Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hood

As much as I hate to admit it after my recent lambasting of the fantasy genre as a whole, I really liked this book. It was a page-turn (screen-advancer) and the characters were diverse enough to be interesting. I would definitly be interested in reading the rest of the triology, although the book was sufficient as a stand-alone novel. You rooted for the main character, even though he wasn't perfect (and in fact was an assassin, no one I could root for in real life), and the description of the society verged on political criticism. There was a Machiavellian kind of economy - whatever means to an end, and description of the responsibility of rulers to the people (the Mountain people didn't have a King, but a 'Sacrifice'). No noble set of ethics guided decisions on the societal level (although they did on the personal level) - the good of the Kingdom was the overriding goal.

Other interesting things. I actually liked the Royals' naming system - name them for virtues you hope them inspire to - leading to the irony of course that personalities became the perversion of virtues taken to the extreme. The Red ships with Forging was slightly confusing to me, and I'm assuming will be played out better in the subsequent novels. Also, blaming the child for being a bastard (most definitely not the child's fault, but certainly politically important when you're a bastard of royal blood) was telling of society as well.

Overall, I'd recommend this novel for a light read if you're into fantasy - not a masterpiece but definitely fun.