Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies's Reviews > Knight Assassin

Actual rating: 3.5

If you liked the Grave Mercy series, you will love this book. Frankly, I found Grave Mercy to be boring as fuck, and I ended up liking this book a lot better. If you are a fan of the video games Prince of Persia, Assassin's Creed, you will find the setting in this book pretty fucking awesome, because that's where we are, yo!

Mysterious sect of assassins training in a desert hideout? Check!
Crusadin' Templars? Check!
Saladin? (Yes, THAT Saladin!). Check!

There is political intrigue, there is vengeance, there is bloodshed. If you're in need of your lords and ladies and palaces, there is that, too; we spend a considerable amount of time spying within the royal courts of Medieval Jerusalem.

This is one of the more unusual books I've read. It is set in the time of the Crusades, in Syria. The heroine is a Muslim (Saracen ) girl who trains to be an Assassin. Don't worry, there is nothing preachy and religious about this book. I am the first to cry bloody fucking murder if a book tries to impress religion upon me; this book talks about religion, both Christian and Islam, with a more analytical perspective, appropriate to the historical time period. This book is about a Muslim warrior girl, but it does not try to push any religion upon its reader at all.

There are a number of good things about this book:

1. An assassin girl who actually kills
2. An assassin girl who's completely uninterested in pretty pretty clothes; SHE WANTS VENGEANCE, BLOODY VENGEANCE
3. Believable characterization (and "damaged," she is raped, and she has to come to terms with her self-loathing)
4. No insta-love, no love triangle, light on the romance
5. An awesome setting
6. No girl-on-girl hate, positive portrayal of other female characters

So why the 3.5 instead of 5?

1. More assassin, please
2. The beginning & the plot - it took quite some time for this book to get going
3. The writing - it was good, not great; no purple prose, but the writing didn't have anything amazing going for it. There was a lot of telling, and it lacked the kind of brilliant psychoanalytical insight I seek. The writing is action-filled, but I found it to be very much dry at some points. It just lacks pure emotion.
4. The flashbacks - again, in the beginning, there was a considerable amount of flashback that dragged the story down considerably
5. The magic - it felt completely unnecessary, it was largely unexplained; I felt that the main character and the book itself, would have been stronger without it
6. The names. WHY ZAYN? Most of the Muslim characters in the book have somewhat normal names, but I just don't really get why the main character has to have such a strange, outlandish name that does not befit the time period.

The Summary: Zayn is a 17-year old Saracen (Muslim) girl, living in the village of Rafaniyah with her mother, Miriam. We are in Syria, in the time of the Medieval Crusades. Their little village has been conquered by the Frankish lords, and they are serfs who harvest olives for a living.

Zayn is not a well-loved girl within her village. She is a bastard. Her mother, Miriam, is shunned for having a child out of wedlock. She is branded a whore. Her daughter is little more than disgrace. Zayn doesn't know who her father is---her mother keeps that a closely guarded secret, but Zayn has always been different, she is stronger, faster than others; she feels a fire within her when she gets enraged.

Zayn turns down a forced marriage to a village leaders' son; in vengeance, the village turns against her.

The villagers claim that Zayn is a witch. They say that her mother is a whore. Guy de Molay, the village's Templar leader, captures them. Guy de Molay burns her mother at the stakes, he forces Zayn to watch that fiery death, he rapes Zayn.

Zayn survives the rape, but she wants to die. On her way to kill herself, she is interrupted by a man. He has an offer for her.

“Be reasonable. If I leave you here, you will most likely die, and Guy de Molay wins. Come with me, and you get your chance at retribution. Which option appeals to you more?”

Come with him, train to be an assassin. Use her extraordinary strength to be an asset. In return, he will help her get revenge on Guy de Molay.

The man's name is Junaid, he is a Commander with the Assassins, a heretical sect of Islam. They are little more than mercenaries. They are spies, killers, in a truce with the great warrior, Saladin. Zayn is to become one of them. There is no room for weakness, there is no time for self-pity. It is a brutal test to become an Assassin, and it doesn't matter that Zayn is a woman. She has to survive, she has to excel like anyone else to become one of them. Failure is not an option. There is no room for fear.

Junaid did not smile back. His eyes were hard. “I cannot teach you if you are afraid. Faithful Ones are chosen not only because of strength of mind and body, but also strength of character. You will be expelled at the slightest sign of weakness, and I will take you back to the sheepherder’s shed so that you may finish what I interrupted.”

Zayn trains, day in and out. She fights. She hones her skills. Not everyone is her friend, in fact, almost nobody is; Zayn is a woman, reviled, distrusted for the rumors regarding her strength. Zayn is hated by her male peers, she is seen as filthy because she is a woman, because she menstruates.

“I speak for many of us when I say this,” Bashar continued, ignoring her. “We do not think she belongs here. She will only cause us trouble. Furthermore, it has come to our attention that she is currently unclean.” He watched Zayn’s jaw drop with relish. “We strongly believe she should abstain from handling holy texts and training with us until she is clean again.”

That douchebag.

*ahem*

Zayn undergoes extensive training. She learns to fight, she learns social graces, courtly etiquette. It doesn't come second nature to Zayn, because she is not a girly girl, but these skills will come in handy, for Zayn's next mission will take place in the royal courts in Jerusalem, as a lady-in-waiting to a noblewoman, Lady Marguerite.

In Jerusalem, a childhood friend will resurface. A former crush, which may grow to be something more, if he doesn't blow her disguise first. Zayn has a lot to overcome, including her own passion, her anger (which is so thoroughly justified)...

“Your anger,” he interrupted, his voice firm but gentle. Like his eyes. “She says your passion burns brightly in your face, Zayn. How will you deceive a Frank, a lady, a knight, when your hatred for them is so clearly written in your eyes?”

And her own self-loathing because of her rape.

You are ruined, and no man will ever love you.

The Setting: This is such an unusual setting, and I absolutely loved it. I can probably count on one hand the number of books with a Middle-Eastern medieval setting. I hate to use the word exotic, but that's what it was. It is different, it is unusual, it's not something you encounter every day in a book. We are taken from small olive-farming villages to the large town of Acre. It is glorious, brilliant with color.

Its domes, spires, and minarets shimmered white in the sun, contrasting brightly with the aquamarine water. Ships from Venice and Genoa and even farther away crowded the harbor, a forest of galleys and pinnaces, all laden with goods. A caravan of bedouin camels traipsed through the dust, carrying bolts of silk and bales of spices.

Which mask some very real human suffering as they travel deeper into the kingdom of Jerusalem.

Beggars pulled at her skirts, stretching their disfigured hands out to her in supplication. Blind, legless, leprous—they were all there, hiding in the shade. A one-eyed woman, cradling a tiny baby, peered up at her from within a worn, sun-beaten face. Zayn tossed down her coins and tried to shut the woman—all of them—from her mind. She had never seen such human suffering. And this in the holiest of cities.

We are brought into the royal courts, gloriously decorated, wined and dined with sumptuous feasts. There is King Baldwin, the young Leper King of Outremer and his sister, the widowed Queen Sibylla. As far as I can tell, the history and the timeline within this book are historically accurate, nothing sticks out for the worse.

Zayn, The Girl: Zayn is deeply sympathetic, and I felt a great deal of compassion for her. There is the major driving force of her rape...though she survives, she can't help but feel like she has been violated by it, body and mind. She thinks she is unloveable. She thinks she is ruined. Zayn is afraid to love, because she feels like love will never find her again because she has been rendered worthless because of her rape.

I’m damaged. I’m afraid to trust men. I don’t know how to cope with my feelings for you.
I’m afraid to love you.

Zayn hates herself so much, her rape has changed the way she sees her own body. Zayn thinks she is worthless, she hates her body, she hates her body for what it has brought her.

She hated herself, the curves of her body, the hairless skin of her face, her childlike eyes and lips…everything that made her female and feminine.

She detested men and their lust, and she loathed herself for inspiring it in them.

Filth. Nothing but filth.

Zayn has to overcome so much in order to trust herself again, and I admire her so much for it.

Zayn, The Assassin: Zayn has natural, slightly magical talents, but she works hard, and she trains hard for it. She is "different," yes, but it doesn't define her, because this is a girl who actually puts in the sweat, the blood, and the tears. Zayn is not afraid to kill. But sometimes, she falters, and it pissed me off.

But there was something else, too…something that maddened her with its simplicity, with its validity: Earic Goodwin. His presence had shattered her focus.

She is so obsessed with her conscience sometimes, and how she is perceived by someone she admires that she allows that to fuck with her focus and thus make her lose track of her mission. I liked the fact that she is a warrior, I just wished Zayn was more bad-ass.

The Romance: Very light, but it's a little unbelievable. It's a childhood crush that comes back to haunt her. Their interaction is thankfully few, and that's what makes the romance---when it sends twinges into Zayn's heart---so much more unbelievable. I'm glad that the romance is not the focus of the book, but I wish that there was either less of it, or more of it, so that the relationship feels more realistic.

Overall: A solid debut, and an interesting premise that you don't come across every day.

Quotes were taken from an uncorrected proof subject to change in the final edition.