J.B. Redmond

Reviewed by Joan Stradling for TeensReadToo.com

After being harvested by the Stone and taken to the guild's stronghold (Triune), Aron Brailing has been training as an assassin's apprentice.

The second half of the OATHBREAKER story starts out where the first left off; Aron has to face the horrors of the ruined keep and hope to make it back alive. In the midst of his training, war is breaking out among the dynasty lords and threatening to come right to the Stone Guild stronghold.

The threat show more becomes real when enemies learn there is A PRINCE AMONG KILLERS. Aron has been forbidden to use his legacy upon pain of death, but if he doesn't use it, his friends might die. In addition to that impossible choice, Aron is faced with another when he draws his first stone. His choices may lead him down the path to becoming an Oathbreaker.

As with ASSASIN'S APPRENTICE, the characters and world in A PRINCE AMONG KILLERS were compelling and thrilling. I enjoyed getting to know the characters further and the promise of exciting revelations kept me turning the pages.

I loved reading A PRINCE AMONG KILLERS - I only wish it hadn't ended. show less

Aron is forcibly taken from his family to become an apprentice to the Stone Guild. Yet being taken saves his life, because hours later the clan lord attacks his people and massacres hundreds including Aron’s family. Aron decides to use his time at the Stone Guild to train for avenging the murder of his family. In another clan, the last heir to the throne is pushed from the roof and left for dead. He is saved by another member of the Stone Guild. Stone will help them train their show more undiscovered abilities and put their world back together.

This was a fantastic book. I couldn’t put it down. The world building is strong and rich and I was invested in the story really quickly. The viewpoint switches between a few different characters, which took a little getting used to, but each character is so engaging that I didn’t mind. Everyone’s motivations were realistic and compelling. I loved the twist that even though Stone has a bad reputation, they are honorable and will probably be pivotal in saving the world. Be prepared that the story is a cliffhanger, but fortunately the second book is already available. show less

Summary: Aron Brailing is a ordinary young man living an ordinary life on his father's farm when the Harvest comes. But the Harvest is not a simple matter of farming, rather, it's the time when Stone Brothers - members of Eyrie's formal guild of assassins - come to claim boys from their families and take them to be trained in the ways of the guild. When Aron is chosen by the High Master Stormbreaker, his ties to his family are formally severed, and he must learn to adapt to his new life and show more his new companions. For Aron has a powerful magical gift that he must learn to control, with the help of Stormbreaker and Dari, a young woman who too is more than she seems. And it is a dangerous time to be special: one of the ruling lords has committed a terrible atrocity that has provoked a war, and Aron finds that he his enemies without - as well as within.

Review: When I picked this book up, I was hoping from the title and the blurb that it was going to be something really unique and original. Unfortunately, it didn't have the most auspicious beginnings: a boy living on a pig farm at the far isolated reaches of the kingdom, who is forced to leave the farm due to a magical power he didn't even know he had, before the bad guys come sweeping down upon him. Sound familiar, anyone? It's the pigboy parable, all over again, and no matter how you dress it up, it's a story that fantasy fans have seen many times before.

Fortunately, Assassin's Apprentice did branch out a bit once Aron was away from the farm. It's still fairly standard fantasy coming-of-age fare, but the idea of a formalized guild of assassins is interesting, as is the magic system and its relation to bloodlines. The "about the author" section states that Redmond is a lifelong fantasy fan, and that much is clear from the story: Assassin's Apprentice is certainly evocative of many of the genre's staples, although it never quite reaches far enough beyond them to become a stand-out in its own right.

Part of my hesitation about this book is that I didn't particularly connect or empathize with Aron, and he's the character with whom we spend the most time. Actually, the order in which I found the main characters the most interesting (Stormbreaker, Dari, and then Aron) is exactly inverse to the amount of time we spend with each of them. There are plenty of hints about interesting things to come in the second volume, A Prince Among Killers (due out in November), but in this one, Aron's journey, both physical and mental, stuck a little too close to formula to command my full attention.

The writing itself was well-done, apart from a few minor glitches. There was a little too much focus on naming things, and not enough on explaining them (I'm still not particularly clear on the differences between the various races, and what exactly happened during the Mixing Wars, for one.) Also, there were a few story points that came out of nowhere and then were dropped just as quickly, which was distracting. However, for the most part the narrative, descriptions, action, and dialogue flowed smoothly - I just wish they had been flowing along storylines that weren't quite so well worn. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Younger fantasy fans, particularly boys, will most likely eat this book up. For older (and more extensively read) fantasy fans, it's not the most original new book out there, but it's certainly an entertaining entry into the genre. show less

Aron, Nic, and Dari must figure out their place in the destiny to save their world for civil war. For Aron, that means continuing to learn about his Graal. For Nic, it means deciding whether or not to come out of hiding, and for Dari it means figuring out her place in Fae society.

This story picks up right where Assassin’s Apprentice left off. Don’t try reading this one without having read the first. I felt like it lost a little momentum and was a little slow to get moving again. It was show more lighter on the character development than I liked. We don’t get many new insights into the characters. The romance plot was underdeveloped and quite a turnaround from the previous story, but it made some of the pieces to fall into place for things to work out. It had sad moments that I didn’t expect and I shed some tears.

All the previous plot lines get tied off, but the ending felt a little rushed and almost like a setup for another story. There were some tantalizing tidbits I would like to see elaborated on in another story. Other than those few things, I really enjoyed this set of books and they are well worth picking up. show less