“This book has everything I love: Clean, crisp worldbuilding. Characters that live and breathe. A story that teases and surprises me. I like Master Assassins so much I wish I’d written it, but deep down, I know I couldn’t have written it this well.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Patrick Rothfuss Two village boys mistaken for assassins become the decisive figures in the battle for a … figures in the battle for a continent in the thrilling new desert-based epic fantasy by the author of The Red Wolf Conspiracy.
Kandri Hinjuman was never meant to be a soldier. His brother Mektu was never meant for this world. Rivals since childhood, they are drafted into a horrific war led by a madwoman-Prophet, and survive each day only by hiding their disbelief. Kandri is good at blending in, but Mektu is hopeless: impulsive, erratic—and certain that a demon is stalking him. Is this madness or a second sense? Either way, Kandri knows that Mektu’s antics will land them both in early graves.
But all bets are off when the brothers’ simmering feud explodes into violence, and holy blood is spilled. Kandri and Mektu are taken for contract killers and must flee for their lives—to the one place where they can hope to disappear: the sprawling desert known as the Land that Eats Men. In this eerie wilderness, the terrain is as deadly as the monsters, ghouls, and traffickers in human flesh. Here the brothers find strange allies: an aging warlord, a desert nomad searching for her family, a lethal child-soldier still in her teens. They also find themselves in possession of a secret that could bring peace to the continent of Urrath. Or unthinkable carnage.
On their heels are the Prophet’s death squads. Ahead lie warring armies, sandstorms, evil spirits and the deeper evil of human greed. But hope beckons as well—if the “Master Assassins” can expose the lie that has made them the world’s most wanted men.
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This book has everything I love: Clean, crisp worldbuilding. Characters that live and breathe. A story that teases and surprises me. I like Master Assassins so much I wish I’d written it, but deep down, I know I couldn’t have written it this well.
I thought this book was a great read. The characters were well developed and the world building is unique. Fun and entertaining.
Ready for book two!
Good book
I loved this fantasy novel and was horrified to learn that book 2 in the series won’t be out for another year! Jordanna Brodsky, a Goodreads author of The Immortals series, recommended the book.
Robert Redick really nailed this one. What a great story! Fascinating plot and characters, and all of the author’s formidable skills at play. I cannot wait to read the next one.
The prose is spectacularly good. Your adrenaline will flow. Your emotions will be toyed with. You will find yourself drawn in, turning the pages and worrying that fewer and fewer remain. I read a lot of good books. Quite a few very good books. This is one of the rare 6-star series openers I’ve encountered.
Fast paced and very entertaining. Can’t wait to read book two but Isn’t available yet
I loved it, and I’m not typically a huge fantasy fan. The characters, the progressive revelation with so much still unrevealed, the very fully realized world-building, the use of language, all add up to a lot of folks waiting eagerly for the 2nd volume!
DNF, didn’t like the characters
A blazingly smart thrill-ride of an adventure. The world of Master Assassins is deep, mysterious, terrifying, and utterly real, and I’ll follow Redick’s heroes, the mismatched brothers Kandri and Mektu, wherever they go in it. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.
With spare, sharp-edged prose, Redick balances his rollicking adventure story against a tale of love and uneasy brotherhood, offering a thrilling glimpse into a world both haunting and haunted. His finest work to date.
An exquisitely written mix of heart-stopping action, masterful storytelling, and enchantment. Redick is a gifted wordsmith with a ferocious imagination. Master Assassins will produce many sleepless nights. I guarantee it.
I couldn’t get into the story
Didn’t want to like it, but it sucked me in and I couldn’t stop reading. I found one brother whiny and the other crazy, then they get picked up by the current and swept along by forces they can neither control nor understand. Their story unfolds in flashbacks, deftly weaving past and present. I’m ready for the next book.
Hard to read keep hoping it would get better but a big disappointment
Ambivalent about this book, which is a disappointing outcome after enthusiastically diving in on the basis of a recommendation from Patrick Rothfuss whose writing I very much enjoy. The main character was well developed, his brother less so and it trickled down from there. The story was interesting and the situations and decisions made kept the narrative moving right along. My complaint is that, aside from the mother figures, all the other female characters are either crazy or whores. Perhaps this will change over the story arc, but this male-obsessed dismissive attitude toward women left me less than enthralled and wishing to clobber some of the male characters over the head…along with the author.