Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb (Farseer #2)

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As many of you know I read a lot of books at the same time and I am a pretty fast reader. That is until I came in contact with Robin Hobb and the amazing Farseer series. There are not words to describe just how good this series is and how wonderful a writer Hobb is. She forces me to slow down and savor every word and scene.
Royal Assassin, second in the Farseer trilogy was amazing. I am saddened that it took me this long to discover the richness that these stories are imbued with. The characters have become family and the history and peoples of the Six Duchies are as real as our own. There is power in this kind of storytelling.

Royal Assassin opens immediately after the events of Assassin's Apprentice. Fitz, is a shadow of who he was before and must return to Buckkeep and resume his life under the shadow of the treacherous Prince Regal. RA is full of plots and counterplots, love and laughter and many ideas on what one's word means as well as what it ultimately means to be oneself. Heavy stuff wrapped in an engrossing story that takes us to a shocking conclusion.

I really do not like spoilers in reviews. Just trust me. If you haven't read Robin Hobb, begin today. Pick up Assassin's Apprentice and enter a fantastic adventure that you will not want to end.

Then let's talk about it. I love to share ideas and points of view in reading.



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Sleeping Giants!!! You have to read this book by Sylvain Neuvel!!

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received an advance reader copy of Sleeping Giants on the 12th and started reading it that night to see how it was. I finished it last night. Needless to say I could not put this book down. Sylvain Neuvel has created a compulsive novel that I was sad to see end. But, what an ending! I am very glad there will be more, but really sad to have to wait two years for the next book.

The story is told through a series of interviews, journal entries and various other official reports. The majority of the book are the interviews with a very enigmatic Interviewer whose identity we are never told and whose motivation and authority we can only guess at. But he is quite fascinating and it appears quite powerful.

The book begins with an 11 year old girl in South Dakota, riding her new bike into the woods after her birthday party. She sees a strange turquoise glow below her in the trees and investigates. She ends up falling and the next thing she knows she is laying on her back looking up the hill at her father and firemen who are trying to get to her from the hole she is in. She is rescued but all of her questions about what happened are dismissed by her parents. It seems no one wants to talk about it. Until one day when she is visited by one of the firemen who rescued her. He had taken some pictures of the accident and thought she would like to see them. She sees a picture of herself lying on her back in the hole, on the palm of a giant metal hand.

You can see now why I kept reading. 17 years later, the girl is now Dr. Rose Franklin and is put in charge of just what the hand is and why it was there by our Interviewer. Suffice it to say that there is more than one hand buried on the earth, and it will be up to Rose and her team to find the rest of the body parts that make up a very large metal person.

This book is to good to spoil and I think that this may be enough to convince you that this would be well worth your time. I can see this being a huge besteller and the start of a new phenomenom like Hunger Games or Harry Potter. Or it should be.

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The Eternal World by Christopher Farnsworth

The Eternal World: A Novel by Christopher Farnsworth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was the first book by Christopher Farnsworth that I have read. I know my good friend, Jason Frost loves this guy and has been a big fan since his first book, Blood Oath. The Eternal World was great fun! Imagine almost 500 year old conquistadors heading a billion dollar biotech company which is trying to reformulate the water from the Fountain of Youth which they are running out of. A brilliant young researcher who just might pull it off and a beautiful native woman whose great mistake was saving the life of one of the conquistadors with the Water those many years ago and is now seeking the deaths of those responsible for murdering her whole clan and stealing the Water.
The novel weaves a fast paced and compelling story about one of the most enduring myths of this continent. Farnsworth seamlessly handles the modern day story with flashbacks to the arrival of the Spanish in Florida and their brutal treatment of the indigenous people.
The book has a wonderfully exciting and satisfying conclusion, but I would recommend it for readers 18 and up due to language and adult content.

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Act of War by Brad Thor (Scott Harvath #13)

Act of War by Brad Thor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is by far one of Brad's best. LIke all good thrillers there are elements of truth that just can't be made up and you are amazed at the sheer stupidity that we, as a country have been engaging in. Putting the lives of brave men and women at risk in the process.
In Act of War, one of the greatest issues facing the US today and the future is addressed. China. In short, China needs what the US has. Namely, land and room. Brad has always had great contacts in government and he uses them to great affect here laying out a great read of Harvath and his team saving us from sure devestation and a Chinese invasion. What is really scary is that it could happen.
No spoilers. Just pick this book up and read it. Enjoy it and maybe be educated a little bit by it. Parts of it are hair raising.

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Hidden Order by Brad Thor (Scott Harvath #12)

Hidden Order by Brad Thor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It has been a couple years since I have read one of Brad's books. I try to save them for when I want a good, well written thriller from a guy who is plugged in. I hAve known Brad for years. he is genuinely a patriot and one of the nicest guys you will ever meet.

I think it is on to Act of War for me.

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The English Spy by Daniel Silve (Gabriel Allon #15)

The English Spy by Daniel Silva
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There is nothing much more I can say when it comes to this author and this series. It is by far the most intelligent and worthy series in thriller fiction. There is a comfort to Silva's writing. His characters breathe and bleed and sorrow and joy. The English Spy is the 14th in the Gabriel Allon series, and the 4th with Christopher Keller, first experienced in The English Assassin. Keller needs his own series. He is a very complex and fascinating character.
In this entry of the series, we are taken into the depth's of Keller's past and an old enemy from his days during the Troubles in Ireland. Eamon Quinn is that enemy and a thoroughly destestable human being with ties to the death of Gabriel's son years before. Allon and Keller join forces to find him and stop his reign of terror for good. But, all is not as straight forward as it seems with duplicity, moles in MI6, a recent defector and the death of a Russian spy in a snowy wood from a previous Allon novel. Revnge is the motive of this book in more ways than one. Couple this with the impending arrival of Gabriel's twins and his taking over of the Office, makes this a very rich and full work.
Silva is very prescient with his writing and very engaged when it comes to our world and the evils in it.
I promise you. Start your reading of Silva with The English Assassin (Gabriel Allon #2) and you will be hooked.



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The Inner Circle by Brad Meltzer (Culper Ring #1)

The Inner Circle by Brad Meltzer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was my first book by Meltzer. I have tried to read him many times but have never been intrigued enough to continue.
For some reason with The Inner Ring this changed. Even though the story was predictable at times and you really wanted to throttle Beecher White for being a wimp, the fascinating historical detail and locations kept me going. I will be giving The Fifth Assassin a try.

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