The Guild of Assassins by Anna Kashina

The Guild of Assassins by Anna Kashina is the second book in The Majat Code series. I read and reviewed the first book, Blades of the Old Empire, earlier this year. Unfortunately, while I enjoyed book one, book two didn't really do it for me. Note that this review contains spoilers for the ending of book one.

Kara has achieved something that no Majat has ever managed – freedom from the Guild!

But the Black Diamond assassin Mai has been called back to face his punishment for sparing her life. Determined to join his fight or share his punishment, Kara finds herself falling for Mai.

But is their relationship – and the force that makes their union all-powerful – a tool to defeat the overpowering forces of the Kaddim armies, or a distraction sure to cause the downfall of the Majat?

The story follows the same group of characters from book one, although with some emphases shifted. Ellah and Alder were point of view characters in the first book but in The Guild of Assassins they are merely background characters. The point of view focuses strongly on Prince Kyth, Kara the highly trained assassin and, somewhat unexpectedly, Magister Egey Bashi. Lady Celana, who was a minor character in book one, plays a more visible role in book two.

Egey Bashi gets a surprising amount of point of view time for someone who's less directly involved in the action than some of the other characters. I suspect that might be because he's the only sensible adult around (well, Mai, a central character who doesn't really get point of view sections, is in his early twenties, but...) and is a useful tool to explain why other characters are doing silly things, or why those things are silly, and to fix some of the problems they cause. Unfortunately, that didn't make him a terribly exciting character. I didn't have strong feelings about him in book one and I still don't. Unfortunately, he plays such a large role in book two that I probably should have had a stronger reaction to him.

The first thing that bothered me was actually a holdover from Blades of the Old Empire. Towards the end of that one it's revealed that Mai is in love with Kara and that storyline is explored extensively in The Guild of Assassins. It wasn't a storyline that I found worked for me very well and I didn't find it very interesting. It also meant that the relationship aspect of the story turned into a love triangle which I felt, again, pretty ambivalent about. But at least it wasn't like a cliched YA love triangle.

What really bogged down the story for me was the copious introspection of all the characters. I think this existed in the first book but, for whatever reason — more interesting personal problems? A broader range of characters? — didn't bother me then. Here it often felt repetitive and I found myself skimming over a lot of inner monologue. Most of it was either about the love triangle from Kyth and Kara or about other characters' actions/motivations/mistakes from Egey Bashi.

On the bright side, that made it feel like a quicker read than it otherwise might have. And I should add I wasn't bored or annoyed enough to stop reading the book (I considered it, but ultimately decided it wasn't that bad). I am not sure if there is a sequel (my guess would be yes) and, if there is, I don't know that I'll be reading it. The plot of The Guild of Assassins very much centred around defeating the evil brotherhood that had taken over a monastery (and was trying to take over the world) without very many side plots (other than the relationship one). By contrast, there was more mystery in Blades of the Old Empire, since we didn't know anything about the evil brotherhood, which kept things interesting. Given a sufficiently interesting plot, I might be tempted to have a go at a book three.

If you enjoyed Blades of the Old Empire, then give The Guild of Assassins a go, particularly if you thought Mai and Kara together would be an interesting story. If you felt more meh about the first book, probably give this one a miss.

3 / 5 stars

First published: August 2014, Angry Robot
Series: Book two of the Majat Code
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Blades of the Old Empire by Anna Kashina

Blades of the Old Empire is the first book I've read by Anna Kashina. I decided to read it on a whim, and I'm glad I did. I must say, I'm not overly fond of the blurb — it's a bit melodramatic and slightly spoilery for an event admittedly close to the start — but it's not too bad so I'm still including it.

Kara is a mercenary – a Diamond warrior, the best of the best, and a member of the notorious Majat Guild. When her tenure as protector to Prince Kythar comes to an end, custom dictates he accompany her back to her Guild to negotiate her continued protection.

But when they arrive they discover that the Prince’s sworn enemy, the Kaddim, have already paid the Guild to engage her services – to capture and hand over Kythar, himself.

A warrior brought up to respect both duty and honour, what happens when her sworn duty proves dishonourable?

There was a lot to like about Blades of the Old Empire. For me, the real strength of the book was the way everything came together into a smooth package. It opens with Prince Kyth being attacked by some mysteriously powerful bad guys (the Kaddim) and some troubles with the priesthood regarding Kyth's ability to succeed his father. The main characters set off in a couple of groups to deal with the religious issue and the story mostly follows them on their journeys (even if the "journey" doesn't necessarily consist of much travel thanks to complications).

You know how in some books, poor timing and coincidence is used to send characters off on misinformed missions of revenge and so forth and you're left shouting at the page in frustration? Well, Kashina doesn't take it quite that far, which was a nice change. I mean, I like books which toy with my emotions and make me yell at them (well, not if I'm yelling because they're crap, but that's not what I'm talking about here). But it was nice to have some of the suspense of that but not necessarily played out to the worst possible conclusion. I didn't realise how much less stressful that would be! ;-)

I should probably admit that I have a soft spot for assassins guilds. It certainly wasn't the only think I liked about Blades of the Old Empire, but it helped. So did the implausibly awesome warriors (one of whom, Kara, adorns the front cover). The Majat Guild has a ranking system based on gem stones; Diamond rank is the best, Jade rank indicates particular proficiency with ranged weapons, a group of Rubies plus one Diamond form the king's guard, that sort of thing. There are three Diamonds in the group of main and secondary characters, so we have ample opportunity to read about their implausibly good fighting abilities. The only think I would have liked is a glossary or appendix listing the ranks in order since that didn't come up in the book in very much detail (beyond what we needed to know about the characters). Actually, a list of characters — especially the rulers of the other kingdoms, which I briefly lost track of — would also have been good. And of the roles of Keepers, another powerful sect in the world. I do feel like some of this stuff will slot into place better upon reading the next book, however.

All the main characters were enjoyable to follow. The two main(-est) assassins have very few point of view sections (I think only when no one else is around for a plot-relevant scene) which serves to make them even more mysterious since we only have the other character's observations and thoughts to go on. The prince and friends were also very likeable characters. I particularly liked Ellah, who probably has the most complete emotional journey throughout the book. And, needless to say, I liked that there were several female characters (really, most of them) who actually got to control their own destinies, despite living in a fantasy world. Always good to see.

I enjoyed Blades of the Old Empire a lot and I highly recommend it to all fantasy fans, especially fans of BFF (big fat fantasy) books. Once I got a few chapters in, I found it very difficult to put down (you would think that having relatively short chapters would make this easier, but it was not the case). I will definitely be picking up the sequel which, apparently, is due out in (Northern) "summer". Looking forward to it.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: February 2014, Angry Robot
Series: The Majat Code book 1 of ? (at least 2)
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley