Age of Assassins

Fun debut. I love fantasy books about people being trained in their craft, especially martial combat. It's a genre of fantasy that I really enjoy, as its far more pleasant than reliving my own high school memories. Age of Assassins doesn't quite fit the genre because by the time the protagonist arrives in his training, he's already been trained as an assassin for years and is just pretending to be a squire-student, but it has the same feel.

3.5 stars

I liked it, the ending was pretty satisfying. Something about it felt flimsy though. I may be comparing it to the Farseer trilogy too much. In all of Girton's text, I was looking for Fitz.

I thought the political intrigue was fun but imagine how much juicier it would have been had I actually loved the characters.

It lacked the depth I needed from stories like this but I did like it well enough. Might pick up the second book one day.

(I also noticed how much RJ Barker enjoys older women master characters, I appreciate it even tho Merela is almost identical to Maes from the Bone Ships)

In the face of the negative reviews here, I actually thought this was a fun book. Maybe not what was expected based on the title and the summary, but I still enjoyed my time with it. Flawed? Sure, but I still enjoyed reading it, and I think that's what counts.

Girton Club-Foot is an assassin apprentice who learns under his master Merela who rescued him from being sold into slavery as a child. There's an heir to the throne that's being threatened, and Merela and Girton are tasked with uncovering the plot to kill the heir without revealing what they do. Despite the summary it's not an action-packed book–by merit of growing up under Merela's tutelage, Girton hasn't had much of a childhood, and much of the book is him integrating with other young squires, making friends (and enemies), and otherwise enjoying the joys of being young. Merela cautions him repeatedly to maintain a distance between himself and the other boys, but Girton doesn't listen, for better or worse. While living his best life, Girton also finds time to investigate the castle for potential murder suspects, and we get a bit of a murder mystery twist reveal at the end that's satisfying.

So I thought this was a fun read (or, listen, I guess, since I listened to the audiobook), but it's definitely not action-packed. There's some fight scenes (rather gruesome sometimes), and there's definite plot development, but it's not the cloak-and-dagger, stealthy, super assassin type of plot development. More of a coming-of-age medieval story while also being a great fighter (and maybe more?). The author's writing style is fantastic though, I sort of loved the cliffhanger statements he built into his writing that readies you for something awesome to happen in the next scene, and the epilogue really has me interested to see where the story goes. There's lots of untapped world potential here, like the magic system that was brought up but not fully explored as to what it means for Girton, and some other loose threads that weren't satisfyingly tied up. I look forward to the next book to read more!

This is a book that had been sitting in my tbr for way to long. My girlfriend ended up getting started on this trilogy before me and was effusive in her praise. I really enjoyed the Bone Ships so was looking forward to reading more of RJ Barker's work and it did not disappoint.

In many ways this a typical coming of age story, where we follow Girton Club-Foot, an apprentice assassin. However, Barker has built a really impressive world around this. Here, magic is looked upon as evil - it damages the land and the only way to heal it is with blood. The ruling classes are dominated by petty dynastic squabbles and it is these that we are drawn into.

Being assassin themed there are lots of secrets in play and these are gradually revealed in a very satisfying way.

This is mightily impressive debut and I am looking forwarded to delving further into the Wounded Kingdom!

I don't know why, but this took a while to click for me. The first 20% of this went so fast plot-wise and read like it was targeted at a younger demographic than I was, but then at some point it all started to come together and I was into it.

People weren't lying when they said it could be compared to Assassin's Apprentice (though this one has more action). Not that much that this could be considered a ripoff, but in the “if you liked that, you might like this” way.

The story (which is almost like a whodunnit) was great. I'm a bit confused on how the magic in it works exactly, but that's fine. My favorite were the characters! Girton is alright, but I gotta give it up for Rufra and Nywulf!
I liked the dialogue between Girton and Rufra especially. It was done in a way that really made their friendship believable and why they enjoyed each other's company so much.

On the other hand, I didn't care for Merela that much, which I think is partly because Girton keeps referring to her as “master” (which is probably the most used word in this novel) and we don't get to know her much as a character of her own.

Really liked it!

Quite an enjoyable read, although characters constantly calling the people they're talking to by their name started to grate a bit after a while and made the dialogues a bit stilted. But certainly better and more original than most of the fantasy I've read. I loved the worldbuilding.

One of the better books I've read this year! Hooked, I'll have to read them all now.

A solid debut.

This is the type of book I love: A young hero-in-the-making, still in his apprenticeship, a mysterious, talent master to oversee him, and a dark political mystery with an assassin lurking in the shadows.

I enjoy this sort of story more than just about any other. RJ Barker tells a good tale, and Girton Club-Foot is a worthy hero.

I jumped on the sequel immediately after finishing this one.

4.5 stars.