Book 34: Royal Assassin

Next book in my quest to read my height in books in 2020 is the sequel to the book Assassin's Apprentice which I reviewed a few weeks ago. Looking back on the review, it wasn't one of my easiest reads this year, was a very slow burner, but picked up a lot of pace at the end. Royal Assassin was the same, however was a lot more enjoyable.

So here we have it, a stunning cover once again, and a book that I went into with little idea of where the plot would take me. Royal Assassin picks up after the events of Assassin's Apprentice, with the main character, Fitz, convalescing in the mountain kingdom where he was poisoned by Prince Regal. He eventually makes his way back to Buckkeep, the main town/city of his kingdom.

Once back, he finishes his recovery, before taking up his position again within the King, and his heir. His main undertaking as an assassin is to protect the kingdom from 'Forged' ones, whilst advising the King, heir and queen in waiting. The only issue is that the King is deteriorating in his health, and fast.

Fitz discovers that the love of his life, Molly, is still alive, having had a vision that she may have been killed during an enemy raid, and they begin a clandestine relationship, against the advice of his grandfather, the King, and Prince Verity, as well as his stepmother Patience. Eventually, he comes clean to Molly about his true role in court, and she leaves repulsed. During this time, and throughout the book, Fitz grows a bond with a wolf cub whom he rescued from a merchant. The two, despite Fitz's attempts not to, become closer and they aid each other as they grow.

Fitz is assigned into the navy during the summer of the book, as an oarsman, and he grows physically stronger, taking part in counter-attacks against the red raiders, before Prince Verity, with his wife's blessing, embarks on a lone quest to seek out a powerful legendary people, the Elderlings. However with Verity out the way, Regal starts to make moves of his own to sieze control. His lackeys continue to slowly kill the king, whilst sending people to attempt to take the life of Verity and his entourage on their quest to the Elderlings.

To make matters worse, 'news' then reaches the court that Verity has been killed and that therefore, Regal must become the heir and king in waiting. Fitz and his allies know that Verity is still alive, and make plans to evacuate Verity's queen, Ketterick and the King away from the castle to a safe place, before Regal, growing in power and allies. After Regal is formally named as Heir, the plan is enacted, however in the attempt, the king dies and Fitz is caught, and imprisoned for regicide, but not before he has killed the true murderers who have drained the lifeforce from the King via the 'skill' (a kind of telepathic magic that allowed long distance communication).

The end of the book climaxes with the imprisonment, torture and eventual 'death' of Fitz. However, it seems as though he's somehow managed to transfer his consciousness into his bonded wolf. So I live in hope that he may somehow live, so that he can brutally murder Regal!

So the book itself, the story was good, it's once again very character driven, the action scenes are not the longest, but are detailed enough for the book. However I found once again that the pace of the book was a bit slow for the first half. I struggled to motivate myself to read more than 10 pages at a time at first. However the pacing of the storyline picked up fairly rapidly, until I found myself unwilling to put the book down.

The character development in the book was once again brilliant, but I feel that this is one reason why the book's pacing was so slow at points. Fitz really grew as a character, both physically and emotionally. The most intriguing characters in the book are the Fool, who you seem to learn a lot about, yet don't know a thing about, and Regal who is absolutely despicable! He's one of those people who doesn't put a foot wrong on the outside, yet is so inherently evil on the inside that you just want rid of them in any way necessary. It's one reason why I will read the final book in the trilogy, and then the rest of the series' that seem to be centred around Fitz.

All in all, it was a slow book, but enjoyable. A few pacing issues but I feel that that may be the way that Robin Hobb writes.

Royal Assassin: 4.5cm

Total Read so far: 34 books, 106.5cm

Total left to read: 86.5cm