A great follow up to Assassins Apprentice. I love the depth Robin Hobb gives her characters and I feel like we are really getting to know Fitz inside out as a person. The fool is also quickly becoming a favourite character of mine and I look forward to seeing more from him. The plot in this one, like most middle books, mostly is just setting up the plot for the final book, however, I really enjoy political fantasy plots and boy did this book provide that. So much is going on throughout this book though it maintains that slower pace by having things gradually weave together to create the finale. Overall, I did really enjoy this and ended up reading it much faster that I thought I would. However, there was nothing to really wow me and the characters made a mistake that I thought to be a bit out of character, which is why it just misses out on being a 5 star read for me.