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Holy cow. Where has this book been all my life? There are SEVERAL TRILOGIES SET IN THIS WORLD? AND THEY'RE FINISHED? Sign me up!

Assassin's Apprentice tells the story of FitzChivalry Farseer, a royal bastard abandoned to the whims of court life as a six-year-old. He is raised by Burrich, his father's loyal stablemaster, and incorporated at court, but only at arm's length. His purpose in life, he is told at an early age, is to be a royal assassin for the king � for what use could a bastard be otherwise?

This novel was so good. It has everything I love and crave in fantasy: political intrigue, rigidly observed social hierarchies, meditations on institutional power, and magic that is intriguing but not overpowered. The story is told in first person, and I was surprised, as I have long thought fantasy fiction tends to be too expansive to be confined to a first person POV. But it just works. You learn about the world along with Fitz, and author Robin Hobb wisely chose to start Fitz out as a literal child so as to dole out information in small, digestible chunks. While this was frustrating at times, because Fitz is written as an extremely believable child/teenager (with all of the follies of youth � you wanna just shake the kid for being so thick sometimes), it also breathes life into the world through his eyes. There's a lot that happens in scenes that Fitz does not pick up on, but the reader might. That is a rare skill in a writer, I've found, and it's delightful and engrossing, even if it made this a more challenging read than perhaps I was expecting. It requires pretty close reading, but it is so rewarding when you give it the time and attention it deserves.

And just. Pardon me for a second while I gush over Burrich. I have not been this into a fictional character in a long time. He's just so great; he obviously loves Fitz as a father loves a son and does so much for him � even when Fitz is absolute brat about literally everything. But he's carrying a LOT of emotional baggage too, and that just shines through on the page and makes him absolutely captivating to read about. I have Thoughts and I have Questions. (view spoiler)[So I hipped pretty quick to the fact that Burrich must also have the Wit � how else is he able to suss out that Fitz has that ability too? And he has so much internalized shame about it and just kejngkjnkedkjgnk what an amazing portrayal. AND THEN � I wondered a lot about Burrich's loyalty to Chivalry, and whether this was meant to imply they were ever more than friends. For awhile I wasn't sure, because male friendship as portrayed in other times and societies can often look homoerotic when looked at through a modern lens. Also this book is from the 90s, so I wasn't sure it would even go there.

BUT LIKE. HE GAVE CHIVALRY AN EARRING????

Like. Dude. DUDE.

That adds a whole other layer to Burrich's expressions of shame and disdain for the Wit and just like. What a brilliant way to comment on social prejudices with subtlety and grace. Hot damn. (hide spoiler)]

Anyway the point is I love Burrich with every fiber of my being and I hope there are trilogies with him as the main character please and thank you.

Also, I found this book to be very pro-dog in a way that I do not really understand, as I am not a dog person, but it was endearing nevertheless.

Five stars. Cannot wait to read more.

Great review! I read the first trilogy 5 years ago and also LOVED it.
I'm not sure why I have been dragging my feet on continuing. You are really motivating me to move it up! Maybe I need to start over again? Glad you enjoyed so much!

Jen K wrote: "Great review! I read the first trilogy 5 years ago and also LOVED it.
I'm not sure why I have been dragging my feet on continuing. You are really motivating me to move it up! Maybe I need to star..."

It's so good!!!!! I admit my review is less of a review and more me just fangirling about it, but I am so rarely genuinely excited by the stuff I read these days. If you do decide to read the next trilogy, let me know how it is.

I'm shocked I haven't heard about this series until about last year. Ever since Game of Thrones got popular I've been hearing a lot about various fantasy book series, but this one never seems to come up. I mean, the reason is probably misogyny, as Hobb is a woman and fantasy has been dominated by male writers for a long time...

I'd watch an HBO adaptation of this in a heartbeat!

I like the fangirl type of reviews. I'm always motivated by any type of gushing, no explanation needed.

It is a struggle. I just started an urban fantasy written by a guy and I'm struggling after reading so many fabulous fantasies written by women/ non-binary this year. It is just harder to get past the sexism these days knowing it could be different.

Totally would watch this show!

Hobb is one of my favorites. In my Fantasy group, in 2019 we started reading the entire works of The Land of the Elderings. Right now we are reading the last book of the Rain Wild Chronicles. This means I only have 3 more books set in this world to read..that makes me sad.

Believable it or not, Heather, they get better

Yes yes, we have a convert!! I adore your review Heather - if I hadn’t read the book, I’d want to rush out and read it. And because it’s been ages since I read the book, I want to rush out and re-read it!

Oh and Heather, make sure you read in the correct order



It is very important!

I've been hunting through my print TBR Towers for the copy of this I know I own so I can start. It persists in hiding from me. I have given myself a deadline of September 15 to find it (I have a lot of other reading to get done in the next month or so), and if it doesn't surface, I'm getting myself an ebook copy.

I too love fangirl reviews. I've written a few myself.

Jen K wrote: "It is a struggle. I just started an urban fantasy written by a guy and I'm struggling after..."

I hear you. Sometimes when it's a male author they're good (A Song of Ice and Fire will probably always be my favorite fantasy series), but just as often I feel like there is a lot of buzz around mediocre male authors that they don't deserve. Like Patrick Rothfuss is always tossed around as a great one to read, and he hasn't even published a whole trilogy - in over a decade! (Which, full disclosure, I loved his first book, The Name of the Wind, but thought the second, The Wise Man's Fear, was a hot mess. I don't even know if I'd read the third, if it were to ever come out.) Meanwhile, Hobb is over here with 16 books in one series to her name, and yet I never heard about her for years???? Travesty.

@Kate -I'm glad you liked the fangirlish nature of it. It was fun to write, I admit! Too often lately I feel like I'm teetering on the edge of a 3-star review, struggling to find much I loved or hated about a book. It was nice to read something I thought was amazing!!

@Joanne - I've heard the series actually does improve from this book onward. I can see where there might be room for improvement � though I was totally along for the ride, I think having a first person narrator that oblivious to stuff going on around him is a device that can get old. Hopefully Fitz is gonna get smarter as he goes. (The older version of him narrating seemed to imply so, although, my God, at what cost?)

Bookmarked the reading order! Thanks for sharing it.

@Theresa - I hope you can find it! And if not, getting another copy is totally worth it, in my opinion.

Heather Reads Books wrote: "Jen K wrote: "It is a struggle. I just started an urban fantasy written by a guy and I'm struggling after..."

I hear you. Sometimes when it's a male author they're good (A Song of Ice and Fire wil..."

Yes! I would say the same for Lois McMaster Bujold. I had never heard of her before this year.

I do love Rothfuss though and am still holding out for the next book in the series. I also still enjoy Brandon Sanderson and Mark Lawrence and loved GRR Martin's series and Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series. I'm still balanced but finding some of the older stuff a bit tough.

I feel the same about Lois McMaster Bujold! I would never have heard of her if not for the WPF challenge this year. I haven't had a chance to read anything by her yet, but she's on my TBR.

I could not get into Brandon Sanderson myself, but haven't tried Mark Lawrence yet. I have Joe Abercrombie on my TBR too, as he is another one I hear a lot about and I saw footage of him at a panel and he seemed cool, so I want to give him a shot.

I am so conflicted on Rothfuss. There's stuff from The Name of the Wind I still think and wonder about, and I haven't read it since like, 2010. But The Wise Man's Fear disappointed me so much I'm not sure I have any hope I could get a satisfying conclusion to the questions raised in the first book. It's to the point where it's been marinating in my brain so long I could probably write my own version and provide my own answers and no one would even guess they came from my being unhappy with The Kingkiller Chronicles, lol.

(Am I admitting I want to write a fantasy series one day? It's been on my mind... Or maybe I just want to run a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, I can never decide.)

Another is Juliet E. McKenna, being a British fantasy writer may add to her invisibility here. 20 years ago, in between volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire, I was looking for an adventure fantasy tale, which are the types of fantasy I primarily like. I came across The Thief's Gamble which was superb. When the second in series came out, I grabbed it but later books in series I only sourced on vacation to England. She is virtually unknown here, the books I read OOP.