The Assassin King

By: Elizabeth Haydon

Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins

Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Assassin King opens at winter's end with the arrival by sea of a mysterious hunter, a man of ancient race and purpose, who endlessly chants the names of the pantheon of demons that are his intended victims, as well as one other: Ysk, the original name of the Brother, now known as Achmed, the Assassin King of Ylorc.

At the same moment of this portentous arrival, two gatherings of great import are taking place. The first is a convocation of dragons, who gather in a primeval forest glade - the site of the horrific ending of Llauron, one of the last of their kind. They mourn not only his irrevocable death, but the loss of the lore and control over the Earth itself that it represents. The ancient wyrms are terrified for what will come as a result of this loss.

The second gathering is a council of war held in the depths of the keep of Haguefort: Ashe and Rhapsody, rulers of the alliance that protects the Middle Continent; Gwydion, the new Duke of Navarne; Anborn, the Lord Marshall; Achmed, the King of Ylorc, and Grunthor, his Sergeant-Major. Each brings news that form the pieces of a great puzzle. And as each piece is added it becomes quite clear: War is coming, the likes of which the world has never known.

Cataclysm, both large and small, await in this sixth volume of the USA Today best-selling fantasy series, The Symphony of Ages. A twisting, fast-moving tale, The Assassin King promises endless surprises - most of which lead to pain.

©2006 Elizabeth Haydon (P)2014 Audible Inc.

the story continues to develop perfectly!

having started this series in paperback some 12 years ago, I can say that I am quite happy with the reader Kevin T Collins and how he continues to bring the voices to life, everybody sounds as I thought they would. the story itself continues to twist in a delightful way Elizabeth Haydon introduces new plots effortlessly. I cannot thank her enough for giving me such Joy on my long commutes.

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Good first trilogy, but skip this second series

I could not wait to finish this third book of the 2nd series because it is so bad (I won't go on to read the rest). I really wanted to like it though, because I enjoyed the first trilogy so much. However, there are two huge problems with the second series: 1) While the books' endings occur at natural pauses, the plot really belongs to one book instead of the drawn out series of books (which feels suspiciously like a marketing tactic). But the biggest problem is that the story reads as if it were strictly following some premade outline in which the original characters from the first series (of which I loved) are made to act and speak with one another the way the characters from one of Plato's plays about Socrates read: "I understand X, Socrates, but could you tell me its difference from Y?" "Excellent question, my curious friend. Let me explain..." and on and on it goes. Very cardboard writing. Where the books excel are when Haydon introduces new characters--or old characters grown up a bit. She spends time putting flesh on their bones, as it were, and they become people that are interesting and that I care about, whereas our heroes from the original, are merely acting and speaking to further along the plot. Bleah.

Did like the person who read it.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The person who narrated.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Assassin King?

Got to see why Emily and Ashe's timeline was changed

Would you be willing to try another one of Kevin T. Collins’s performances?

No. I also use BARD from the National Library Service. They have this series, but were in the process of updated the server. I had just finished book 5 and wanted to continue. For this series I prefer who read the book for them. This guy was constantly mispronouncing words that I was already used to one way. Very sad because this is one of my favorite series.

Did The Assassin King inspire you to do anything?

Finish reading the series. This is an annual reread as is one of my fav's.