Book Review: Royal Assassin

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb

Title: Royal Assassin

Author: Robin Hobb

Series: Farseer Trilogy

Format: Paperback

Genre: Fantasy

Goodreads

Blurb: 

FitzChivalry has survived his first treacherous foray as an assassin, but barely. The poison used by the ambitious Prince Regal has left Fitz weak and prone to unpredictable seizures. Fitz vows to never return to Buckkeep and his king. A vision of the young woman he loves fending off an attack by the merciless Red-ship Raiders convinces Fitz otherwise, and he rouses himself to go back to the royal court of the Six Duchies.

Plot: ★★★★

Like I've mentioned previously in my review of the first installment of this series, I really enjoy the plot and setting of the series. The second book deals a lot more with treachery within the royal family of Buckkeep, has more hints toward some kind of 'beast magic', which made it ultimately more interesting than the first book. It dishes out a lot more details on lore and myths spread around the Six Duchies, which as a reader is always nice to have.

Characters: ★★★★

In the sequel some characters come into the foreground more than they did in the first. One of those characters, and by far one of my favourites in this second book, is Queen-In-Waiting Kettricken. Something about her just stuck to me. Her bravery, the way she's willing to risk her own life for the people of Buckkeep at certain points in the story. She's a very likable character. Patience and Lacey have a more prominent role in the sequel as well, which I adored seeing as Patience was one of my favourites in the first book. The characters, as before, are superbly written.

Writing: ★★★.5

I'm usually not a big fan of books written in the first person, never have been. With that said, Robin Hobb completely won me over with her writing style and her way of describing certain things. Definitely one of the best first-person perspective books I've read-- ever. 

Ending: ★★★★
This book's end doesn't disappoint. It sets up an array of possibilities for the sequel-- and the last installment in the series-- with a highly climactic ending. It definitely instills the desire to continue reading, to find out more about what's going to happen to Fitz.

Rereadability: Yes.

Final rating: ★★★★

Maybe I'm being too generous with my ratings here, but I really enjoyed reading this book. It took me a while to finish it due to college taking over most of my free time, but I'm glad I finally got around to finishing it. Definitely recommended to anyone that's into the fantasy genre.