Tough Traveling: Assassins, Guild of...

The Thursday feature "Tough Traveling" is the brainchild of Nathan of Review Barn, who has come up with the excellent idea of making a new list each week based on the most common tropes in fantasy, as seen in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynn Jones. Nathan has invited anyone who is interested to come play along, so be sure to check out the first link for more information. Compulsive list-maker that I am, I'm very excited to take part!

This week's tour topic is: Assassins, Guild of...

The second most frequent guild after the Thieves Guild. Indeed, it is possible that these are the only two, and that in Fantasyland crime is the sole organized activity. They are said to be very good at their job, which is of course killing people for money, and to proceed on all occasions with strict regard for laws and protocol.

Holy crap, this one is actually tougher than I thought. I can come up with books I've read about individual assassins aplenty, but a whole guild of assassins? That's going to take some thinking to get to five (my own personal goal for these lists).

Death Sworn by Leah Cypess - I went digging into my recently read pile and this was the first example I came across. The assassins in this book are a secret guild, and they live and train in caves their whole lives. Their leader is a real nasty guy, but his men are loyal. If he orders any of them to jump to their deaths, you bet they will. Death isn't anything to them. Assassinations are not murder, merely tools because each kill presumably serves a greater purpose.

The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke - This book is about pirates and assassins (insert joke about a meme here). A young pirate abandons her parents and her ship to avoid being married off to another clan, and the jilted suitor's family puts out a hit on her. She then winds up binding herself and the assassin Naji together by accidentally saving his life. If I remember correctly, Naji is a member of a notorious sect of assassins, so even though the story mainly focuses on him, I'm going to count it.

Blades of the Old Empire by Anna Kashina - Let's get away from YA for a second. This book features a group called the Majat Guild. Their member ranks are named after gemstones, with Diamond denoting a warrior as the best of the best, but all of them are extremely skilled in the deadly arts. I'm actually not sure they count strictly as assassins -- more like mercenaries, perhaps -- but because they can be hired out to do anything from bodyguard work to killing someone, I'm going to count it. And hey, the second book is actually called "The Guild of Assassins", so there!

Jhereg by Steven Brust - Actually, when I read the title of this topic, my mind immediately went to these Vlad Taltos books. Vlad is a hired killer, member of House of Jhereg, a house whose membership is not based on bloodline or tribe like all the other houses. You can even buy yourself into it if you have the money. Despite being noble house, it's known to be associated with shady characters and even shadier crimes. Think of them as the mafia of the fantasy world. Need an assassin? Look up a Jhereg boss.

Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne - I'm actually going to cheat a little here, since this book won't come out until the summer and even though I have the ARC I haven't formally read it yet. But I've read the prequel novella Poison Dance (which stars James, an assassin in a guild called Assassin's Guild!) so I think I have a pretty good idea what to expect in this one too. Even though the the story will shift focus to different characters, I know the guild will appear again in Midnight Thief for sure.

Whew! And that's five. Like I said I'm limiting myself to only books I've read or at least I've more intimate knowledge of, but I'm sure there are a lot more I'm missing or forgetting. Now I wish I've been more diligent with tagging my books with appropriate labels on my Goodreads shelves.

Book Review: Blades of the Old Empire by Anna Kashina

Blades of the Old Empire by Anna Kashina

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Book 1 of Majat Code

Publisher: Angry Robot (February 25, 2014)

Author Information: Website

Mogsy's Rating: 2.5 of 5 stars


When I look back at Blades of the Old Empire all I can think of is, here is an example of a novel which would've been better served with some major polishing. And did you know this isn't even technically the first book? I didn't. I only found out after I did some digging around, because I couldn't help getting this feeling I was missing something...

Turns out, my instincts were correct. Most of the main characters in here were first introduced in one of Kashina's earlier novels, The First Sword. Information like that should have been made clearer, if only because I may have been more lenient when I was reading this book. This isn't the first time I've jumped in into the middle of a series, or even a spin-off or later novel set in an existing universe without reading the previous books first. The only difference is, all those times I was prepared. Quite honestly, I don't even know how well this book works as the beginning of a new series. Sure, you can read it and still understand the story, but I spent most of the time feeling like I've only scratched the surface, and wondered if so much feels lacking because the author expects you to know these things already.

Hence, polish. I'm afraid the character development needs quite a bit of work, especially if you're going to have multiple romantic subplots. If I can't connect to the characters, I'm not going to feel any chemistry, and then it's not going to matter one whit to me who's crushing on whom. It helps also, if I can get a good bead on your main protagonists' approximate ages right away. Not exactly sure why, but the way this was written, I spent the whole intro of the book thinking Prince Kyth was a young child. Even after I realized my mistake, it was difficult to view Kara as his romantic interest, and not a nanny-type figure. 

Needless to say, that was a mood-killer.

For a fantasy novel of this type, there was also nowhere near enough context. By all rights, the story itself should have been quite epic, encompassing a long history and involving several kingdoms hanging in the balance, with conspiracy and corruption threatening to rot the system from the inside out. I knew this, but only because the book told me. I didn't actually feel it. An overall sense of vastness and importance seems to be missing. Despite the characters traveling for days to get from one place to another, the scope of their journey feels small, possibly stemming from a lack of world building.

My opinions notwithstanding, the reason why I'm not giving this a lower rating is because I feel this book has plenty of potential. I enjoyed the premise and it had a lot of good ideas, especially when it comes to the magic. If only it had been explained a little better. Rigorous editing and several more drafts could have perhaps improved things, knocking out some of the redundant phrases (there seems to be an inordinate amount of blood streaking out of the corner of people's mouths, for instance -- the author likes to use this description everywhere, and even three times in one short scene), or toning down some of the more absurd battle sequences. 

Being over-the-top can sometimes work in your favor, but this is not that kind of novel. At best, this crazy, overly bombastic martial arts stuff comes off as comical. The Diamonds are too powerful, one fighter taking on dozens of enemies at once, and also somehow surviving the most grievous of wounds. I draw the line when a character can miraculously come back from the dead, and the way it happens makes very little sense. There is no perception of danger or tension, not if every close call can be fixed with a quaff from a magical potion or a touch from a healer.

Giving a middling rating for this, because I neither liked it nor particularly disliked it. To summarize, the book has a raw and unfinished feel, and based on that I can't really recommend it. A shame too, because with some fleshing out and more honing-plus-fine-tuning, this book could have been so much more.

 A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Angry Robot Books!