Looking for good SFF about assassins

[Michael]

I am looking for good SFF books that have an assassin as the protagonist, but with more of a focus on the shadowy, secretive side of that profession, and the suspense involved in accomplishing their goals.

I just finished Assassin's Apprentice and the rest of the Farseer trilogy, and I enjoyed that series but it was a little slow, and meandering, and the “assassin” aspect of it seemed to take up maybe 5% of the plot. My favorite scenes were (from book one) (view spoiler)[the climactic poisoning scene between Fritz and the mountain heir (hide spoiler)], (from book two) (view spoiler)[the scene where the coterie kills King Shrewd and Fitz takes his revenge (hide spoiler)], and (from book three) (view spoiler)[the scene where his poisoning of the king’s men has a delayed effect and it is a race to see if they all die before they kill him as their captive (hide spoiler)]. I would be interested in a book with the assassin aspects of that series, but with less of the ponderous internal philosophical debates and meandering quests, and more of the intense, suspenseful scenes of life or death. I tend to read more sci-fi than fantasy, but any SFF recommendations are welcome, and I think this topic might have more matches in fantasy, particularly any that might involve poisoning. Oh, and I’m willing to tolerate a story predominately about men, although I’d like to avoid anything obviously sexist, for example, The Last Wish is called out for its sexism by at least one reviewer.

Anything out there like that?

Note – I did look on Listopia, though those lists are kind of a grab-bag and often inaccurate. Our own internal nominations on the Assassin fantasy topic 6 years ago yielded a few I am interested in, though.

Edited to add...

Most likely matches to my request:
The Way of Shadows ("he must learn to navigate the assassins' world of dangerous politics and strange magics - and cultivate a flair for death.")
The Shadow of the Torturer ("an apprentice in the Guild of Torturers exiled for showing mercy toward his victim -- and his subsequent journey")
Grave Mercy ("she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death")
Blood Song ("Vaelin will be trained and hardened to the austere, celibate, and dangerous life of a Warrior of the Faith, 4.5 stars")
Rebellion ("These assassins resemble medieval knife-wielding poison-toting secret agents who venture out on dangerous missions in defence of a shadowy Empire that straddles a forested archipelago. Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice comes to mind.")
The Hunter's Rede ("the hunter's rede; the wizardry; the magic; the use of the mind; his assassin lifestyle; his journey to really discover not only who he is but where he belongs.")
Of Shadow and Sea ("Will you walk the shadows with Shera, an assassin in the employ of the Consultants?")
Midnight Thief ("the leader of the Assassins Guild offers Kyra a lucrative job, in a captivating world where intrigue prowls around every corner—and danger is a way of life")
The Queen's Poisoner ("there are lots of lies and deceit and secret passages and attempted assassinations", "Owen learns to survive in the court of Kingfountain, and only one person can aid his desperate cause: a mysterious woman, dwelling in secrecy, who truly wields power over life, death, and destiny.")
Servant of the Shard ("Artemis Entreri, best assassin in all the Realms, watches with trepidation, knowing his position among the hated drow rests on the fate of the one dark elf he has come to trust. ")
The Assassins of Tamurin ("she followed her destiny to a place of dark and shadowy purposes, a school for foundling girls in the land of Tamurin", "While there are still swords and sorcery, this book focuses more on subtlety and spies")
Shaedes of Gray ("Darian has lived alone for almost a century in the shadows of the night—an immortal Shaede who can slip into darkness as easily as breathing, using her unique skills to become a deadly assassin.")
A Dance of Cloaks ("Thren Felhorn is the greatest assassin of his time... he declares war against the Trifect; ... Aaron Felhorn... sent to kill the daughter of a priest... glimpses a world beyond poison, daggers, and the iron control of his father.")
Etiquette & Espionage ("they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage")
RJ Barker's Age of Assassins (2017) ("packed full of intrigue, adventure and magic. It tells the story of Girton Club-foot, a young man apprenticed to a master assassin, who is thrust into a world of politics and treachery")
Nevernight ("If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder;... But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, ...and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.)
The Killing Moon ("Upon its rooftops and amongst the shadows of its cobbled streets wait the Gatherers - their duty is to harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to heal, soothe - and kill those judged corrupt.")
Attrition: the First Act of Penance ("A strong but opinionated young assassin... works from the shadows against the Demonic Dominion")
The Queen's Blade ("Driven by hatred and with the skills of his trade... He is the instrument who can change fate. He is the Queen’s Blade")
Broken Blade ("Once a fabled Blade of Namara, Aral Kingslayer fought for justice and his goddess alongside his familiar, a living shadow called Triss... Aral becomes a drunken, broken, and wanted man, working whatever shadowy deal comes his way.")
The Wailing ("reluctant immortal Daniel Leland... blackmailed into submission... forced to use his peculiar talent for murder in the service of the Crown... the limits of that talent are tested. ")
Lesser Evil ("Considerable thought has been applied in the strategy and tactics of old fashioned war, warriors, and tools. This book is as adventurous as it is mystical. With palaces, alleys and underground tunnels, mysteries of an ancient city and its governance pervade the book.")

Other assassin ideas:
Swords and Deviltry ("tall, fur-clad barbarian and short swordsman-thief who can vanish in the shadows")
Shadow's Son ("He may lack scruples, but he’s still got his knives, and his instincts, to rely on—and a developed sense of revenge, or should that be justice?")
The Left Hand of God ("A cruelly dark but often amusing tale centred around one small boy with a particular talent, his two confederates and a girl as they run for it with the full force of the Redeemers in pursuit.")
The Enterprise of Death ("a young African slave finds herself the unwilling apprentice of an ancient necromancer, never suspecting her fate is tied to three strangers: the artist, the alchemist, and a gun-slinging Dutch mercenary.")
The Man Who Never Missed ("Once a ruthless soldier, Emile Khadaji has disappeared from the Confederation-with a secret plan to destroy it all in the name of freedom.")
Pyramids ("trained at Ankh-Morpork's famed assassins' school, Teppic hasn't a clue as to what a pharaoh is supposed to do")
Dragon Wing ("An assassin and the royal child he has been hired to kill form an unlikely and unstable alliance")
Act of Redemption ("a small human girl assassin, along with her dragon mentor, her associates from the past, and the humans fight for their very existence.")
The Anvil of the World ("an extremely successful assassin is trying to retire to live an honest life in obscurity in spite of all those who have sworn to kill him.")
The Crown Tower ("A warrior with nothing to fight for is paired with a thieving assassin with nothing to lose. Together they must steal a treasure that no one can reach.")
The Druid of Shannara ("the daughter of the King of the Silver River gathers up Walker Boh and Morgan Leah from the first novel as well as newcomer, Pe Ell - an assassin intent on her death - and takes them on a quest to the far northeast; Pe Ell reminds me much of R.A. Salvatore's Artemis Entreri")
Assassin's Code ("Joe Ledger and Echo Team rescue a group of American college kids held hostage in Iran; Accompanied by the beautiful assassin called Violin, Joe follows a series of clues to find the Book of Shadows")
Poison's Kiss ("A teenage assassin kills with a single kiss until she is ordered to kill the one boy she loves")
The Ecolitan Operation ("After surviving two assassination attempts, Jimjoy realizes that it's his own imperial superiors who want him dead; Now he is James Joyson Whaler, Ecolitan, in the middle of a war of independence against the inconceivably superior forces of the Empire.")
The Crown Conspiracy ("The series is told through six novels conceived as a single epic tale... Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, become the unwitting scapegoats in the murder of the king... and so begins this epic tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend")
Water Bound ("Lev has no memory of who he is—or why he seems to possess the violent instincts of a trained killer. All he knows is that he fears for his life, and for the life of his unexpected savior.")
Shovel Ready ("the dirty bomb hit Times Square... his wife was killed, and... the city became a bombed-out shell... He finds that killing people for money is not that different from collecting trash, and the pay is better.")
A Dance of Death ("Haern is the King's Watcher, protector against thieves and nobles who would fill the night with blood. Yet hundreds of miles away, an assassin known as the Wraith has begun slaughtering those in power, leaving the symbol of the Watcher in mockery. ")
The Blind Assassin ("a puzzle of a story, with multiple tales within tales. It starts with the main character, Iris, telling us of the day when her sister Laura drove off a bridge, then shifts to Laura's posthumously published novel The Blind Assassin... in which the man entertains his lover with pulpy science fiction stories, mostly about a blind assassin and a sacrificial virgin who fall in love against all odds")
Graceling ("Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight... Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king's thug.")

[Sarah]

B.R., Self promotion is only allowed in the Goodreads Authors Discussion folder.

[Esther]

I enjoyed The Left Hand of God

[Sarah]

Michael, have you tried Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun? The first one, The Shadow of the Torturer is on the group bookshelf. He's an executioner instead of an assassin but it's a dying earth sci-fi.

[MadProfessah]

Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy is pretty great.

[Michael]

Thanks, all! I added your recommendations so far to my first post plus a few more I found while poking around the internet...

[Michael]

I keep seeing The Lies of Locke Lamora pop up on these assassin lists. I thought it was about a group of thieves, does anyone know if they are assassins, too?

[MadProfessah]

The Lies of Locke Lamora (and its sequels) by Scott Lynch are quite good but they are about thieves (and other criminals) so technically they don't fall into your category of being about assassins.

[Trike]

What MadProfessah said: Locke is definitely not about assassins.

There's a book on my TBR pile up in my office that's supposedly about a post-apocalyptic hitman, called Shovel Ready.

There are novelizations based on the Hitman videogames. Hitman: Enemy Within.

Also, Garth Ennis wrote a number of graphic novels about the Hitman character. Hitman, Vol. 1: A Rage in Arkham.

I haven't read these, I just know of them.

[Michael]

Trike wrote: "What MadProfessah said: Locke is definitely not about assassins."

That's what I thought. Confusingly, it is on these lists on Goodreads: SF/F Assassins, Books With Heroes Heroines Who Are Assassins, Lone Assassins and Brooding Agents, and Rogues and Assassins.

Half the trouble of scouring Goodread's lists is that anyone can vote on a book, and it doesn't actually have to match the list category! (The other half of the trouble is figuring out who is a rogue and who is an assassin!) Thanks for your help...

[Trike]

That's weird. I don't even recall an assassination in that book. There is one death that might be called that, but it's hardly the focus of a chapter, let alone the story.

[Miloš]

Have you tried The Killing Moon? The atmosphere in first few chapters really reminded me of The Assassin's Creed games, but maybe it's just me.

[Michael]

Miloš wrote: "Have you tried The Killing Moon? The atmosphere in first few chapters really reminded me of The Assassin's Creed games, but maybe it's just me."

Yes, I loved that one, thanks for mentioning it. I thought all the prowling around at night was tense and somewhat haunting.