Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, Book 1) by Robin Hobb

Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, Book 1) by Robin Hobb

Completion Date: July 3, 2011

Reason for Reading: Love this author!

Filled with adventure and bloodshed, pageantry and piracy, mystery and menace, Assassin's Apprentice begins the story of a bastard of the royal house, a young man who is trained in the mystic arts of the assassin and who may become the savior of his kingdom.

A few years ago I was at the second hand bookstore talking to a man in the fantasy section. I have no idea who he was, but he was telling me about this fantastic author Robin Hobb. I had heard of her before, but never read her. At that moment, the second hand bookstore had nothing by her, so I went to the local bookstore chain to see if they had anything. This lead to me reading The Tawny Man trilogy. I knew the books happened in the future, but at the time it was the easiest books to get by her. When I sat down for the first time with the first book in that trilogy, I knew it was love. I was captivated from the very beginning by her excellent writing and knew I was going to have to read everything she had ever written.

I said that, but then I was a bad reader and only finished The Tawny Man trilogy this year. I knew I couldn't continue to put so much time between her books, so I immediately sat down with the book that started it all and the one that I am reviewing here today. This is the first book in the Farseer trilogy. The main characters from The Tawny Man trilogy are mostly all present, but they are a considerable amount younger than in the later series. For this fact, I am actually glad that I started with the older series first. I do read young adult-type books now, but a few years ago I hated them and I might not have appreciated this series because Fitz is so young. I now know the man that he is going to grow up to be, so I enjoyed reading about how he started out. There are a lot of things touched on in the later trilogy that I am going to get the chance to see up-close in this one. I am looking forward to the sequels! (Actually, I only haven't read the next book because I thought I owned it and I don't.)

Like I touched in the above paragraph, Fitz is the main character for this trilogy. The bastard son of one of the monarchs, he has not had an easy time of it. He had been living with his mother, but is suddenly thrust upon the court. No one is quite sure what to make of this young lad and he doesn't always have an easy time of it as a result. This book covers his early adventures. One of its saving graces is that while Fitz in the book is really young, it is actually the Fitz of the future that is writing the books. Just because I will read young narrators now doesn't mean that I always enjoy them, so I appreciated that they did it this way. It also shows Fitz coming into his powers, the early stages of some lasting friendships, and the start of his ultimate downfall. I didn't feel like I was missing out knowing what was going to happen, so I don't regret reading the trilogies backwards.

Based on what I have managed to read by Robin Hobb, I still maintain that she is one of my favourite fantasy authors. I look forward to another book by her hopefully before the year is out. If I don't stumble upon a copy of the next book second-hand, I plan to buy a copy for myself for my birthday next month.

If you haven't read Robin Hobb yet, you really should!!

The Farseer Trilogy:

Assassin's Apprentice

Royal Assassin

Assassin's Quest