Krondor: The Assassins is the second book in the Riftwar Legacy saga. It's a story connecting the two video game stories that Feist novelized after the fact: Krondor: The Betrayal is Feist's take on the story of the game Betrayal at Krondor, and it turns out (I just looked this up the other day) that Tear of the Gods is Feist's novelization of the story in Return to Krondor, which got a lot less hype than the first game back in the day.
Unlike a lot of Feist's intra-saga books, where there might be a year or six months between books, there's no downtime between the end of Betrayal and the beginning of this book. The intro talks a bit about the cleanup after the battle of Sethanon, and then we're back in Krondor.
The Mockers are in open war with the Crawler, and there are too many damn assassins running around! This book is about Arutha and Jimmy (and others) tracking down the source of the assassins in Krondor and trying to hack at the root of the problem.
The two in-saga characters for this book are William, Pug's son, and Treggar, a knight-captain. William, as Pug's son, does a great job keeping a thread between the main story's characters and those in this saga. Treggar is introduced as a bully and an unfriendly sort, but he has a solid arc through the story that builds him into a solid and sympathetic character.
The thing about this book is that it has the highest density of the stuff I think Feist writes best, compared to many of his other books. Stealth, small-unit tactics, and court intrigue: this book has a ton of all three of these elements which I think Feist writes really well.
There are also some very good bits of philosophy: James observes an ability of Jerome that he lacks, Arutha's conspicuous humility, and even some good advice for officers and about royal duties.
Yet the book also feels a bit of an orphan, written in a bit of a rush or a bit carelessly. There is a nonsensical bit early in the book about confusing the pronunciation of a noble's name, an odd misspelling of "North Warden" (it should actually be one word), and some vagueness about William's favored sword type, when other sword types are carefully and distinctly described and named.
Despite these minor flaws, I found myself really enjoying this book on a re-read. I haven't read it in several years, and I was a bit surprised by how good it was. Feist's descriptions of sneaking and tracking are creative, detailed, tense, and unpredictable. We also get a lot of practical tradecraft in this book, including some details about Midkemia's elite trackers, the Pathfinders, and some old soldier tricks for leaving messages.
It's a fun and satisfying read with lots of questions getting opened, and then closed at the worst possible time for our heroes. Definitely worth a read if you enjoy Feist's work, and especially if you agree with my evaluation of his ability to write stealth, small-unit combat, and court intrigue.
Grab a copy here.
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