Blood of Assassins

The book sees us once again reunited with Girton Club-Foot, a trained assassin who has been in hiding with his master since the events of Book 1 (though why they actually needed to disappear for 5 whole years is beyond me, considering what actually happened). So now we reacquaint ourselves with Girton as a 20-year-old, a young man where before he was an angsty teen, only now the angst has been replaced by something darker, and for once, I can truly believe that. He’s not evil, but he’s been through some shit, and that shit has left rather nasty stains upon his soul in some of the most believable character development I’ve ever come across. Again, this book didn’t speak to me personally as much as it would to listeners who like the more introspective novels, but by the dead gods, the fleshing out of Girton’s character was done well.

There’s more action in this book than Barker’s last foray into the Wounded Kingdom, and I for one am very pleased to see it. The entire backdrop of the book is war, which really tickled the military fiction fan I am at heart, but it certainly wasn’t constant. Once again, the story is very much situated around Girton and his relationships with those around him, and the war just happens to be going on. I still have the same issues with this book as I had with the last, though to a lesser degree. Again, there was very little exploration of the well-crafted world that Barker had created, but that’s Barker’s style and I can’t fault him for it. He produces a beautiful narrative with real, living and breathing characters within it. It’s just my personal preferences that lead me to want to see more of this world than we are shown through the eyes of Girton alone. The reignited friendship that forms the heart of this book is a joy to listen to, and the toing and froing that you are dragged through as you are constantly on edge about Girton’s dark secret coming to light is the ever-present anvil that keeps the story pumping. There are slow parts to be sure, but they are better paced than the last book and often ended with rather satisfying climaxes.

There was one plot device that sprang up fairly immediately in the story that had me growning with despair. It didn’t make sense and made that logical part of my brain slam its face against the bars of my sanity, but without giving too much away, it was explained entirely to my satisfaction by the novel’s end and I back-peddled all the mean things I was of a mind to say about it. Again, the novel is more of a murder mystery than it is the epic fantasy adventures that I love so much. It’s not a bad thing if these are the kinds of books you love, but that just isn’t the novel I kept hoping this would turn out to be.

Overall, the book was a decent improvement on the last. The ending was satisfying, tense, and left me very pleased that I had given Book 2 a try after not being so blown away by Book 1. As before, my personal score won’t give the book the justice that its quality deserves, but I blame that entirely on Barker for building such an interesting world and refusing to let me explore it more.

Narration was once again top notch. The aging of the characters between Books 1 and 2 was worked beautifully into the changes in the voices and tones while leaving them unmistakably the same people as in the previous book. I’ve got a lot of time for good accents, of which this reading was full of, and the emotion of each character really came through. Another sterling performance by Joe Jameson.

Personal score: 4.0 stars.

Professional score: 4.0 stars.