#99 Royal Assassin

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb (Farseer Trilogy Book 2)

Royal Assassin is the continuation and middle book in the Farseer trilogy which is the first trilogy in the 'Realm of the Elderling' series. A brief re-cap, this book follows Fitz Chivalry Farseer who is the illegitmate child to the former king in waiting. He is unable to rule due to being a bastard child but still has enough royal blood running through him to be deemed useful by the king. He is taken on as an assassins apprentice in the first book and the second book follows Fitz as he is becoming a man, he questions whether being an assassin is a good thing and also whether he can have love whilst also keeping the king happy. Fitz developed an ability known as 'the wit' from a young age meaning he can speak with and become bonded to an animal, this ability is frowned upon and Fitz continues to keep it a secret throughout the second book.

The world building and the magic system continued to be excellent, it was even more developed and more detailed in the second book. I enjoyed Fitz' relationship with the wolf, i found this to be really interesting and i became so invested in this relationship. These books are very character driven and i found the second book to be more involved with the politics and the royal court. We definitely got more of an in-depth look into court life.

Another interesting development in this book was that Fitz finally got his girl. Molly returns mid way through the second book and although their relationship is very turbulent they do finally get together. It is Fitz's goal to marry Molly and to be allowed to leave the palace. I like the relationship, ive heard a lot of people hate on it but to me its very found family and routing for the underdog.

I became so much more invested in Fitz as a character in this book, you really feel for him in this book as he goes through so much. You constantly root for him and cheer him on when good things happen as he really does earn them from what he has been through. I really think thats a tribute to the writing that you are able to fall so deeply for this character. I wasnt as into Fitz in this first book as i am now but i attribute this to how much character develop he goes through in this book and you really see him question what he says and what he does.

Fitz' relationship with his uncle Regal is stepped up a notch in this book, just when you thought Regal couldnt hate him any more it gets worse. It made for some tense reading and i must say there are a few trigger warnings for torture and violence. It was reassuring to know that Fitz was going to make it out ok as i knew he features heavily in the third book but oh boy does Robin Hobb make you question everything you thought you knew!

Ive really shocked myself with how much i have enjoyed this series so far, before reading i found it quite intimidating as the books are huge but listening on audio really breaks it up and the voice actors do a pretty good job, they arent my favourite but compared to some other high fantasy audio books namely Game of Thrones in which the audio was terrible ive found them to be pretty good.