The Reread - Realm of the Elderlings #2: Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb

Realm of the Elderlings reread

Assassin's Apprentice

Okay! The RotE reread is happening. I listened to Royal Assassin - all 29 hours - in the last couple of weeks. Man, this series is so good. 

Fitz is super sick because of the poisoning situation at the end of the last book. He's whiny for a very long time about it. He returns to Buckkeep. His crush, Molly, is a servant at the castle and he's such a moony teenager about it. Fitz saves a baby wolf cub from a terrible breeder (BABY NIGHTEYES) and they are soon connected through the Wit. Prince Regal is a dick. King-in-Waiting Verity is an idiot who decides he needs to leave Buckkeep on a mission to find the Elderlings. King Shrewd gets super sick after Verity leaves...I wonder what dick is behind that? 

Regal announces that Verity is dead, but Fitz knows he isn't because he has Skilled with Verity. Ugh. Regal throws Fitz into a dungeon and tortures him and Fitz does some super special poisoner trick to make everyone believe he's dead. But then Burrich and Chade dig up his body at the end of the book. 

Nighteyes!!! Woot woot. 

There is a lot of mooning about Molly in this book. Molly is pretty terrible, but Fitz is hitting that, so I can see why he is so worried about her. ANYWAY. Other than that slow bit at the front with that business, this book MOVES and is so good. I'm so glad this series is holding up. 

4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

"And if I don't get better? If I just stay like this, where the tremors or fits can come over me at any time?"

His answer was slow in coming. "Live with it. Many folks have to live with worse. Most of the time you're fine. You're not blind. You're not paralyzed. You've your wits, still. Stop defining yourself by what you can't do. Why don't you consider what you didn't lose?" (page 10)

Fitz is such a baby. 

"It's all changed, forever, now," I observed to the night. My words whirled away with the snowflakes.

"What has?" Burrich asked cautiously. His tone bespoke his worry that I might be getting feverish again.

"Everything. How you treat me. When you aren't thinking about it. How Hands treats me. Two years ago he and I were friends. Just two boys working in the stables. But tonight, he treated me like some sickly weakling...not even someone he can insult about it..." (page 44)

The first part of the book really did remind me that poor Fitz is just a teenager. 

"Justice. There's a thing we shall ever thirst after, and ever be parched. No. We content ourselves with law." (page 58)

Do you see a distinction between justice and the law? My husband teaches an entire course on this question. 

Vixen had lived a long life, for a hound, but still too short for Burrich's heart. To bond to any animal was to promise oneself that future pain. (page 188)

NOOOO. RIP Vixen. 

We go far. Will you be able to keep pace with the horses?

Over a short distance they can outspeed me. But nothing outdistances the trotting wolf. (page 497)

I love Nighteyes with all my heart. Like...yes, my first tattoo would be of Francie and the two of hearts, but maybe a wolf tattoo would be next? 

Within the castle courtyard, it seemed an ordinary day. Stable help came to take the horses while other servants and folk moved about on the ordinary business of the Keep. Somehow the very familiarity of it rattled against my nerves like stones. Verity was dead. It did not seem right that life should go on in such a workaday fashion. (page 516)

This. I love this commentary on grief. It makes me feel very seen. 

Hat mentions (why hats?):

"It reminds me of the old folktale of the beggar who had but a hat to cover his nakedness," I told Verity. He smiled without humor.

"Would that I could move my ships as swiftly as he did his hat," he wished grimly. (page 326)

He fluffed his plumed hat...(page 524)

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Have you read this series? Do you think whiny teenagers are the worst?