As the trajectory of his story continues in Royal Assassin, Robin Hobb's second installment of the Farseer Trilogy (after Assassin's Apprentice), Fitz, bastard son of the old king, must learn to manage the gifts he's inherited (legitimately, or not) from his royal Farseer bloodline.
Through The Wit, publicly condemned as "Beast magic," he is so attuned to animals, he can share their thoughts, feelings, pain, and adventures.
Far more sophisticated, and potentially more treacherous is The Skill, a sort of Vulcan mind meld (but no physical contact required) by which a Skillmaster can enter the minds of friends and foes alike, flinging powerful support to allies in danger, or confusing the minds and distorting the actions of enemies.
Having failed Skill training as a youth, Fitz's powers are random and unpredictable — but increasingly potent.
The character of the mysterious Fool grows more intriguing here, as his friendship with Fitz deepens — and his cryptic prophecies become more pointed.
But the key relationship in this book is Fitz's bond with Nighteyes, a wild wolf pup he rescues from the cage of an unsavory animal vendor.
The perils of The Wit — that the human soul might be tempted to untether itself and be literally carried away by its wild bond animal — is explored from every possible angle and leads to a gripping, literally death-defying finale that will have you racing for the finish line — even as your inner reader screams that she doesn't want the book to end yet!
Like any junkie, the minute I finished this book, I groped immediately for the next injection — oops, installment — to find out what happens next. It does not disappoint.
Btw, just because I'm coming so late to this series doesn't mean that zillions of others have not already fully embraced Hobb's fabulous books. Here is one of the more interesting alternative covers I found online.
I don't know where it comes from; there was no attribution, and my knowledge of the Slavic-seeming title (Polish? Czech?) is, well, nonexistent. Anybody recognize it? But one thing seems certain: Hobb's popularity is global!
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