Hooray! I missed Fitz. While this story doesn't continue on directly from the last of the assassin novels, we find Fitz living as a hermit in the countryside, with an ageing Nighteyes beginning to dwell on his own mortality. But after 15 yrs, the Fool returns; to again thrust them beneath the wheels of time, and jostle it toward a better path. Times really have changed. King Verity never returned from the Red Ship wars, and his foreign wife has struggled to unite the fractious Duchies. She is waiting for her son to assume the mantle of ‘King in Waiting’, and settle the restless nobles. Unfortunately, someone has seen the awakening of Wit in the young Prince Dutiful, and lured him astray with the help of a ‘wit beast’. The Fool, and Chade, for differing reasons, each ask for Fitz's help – and with pack obligations deciding it, he and Nighteyes return to the intrigue and plotting of the Farseer court. This book is like finding cold chicken in the fridge when you're hungry at midnight – astonishingly satisfying… bring it on!