ARC Review: Master Assassins

Hello people! How are you? March has not started in the best of the way, if we speak about books, but now all it seems back to the normal order (I am reading some really good books, so… yay!) and I am really happy about it!
Sadly today I am here to talk about one of the not so good books… sorry!
I really wished to write the review yesterday, because the book was published yesterday, but I hadn’t had the time, this period is a really busy one for me (and I have some great news but I would tell about them in another post) and I really need a vacation (lucky me, I have to wait just till next week and then I will have a little vacation, double yay!) but I am here today… so I am not too late, right?

Thanks to NetGalley and to the editor. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Master Assasins
Author: Robert V.S. Redick
Publication: March 6th 2018
Page count: 458
Two village boys mistaken for assassins become the decisive 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.

When I started this book I was super excited because the synopsis seems really good and the blurb is by Patrick Rothfuss! No people… hold on a second… the blurb is by Patrick Rothfuss. Have you read it???? So, needless to say, when they approved me for this book I was so so happy and I was dying to start it. And start it I did…

At the beginning I was really happy, because the world building is good and interesting… the atmosphere is quite on the Arabian note and it was really fascinating. The world that the author creates is original and I was fascinated.
But this is the length of it. It’s not that I found it a bad book, it was an enjoyable reading, most of the time, but I didn’t care for it… I couldn’t click with the characters, and I hoped that it was just a slow start problem, I mean you don’t have to fall in love at first sight with a character to fully appreciate it, you can also learn to know him (or her) slowly and love him/her anyway in the end, so I really hoped it was just a slow burn thing but nope. I think I liked a little bit more Kan, the more serious and responsible of the two brothers, and that’s strange because Mek was more my kind of character, usually, I like the ones like him, but… just not him. And I wasn’t a fan of Kandri, too, even if he was my favorite between the two of them. It’s not that I didn’t like them at all, it’s just that I really didn’t care. And that’s sad. Sadder is that I felt the same way with the other characters, they weren’t bad, and maybe I could have liked some of them, the idea behind them was likable, but in the end no one in this book made me feel something, if not some really light feeling.
I can say the same for the story, it wasn’t good, the idea was interesting and there are some twists and turns, yes, but I didn’t care. In some parts I was quite bored and all in all, I was really happy when I reached the end. It was not so bad, really, but I won’t go on with the series, that’s for sure.
The stronger feeling I had while reading was annoyance, to be honest, because the author throws our way a lot of questions, about the past of the brothers, about their father, about the history of the Prophet, but he gives us few answers… so yes, sometimes I was bored and sometimes I was annoyed, not a lot, but a little yes, because too many questions and no answers!

So… Maybe I had too great expectations, but I didn’t like this book. As I said before, it’s not a bad book and I can’t really say what went wrong, but it couldn’t pick my interest. Not with the characters and not with the story, even if the author left us with so many unanswered questions!

So… that’s all. What about you? Did you read this book? Or are you planning to read it? Let me know!
Happy reading!
S.