The Royal Assassin

The Royal Assassin is the second book in Robin Hobb's highly acclaimed and much-loved Farseer trilogy (the first book is The Assassin's Apprentice). When I starting reading this after the very enjoyable first book I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The Royal Assassin plunged me into a harrowing and intense series of events that didn't let up... not even at the end!

Fitz is serving his King as the Royal Assassin... it's unglamourous and demoralising work, not at all like the classical conception of what an assassin does. His work mainly concerns poisoning the Forged (citizens of the Farseer kingdom who have become violent and callous zombies thanks to the mysterious magic of the Farseer's offshore enemies, the Red Ship Raiders). Fitz remains loyal to his King and family but he grows disenchanted with his duties and the chain of command. He longs to weed out the treachery that exists within the castle, and to do battle with the Red Ship Raiders - who grow stronger and stronger with each attack they make on the Six Duchies.

The events of the first novel in the trilogy give way to a bigger canvas here... Hobb opens up her world and builds on the threads she started. With each extension of a character or idea we ask more questions and thirst for more answers, and her writing is never anything less than top notch. The character of the Fool, particularly in this novel, becomes more important - or at least we sense his importance. He's probably the most important character in all of Hobb's novels, perhaps even more so than Fitz, and he's certainly one of the most original creations in fantasy that I've come across so far.

As I mentioned earlier too, this is a harrowing book... Hobb really puts her characters through the ringer. This isn't a clean and idealistic world, it's every bit as real as our own world in terms of what people are capable of and the mistakes they make. I was shocked at where this book led and the events it builds to are a powerful achievement for Hobb. This book and the previous one cap each other off and work very well as a pair (the book still to come - Assassin's Quest, the trilogy's final entry, is an entirely different entity altogether). Hobb also takes her story in The Royal Assassin beyond where I expected it to go. The climax of The Royal Assassin is surprisingly effective and satisfying for a middle book, too often a middle book's ending can leaves a little to be desired, but not so here.