Royal Assassin
The Farseer Trilogy, Book 2
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Narrated by:
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Paul Boehmer
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By:
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Robin Hobb
About this listen
Young Fitz, the illegitimate son of the noble Prince Chivalry, is ignored by all royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has had him tutored him in the dark arts of the assassin. He has barely survived his first, soul-shattering mission, and when he returns to the court, he is thrown headfirst into the tumult of royal life.
With the king near death, and Fitz's only ally off on a seemingly hopeless quest, the throne itself is threatened.
Meanwhile, the treacherous Red Ship Raiders have renewed their attacks on the Six Duchies, slaughtering the inhabitants of entire seaside towns. In this time of great peril, it soon becomes clear that the fate of the kingdom may rest in Fitz's hands - and his role in its salvation may require the ultimate sacrifice.
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Some of the parchment pages were the color of cream, thick and substantial, made to last many, many lifetimes. Other pages were thin and desiccated, positively yellow from age, and crackled alarmingly as Van Richten turned them over. There were no ornate illuminations, no fussy borders, only lines of plain text in hard black ink. The flowing handwriting was a bit difficult to follow at first; the writer's style of calligraphy had not been in common use for 300 years. No table of contents, but from the dates it looked to be some kind of history.
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Love it...just one complaint....
- By Ryan Conrad on 03-15-14
By: P. N. Elrod
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The Dark Mirror
- Bridei Trilogy #1
- By: Juliet Marillier
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 24 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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One bitter Midwinter's Eve, everything changes when Bridei finds a child on their doorstep - a child abandoned by the Fair Folk. It is the height of ill fortune to have truck with the Fair Folk, and all in the area counsel the babe's death. But Bridei sees an old and precious magic at work and, heedless of the danger, fights to save the child. Broichan is wary but relents, for Bridei must grow to be his own man and make his own decisions.
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disappointing
- By Binia on 11-18-08
By: Juliet Marillier
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Sheepfarmer's Daughter
- The Deed of Paksenarrion, Book 1
- By: Elizabeth Moon
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 15 hrs and 48 mins
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Refusing to marry a pig farmer and joining the army, even if it means never seeing her family again, Paksenarrion begins an adventure that enables her to restore an overthrown ruler.
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Enjoyable Listen!
- By Josiah on 07-30-10
By: Elizabeth Moon
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Come Back to Me
- A Novel
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- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
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After centuries of conflict, a peace treaty has finally been drawn between the warring Saxons and Norse—largely due to the wisdom and bravery of the legendary Viking leader Wolf Hakonson and the noble warrior Lord Hawk. Hawk and Wolf each married women from warring clans to unite the Saxons and Norse. But for all its blessings, the promise of peace will remain fragile—unless it can be sealed forever by a third and final marriage between these two proud clans.
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bodice ripper; thin on authentic history
- By Elizabeth on 12-21-04
By: Josie Litton
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Magic Casement
- A Man of His Word, Book 1
- By: Dave Duncan
- Narrated by: Mil Nicholson
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Princess Inos lived an idyllic life in her fathers' sleepy, backwater kingdom, and she was best friends with her childhood companion, the stableboy, Rap. But when a prophecy seemed to say Inos should be married, she was exiled to the Impire to learn to be a lady. She was far away when Rap's magical talents began to emerge, and it was he who told her of the fate awaiting them both.
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One of my favorite Fantasy Series
- By Sean Dustman on 10-12-12
By: Dave Duncan
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Gwenhwyfar
- The White Spirit (A Novel of King Arthur)
- By: Mercedes Lackey
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
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Gwenhwyfar moves in a world where gods walk among their pagan worshipers, where nebulous visions warn of future perils, and where there are two paths for a woman: the path of the Blessing or the rarer path of the Warrior. Gwenhwyfar chooses the latter, giving up the power that she is born into. Yet the daughter of a king is never truly free to follow her own calling.
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Good Book, Distracting Narrator
- By P. Stover on 12-14-09
By: Mercedes Lackey
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Kushiel's Dart
- By: Jacqueline Carey
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 31 hrs and 5 mins
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The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good...and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt.
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The Kushiel series in order
- By Glen Gaines on 10-27-09
By: Jacqueline Carey
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Cephrael's Hand
- A Pattern of Shadow and Light, Book 1
- By: Melissa McPhail
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 32 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In Alorin...300 years after the genocidal Adept Wars, the realm is dying, and the blessed Adept race dies with it. One man holds the secret to reverting this decline: Bjorn van Gelderan, a dangerous and enigmatic man whose shocking betrayal three centuries past earned him a traitor's brand. It is the Adept Vestal Raine D'Lacourte's mission to learn what Bjorn knows in the hope of salvaging his race. But first he'll have to find him....
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This is a great book!!!
- By Dason on 07-30-16
By: Melissa McPhail
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Daughter of the Forest
- Sevenwaters, Book 1
- By: Juliet Marillier
- Narrated by: Terry Donnelly
- Length: 26 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Lovely Sorcha is the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. Bereft of a mother, she is comforted by her six brothers who love and protect her. Sorcha is the light in their lives and they are determined that she know only contentment. But Sorcha's joy is shattered when her father is bewitched by his new wife, an evil enchantress who binds her brothers with a terrible spell, a spell which only Sorcha can lift - by staying silent.
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Compelling story--but only at 1.5x
- By barefoot rabbit on 09-09-13
By: Juliet Marillier
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Empress
- Godspeaker, Book 1
- By: Karen Miller
- Narrated by: Josephine Bailey
- Length: 20 hrs and 21 mins
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In a family torn apart by poverty and violence, Hekat is no more than an unwanted mouth to feed, worth only a few coins from a passing slave trader. But Hekat was not born to be a slave. For her, a different path has been chosen. It is a path that will take her from stinking back alleys to the house of her God, from blood-drenched battlefields to the glittering palaces of Mijak. This is the story of Hekat, slave to no man.
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depressing and left me feeling empty
- By Bonnie on 09-16-09
By: Karen Miller
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Shadowmarch
- Shadowmarch, Volume I
- By: Tad Williams
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 29 hrs and 19 mins
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For generations the misty Shadowline has marked the boundary between the lands of men and the lost northern lands that are the lair of their inhuman enemies, the ageless Qar. But now that boundary line is moving outward, threatening to engulf the northernmost land in which humans still live - the kingdom of Southmarch.
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It's the characters that matter...
- By JC on 11-09-10
By: Tad Williams
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What listeners say about Royal Assassin
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- Dave
- 04-11-17
frustrating
the political intrigue was frustrating. everyone was an idiot for not dealing with Regal at the end of the first book
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- Joe Kraus
- 03-16-18
Sustains the Good Work of the First Book
I’ll repeat my earlier conclusion in this, the second of Hobb’s Farseer trilogy: after George R.R. Martin, she is the most capable person writing in this slice of the fantasy genre. She has a clear vision of the world she’s describing, she has the ability to move a plot forward (though, given the constraints of the way the genre is marketed, she does so very slowly), and she has a sense of deep detail. When you read her stuff, you get a sense of the very specific economy of the seven duchies. You see what it means to run a stable, to make and market your scented candles, or to learn the hard lessons of how to fight. Many of her competitors try, but they fall far short of what she accomplishes. She runs on, but she does so in a careful survey of the world she’s invented.
On top of that, in this volume particularly, she is using her “system of magic” (a term I don’t like since it treats something potentially wondrous like an algebra problem) to explore a legitimate, human question: to what extent are we “selves” in the sense of being locked in our own experience, and to what extent are we connected to others who are sorting out what it means to be alive.
One of the magics in play here, the wit, is precisely that. It’s an extra sense that allows you to know what animals are experiencing. In its extreme form, it means “bonding” to an animal, making an alliance with a creature very different from yourself and thereafter seeing the world through two sets of senses.
Hobb is at her best and most compelling here when she brings that material out. The scenes where Fitz comes to bond with his wolf, Night Eyes, are among the best. Hobb avoids the easy way of describing it, avoids the notion that getting to see through a wolf’s eyes is somehow an addition to oneself. Instead, she makes clear that it exacts a price. It’s too much like love, too close to giving ones full self over, to be something that is merely empowering.
We get the voice of Burrich who knows to fear the wit, who knows the potential for it to turn a man into an animal. Fitz insists he’s wrong, but we see enough to know that Burrich has a point. Giving that much of yourself to anyone – even in the more conventional sense of dedicating oneself to king or country – is somehow wrong. I almost used the word “sinful,” but that’s not quite right. The concept is more fundamental, more a matter of deep gut instinct than any larger system of ethics.
We get a parallel concern in the way ‘the skill’ works. At its best, in the hands of Prince Verity, it allows someone to send his or her strength to others. (It also allows someone to beguile another, but Verity makes clear that such magic isn’t to his taste, even as he spends much of the book practicing it.) It lets you give of yourself to others in ways that simultaneously deplete you. For Verity, it’s also about love, loving his subjects, but it’s wearing him out.
So, with those kinds of ideas in play and the rich detail that Hobb gives, this middle book in the trilogy sustains the strong work of the first book. I can’t entirely forgive what seems like unnecessary slowness, but I did find myself caught up in the action as Fitz found himself going up against Regal and his coterie.
If you don’t care for the genre – and there is enough silliness inherent in it that I get your concern – this isn’t the one to start with. If you’ve enjoyed Game of Thrones, though, this is better than any of the dozens of door-stopper imitators and wannabes I’m aware of.
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- Kindle Customer
- 09-17-16
The Fitz takes his lumps
this one is a hard listen at times because of how much Fitz suffers. there's an aspect of teen angst at times but there are serious traumatic events as well. it makes me want to hurry up and get to the next books so he can (hopefully) find some relief. having read all of Hobb's work in this world a while back, going back through and listening is like getting it for the first time.
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- George
- 07-27-12
An original saga
Would you listen to Royal Assassin again? Why?
Possibly it was a great story and well preformed.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Chade he was the man in the shadows, who knows everything and pulls the strings.
Which character – as performed by Paul Boehmer – was your favorite?
Burich the old gruff, no nonsense man.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The ending where Fitz tried to kill everyone.
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- Snoracks
- 10-17-18
Pretty Good for Most of It
Hobb does a fantastic job getting you to care about a lot of the characters she has created. While the narrator, Fitz, can be very frustrating in that you wish he would be better, it lets the characters around him really shine. It's a sign of well drawn characters where I just want to know more about and hear more about from just about every main character except the villain. I especially wish we got more from Lady Patience, whose relationship with Fitz I find to be extremely interesting.
The narration is good. I really love his intonation and his character voices are distinct and he rarely loses them. I feel as if I would hear the Fool differently if I were reading this in print, but I still think it fits. A lot of times these fantasy titles can have bad narrators, but I was extremely satisfied with Paul Boehmer.
I have yet to listen to the third one and while I do want to know where this goes, it did not leave me craving more Farseer Trilogy. Yet, I have to say the writing is so superb and the characters so great I feel sort of required to finish it.
As to whether this book is better than the first one I have to say I preferred the first book, as I found the climax much more compelling. I still liked this one a lot though.
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- Alan
- 04-10-16
Fine story and great performance
Fine story and great performance. Only weak point would be why would king in waiting go on a quest when father dying/demented and half brother wanting the throne.
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- Michael
- 02-23-15
Very exciting!
Starts off slow building up to an epic climax! Cant wait to see how this fantastic series ends!
Awesome book
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- Glenn
- 03-16-11
Literary sustenance
If you have read Assassins Apprentice then prepare to rejoin Fitz in his life at Buckeep. As he fast approaches manhood he learns more of his strengths, weaknesses and loves. As always Robin Hobb intertwines the story with a familarity that makes you think of the characters as friends & in the case of Regal enemies. If you havent expereinced Robin Hobb do so NOW
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- Anonymous User
- 12-24-12
As good as the first...
Wonderful series, great character development, and a super listen. As with most epic tales at some point the story drags a little, but overall still a 5 star with me.
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- Sam Abbot
- 02-08-15
Great!
An excellent book excellently delivered! I look forward to the next chapter , Assassin's Quest !
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