CBR Bingo: Borrowed (Age of Assassins—I picked up both of these books at a little free library, so I’m counting it)
CBR Bingo: ‘B’ (Blood of Assassins)
These two books should complete my first bingo card (yay!)
I’ve been meaning to read RJ Barker’s works for a while now but somehow have just never gotten around to it. His Tide Child trilogy has been recommended to me by multiple people, and it sounds like something I would like, but I ended up picking up his debut trilogy, The Wounded Kingdom, first. Age of Assassins and Blood of Assassins are the first two books in this series.
They tell the story of Girton, a club-footed young man in training with his older female mentor to become an assassin. It’s a harsh land, where magic-users are greatly feared and hunted, the gods are all dead, and people are routinely sacrificed to the land.
In the first book, Girton is about fifteen years old, and he and his master are sent to a castle where, instead of attempting an assassination, they will try to prevent one. The king is dying, and there have been attempts made on his son and heir’s life. In order to stay close to the heir and draw out his killers, Girton poses as a squire in training, and becomes involved in the feuds and politics of the young nobles of the castle. Age of Assassins was a good time. It’s definitely not inventing anything new (I feel like I’ve read hundreds of books with a similar tone and premise), but it executes on the premise well enough.
The second book picks up about five years later, with Girton returning from his travels to find a country locked into a civil war. His mentor is injured, so he has to make decisions without her guidance. I found that I didn’t like this one as much as the first. It suffers from middle-book syndrome and Girton makes some dumb decisions (that are less forgivable in a 20-something than they were as a fifteen-year-old).
Overall though, these were fun, and I’ll likely finish the last book at some point.