Royal Assassin (Spoiler Alert!)

SYNOPSIS:

Fitz has survived his first hazardous mission as king’s assassin, but is left little more than a cripple. Battered and bitter, he vows to abandon his oath to King Shrewd, remaining in the distant mountains. But love and events of terrible urgency draw him back to the court at Buckkeep, and into the deadly intrigues of the royal family.

Renewing their vicious attacks on the coast, the Red-Ship Raiders leave burned-out villages and demented victims in their wake. The kingdom is also under assault from within, as treachery threatens the throne of the ailing king. In this time of great danger, the fate of the kingdom may rest in Fitz’s hands—and his role in its salvation may require the ultimate sacrifice.

REVIEW

(2.5 STARS)

Idea (10/20)

I still don’t know what Robin Hobb was thinking when she wrote the sequel to The Assassin’s Apprentice. This book has 600 or so pages and the action only takes place in the last 100. It felt like the subplot of the first book (the romance between Fitz and Molly) became the author's main interest, relegating the story about the Six Duchies and the Red Ships to second place.

Plot (10/20):

Our characters are oblivious to the terrible things that are happening around them, focusing solely on themselves and their immediate problems. Because of this carelessness, nothing goes the way it’s supposed to be, which is extremely frustrating since, up to this moment, I thought these characters had stronger personalities.

There’s nothing worse when characters disappoint you since their actions influence the plot. The feeling I have is that everything could’ve been avoided if only they hadn’t been egocentric, narcissistic and childish. They weren’t the people we met in the first book. It felt like Hobb had to destroy them for the story to go the way she wanted and I hate when the characters stop acting like themselves just to appease their author. They should be coherent, otherwise, the story stops making sense. That’s what ended up happening, sadly, with ‘Royal Assassin’.

Characters (7/20):

The only character I liked was Nighteyes, the wolf, and this in itself says a lot. Everyone else lost their minds.

Fitz was obsessed with Molly and that got in the way of everything: his allegiance to Shrewd, his intellect and his assassin knowledge. He became an annoying teenager who’s main concern was when he'd be able to get laid again. He spent his days chasing after a woman he couldn't have and his judgment was more clouded than a stormy sky. Everything was going sideways, but he didn't give a fudge.

Verity was another disappointment: besides completely ignoring his wife, he suddenly decided to leave the kingdom in the hands of his sick father who’s being controlled by his youngest, cruel, deadly brother, Regal. WHERE’S THE LOGIC IN THAT? It was obvious that the minute he was to step out of the scene, Regal would make a power move, but Verity leaves nonetheless, not caring at all about anyone.

Chade, the most well-trained assassin, failed to see how his nephew was poisoning the King and did nothing to save him and in turn, Shrewd, who can Skill, failed to warn his son to what was happening to him.

Everything sucked. The only characters that made the book tolerable, (besides de Nighteyes), were Burrich, Patience, Kettriken and the Fool.

Speaking of the Fool: WHY IN SATAN’S NAME DIDN’T ANYONE CARE ABOUT WHAT HE WAS SAYING? He can literally see the future and yet Fitz was always freaking out about it, so much he almost hit him senseless.

TL;DR: no one was themselves and instead of growing, everyone became more childish, gullible and naive.

World (14/20):

The story’s setting is the same as in the first book and you know I love the Six Duchies. There are, however, two new variables: the place Verity thinks the Elderlings live; and the Outislanders' country, that Chade visited and wrote a passage about.

None of these places was explored by Hobb, however. We finish ‘Royal Assassin’ without knowing much about them, except that they exist.

Writing (16/20):

Despite having hated the way things were going and the way our characters were dealing with the events, I love Hobb’s writing to death. She’s a Fantasy master and her medieval-inspired world is extremely original and enticing. You want to know more about it, to explore every corner and figure out every answer, even though you can see that living there wouldn’t be ideal.

She must be the only writer that can keep me interested during long descriptions and whose book I didn’t give up reading even though I was hating every moment of it. I just needed to know how this crazy adventure ends, so before finishing this second instalment I was already ordering the third.

TOTAL: 57/100