb makes what could be a cheesy plot construction into a very vivid and engaging trademark. Everything about Nighteyes seems just as real as the animals in the first book. I get the feeling her favorite character is probably Burrich, and she sees the world through the same eyes he does. My only complaint was there was so much more time spent in the human world and not enough with the animal characters in this book.

3) Kettricken. I really enjoy this character and envision her played by Miranda Otto and stabbing a witch king in the face. She's wonderful and I want to cosplay as her. I look good in purple.

Things that bothered me a bit.
1) Now I'm not saying I dislike the book, that's not it at all, but I started to really dislike Fitz. First person narratives are never my favorite, and now that Fitz is all grown up... he's so whiny. I know that his life is awful and in his position I'd probably be whiny too, but told through his direct perspective, it gets a little wearing. I don't like teenagers much and have trouble when any book about a child turns into a book about a teenager. His relationship with Molly was, to me, just a distraction from the plotlines I really cared about.

2) Regal is a bit pat as a villain. He was in the first book too, and I was hoping we'd see a bit more of his motivations in the second, but if anything he's gotten even more mustache-twirly. I don't really get how he could ever have been Shrewd's favorite son because Shrewd is a character who genuinely should have seen through that pomposity, child or no. It doesn't really make sense that Regal is smart enough to orchestrate grand conspiracies and stupid enough not to see the conclusions, but then again I don't know his full plan and maybe the third book will offer that critical clue. This book has such well-rounded characters in Chade, the Fool, Burrich, Kettricken, Verity, Patience... it seems odd that the villain is so one-dimensional.

The ending left me rather dumbfounded, and I still have lots of questions at the end. I definitely want to know what happens next. The cover of the third book is suggesting dragons...

4.5 out of 5 stars – see this review and others at The Speculative Shelf

The mindless Forged ones gain in number, roaming the Six Duchies like a zombie horde. Within Buckkeep, FitzChivalry Farseer hones his skills as a covert assassin and takes on a greater role in the kingdom, while thwarting plays for the throne from Prince Regal, his scheming uncle.

I have circled back to this series after three years away, having enjoyed the first book well enough, but never having a burning passion to continue beyond that. Dipping my toe into book two quickly brought me back to the world of the Six Duchies and brought me an enjoyment level I never quite found with Assassin's Apprentice. I am not sure if the quality has improved tremendously from the first book to the next, or if I just have a firmer grasp on what strong fantasy writing looks like.

Robin Hobb creates such a clear picture of human nature and emotion with her writing. It may be long-winded at times, but each scene, no matter how subtle, has a purpose (building characters, setting up a mystery, or unraveling one). I appreciate the time she takes with character development, as it makes me care more about each individual character. Relationships feel more meaningful, betrayals more devastating. The focus on one royal family line makes this possible, as stories like Game of Thrones have such massive casts that you can only really know each player and family in a limited sense.

I enjoyed Royal Assassin immensely and burned through it just wanting to know what would become of our dear protagonist. I deem my re-entry into the series a great success and am going to attempt to work my way through the remaining 15 books of Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings series. Only ~10,000 pages to go until the new book is out in May!

i will protect fitz and verity with my whole being. I finished this at 2:30 am ( i read more than 50 percent in one sitting and do not regret it at all )
having fitz and molly stay friends would have been nice instead (maybe ?) as their relationship almost made me drop the the book in favour of other things.
Overall i feel better about this book then the first. (Higher 4 star rating).

Tough to get through. I wanted to love this book, but just didn't find the conflict compelling. The final 75 pages were really thrilling, but for the first 600 pages I didn't really look forward to picking it up. This is despite the characters being well-rendered and somewhat interesting. The romantic elements were good, but overwhelmed by the lack of clearly-defined bad guys. Too bad, since I ordinarily love reading this author, and will read plenty more.

I certainly enjoyed this book. This is the 2nd book the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb and I found this to be a very character driven book more than plot driven

This is not to say there is no plot or plot progressino there certainly is but I did find that this book focused alot of Fitz's character while the other characters were really background chracters to this story with not much in other view points.

Despite the title the book does not focus much on Assassin aspect of Fitz's character but rather his relationships with other characters, and as a character driven reader I thouroughly enjoyed this book and so far am really liking this series as a whole!

I just finished this one for the second time. I remember enjoying them nearly twenty years ago, around the time my concept of God was evolving. The Wit and the Skill tied in with that nicely. 

Here is my favourite part...

The exercise for centering oneself is a simple one. Stop thinking of what you intend to do. Stop thinking of what you have just done. Then, stop thinking that you have stopped thinking of those things. Then you will find the Now, the time that stretches eternal, and is really the only time there is. Then, in that place, you will finally have time to be yourself.

2024 Reread

It took me 4 months to read this book. Clearly something didn't work for as well as it did in the first book in this series. I think it might be the pacing that slowed down in the middle part of the book or the romantic sub-plot that bored me to tears.
And with all of that, this was still a 4 star read.