Come, hunt with me, the invitation whispers in my heart. Leave the pain behind and let your life be your own again. There is a place where all time is now, and the choices are simple and always your own.Wolves have no kings.
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Back in January I flew through my first novel of the year, Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice, the first novel in the authors Farseer Trilogy, originally published in 1995. It told the story of a young bastard's schooling to become, among other things, a secret assassin for his grandfather, the king. It's a fantasy novel, and one that completely blew me away, which was a nice surprise! Before reading Assassin's Apprentice, I had begun and put down numerous fantasy novels, books published within the last 10 years, that were TERRIBLY written, with dull characterization, mentions to modern technology or items that didn't exist within those worlds, and just terrible world building. I had been very discouraged after starting and stopping these novels – something I almost never do as a reader! If a book is terrible, I try my best to see it out to the end and take away what I can from it, but they were just... so mind numbing. And then came along Assassin's Apprentice. I won't recap how much I loved the first book in the Farseer Trilogy. You can read my little review of it here. But I will say that I loved it so much that I immediately jumped into the second book of the trilogy.
Royal Assassin begins right where Assassin's Apprentice leaves off, it follows FitzChivarly as he continues in his training to becoming an assassin, and grows from a teenager into a young man. It explores issues of love and delves more into the Skill and the Wit, two magics of the world that are mentioned in book one, but not as fleshed out as they become in book two. Now there's going to be some spoilers here, so if you plan on reading the book, don't continue, there's nothing major, but still... some people I know are super sensitive about spoilers.
Compared with the first book, I didn't enjoy this second one as much, and there are three reasons for that. The first is a character named Regal. Regal comes onto the scene relatively early in book one, and right away he's painted as the villain. There is never a doubt that he isn't the villain and is in some way manipulating events to his liking. At the end of book one, his treachery is all but revealed, to everyone. Like, EVERYONE knows you're a whiney little douche who just tried to take your brother's throne. At the end of book one, you want revenge on him, and you never get it. So I went into Royal Assassin thinking, okay great, first we're going to deal with Regal and then get on to other things. But NOPE. Everyone knows Regal's trouble, but they're like, "Oh Regal, you did wrong, but whatchagonnado?" And as the plot continues to spiral out of control for our characters, there's this angry twinge that seems to get poked repeatedly, because we the reader know Regal's involved. And the characters know Regal's involved, but no one does ANYTHING ABOUT IT. Every time Fitz stands up to him, the other characters say, "Hey, sit down, don't do that, he's the prince, you can't do that." So Fitz backs off, and by the end everything goes off the rails, the whole kingdom burns and everyone stands around going... "Wow... I guess we should've done something about Regal earlier."
Look I get emotionally invested in novels. As an author, and a human with a big imagination, it just happens. I get attached, I get happy, I get angry, I live the lives of the characters. But only twice in my reading hobby have I ever been livid because of a character. The first was while reading Harry Potter... and I think you know who the character was that made me so mad: Umbridge. Everyone LOVES to hate on Umbridge, because she's pure evil. Well, so far the Farseer Trilogy is like if Umbridge just kept popping up, and getting away with things, and everyone else was just one step behind, because they're too dumb to think that the threat is actually a real threat. Can you tell how angry I'm getting just from writing this? Regal man. He's the Trump of the Six Duchies.
The second reason I wasn't as into this novel as the first is because of another character named Molly. Molly is Fitz's love interest. And that right there probably tells you why I didn't like her. Look, I get that romance plays an integral part in the lives of characters. There's a lot of romance in my own fantasy series. But... I just have never liked Molly. She's self-entitled, incredibly vain, and thinks the world revolves around her. Yes, Fitz does wrong by her on numerous occasions, but she expects him to drop all of his responsibilities and cater to her own wants first, which are selfish and needy. Girl, just go away. I was so happy to see you leave in book one, I had hoped you and your cousin had been married and I'd never have to hear about you again... but here we are.
The third reason I didn't enjoy Royal Assassin as much as Assassin's Apprentice, is because, truthfully not much happened. It's almost twice the size of Royal Assassin, but about just as much happens. And when it seems like it's about to pick up – when Verity, Fitz's uncle, Regal's brother, takes up a daring quest to find an ancient race to aid the Six Duchies in their war with offshore raiders. It had me excited, we were finally going somewhere other than this drab keep, we were going to have an adventure, it was going to be grand. But nope, Fitz gets left behind, and seeing as the books are from his perspective only, we never really get the whole adventure Verity had on his quest. Truthfully, this wasn't such a bad thing. Because Fitz stayed behind, we got to see first hand how everything spiralled out of control, and into Regal's hand. And the last quarter of the novel was one tumble down a steep cliff that had me glued to the pages. And being about a fifth through the third novel in the trilogy, I'm finally getting that "quest" story I had been craving so much, so, all-in-all, I'm pretty happy.
Despite my complaints, I still really enjoyed this book. There's something very absorbing about Hobb's writing style. It's beautiful, picturesque, and draws you right in. It's heavy on the description, there isn't a lot of dialogue, and that might be what draws me in most. I've been told I excel when it comes to dialogue, and I would concur that is comes easier for me than the long Tolkien-esque descriptions... But I do love those long proses, the endless paragraphs describing the rolling hills, the forests, the sea. Hobb's writing style has bewitched me, and I have a feeling I'll be reading her books for years to come.
It's definitely a fantasy series worth reading if you enjoy fantasy, or are an author of fantasy. It's so inspiring to read someone who can paint a scene so masterfully. I've already picked up a few tips for my own, formal writing just from what I've read. So if you haven't read it yet, what are you waiting for! Go get Umbridge-level angry, at how well Hobb has written her villain!
