It's always hard to finish a saga.
it usually ends up being a little too long and wordy.
In addition, trying to explain everything that was a mystery up to this book (over more than a 1000 pages) will always be a little bit of a let down since the biggest part of the fun is the mystery.
However, this book explains everything in a very satisfactory manner, save for the red ships that just become a slight non-issue. ( )

Pre09: It really wraps everything up. Somethings are a little bit of a cop out (Memory loss?!?) But at least no loose ends were left out there. ( )

Again Fitz starts off a novel feeling desolate (and many more episodes of that will follow), and it takes nearly a hundred pages for the story to get moving. He spends most of the rest of the book wandering about the countryside trying to keep a low profile. The story is at its weakest when Fitz shirks the company of others and travels alone, setting aside new and interesting characters, and that's regrettably often. At least some of the characters we care about return to the story in the final third, which saves it a bit.

The troubles with Fitz as a character become abundantly clear on this outing. He's far too passive, even with his new independence. Bad things happen to him, then other people rescue him, over and over. As much as he strives to determine his own fate, he never gets to do it - even in the small things. I suppose this is the stuff antiheroes are made of, but fantasy antiheroes just give me a "what's the point" feeling (particularly when the story is not tragedy). He is also unforgivably, inexcusably dense at times, very blind to certain plot points concerning Molly and ridiculously blind to Regal's machinations to find her. He also spends countless sentences mooning over the same thoughts (Molly this, Molly that), while right around him astonishing things are happening that he barely pauses to reflect on (and sometimes, frustratingly, not at all).

This novel doesn't justify its length. I thought the ending at least might save it, but unlike the exciting conclusions of the first two books this one's is first confusing, then chaotic (involving numerous unlikelihoods that border on deus ex machina). After a long slog to get to the end, the resolution is inexcusably rushed and left me unsatisfied, particularly the grocery list format in the final pages. This trilogy ends on a weak note and Royal Assassin remains its high point. ( )

This entire trilogy is a very good read. ( )

A wonderful trilogy comes to an end. I will admit to being a little disappointed by the ending....the dragons are great, but I just felt that everything was wrapped up a little too neatly. I would have liked to be privy to a little more information on the final battle than the reader was. A great series, but I was just a little disappointed in the ending. ( )