Assassin's Quest by Robin HobbMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.5 stars
I love Robin Hobb's writing. She writes so clearly and empathetically, I find myself deeply involved in the lives of her characters. So it surprised me greatly when I stalled at the 25% point in this one and had difficulty getting back into it. I struggled with the whole Nighteyes/”talking wolf" situation. I have no idea why it eluded my imagination, but I just couldn't embrace it. Then Fitz and Nighteyes went their own ways for a while and I regained my footing in the novel. When eventually the wolf returned to the narrative, I had found my rhythm and wasn't thrown off again.
Hobb uses echoes of the King Arthur mythos very skillfully in this volume, with King Verity and the Elderlings being roused to defend the Six Duchies and being potentially available in case of future dire need. She also explains the Forging phenomenon in brief, leaving the possibility that history could repeat itself (as it apparently had, as Verity followed in the steps of his ancestor). Looking at Hobb's Goodreads records, I see that Fitz and the Fool return for further adventures in later books. I understand this, as they are characters that readers can be fond of, with mysteries yet to be explored, in a well realized fantasy world. It would be a shame to waste these fictional resources.
Things are resolved by book's end, but very superficially. The details are skeletal, rather like saying “And they lived happily ever after" at the end of a fairy tale. I am delighted that I've got Ship of Magic in my reading plans for this year so that I can return to this universe for another visit.
Book number 372 of my Science Fiction & Fantasy Reading Project.
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