 Hey guys it's Liana and I'm here today to talk about Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb. I am filming this again because I didn't know that my camera wasn't recording and I was most of the way through my review when I realized that I was not happy. So hopefully it's smoother the second time. Assassin's Quest is the third book in the farce of your trilogy by Robin Hobb. Mara kind of, I don't want to blame Mara, I don't want to, I'm not pissed at her or anything, but she kind of put me off finishing this the month that you're supposed to be reading it because she was like it was getting slumpy and sluggish and I knew that I had to push through if I was gonna finish this. And so when I learned that even though I had started reading it I was like oh like I have a lot to read this month and I don't know if I can push through a book that's gonna be slumpy or sluggish. So I was like I will maybe, maybe I'm not gonna prioritize trying to finish this right now, I'll finish it in another month because we do want to read the Liveship Trader series this summer so like I wanted to get this finished now despite that so I was like all right let's get this done. And also a goal for the year was to finish the Farsieger trilogy. Yay, achieved a goal for the year, good job me. But yeah so having learned that or heard that from her then I was you know like okay well let's let's do the thing. And I at no point was bored by this book, I kept expecting to be and I wasn't. Now do I think that this book has extraneous material? Do I think that there are things that could be cut and wouldn't really affect the like cohesiveness of the plot? That there are things that don't move the plot forward that are kind of redundant? Absolutely. But at no point was I bored at no point would I say this would be better if it was cut. Can it be cut? Yes. If we were trying to condense this for an adaptation could some of this be cut out? Yes. If we were alarmed by the page length and we're simply trying to reduce the page length for like no other reason other than to reduce the page length. Yes there are things you could absolutely cut and the story would still make perfect sense. But I don't think that there would it be any benefit or value to cutting stuff like unless you're like worried that people are going to be put off by the length of this book and for that reason alone you want to cut stuff there's stuff you could cut. But I don't think that this book is like suffering from being too long. Apparently other people do think so so perhaps it should be cut because I wouldn't be unhappy and they would be happier so I don't know. But I didn't feel bored by this at all. It's kind of like uh like when you get the director's cut of a movie that has all the scenes that were cut obviously they could have been they could be cut and they were cut for theatrical release. But a lot of those scenes are great and a lot of times if it's a movie you love then you enjoy the longer version because there's all these extra scenes that you also really enjoy. The extended editions of Lord of the Rings are the editions of Lord of the Rings in my opinion. Obviously they cut a bunch of stuff for the theatrical release and like it didn't hurt the like integrity of the plot but I only watched the extended editions. More Lord of the Rings is never bad. So let's kind of feel about this is like the extended cut of Assassin's Quest. There isn't a theatrical cut there isn't only the extended cut but I'm fine with it because I enjoyed the whole thing. Now this is a journey book which I know that some people even in the best of times even when it's only like a small part of a book or it's a shorter book will find that just the fact of that to be exhausting or draining or sloggy like it doesn't matter if it's like an exciting quest the fact of it being a quest is gonna make it a slog for you and if that's the case I mean yes this at all times basically this book is a journey book. There are different journeys it's not all one journey. There are side quests and the main quest but it is nearly the entire time people on the move on a journey on a trip on the road. So if that's gonna bother you then I could see this book getting slumpy and sloggy for you absolutely that doesn't really ever bother me like the fact of that never bothers me. There are times when I think an author has indulged in a lengthy road trip for no reason and I wasn't really enjoying my time with it because I because of how it was written not the fact of it being a journey for example in wise men's fear by Patrick Rothfuss one of my ultimate favorite authors the part where they are in a kind of a journey phase in wise men's fear that is way too long that I do think could be cut and should be cut here I don't think any of this really needs to be cut could be cut but doesn't need to be again without spoilers this is a non-spoiler review which I mean I don't think is going to be a big problem for me because like I've noticed when I've you know watched myself back in editing videos that I can apparently talk about a book for like 40 minutes and never tell you what it's about I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing but I just do it on the regular without even trying but so based on the titles alone you can surmise a lot about this book the assassin's apprentice it is an assassin in training you know that from the title royal assassin okay well then the previous apprentice is now the assassin and now the the apprentice then royal assassin is now on a quest so like you know the like plot arc that that basic framework just from the titles alone these books follow fits chivalry farce here from like childhood into adulthood he's a single pov story with his not multiple perspectives it is always fits chivalry's story so if you're sick of being in fits chivalry's head you're gonna be in his head a lot just because all these books are in his head and then in particular a journey book I feel like somehow feels more like you're in someone's head I think partly because like when you are even yourself like hiking like you're in your own head more than you are just generally when you go about your life there's less I guess to distract you because you're just kind of like walking walking walking and being kind of in your own head so you're very much in fits his head in assassin's quest as he's questing and if you don't like him being in fits his head well I don't recommend the farce here trilogy to you at all if you don't like this as a character it's his story so it's not gonna be for you if you don't like fits and you're extra extra deep in fits you know okay I don't like how that sounded you're very much in fits his head in assassin's quest while he's questing so if you don't like him you don't like being in one character's head for a long time if you don't like journeys I feel like you probably very likely will be miserable reading assassin's quest no no I like this as a character I like doing deep dive since I was head I don't have any problem with journey books so like I had a great time however I did give it four stars not five and I gave for a assassin five stars I do think royal assassin is the best of the trilogy assassin's quest I I didn't dock at a star because I thought I was too long or because it was too meandering or because it was a slog or a slump or anything like that that wasn't my problem apparently that is other people's problem for me it was more that some of the the the major plot arc that's kind of thread through all three books because there's there's individual arcs for each book of course but there is a one large arc that encompasses all three and the the answers to questions that have were posed in the beginning of the trilogy the the reveals for mysteries that were present in the beginning of the trilogy you like the way that this culminates and gets wrapped up at the end of assassin's quest it was a bit disappointing to me and part of that might be just like you find out who the murderer is might just be that like the answer to a mystery is never as interesting or as cool as the mystery itself like find you want the answer so bad when you get it you're like well it's boring now like finding out how a magic trick is done you're like well I really wanted to know but now that I know well it's not so fun anymore is it it's kind of boring now so what exactly that I mean there that might be part of it just that like knowing the answer to questions like it's never as interesting as the question itself but that assigned I think also that it just also was kind of a disappointing answer to some of those questions I don't think it's bad I don't think that like it's a dumb answer to those questions it's not like all of that and then like that's it like I wasn't pissed off at all I gave it four stars but I did feel like some of the build up it made me want a little more out of the end of this so the way that things that we've been looking for for the all three books when we finally found the things when we finally got the information it was like I somehow expected a bit more and and then the way that it wrapped up just generally as a plot not the answers to questions but the way that the plot wrapped up just felt kind of a little bit rushed a little bit neat a little bit I don't know like we like we spent all of this time questing and building to this and then the end was just kind of like and wrap it up which I feel is the case in the end of a lot of series when the author has like spent a lot of time building something it's almost inevitable that the end will feel rushed because you you're unless you spend this amount of time now doing the like falling action like which is unreasonable it will feel a little bit that way I think kind of regardless it's really hard to not have a rushed ending but it was exceedingly rushed especially as compared to the length of this quest like when you're accustomed to a book really taking its time with stuff to have a rushed ending just feels even more abrupt and there were some specific things that I really didn't like irritate in me throughout the book and I actually message more about this as well I don't regard this as a spoiler at all there are so many times throughout this book when women throw themselves at fits and he doesn't want it he's not interested and then they get pissed and hate him and get really like bitchy because he like rejected their advances and like having that happen for sure like whatever like humans are humans it happens and you know things get messy but it happened like a lot to the point where like every time a new female character entered the scene I was like waiting for her to like make a move on fits and then for fits to reject it and then for her to be bitchy about it and it happened like clockwork I was like can we not does every woman who meets fits have to like throw herself at him and then also be a bitch to him if he's not into it like it's getting old so that irritated me a bit not an I wouldn't have acted a star for that alone but that didn't irritate me yeah so in general I would say it is a solid ending to a trilogy despite my slight disappointment with the ending the like the like the lore reveals the magic reveals the stuff like that it was I kind of found it difficult while I was reading the first two books to believe that it kind of could live up to like this great enigma that was being built up because it was quite an enigma it was like all the mystery things I like I really love the character of the fool the fool is one piece of it that I don't think I've really like lost its shine because the fool isn't a very enigmatic character and I think the reason that the fool remains like it wasn't kind of I don't want to say ruined for me because it's not like the end of Assassin's quest like ruined it for me it was just like it ended on a whimper a bit for me but the fool remains kind of an enigma and I think that is a good choice and it kind of makes me wish that some other things about this would have remained an enigma I don't really have an idea like I don't have in mind how it could have been executed while maintaining enigma I think I think it's possible I haven't really thought through how that would look or how that would go but I do think it would have benefited the book and the trilogy to leave some things a little bit like a lot of stuff is still kind of unexplained but in a way that feels dissatisfying not maintaining an enigma it just kind of feels like I think you just don't have an explanation for this like I just don't think you know how it works and I think for that to work better then more of it should remain unknown we had enough of it known to where it feels like a gap rather than a mystery so we just leave more of it mysterious and then this will work better would be against my tip but thing again things I like the fool absolutely love the fool everywhere he pops up in the three books is a fantastic character that is always fascinating and has some of the best lines I was laughing out loud at some of the stuff the fool said hilarious and so witty which like when you're gonna have a character that's kind of like a the jester or like a supposed to be like this kind of witty comic relief character like you were it is a big gamble that you're gonna say that this character is funny that is what the universe recognizes this character to be witty and then to write stuff that your audience is gonna have to agree is witty and I do think the fool is very witty so like well done thousand percent would die for night eyes night eyes has my whole heart so love that fits as a character is is fit he's he's he's kind of dumb you kind of want to throttle him but it's endearing and you feel for the guy he's he's been through it see you want to see good things for him but you also know he hob is not here for giving fits a good time ketchikan remains a fascinating wonderful character the world is a cool world to be in the lore is cool again some of the explanations for the lore left me a little underwhelmed but overall it's still a really lush world that does feel very alive and very well thought out and I am very excited to read the magic box I will say there is something that like it was kind of explained at the end but I'm honestly kind of confused by it still like that was a thing that I really expected to get a solid answer for and it was I feel like the book has an answer but it's like such a quick aside that I'm kind of like wait hang on go back what what is the explanation for this run that by me again I don't want to say what that is because it's kind of spoilery for the trilogy not super spoilery but like there's the thing that is going on a lot in the trilogy that I thought would get explained more and I'm still very like hang on what now what was going on with that was it perfectional that's why I gave it four stars but I think it's super solid and I think it's very hard to nail the landing of a trilogy which is why I'm very often like the second book of a trilogy best this is not aberrant for me they frequently find the second book on a trilogy to be my favorite this is no exception once again felt the third one was solid I was good at the second one didn't stick the landing some of its reveals some of its wrap up some of its conclusions this little let me know in the comments down below this was helpful to you at all I feel like my first go-through was better before I realized that my camera wasn't recording stay lovey you'll just have to take my word for that that's the case um so if you found this review dissatisfying at all I can tell you that wish you could have seen the good version but my camera wasn't recording and I'm sorry about that but there was a good version you'll just have to trust me anyway let me know all the things I post videos on Saturdays other random times as well but definitely Saturdays so like and subscribe join my patreon if you feel so inclined or don't and I'll see you when I see you bye