Royal Assassin (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 2)

Ms Hobb is an excellent writer. She knows how to make you care for the characters, even with all their foibles. Regal makes for an excellent villain, and Burridge is made to be an enigma, one that is both full of pleasure as well as pain. Highly recommend this book, but ONLY if you've read the first one!

This will be my largest review of any book so far but I need to excuse myself because of 4 instead of 5 stars (sry for my english). First of all I want to say the book was good, fun to read, writing of great quality, a lot of things I loved. BUT, there were also a few things that were bothering me from the start, and I couldn't shake them off until the end: 1. In both books so far, Fitz has no will or personality/character of his own, the whole plot is only what others make of him (Chade, Shrewd, the Fool, Verity, even Regal, etc.) directly or indirectly. So, I felt the whole book that I wasn't reading an open story where everything is possible and the challenges/solutions are real, but only events that must happen because someone superior must see them happen. It's not like the classic character where he by himself has to face and solve problemes and develop an undefined and intriguing personality. And, becausw Fitz was the only point of view of both books, I feel like trapped in this way of feeling the book. Anyway, the end give me a lot of hope because for sure he will have to be more independent in the following books. 2. I just can't believe that was so easy for Regal to take the power. I mean, everything was so obvious and everybody knew it but nobody decided to do anything. The whole book I was like "ok no problem, Shrewd knows what he is doing, or Verity, or the Fool, etc, it's all part of a bigger plan", but at the end everyone of them felt in despair and desbelief and helpless. I mean, Shrewd is SHREWD, how cannot he saw that coming??! I just can't stand it. Regal is like the least compelling villain in history but anyway he managed to influence the whole kingdom and take the power unscathed. 3. It's more personal, but i didn't like Fitz and Molly being together (or whatever) so fast, the book gained nothing with it, only adding some romantic material for whatever teenager reading the book. Anyway, as I said, I have big, BIG hopes for te following books.

Always so good, and now the graphic novels are coming out, keep reading!

This is the second book in the Farseer Trilogy. Fitz returns from the Mountain Kingdom still recovering from his near-death poisoning, disillusioned with his duties as royal assassin, and determined to tell King Shrewd he wants to be released from his oath. When he arrives, he finds the Six Duchies under siege by the marauding Red Ship Raiders, who are turning more and more of the coastal people into zombie-like husks. King Shrewd has grown ill, and his scheming, duplicitous son Regal is moving to undermine Verity, the rightful King-in-Waiting. Desperate to save his kingdom, Verity weakens his own claim to the throne by leaving on a quest beyond the Mountain Kingdom in search of the legendary Elderlings, who are rumored to hold the key to defeating the Raiders. Fitz’s love and loyalty to both King Shrewd and Verity pull him back into the web of politics and betrayal, even as his heart longs for a simpler life with his childhood sweetheart, Molly. The tension between Fitz’s desire for normalcy and his need to please the authority figures in his life -- King Shrewd, Verity, Burrich, and Chade -- is even more intense in this book. Against all advice, he falls into a romantic relationship with Molly. Because she’s of the servant class, their connection damages her reputation, and she’s seen by others as nothing more than a royal’s plaything, even if that royal is a bastard. Though Fitz matures somewhat, he is still very young and has no solid examples of healthy relationships to follow. He’s torn between duty and love, and it’s painful to watch him try to balance both. I was on edge through the entire book, aching to see how Fitz would handle the impossible choices that kept being thrust upon him and how his decisions would ripple through the Six Duchies he’s come to love. The weight on his shoulders feels crushing, and yet he carries it with a kind of stubborn grace that makes you root for him all the more. Second books in a series are often slower or less compelling than the first, but not this one. Royal Assassin is every bit as gripping and beautifully written as Assassin’s Apprentice. I couldn’t put it down. What makes this book stand out is how it deepens Fitz’s story without losing the immersive world or the emotional stakes that made the first book so compelling. We see him grow, struggle, and fail in ways that feel utterly real, and the consequences of his choices resonate long after the last page. The combination of political intrigue, magic, and raw human emotion makes this installment impossible to put down and keeps you eagerly reaching for the next book.

Ahhhh! This series is destroying me!! It is a vibrant and immersive a tale as I have read. The characters vividly alive in my mind, the treacheries cleave my heart and soul. Magics and menace are powerfully woven into the this harsh and beautiful world.

Fitz has finished his first assassin mission, and has become quite disillusioned about life at court. But even though he decides to leave, he gets dragged back into Royal intrigues, almost against his will. I enjoy these books a lot, but I have one complaint: Fitz almost seems to behave as a woman thinks a man would behave, like Robin Hobb has almost written him a bit too stupid at times. It is still a very good series, with a great world and original magic system. Fitz himself just rubs me the wrong way sometimes.

This edition of the book is stunning and is definitely worth the price tag compared to the normal paperback. This is coming from a library user who only owns about 25 books in total. The illustrations add a lot to the reading experience, the binding is very durable, and the paper feels premium. I wish all the Realm of the Elderlings came in illustrated special edition! Please Robin Hobb we need Liveship Traders next! Also this book is one of my favorite reads of the year. 5 star book for me.

Toda esta serie es buena

Kitaplar tertemiz, kargo hızlıydı🌻

I love all the entire series of books, I also love the new illustrated editions as it puts some of the characters in perspective. Really great, and I would definitely recommend these.

Sometimes, at the close of a book, you feel almost physically drained. I had forgotten, quite forgotten, exactly how tough this series is: I can’t believe I was so young when I read it first (this was a reread). It’s harder and more brutal by far than the work of any other author I can remember reading, even more than George R.R. Martin, who is usually referenced as the example par excellence of an author who refuses to wrap his characters in cotton wool. The miraculous thing is that it all just binds you in to the story ever more tightly. There must be few mid-series books with such a raw ending, but at least the closing mood is one of mitigated triumph. Despite the darker plot-threads that begin to unravel in this instalment, Hobb’s solid sense of place and character never fails to delight. The court at Buckkeep becomes an ever more absorbing bustle of plots, secrets and gossip and Fitz rapidly learns that he must be on his guard both within and without. As his relationships with those around him change, to echo the change in himself, he realises that adults are no better at making sense of their lives than he is, with his adolescent torments and confusions. And, enmeshed in the court hierarchy, these adults rarely have as clear and insightful an understanding of events as does Fitz, with his assassin’s eyes. He continues to follow Chade’s directions: to aid Verity, protect Kettricken and defend King Shrewd, but this becomes a crushing weight for such young shoulders to bear. Hobb is extremely good at avoiding the suggestion that Fitz is the protagonist for anyone except her readers. All her characters have their own dreams and hopes and lives and you have a very firm sense that there are all sorts of other interesting stories unfurling at the sides of the novel that we never get to hear about. She drops tantalising hints about Chade’s past that I don’t think are ever fully fleshed out. Fitz moves through a world which is completely self-absorbed and really doesn’t take much notice of him; and that’s unusual in a genre where the heroes, like Rothfuss's Kvothe in The Name of the Wind , are often extravagant, extrovert mavericks. Most of the people who do notice Fitz end up using him – perhaps kindly, perhaps with the best of intentions, perhaps with regret – as an instrument in their own plans. That’s even true (perhaps even more true) of the Fool. It all combines to create a stifling sense of claustrophobia, a world in which no one can really be trusted. Even those whom Fitz considers his protectors are willing to take desperate gambles in which he is the pawn that faces sacrifice. If you can finish this book and not end up staring at the wall, feeling exhausted and wrung-out, then you’re stronger than I am. But this is part of the contract this series makes with you. It demands a particularly intense engagement from its readers and in return it sweeps us into one of the most addictive and absorbing fantasy worlds I know. For the full review, please see my blog

Those in power can sometimes find themselves so utterly out of it that it suddenly makes them feel as helpless as a corpse buried twelve feet under the ground. And, sometimes those without any power at all can move mountains. After a quick turn of events at the end of the previous book in the series, this one brings everything back into motion, albeit at a much slower pace than the previous one. We get to know more about the world of the Six Duchies and glimpses of that of the Outislanders. The relationships between the Six Duchies in terms of trades, conflicts, and alliances is nicely done. Finally, the well-established magic system evolves at a nice pace throughout as we learn bits and pieces about the Skill and the Wit throughout the book. The book is filled with lots of great quotes, from witty one-liners to humorous dialogues to long philosophical blurbs. The author’s writing style really puts you into that ancient tone that this book emanates without making it extremely difficult to follow. The character development in this book has the same genius that it had in the previous one. Characters are fleshed out to perfection and the behavior of every person in the book feels so true to what has been said about him. It's hard to find even a single flaw in the character development department of this book. In the end, though, not all is well with the book. I found some issues with the pacing of the book. It moves very slowly at times, crawling almost like a snail. And in some instances, I found it to be racing too quickly, the events unfolding at an alarming pace. That is not to say that it feels boring, far from it. The pacing follows events as they unfold from the narrator’s perspective and at the end, as secrets unfold about the events, it all starts to fall into place. Overall, I would rate it 9/10. A wonderful read throughout and a must-read if you have read the previous one.