Received from Little Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for honest read and review.
Second book that I managed to finally get round to reading,absolutely loved this one as much as the first book Age of Assassins.
This is set a few years after the first book and continues where we left off with the main characters.Girton has grown up in this one and hopefully next book will.be as good

This was a great continuation of this series. It is set around 5 years after the events of the first book and we follow the same characters. The plot was compelling throughout and I enjoyed the military elements of it. The one issue I had was Girton (the main character), himself. As previously mentioned it has been five years between books but it doesn't seem that he has matured a bit. He is immature, childish and has a bad temper; all of which made him quite a frustrating character to me. I thought the characterisation of the other characters were good though. Overall this was a good book and continued on this series well.

https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2018/3/10/blood-of-assassins-by-r-j-barker

WARNING – Mild Spoilers await those yet to read Age of Assassins

So, a few months ago I caught up with RJ Barker’s impressive debut Age of Assassins which I would happily say is a great fantasy tale combining a murder mystery with a claustrophobic atmosphere due to it’s castle-bound setting. Now the awaited sequel is out and while this a bigger scale story Barker again delivers a fantastic story blending characters with action, politics and antlers. It asks that important question we face when we grow who…exactly who are we?

At the end of Age of Assassins Girton and his Assassin Master Merela had uncovered treachery at Castle Maniyadoc and prevented a scheming Queen putting her heir Aydor on the throne by effectively starting a civil war between the warring factions. Girton has helped his best friend Rufra escape a murder plot and he himself was fighting for the throne. Girtin however had suffered not just the loss of his first love but discovered he had magical abilities in a world where this meant an immediate death sentence. The Assassins’ only option was to flee into the wilderness…

We arrive in Blood of Assassins five years later and Girton finds himself unexpectedly back in Maniyadoc’s politics carrying a gravely wounded Merela. The war Gorton unexpectedly triggered has split into three factions all led by nobles that Girton encountered on his last visit. Rufra the first friend he has ever made; Aydor the previous sole heir who was a vicious bully and Tomas who was a skilled noble also with claims on the throne. Girton finds himself in Aydor’s camp which is on the edge of defeat by Rufra and against his will he is forced to persuade Rufra Aydor wants a truce and carries a message that Rufra is being spied upon by Tomas from within his inner circle.

It would have been easy for a very simple re-telling of the first story, but it is immensely satisfying that Barker has decided to go for a very different feel to the first novel. This time the action moves from a single castle to a wide field camp where Rufra is preparing for battle and has multiple factions (loosely) allied. Each group has its own agendas from a sect that worships the god of death to the scarier Landsmen sworn to wipe out all those who have magical abilities. Girton would usually want to lurk in the shadows but Rufra quickly makes it known that instead he is a loyal friend and ally. This all adds to a causing significant uncertainty for Girton who’s Master is on edge of death, watching his friend talking to his worst enemy and grappling with a magical ability that if found out could spell his death. He even finds a new generation of super-skilled soldiers being groomed that may match his own talents. Whereas previously in times of stress or trouble he could always rely on the parental influence of Merela to stabilise him here she is absent and on top of that he carries brutal memories of what he had to do in the wilderness to survive. What is he a blunt instrument of death or something more? All the time spies and murderers encircle his friend’s camp increasing the tension.

Character is a key aspect of Barker’s writing and one fascinating point here is how much do people change over five years? Girton has grown more powerful physically but emotionally is in turmoil which re-visiting Maniyadoc has exacerbated – the sharp-witted, playful and kind Girton has become a more brooding, angrier and violent man now rejecting the swords of an assassin for a brutal mean Warhammer. Placing himself between Rufra who seems to now have a bigger vision for a better type of kingdom where justice and equality reign and Aydor who while protesting his future loyalty has a history of deceit and arrogance means Girton is torn between his automatic instinct to protect versus his friend’s desire to make peace. Rather than make Girton a pure hero Barker shows Griton’s past makes him decide for what to him are very logical reasons to do some very scary things. Ultimately reminding the reader that while Girton is a one of the deadliest assassins in the land he is also still a young man on the run from his past and terrified of losing anyone he holds dear no matter the cost to himself or others. Both Aydor and Rufra also have to decide where they stand in this time of crisis against their instincts

A newer element that is impressive is the use of larger set-pieces. In Age of Assassins it was very much focused on one-on-one conflict. In this case however the story levels up to larger armies and brigades fighting one another. The Normen are introduced as a foe who are happy to torture and kill their way through an enemy even causing howls through the night of their victims to make other’s nervous. It makes for an unpredictable and vicious foe and in one key scene set over a few hours we have Girton and a group of soldiers make a heroic stand in a village. Barker is great at describing moving and flowing action scenes but the key aspect he delivers in spades is in using action to define character. Not as in the more recent trend of grimdark showing everyone to be brutal at a base level but the ability for a character to decide to make the right thing; stand up against the tyrant and go into battle whatever the cost even if one man (or woman as Barker’s world doesn’t have the typical sexism of others) against a horde. Themes such as justice and friendship can appear outdated, but the way Barker really provides the emotional depth of such scenes was a highlight of the novel (there may have been fist-punching reader).

So, this is a sequel that cleverly builds and, in my view, excels on what the first tale delivered. That sense of increasing scale and what is now on the line makes this an exhilarating read and I think it is safe to say while I’m more than ready to read the conclusion to this series but also will be watching this writer’s career with interest!

https://lynns-books.com/2018/02/26/blood-of-assassins-the-wounded-kingdom-2-by-r-j-barker/
Only a couple of weeks ago I read Age of Assassins (review here) and loved it so much that I jumped in eagerly with Blood of Assassins. The first book in the series was an absolute success, I loved it and the characters that it introduced. It can be difficult to follow up such a compelling read and yet the second book in the series does not disappoint in fact far from having ‘middle book’ syndrome I would say that Blood of Assassins surpasses the first. If you haven’t yet read Age of Assassins then I urge you to do so, and I would also caution you about reading this review as it may contain spoilers for the first book.

Girton and his master have been away from Maniyadoc for five years. They’ve been working as mercenaries and trying to avoid retribution from the assassins guild that placed a price on their heads following events in Age of Assassins. The Tired Lands that the pair return to are indeed very aptly named at this point and are barely recognisable. War has taken its toll and left the landscape and people destitute. The three rivals to the throne have been battling it out, each determined to win the crown. Rufra and Tomas are the main contenders although Aydor still plays a part and the biggest fear is of him aligning with one of the forces and giving them an advantage. Returning to see his old friend Rufra, Girton is once again called on to help solve a mystery. It seems that there is a spy in Rufra’s camp and Girton is going to need his wits to solve the puzzle of who the betrayer is before it’s too late.

I think what really came across for me in this second book is the character growth. Things have indeed moved on and war and constant strife have changed the people and landscape that we were previously introduced to. Girton himself is definitely a conflicted individual. He and Merela still share a strong bond but there is undoubtedly some resentment between the two that is never really broached and there is a simmering of emotions that threatens to bubble over on an almost constant basis. Girton has practically abandoned his skill as an assassin preferring instead to wield a huge ass war hammer that most people would struggle to hoist. He has something of an advantage in that people generally underestimate him due to his club foot and yet his anger seems to give him added strength. He hasn’t lost his ability to mentally cogitate a problem but he constantly lets his emotions get the better of him and generally his frustrated annoyance and fear of losing both his friend and master more often than not win the day and cloud his judgement. He makes some dreadful mistakes in this book that just had me grasping my head with sheer disbelief but at the same time I wanted to just hug him and promise that everything would be okay. On top of this Girton spends virtually every day with the fear that his magic will simply overwhelm him and he will be sentenced to a bloody death. It doesn’t help that in assisting his friend he must now mix with the very people who seek out and kill those with any magical ability, the Landsmen.

Two things, relatively simple on the face of it, but that manage to change the complexion of this book and give it a different feel to the first. Merela is incapacitated fairly early on and spends a good deal of the story seriously ill. Now, whilst I love reading of Merela this is, strictly speaking, the ‘Girton show’ and restricting her physical and mental assistance pushed Girton out of his comfort zone and forced him to rely on his own abilities. On top of that, and again as much as I loved the castle setting in the first book, the majority of the action is taken outside of the walls and this is a remarkably easy and yet effective way of providing a new setting and giving us the opportunity to see more of the Tired Lands. Rufra and his army have camped outside the protection of the castle walls in a bid to tempt Tomas into an attack. Of course, Tomas isn’t so easily swayed and instead quite often succeeds himself in drawing Rufra out into the open where smaller scale battles ensue.

In this way we spend more time with the common people, hungry and tired of war. To be honest, life in the Tired Lands sounds simply exhausting. There is the blight caused by previous sorcery that gave rise to the fear of any type of magic. Nothing grows in the soured soil and keeping hunger at bay is hard when there simply isn’t enough land on which to grow crops. On top of that, living outside of the law are the Nonmen. Brutal and bloodthirsty they seem to have aligned themselves with Tomas and think nothing of attacking villages and killing with abandon any that they believe assist Rufra. If that wasn’t enough there’s the threat posed by wild hogs – I kid you not – you wouldn’t want to be caught alone and left to their tender mercy.

There is plenty of bloodshed and fast paced fighting. In particular a siege that takes place at an outlying village and is breathtakingly realistic. A small contingent of Rufra’s army, including Girton, become trapped behind the walls by a much larger force of Nonmen. The description of the fighting that ensues is absolutely gripping. In fact all of the action scenes are described to perfection. It’s an element of fantasy that I admit I don’t always enjoy – simply because sometimes I lose the plot a little with the descriptions or my focus drifts. I can say with complete conviction that I didn’t have any such feelings reading the action sequences in this book. They were riveting and the fact that I had formed such strong attachments to some of the characters only served to crank up the tension.

I could probably wax lyrical for a little longer but I think it’s time to wrap things up. I would give a little shout out to Xus who plays a fantastic role and makes me long for an antlered mount of my own.

Blood of Assassins was the perfect follow up. It successfully develops the characters in a way that is believable, it delivers another strong plot and it makes for compelling reading. Girton is far from perfect, he makes mistakes aplenty, but he’s relatable and his emotions have a simple honesty that endears him to you. Frankly I can’t wait to read more.

I received a copy, through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I think what I love most about these books - fabulous world building aside - is that at heart it's a story about growing up and defining your identity as separate from others. The first book concentrated very much on Girton making that transition from child to man, and there is more of that here but at a more sophisticated level. By sophistocated I mean that usually after you accept the mantel of adulthood you discover that your previous assumptions about adults which you held as a child are in fact false or at least incomplete. People are complicated. Nothing is set in stone. And being an adult often means not having firm answers or any answers at all - you're ahead of the game if you're asking the right questions. But perhaps the most profound discovery is that you must learn to use your own judgement effectively and in that respect being an adult means that in many ways you are alone. This is the journey Girton goes on.

I love Girton but he had several moments of being really very annoying in this book. Mostly because some part of him fought taking that final step into adult hood so he blinded himself with the childish belief that people do not change, with a stubborn refusal to do what he was good at - classic cutting off nose to spite face - and with his own judgement clouded with his personal prejudices. As frustrating as this is I found it made the denouement even more satisfying.

A world in which magic weilders are persecuted often doesn't make sense because in all honesty what other scenarios can you think of where those who have power do not take over? But Barker has made it work with her thorough and unforgiving portrayal of fear and prejudice, and with the way Girton wrestles with it in himself.

This felt like a bleaker book than the first one but it was right for the story. The themes of friendship and conflicting loyalties and the fear of being truly alone or left behind are still strong here. And aside from all that it's just a bloody good story. I am looking forward to King of Assassins.

Blood of Assassins is the second in R.J. Barker’s “The Wounded Kingdom” series. It follows Girton, sometime trainee assassin, sometime artiste, and occasional killer, as he investigates treachery, mendacity, magic, and the occasional murder, in a land broken by malevolent sorcery and internecine warfare.

The Girton of this story is one scarred by war. He’s spent the last few years out on the borders, fighting for pay. We last saw him as a damaged youth, but this is a man who has internalised his own wounds, then coated them over with armour, both metaphorical and physical. The agile sweeps of an assassin’s knives have been put away, and a Warhammer taken up instead. It’s a brute thing, an engine of war which breaks what it touches – and in that choice, the reader can see some of the struggle that Girton has internalised. There’s a rage bubbling up in there, and a sense of the cost of both fighting and running away. He travels with the woman who raised him, his Master, a woman whose unspeakable lethality is matched by a closely held affection for Girton. Their relationship has weathered storms, and the warmth of the complex bond between the two is a joy to behold. That Girton may feel a certain possessiveness makes sense; this relationship, almost parent-and-child, is the one point of stability in a life of disguise, double-bluff and murder. But the text lets him face up to the ugliness of that possessiveness, and isn’t afraid to explore the emotional landscape of the boy-becoming a man. In a life seemingly lacking much non-mentor affection, Girton is emotionally vulnerable, no matter the armour he wears, physical and mental. The loyalty and love Girton has for his master is the emotional heart of the text – or at least one of the lungs; the other is Girton’s relationship to Rufra, perhaps the only friend he has, now a king fighting a war for the throne.

Rufra and Girton work well together because of their history. They’re two boys who fought their way out of something terrible, and have grown into men trying to do the same. Rufra struggles with the demands of kingship – with being a good and just king, with the harsh realities of statecraft, and with balancing those against his own needs. Girton’s return, a reminder of a simpler time, may help him claw back some of the sense of self which being a leader, being a figurehead, takes away. The dialogue between the two, from angry words through to silent affirmations of friendship, is pitch perfect, and emotional depths are quietly and breathtakingly plumbed. This is a book which carries the weight of hurt and fire white hot rage in its prose, and leavens it with an intimacy and humanity which makes it impossible to put down.

Girton is, of course, drawn into the madness of the struggle for the kingdom of Maniyadoc, land already broken and poisoned by sorcery. The atmosphere is one of conflict, of broken bodies and broken promises, where the social bonds that keep everything together have begun to fray – or, in some cases, been deliberately snapped. Maniyadoc continues to fascinate, as the social hierarchy - set in stone by the apparent death of their divinities – begins to disintegrate. The upheaval is not just political, but social, and you can see that in every common soldier starting to think that maybe the knights up on their horses don’t have any idea how to lead. Or in the new wave of priests quietly preaching the ideas of change. Or in the way the Landsmen, killers of magic users, willing to use their blood to return a land to life, will stand aside whilst the political uncertainties wear themselves out. This is a land in flux and crisis, without question, and one where the battles, where the knives in the dark and the swords on the field all come within the wider tapestry of compelling world-building.

The plot? Well, it’s intriguing stuff. Girton investigates a plot to kill a king, and win a throne. There’s espionage. Counter espionage. Betrayals. There’s love, for family and romantically thrown into the mix. There’s a lot of assumptions that get put on display and torn down, as the world rearranges itself over the course of the story. This is a story of mystery and murder, more than a whiff of LeCarré mixed into the cavalry charges and politicking. There’s blood, for sure, and sacrifice, and a feeling of costs and consequences for every inch of progress – and there’s some wonderfully human moments in the mix, and opportunities to grasp a little light and hope in the maelstrom. The scheming is suitably byzantine, the stakes both immediate and personal -the story, spellbinding. If you’ve made it this far, and you want to know if this sequel is worth it, take away an emphatic yes. It’s definitely worth picking this one up.

*** Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review ***
I read Blood of Assassins straight on the back of Age of Assassins, which I thought was OK.
Here we are back with Girton Club-Foot and his assassin master 5 years after the conclusion of the first book. Having travelled as mercenaries during this time, Girton has stopped training with the sword and picked up a warhammer instead. The book opens with he and his master seeing off some foreign assassins of their own, his master becoming poisoned in the conflict.
The Tired Lands has deteriorated over this time with Girton's three fellow squires all vying to become king, resulting in a long war that has taken its toll on the land and its people.
Girton becomes tasked with finding the spy within his old friend, Rufra's, camp and soon becomes embroiled in finding a murderer and fending off attacks on the camp and nearby towns.
Girton is one of the most annoying characters I have come across for a while, being incredibly stupid, selfish and childish. He is mooted as an incredible warrior on his return, which I thought of as odd due to nobody seeing his true skills in the first book - he always had to pretend to be mostly useless to hide his assassin and sorcery abilities. Hi is also praised for solving the mystery over the assassin-hiring in the first book, even though he solved that by luck, people just confessing to him or other people working it out instead of him.
Here he again does next to nothing to solve the mystery of the spy and only when he is confronted by them does he work it out.
As in the first book, he again becomes embroiled in identifying a murderer in the camp, which he again does despite his stupidity.
I'm all for an anti-hero but they are supposed to still make you either love them or hate them, I found myself completely indifferent to Girton's plight and just wanted to get through it.
There were more typical fantasy battle scenes in this book, which were well executed, but these were few and far between and came somewhat at odds with the plot. This redeemed the book for me.
However, as with the first book, there were no hints at who the culprit was, too much of it was left to the reveal, meaning the mystery aspect of the book was a little clumsy.
And the dream sequences, which in the first book served to tell the story of Girton's upbringing, here are a complete nonsense and add nothing to the story. Just flowery nonsense.
Barker has a good turn of phrase, but at times I thought it just confusing:
"The impact came from behind, high in the centre of my back, throwing me forward.
An arrow.
I knew the way they killed. Felt its ghost as it ruptured my lungs, split my breastbone and burst from my chest. I hit the floor, dust billowing from the carpet. The weight on my back forced me down into the choking cloud.
Not an arrow."
For me this was style over substance and left me unnecessarily confused as to what was happening.
The first person perspective is also fatally flawed in this setting as we therefore automatically know Girton survives, taking the edge off all the battles he is involved in.
In summary, a little flowery at times and doesn't know whether it wants to be a fantasy book or a thriller and succeeds in neither all that well.