Kings and Assassins

by Lane Robins

Controlled by an aristocracy whose depraved whims bow to neither law nor god, the kingdom of Antyre is under siege from the only man who can save it. He is Janus Ixion, the new Earl of Last, a man... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345495748
• ISBN13: 9780345495747
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Del Rey Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.

The Kingdom of Antyre is in trouble. The heir to the king is young and feeble-minded. The King Aris is indecisive. Prince Ivor of the Itarusine Court is a visiting envoy of a powerful nation that is hovering at the borders, waiting for an opportunity to invade and conquer. The nobility is decadent and corrupt. The poor are more grindingly poor than ever and civil unrest is growing in the city. Janus Ixion, Earl of Last, in line for the throne after the feeble-minded prince, believes he can save Antyre. He's grown up amongst the poorest of the city, when he and his mother had been abandoned by his father, but the brought back to court. He believes in new ideas that can bring industry and prosperity back. Unfortunately, he is mistrusted by everyone... and not without cause. He has ambitions. He can be ruthless, a heartless killer, a soul-less degenerate. He has scandalized the Court by his liaison with the murderous courtier Maladicte, who is now supposedly dead. And when an assassin kills the King, Janus's own wife accuses him of being behind the deed. This is a dark and deadly political fantasy of plots and intrigue and the interference of old gods and dark magics. Janus is a complex character, not at all sympathetic, and who truly will stop at nothing to gain power. He is pitted against enemies who are more powerful and ruthless, as well as enemies who are merely self-centered and uncaring. Seeing him have to battle against such odds is possibly the only point of sympathy in his favor. The trouble in Antyre and Janus's efforts to stay above the deadly machinations (by creating his own), has the curiosity of a nasty train-wreck. While I was never all that attached to Janus, he did seem to have at least some ideas of how to save the kingdom, so one did wish him to succeed. Watching him scrabble through all the deadly traps around him definitely had its fascination.

A political poker game with stakes high enough to kill

The second instillation in Lane Robins' series, //Kings and Assassins// is a tale of destruction and survival, showing the downward spiral of a kingdom that has lost its king. Janus Ixion, a man who has just recently reclaimed his noble birthright, is one of the contenders for the throne; however, enemies lurk everywhere, perhaps even behind the sweet smile of his wife or the protective swords of his guards. Trying to outwit not only his fellow man, but also the recently returned gods, Janus must battle to secure his future and the future of his country. The story opens with a sly game of cards, and that is the resounding metaphor for the entire book as every man tries to bluff his way to the top. In this extremely well-written story of political intrigue, none of the fights are honest, none of the characters are perfectly good, and the stakes are high enough to destroy a country. Filled with twists and lies, it's impossible to know who is an enemy and who is a friend until the very last pages. Thoroughly enjoyable and surprising, Robins does not disappoint. Reviewed by Kayli Crosby

(3.5) An Acquired Taste

I wasn't sure I'd like this one. Janus Ixion as the protagonist? I hated Janus in Maledicte. I started reading Kings and Assassins with that loathing firmly in place, and in the early pages of the book, he didn't do much to make me like him any better. I didn't like the other characters either. I didn't care about Janus, I didn't care that he missed Maledicte, I didn't care about his wife or about their endless quarrels, and I couldn't have cared less who ended up regent for Prince Adiran after King Aris's assassination. What kept me going was Lane Robins' prose, which I enjoyed as much as ever. Imagine my surprise when, halfway through the book, I found myself thinking that Antyre was in deep trouble if Janus lost his bid for the regency. Oh, he didn't become a nice guy or anything, have no fear. But I did realize that neither Maledicte nor Gilly saw him clearly. Maledicte idealized him too much until the very end; Gilly vilified him too much. He's complicated. He's violent, ambitious, ruthless, but also intelligent and keenly interested in the welfare of Antyre, even when his concern is based on selfish motives. He's also the only noble in the kingdom who has any idea what life is like for Antyre's poor. He's a bit like a George R.R. Martin character in some ways. Every time I started hating him, he'd do something admirable, often for all the wrong reasons. Every time I started liking him, he'd do something so horribly unethical that I wondered what I'd been thinking. Kings and Assassins follows Janus as he tries to scheme his way through the Antyrrian court and prevent the country from being taken over by neighboring Itarus in the aftermath of Aris's death. It's not easy; he is opposed at every turn by snobbish Antyrrian nobles, a grasping Itarusine prince, angry working-class mobs, and his own wife, Psyke, who is convinced Janus had Aris killed. Not to even mention the gods: Black-Winged Ani is still on the scene, and now Haith, the god of death, has awakened as well. I didn't read this quite as compulsively as I read Maledicte, and I'm not sure if the fault lies with the book or with the fact that I was trying to fit it into a busier schedule. I do know that I enjoyed reading it once I got past the initial "I hate all the characters" stage. Recommended if you like political fantasies and don't mind gore and characters with skewed moral compasses!

Great book! Why is Lane Robins not more popular?

While this book is the second in a series after Maledicte, it also works well as a standalone political fantasy. To the readers of the first book, it is quite interesting to see Janus from the inside as not someone who's blandly smiling but someone of passion who cares about the world around him (a trait that facilitates world-building, fortunately, and improves upon the often hazy setting of Maledicte). The plot of the book is quite solid, but the book's memorability lies in characterization. While I found the villain a little silly and melodramatic, Janus is an extremely likeable character; the book's ending made me genuinely curious to see where he heads next. I definitely recommend reading whatever Lane Robins writes (under her own name or penname Lyn Benedict) and hope she gets more fans!

excellent political fantasy

Janus Ixion knows he has come a long way from an impoverished commoner wondering when his next meal would occur to being the Earl of Last. Though he no longer worries about eating, he knows his countrymen in Antyre remain indigent and starving. He dreams of bringing the industrial revolution to Antyre so no one would go to bed hungry. Prince Ivor of Itarus plans to replace King Aris on the throne of Antyre and arranges for the monarch to be assassinated as he knows the young heir Prince Adiran is a moron. However, although Ivor achieves his royal killing, the late king's nephew from the wrong side of the sheets Janus is irate; not because his uncle died, but because the murder occurred to soon for him to make a bid for the throne. Meanwhile his wife Psyke, who believes he arranged his uncle's murder, acts mad as the demonic god of death and victory Haith possesses her. Even more enigmatic than Psyke's behavior, is King Adiran shows intelligence that makes everyone believe he must be possessed by an ancient god at a time when Itarus invades. A few years have past since the events in MALEDICTE that focused on Janus' rise and other political backstabbing in a realm where gods intrude. Fascinatingly, no one is a pure hero with Janus the closest as he condones his lethal methods to seize power by claiming he is the best person to enable Antyre to prosper and to prevent its annexation by Itarus. Fans will enjoy the battle for power as anything goes, but with neighbors invading and traitors inside the court with personal agendas and sparking unrest while the gods possesses people for reasons known to them. KINGS AND ASSASSINS is an excellent political fantasy. Harriet Klausner