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trade paperback 1996, Spectra
Think you're having a rough life? Just try being FitzChivalry Farseer, the hero of Robin Hobb's Royal Assassin, sequel to Assassin's Apprentice. FitzChivalry, the bastard son of a crown prince, has been trained secretly as an assassin at the court of King Shrewd, his grandfather. As Shrewd's health fails and the treacherous Prince Regal schemes to usurp the throne from King-in-Waiting Verity, FitzChivalry must use all his wits and powers to thwart Regal as Verity goes on a quest for the fabled Elderlings, beings who can aid the kingdom in its struggle against the Red-Ship Raiders. And somehow while all this is going on, Fitz manages to fall in love, too.
In this story, young FitzChivalry is beaten, poisoned, and imprisoned. He spends so much time recuperating from various injuries that even the other characters remark on it, as when Prince Verity tells him, "You should avoid physical struggles, FitzChivalry. You always seem to get hurt in them." Assassin's Apprentice wasn't exactly a nonstop carnival of fun, but by the end of this book, it's looking pretty bad for the good guys. Fortunately, this is not the last book in the series.
Royal Assassin, like its predecessor, is a good page-turner. The prose style isn't fancy, but it's competent and conveys the action well. I ran out to get it right after I finished Assassin's Apprentice, and I'll probably do the same when the next installment hits the bookstores.
Review by Sara Lipowitz
Reviewed June 17, 1996
ISBN 0-553-37563-6
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