Galaxies and Goddesses: A Sci-Fi & Fantasy Bookcast

Royal Assassin Deep Dive
Andrea: I’m Andrea.
Elizabeth: And I'm Elizabeth.
Andrea: Join us as we chat about sci-fi and fantasy books and beyond.
Elizabeth: Looking for a little escape from reality. So are we.
Andrea: Welcome to Galaxies and Goddesses.
Elizabeth: On this week's episode, we're discussing Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb, the second book in the Farseer Trilogy.
Andrea: We'll be chatting about our favorite moments from the book and how the stakes have changed since book one.
Elizabeth: Along with how elusive enemies can keep the story going.
Andrea: Let's get started.
Andrea: My first question for you, Elizabeth, is did you like Royal Assassin more or less than Assassin's Apprentice? I feel like I know the direction this'll go, but I still have to ask.
Elizabeth: I'm always curious what your predictions are. Wait, no, I wanna know what your prediction is first before I say anything.
Andrea: I think you're gonna like it more because I liked it more as well, and I think the way that these trilogies this year seem to go is that it's a little bit of a slow start, and then the second book, it just picks up really fast, because you have the whole world set up. And so the second book seems to be a lot of action in these trilogies, and I've enjoyed that more. So did you like this more or less?
Elizabeth: I think I liked it about the same. I might have liked it slightly less.
Andrea: Ooh.
Elizabeth: Yeah. It was too long. With the first book you thought it felt slow and that you know, there wasn't much that happened. And not to say that there isn't a lot that happens in this book, there is.
Elizabeth: But he spends a lot of time in the keep, at Buckkeep, and just sort of like faffing about. I think it probably could've been about 100 pages shorter honestly.
Andrea: Yeah, it was long. I agree it was long.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: I felt like the whole section where he goes off to war and is on the ship, like as an oarsman, that almost felt like a novella in the middle of the book but I enjoyed it, so I'm not complaining. It was a lot of material to get from point A to point B in this book.
Andrea: There's a lot that happens.
Elizabeth: Yeah, there is a lot that happens.
Elizabeth: But yeah, there's just kind of a lot of, going up and down the stairs and going to different people's chambers and, not to say that a lot of it isn't important, it is, but sometimes it just felt a little too long.
Andrea: That could be an aspect of the book that some people love or hate, that it is so detailed and that it feels like you're there going up and down the stairs with him every time and wondering, "Is somebody following him? Does he have to shield his mind to keep out people from what he's doing?"
Andrea: And enjoyed feeling like I was there and really immersing myself in the story.
Andrea: I think it had a similarly kind of pace, but I was expecting that, so that didn't detract for me this time reading it.
Elizabeth: Yeah. It probably took me a month to read, but that's not the only book that I read in that time. I took a lot of breaks and, so that maybe made it feel longer because it just actually took me a longer amount of time to read it.
Andrea: I think I read this in like a week which is fast for me because it is like a 600-page book.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: Maybe it's a hard one to read at the same time as other books. It's really nice if you can just decide to read this and stick to it, and maybe even continue through the series, immerse yourself in this world that Robin Hobb has created.
Andrea: That's a good portion of your books for the year if you decide to read that.
Elizabeth: In terms of, chronological order as Robin Hobb wrote them, the next trilogy is the Liveship Traders trilogy, which is like a sub-series in the Realm of the Elderlings, as in it takes place in the same world, but it has different characters. And then after The Liveship Traders Trilogy is the Tawny Man Trilogy, and that goes back to these same characters. Google told me that you should read them in that order because then I guess, like the Tawny Man Trilogy, if you were to jump to that and skip The Liveship Traders Trilogy, there'd be some spoilers for The Liveship Traders Trilogy.
Andrea: Ok.
Elizabeth: So they all do kinda come back around and connect to each other, but they aren't necessarily always the same characters. But I've seen a photo of like all of the books just like lined up next to each other on the shelf, and it's a lot of inches.
Andrea: It’s a large stack.
Elizabeth: It's a really large stack. I mean, if people really, really love this world, then go for it. Yeah. I, You know, I'm, I'm a person that likes variety, so I don't know that I would necessarily want to just read them one after the other. But ...
Andrea: You feel like this was a different kind of book compared to book one? I felt like book one was little bit YA in the sense that he's a young boy growing up, but now he's more of a man and he's not treated as a child anymore and he takes on more adult responsibilities.
Elizabeth: Totally agree. Yeah, the first one feels like a coming-of-age story, and now he is of age, and now he's fully I guess, in his own way, a member of the court, and people know who he is, and he has an established reputation and has a role to play. And people are recognizing that he has a role to play.
Elizabeth: The Fool calls him multiple times, a catalyst. You don't quite get the sense that he can necessarily predict the future, but he can, like, have sort of a sense. he sort of feels the vibes of the future almost, and can see different possibilities for the future based on different decisions that are made or as things happen, then he can see different roads branching off in different directions.
Elizabeth: And he says that always at a crossroads, Fitz is there.
Andrea: Right.
Elizabeth: As this, like, catalyst for change. And then later in the story, for kind of other reasons too, he's called Changer. So…
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: He has a very significant role to play. Like, obviously, he's the main character of these stories, so obviously he has a role to play, but other people recognize that he has a significant role to play.
Andrea: Right, of him showing a progression from being a young boy to a young man is also reflected in his relationships that he makes. In the evolution of the animal companions, and the wolf being a predator and strong and powerful, stealthy. And because bad things happen to the dogs in the first book, I kept being on the edge of my seat being like, "Nobody find the wolf. Do not find the hidden chicken coop or whatever where he was staying,".
Andrea: I was really worried throughout the whole book that somebody would find him and something bad would happen to Nighteyes. I don't know if it's a spoiler to say that he's okay. Is that a spoiler to say nothing bad happens to him and I was happy about that?
Elizabeth: Can you give, like, positive spoilers?
Andrea: Right. But I was worried something bad would happen, and it's not to say something bad might not happen in the future, but, I'm glad not every character is faced with a horrible, sad ending.
Elizabeth: He also has, as far as like being more of a young man, he also has a pretty serious relationship with a character from the first book, Molly, and it gets spicy.
Andrea: There's some spice.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: It’s spicy, but done in a very classy and tasteful way.
Elizabeth: Yeah, it's not romantasy.
Andrea: They explore each other's bodies, but it is behind closed doors for the most part. It’s not explicit.
Elizabeth: But at the same time, he also is still young because he never thinks about the fact that like, "Oh my gosh, she could get pregnant. How is it that she's not getting pregnant?"
Andrea: Well that’s the thing, it’s like he’s not thinking about it, but she obviously does.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: She’s like I'm taking precautions." And he's like, "Oh, really?"
Andrea: So in talking about his romantic relationships, showing his age and that he's young and not thinking about the possibility of children, and just assuming that every other man in her life is a romantic relationship when that's not necessarily the case.
Elizabeth: Yeah. He's very much a man-child in how he interacts in this relationship.
Andrea: Right. He’s still sort of a man-child.
Elizabeth: Definitely a man-child.
Andrea: Yeah, and so there's still more growth there. I think there's still more potential for growth.
Elizabeth: Yeah. And coming to terms with his own identity and, he tries hard to fight for her, but does he try that hard? I mean, or does he really... You know he doesn't really sacrifice anything for the person that he says that he loves.
Andrea: He keeps putting other people before that relationship. He's saying, "Oh, I love you so much," but then he's like, "But I have my duty. I'm a king's man. I'm bound to my king." And it's just yeah, kind of actions speak louder than words.
Elizabeth: Yeah. Also what was interesting is in the illustrations the way that he's illustrated is he looks like a man also.
Andrea: So online I came across an image of an older mass market paperback for Royal Assassin that has Fitz and Nighteyes on the cover.
Elizabeth: Is he going like this, like arms up?
Andrea: Yeah. Arms up?
Elizabeth: I saw that last night. I saw that. It's a really bad cover.
Andrea: I thought it was awesome. I loved it!
Elizabeth: So I saw that cover and was like, "Oh, boy. I'm glad that they redid the cover."
Andrea: Well see the thing is, I guess I wouldn't want to be the only cover is the thing. I think, yes, it is nice to have a classy cover, but it's fun to have variations on that. I'm glad there's more than one type of cover.
Elizabeth: When the book's been around for 30 years and is as popular as it is, then it only makes sense that they, came out with new different printings, different publications of it. So then they, updated it for the times.
Andrea: Yeah. Not everything has to be classy. Some things can be just fun, I would argue.
Elizabeth: It's true, but I just, for my own personal taste.
Andrea: So in general, the things that are different from book one to this book, he's not coming of age, he's a man. Instead of having a relationship with puppies, he has a relationship with a wolf, and that shows his character's growth as well. And instead of just being interested in a woman and being afraid to tell her he likes her, he's having sleepovers with his romantic interest.
Elizabeth: Hmm. Spicy, spicy sleepovers.
Andrea: Some spicy sleepovers. So I think all of that feels like a big level up, and I enjoyed seeing that character growth.
Andrea: This book had more political of kind of scheming involved. It felt more like a chess game of trying to see if someone makes this move, how do you counter, and how do you do something without being seen, more of the assassin-type maneuvers than the first book where he was acquiring new skills. Do you agree?
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: What did you think of the, the political court sections of the book, what would you compare that to? Is it like any other books that you've read?
Elizabeth: I feel like The Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin is so good with political intrigue and the ins and outs of court politics and people vying for the throne and trying to accumulate power and the sorts of decisions that you make to try to rise to the throne.
Elizabeth: I felt like it was similar to that. Maybe not quite as expansive as The Song of Ice and Fire, 'cause in The Song of Ice and Fire it's, like, everyone it seems like is trying for the throne. Whereas with this there is, you know, a very proscribed sort of line of succession, so there are only a couple people that really could come to the throne.
Andrea: I'd say A Song of Ice and Fire seems to take place over a wider spans of land. In this, the characters have their own role in the castle. It's all happening within Buckkeep, So Fitz to together with his little team, with Patience and Burrich, Kettricken, and they kind of have Team Fitz versus Team Regal, in a sense.
Elizabeth: Team Verity versus Team Regal. All those characters are helping Fitz, but really Fitz is not trying to go for the throne, you know, he's trying to help Verity, But yeah. Yeah, totally.
Andrea: There was a certain point in my book where I put a little flag because in my head I felt like I could hear almost like a Rocky mantra of dun, dun dun.
Andrea: Rising up!
Elizabeth: Eye of the Tiger.
Andrea: Eye of the Tiger! That's right. We're waking up early, we're starting to train. So yeah I like Team Fitz. They sort of know that he has these extra skills that they will not speak of, but they encourage him to use all of his tools that are available implying whatever that might mean.
Elizabeth: And then it backfires in the end.
Andrea: Little bit. Yeah.
Elizabeth: What I liked was it's clear ... I mean, maybe you kinda got a sense of that in the first book, but Burrich also has the wit. Like, you did kinda pick up on that a little bit, and like he's so good with animals and, and the, the way he sort of advises Fitz in the first book to like just not use it, don't use it, don't use it.
Elizabeth: It sort of implies that maybe he has it, but then in this book it's clear that, oh no, he has it, and he just never really tried to develop it and, and just tried to always suppress it, but there are times when he needs to use it actually.
Andrea: Right. It’s also implied potentially Kettricken also might have a little bit of the Wit.
Elizabeth: Oh yeah.
Andrea: I really liked how she had the wolf as her banner, right? She had a white wolf on a purple flag to represent herself, and I was like, I hope that's foreshadowing. I would really like it if she also had a wolf companion," we'll see.
Andrea: But I think it's also a way of showing that she is part of this pack. She is part of the Team Verity, Team Fitz, pack.
Andrea: That kinda leads into what's this pack fighting? There are a lot of enemies. There are enemies to choose from.
Andrea: Who do you think is the most dangerous enemy? Is it Regal, the Red Ships, or the Forged Ones? Who's the real enemy?
Elizabeth: I mean, they're obviously all enemies, I think. It is sort of, like, very similar to The Song of Ice and Fire in that way as well, in that there is all of the, like, court intrigue and the enemies within the family and within Buckkeep. You know, Prince Regal and all the people that are helping him.
Elizabeth: All of his spies and it's clear that messages are being sent, but they're not getting through, or they're being delayed, or they don't come at all. Or that you know, if they need to, like, go out and help a village or a town or something, that Regal tries to stall and doesn't wanna go help them.
Elizabeth: And then as it gets later into the book he's, like, essentially stripping the entire castle of everything of value and sending it away, and you're never quite sure exactly what's happening with all of that. So he's just, like, dismantling the entire court from the inside. So I mean, that's similar to Song of Ice and Fire, the Lannisters versus the Starks versus the Targaryens And then there's, like, the enemy without. You know, like Prince Regal's like the enemy within, and then there's the enemy without, that ideally everyone can kind of band together to try to defeat that enemy. So similar to, like, the White Walkers in the Song of Ice and Fire, but in this case it's, you know, the Red Ships.
Elizabeth: And so I mean, so they're all enemies. But I was always very, like, sort of skeptical of Rosemary.
Andrea: Me too! Yeah.
Elizabeth: And that was mostly, like, not for any specific reason of, like, I think she's doing something bad or something, or that she's reporting to Prince Regal.
Elizabeth: It was more just, like, they keep mentioning her a lot. She's just kinda always there, and I just was always kinda skeptical of her.
Andrea: Well, and I was like, "Why are you even talking about this in front of her?" Because they've talked about how, children are often overlooked, you know, and they're used for "Oh, run an errand for me." So they are employed to do small tasks, and Regal has a way with the women apparently by making people feel flattered.
Andrea: I really don't think that Molly thought Regal was as bad as Fitz did for a while, but I think she wisened up to it. I think, talking to Fitz, she was like, "Okay, maybe I should be more wary." But maybe she wanted to make Fitz a little bit jealous.
Elizabeth: Yeah. Well then, yeah, she totally did wizen up.
Andrea: Trying to avoid being surprised, I try to guess what's gonna happen.
Elizabeth: Cause you don't want to be surprised?
Andrea: Well, no like, I keep trying to put it together, right? To like, anticipate, okay, how are these things connected? Is Regal in any way connected to the Red Ships? And I haven't been able to put those two things together. I don't think they're connected. they seem like two separate enemies.
Elizabeth: Yeah. You know, there's never been anything that has been mentioned that could tie him to them. And I think truly it's more the like within the six duchies sort of you know, like his mother is from the inland duchies, and so his allegiance is to the inland duchies, and so he doesn't want to favor the coastal duchies. He wants everything to be favored towards the inland duchies, so…
Andrea: Right. If anything, I don't think he's controlling any of the Red ships. I think he would be willing to sacrifice lands and just rule from the inland duchies. It seems like he's just like, "Okay, we're gonna pack up and leave because we're not gonna win this fight.”
Elizabeth: He's not trying to actively fight them
Andrea: Right
Elizabeth: And just sort of using that as a way to enable the rising power of the inland duchies.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: You made a little note here though, but I thought the exact same thing. The forged ones are totally zombies. Didn't think that this was gonna be a zombie book.
Elizabeth: And I don't know why it didn't really strike, me in the first one that they're basically zombies, but it did strike me in this one that like, oh yeah, they're basically zombies.
Elizabeth: But still alive. I mean, that's sort of the only thing that I guess is different from a, when we think of sort of classic zombie type story, is that the forged ones are actually alive.
Andrea: Right.
Elizabeth: But everything else about them is that they're zombies.
Andrea: I think a lot of modern zombie books or movies deal with some type of disease that creates a zombie, and I think in this case there's some type of mental control. It seems like there's some type of wizard or someone with a really strong Skill that can basically whittle them down to their primitive instincts, and so they forget who they are. And I think that person is on this mysterious white ship that hides in the fog, right?
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: It's still really vague of what the White Ship is, but…
Elizabeth: Or if it even exists. One of the illustrations in the illustrated version has the white ship in the background, and then just a tiny little red ship in the foreground. but then it seems like Fitz is the only person that can see it, and so…
Andrea: Well that's because I think he's got his mental walls up, so he's not being mentally influenced. I think everybody else doesn't see it because they're being mentally misdirected. They see fog instead of the ship, right?
Elizabeth: Oh yea. Yeah.
Elizabeth: Yeah, no one else can ever see it. It's always Fitz. And then at times, sometimes he kinda looks back, like he'll see it once and then he'll like sort of almost do a double take, and then the second time around when he looks again, it's gone.
Andrea: I think that's like a sign that this thing is real. He's not imagining it, but how he is almost willfully ignorant. "I don't wanna see this thing that nobody else sees." "I'm already different enough. I don't wanna be the one seeing things.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: You would think that, like with time people would realize that when Fitz says something, it's real. So when the Red Ship raiders are attacking Neat Bay and, oh, it's Chade that tells him that there's an attack happening. And so then he, urgently goes to King Shrewd and says, "You know, we have to send ships, we have to send people, we have to go help them."
Elizabeth: And Prince Regal denies it and says it's not happening. Like, Fitz almost has to try to come up with a story of how he knows this information and manages to convince King Shrewd that he is telling the truth and that this is something that needs to be trusted and they need to act on it, and they do, and he was right.
Elizabeth: And so, you would think that people would…
Andrea: Listen to him?
Elizabeth: Yeah, that like, he gets his information from different places and, but you need to listen to him.
Andrea: Well that's why Burrich said to listen to the Fool, right? The Fool sounds like he's making things up, but there are poignant truths to that.
Elizabeth: Yeah, anything he tells you, listen to him. Like Molly's pregnant.
Andrea: I really am curious if authors are annoyed by their own character or okay, you have to be a little bit annoying so that you can redeem yourself later, or you can grow from it later.
Elizabeth: Yeah. I'd say so. I mean, you know, everyone has to grow up and, there are growing pains. That phrase exists for a reason. And so then…
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Yeah, as you're writing it, like you're just like shaking your head at him as you're writing him?
Elizabeth: But it makes him more human.
Andrea: That’s true.
Elizabeth: You know? It's like no one's perfect and he can't be perfect. He has to grow up, and knocking up your girlfriend is, I suppose, one way to grow up.
Andrea: So…
Andrea: Were there any words that stuck out to you reading it this time?
Elizabeth: One word that was used I think twice, but this is like a legit word. This I was like, "Okay, that's a word that I don't know that people would regularly use in conversation," but it is a real word.
Elizabeth: It was wroth, W-R-O-T-H, filled with wrath or extremely angry.
Andrea: That's a good word.
Elizabeth: It is a good word. Google calls it an archaic or old-fashioned word meaning angry, irate, or furious. Yeah, I think that was used twice, and I was like, "Oh, okay.”
Andrea: Wroth almost has a level above enraged in my mind. It has like a, almost like frothing at the mouth anger.
Elizabeth: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Andrea: One of the words that I liked because it's accurate. Fitz is describing the castle wall, and it says, "They were at the very edge of the parapet, looking out over the crenated wall at the open sea below."
Andrea: I was like, "Yes. Oh, very nice. It has a crenellated edge. Good job."
Elizabeth: Totally. I know what those are too.
Andrea: That's a good word. crenellated. Crenellated.
Elizabeth: I mean, you're an architect, so you obviously know these terms because that's what you do is you design buildings, so then crenellations makes sense.
Elizabeth: I did not know what that meant until at some point going to enough European castles, and like a sign or something it would describe the wall, and it'd be like, "Oh, that's what that's called." But it's one of those things that every little kid knows about when you're drawing a castle as a little kid, you always put in the crenellations. That's the way you draw a castle. That's like what a castle is to a little kid, is a tower with the crenellations. So, I actually also commented to myself like, "Oh, Andrea will be happy about this."
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: I just thought to myself I can picture that. That’s correct.
Andrea: The crenated wall.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: What are you excited for for the next book? Or like, what sort of foreshadowing do you think?
Andrea: This book really leaves off on a big cliffhanger, so I don't know what'll happen next. He, in a sense, is gonna be starting completely fresh, as a almost a blank slate, but where? And, like, how?
Andrea: You know the series wouldn't end here.
Andrea: Be like, "Okay, I'm just gonna give up." No, he has to somehow come back and defend those, that he cares for, and fight the red ships, and, there has to be more story. But I don't know where it'll go.
Andrea: What do you expect in the next book?
Elizabeth: Verity's gonna come back I think he's going to bring the Elderlings with him.
Andrea: So at the end of the book, we don't really know what happened with Kettricken. That's a big question. I don't know what happened with her.
Elizabeth: She left with the Fool, or like she just disappeared with the Fool.
Andrea: She disappeared, and Regal implied that he had taken care of her or she wouldn't be seen again, or something, that she was not as well-equipped as she thought. And so it's like, okay, well what does that mean? So there's a lot of questions surrounding Kettricken and The Fool, but I feel like The Fool has plot armor. Kettricken does not have that same plot armor.
Elizabeth: Plot armor.
Andrea: Yes.
Elizabeth: That’s not a term I’ve heard before but ok.
Andrea: There's a whole series there's a whole series called Fitz and the Fool, so…
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: The Fool comes back.
Elizabeth: The Fool definitely comes back. There are like three books that have fool in the title.
Andrea: Right.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: And it was mentioned that in the histories of the Elderlings, that the previous King Wisdom, I believe it was, went off to seek the Elderlings.
Andrea: And he actually, in some of the stories, was not the one that came back. It says he ventured off, and the Elderlings came and met with his daughter, who was the princess, but he never came back.
Elizabeth: Oh, or his granddaughter or something…?
Andrea: Right, Or something like that.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: This is just my hunch that Verity is not gonna come back, that this idea of sacrifice is like he is going to sacrifice his life in some way or form to the Elderlings in return for their help to save his people, and I don't think we're gonna see Verity again.
Elizabeth: Mm, that's fair. But I think, his character will still play a role, you know, 'cause he isn't dead, and when I say maybe he comes back, I guess maybe not so much to, to Buckkeep, but will come back into the story, and not just through s- through the skill. It won't be just his thoughts f- through Fitz. He'll actually, be on the page as a character I think he's gonna go find the Elderlings, and they're gonna come back, and they're gonna save the day.
Elizabeth: Yeah. They're, yeah, they're real. They're gonna come back.
Andrea: But it might not be for some time.
Elizabeth: Oh it’s gonna be in book 15 or 16 or something, haha.
Andrea: It might not be for quite some time.
Elizabeth: Yeah, the White Ship. We talked about the White Ship. I think that's definitely gonna ... There's gonna be more with that.
Andrea: Yeah. I wanna go back a little bit to when we were talking about Regal. I think they are two different enemies, like Regal versus the red ships. I don't think they're working together. But there was part of me that was wondering if somehow this white ship that's controlling everybody's thoughts and minds, if somehow that was why the messages weren't getting through.
Andrea: Maybe it's not Regal. Maybe Regal's not telling them to intentionally subvert the king, but that those people using this skill were being meddled with somehow.
Elizabeth: Maybe, I don't know.
Andrea: Maybe it's not all Regal being evil. Maybe Regal doesn't have as much power as Fitz perceives, because there's a lot that Fitz doesn't really understand, and like we've said about his romantic relationships, maybe he just doesn't get the full picture, and maybe us reading it, the audience, the reader, isn't seeing the full picture.
Andrea: And so Regal comes across as pure evil, but maybe he's not. I keep thinking maybe he's just kind of a selfish, cowardly, prince trying to save his own butt and get inland, and maybe he's not all bad.
Elizabeth: Just weak and pathetic.
Andrea: Exactly.
Elizabeth: And maybe he's being manipulated or something.
Andrea: Right.
Elizabeth: By the Red Ship raiders.
Andrea: Because he does seem to always be the source of evil, but King Shrewd is really hesitant to believe that he's really that bad of a son, like intentionally that bad.
Elizabeth: But he’s also just like the spoiled, pampered baby prince. So…
Andrea: Right. Yeah.
Elizabeth: You know..
Elizabeth: I think kind of at the very end, I think King Shrewd starts to key into the fact that Regal's not great, not a, not a great person to be taking over stuff.
Andrea: What did you rate this book?
Elizabeth: I think I'd give it four stars. It was very good, but just like, the length. I gave Assassin's Apprentice four and a half stars. I thought that one didn't feel as slow to me.
Andrea: It was shorter.
Elizabeth: It was shorter.
Andrea: Yeah.
Elizabeth: And maybe also because I read it, with less interruption, and also it was a lot shorter.
Andrea: But Elizabeth, I thought the long book isn't normally your…
Elizabeth: That does not mean that the long book automatically gets a higher rating.
Andrea: Okay.
Elizabeth: When it’s really good book and it's long, which this was a very good book. But yeah it just felt... there were times, like probably in the first, I don't know, 400 pages, where it felt like he was just faffing about the castle at times.
Andrea: He's building up, you know? He's going through the training montage of the movie.
Elizabeth: Risin’ up!
Andrea: Risin’ up! And I like that. I like the montage rising up just for, 300 pages. Let's go! I need to go on the rowing machine too. Come on.
Elizabeth: I mean, you can't do a montage for 300 pages though. The montage is the montage because it like jumps through a bunch of stuff pretty quickly, like length of the song. And then you like kinda zip through stuff.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I give it four stars.
Elizabeth: What about you?
Andrea: I did give this five stars. I liked it more than the first book.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Andrea: I'm fully Team Fitz. I'm wondering what's gonna happen with all these characters. I'm questioning their motives. I thought it was really well done and really fun, and I'm glad Nighteyes was a central character in this book as well.
Andrea: I would've loved to own a copy of the wolf howling with Fitz on a mountain mass market paperback copy.
Elizabeth: But then it's gonna be different from the copy of Assassin's Apprentice that you have.
Andrea: I know. I was reading this book so much and my dog got mad at me. She chewed up the cover.
Elizabeth: Oh.
Andrea: She chewed the cover.
Elizabeth: She really chewed the cover.
Andrea: She really chewed it.
Elizabeth: So not every coverless book is because it was returned to the publisher.
Andrea: No. This is, does not have a cover because my dog chewed it. So like I think it's just that every book I have is gonna have its own story, right?
Andrea: I don't know what to expect out of the next book, but just based on the cover…
Elizabeth: There's a dragon.
Andrea: There's a dragon.
Elizabeth: Yeah.
Elizabeth: Do you think he can use his wit on the dragon?
Andrea: Ooh… I hope so.
Elizabeth: Unfortunately, that concludes this week's episode. We've reached the end of another cosmic journey on Galaxies and Goddesses.
Andrea: Don't worry, the adventure never really ends. There are always more stories to explore, and more bookish tangents for us to go on.
Elizabeth: But hey, that's part of the fun. If you loved today's episode, make sure to subscribe and share the magic.
Andrea: Stay tuned for our next episode where we'll be chatting about books for spooky season.
Elizabeth: And in the meantime, keep your mind fueled by the magic of stories.
Andrea: And never stop chasing the worlds waiting for you between the pages. Thanks everyone.