Aprendiz de asesino (Trilogía del asesino 1) (original 1995; edition 2014)

As I see now, this book is part of quite a long series, now consisting of 16 volumes. I usually don’t go for series because there is a feeling that the author will slow down the story as much as possible. This is not true for this book.

Just as many other fantasy novels, from [b:A Wizard of Earthsea|13642|A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1)|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1353424536s/13642.jpg|113603], to [b:A Song of Ice and Fire|12177850|A Song of Ice and Fire (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1-5)|George R.R. Martin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1339340118s/12177850.jpg|21619530], to [b:Uprooted|22544764|Uprooted|Naomi Novik|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1480121122s/22544764.jpg|41876730] (to name just a few), it starts with a quite young protagonist. The Boy, as he has no name yet, is brought to a castle at age of six by his grandfather (?), for he is an illegitimate son of the prince in waiting. Live is not easy for a bastard. However, he not only copes but, as the name suggests, becomes Assassin's Apprentice, or more precisely, help to royal ‘behind-the-throne’ solver of problems. He also gets a propensity to doing magic.

The world setting is roughly based on medieval England or France during the period of Viking invasions. There are no elves or trolls, undead or dragons (at least for now). Magic is a kind of telepathy and tele-empathy, affecting only minds, but not a natural world.

I enjoyed the book a lot and plan to read at least the whole first trilogy. ( )

Dit boek bracht me veel leesplezier. Het verhaal loopt langzaam. In eerste instantie leek het op een 'leven in een kasteel'-achtig boek, maar gaandeweg werd het beter. De hoofdpersoon 'Fitz', of simpelweg 'Boy' (ik las de Engelse versie) is de bastaardzoon van de kroonprins van het land. Nog maar 6 jaar oud brengt zijn grootvader (van moeders kant) hem naar het kasteel. Hij is een smet op het blazoen van de Koninklijke familie, de vader, prins Chivalry, voelt zich zo beschaamd, dat hij zijn aansprak op de troon opgeeft en in ballingschap gaat.

We zien de wereld door de ogen van 'Fitz' als hij opgroeit en krijgen zo een sterke band met hem. We volgen hoe hij opgroeit, maar ook hoe hij gebruikt wordt door zijn grootvader (Koning Shrewd) en gehaat word door Prins Regal en Galen.

Ik begrijp dat er meerdere series in deze wereld spelen, en zal ook zeker proberen de volgende delen te gaan lezen.

( )

Finished in 4 days. Now eagerly waiting my next book in series ! ( )

Fitz is the illegitimate son of the late Prince Chivalry, raised on the fringes of the court, and apprentice to the royal assassin by the secret arrangement of King Shrewd. Royal bastards are always in a difficult position, and Fitz has a dangerous secret: in addition to the royal magic of the mind-bending Skill, he also possesses another magic, the despised and banned Wit, which honestly appears to be the same as the Skill, except it works on animals rather than people. Growing to manhood around the Court, he has to find for himself a safe path through the conflicts between the royal heir Prince Verity, his unSkilled younger half-brother Regal, and the Skill Master Galen, not to mention the attacks of the Red Ship barbarians and the dangers of the Forged ones, robbed of their human qualities by the barbarians and turned loose again to prey on their own countrymen.

And of course, as a royal bastard, Fitz can't altogether escape suspicion that he might himself be a threat to the throne.

Sent on his first major mission, as part of the expedition to bring back the mountain princess whom Prince Regal has negotiated for to be his brother Prince Verity's bride, Fitz is riding into a trap intended to bring down him, his friends, and one of the royal brothers.

Despite occasionally tripping over the names, a mix of virtues and traits never used as names in English, mixed with utterly mundane, ordinary names like Mary and Tom, this has the feel of a lived-in culture, and the characters, especially Fitz but not only him, have real problems to struggle with. It's an extra bonus that the dogs, most notably Smithy and Nosy, also feel real, and their personalities and loyalty add an extra dimension to the book. This is a very nicely done fantasy, with a suspenseful plot that draws you in.

Note to Becki: If you decide to read a fantasy novel--not this one. It breaks your rule.

Recommended, for everyone except Becki, who knows who she is.

I borrowed this book from a friend. ( )

Assassin’s Apprentice is the first book in the Farseer Trilogy, and also the first book in the larger Realm of the Elderlings series. I read and loved the first 9 books back around 2011, and some of the characters have stuck with me in a way that few others ever have. Now I’ve decided to re-read it from the beginning and then continue on with the newer books I haven’t read yet.

It starts in traditional epic fantasy fashion. We’re introduced to our main character, Fitz, at the ripe old age of 6. He isn’t a traditional fantasy orphan, but he’s a traditional fantasy bastard of a king-in-waiting which I guess is nearly as good. I love epic fantasy and most of its tropes, and I adore this series, so I’m really not complaining, just releasing a tiny bit of good-natured sarcasm. The story is written from the first-person perspective of Fitz. Fitz in this context means bastard, and he's probably called Fitz more than anything else, but sometimes he’s called more creative names like “bastard” or “boy”.

When the story starts, Fitz’s grandfather on his mother’s side has decided the boy costs too much to feed so he dumps him off for his father to deal with. This is the first time the world becomes aware that Prince Chivalry has an illegitimate son. It causes a big stir, Chivalry abdicates his right to the throne and goes off to live in seclusion with his not-so-happy wife, and he leaves Fitz to grow up among strangers at the castle. King Shrewd eventually decides to have him trained in the art of assassination, among other things. (Yes, royal characters in this book have names like Chivalry and Shrewd. Also Verity, Royal, Patience, and so forth. It’s explained in the book.) The story has both external threats to the kingdom as well as internal political intrigue.

Fitz is a likeable character and I always cared what happened to him, although I admit he does have a frustrating tendency toward self-pity and bad decisions at times. I also really like the secondary characters, in some cases maybe more than Fitz himself. I was very attached to Prince Verity in these early books. I also enjoyed Burrich and Chade and their multi-faceted relationships with Fitz. And the Fool… I love him almost as if he were a real person, which is not something I would ever normally say about a fictional character. However, he doesn’t show up too much in this first book so, the first time I read it, he was mostly just a source of curiosity and interest. This time around, I appreciated his scenes far more with the knowledge of what’s to come.

In general, that’s how I felt about this entire book. I enjoyed re-reading it with the knowledge of what’s to come, and I paid particular attention to the world-building and to everything that hints at future events. Hobb does take her time with setting up Fitz’s environment and his relationships with the different characters, so the beginning is maybe a bit slow. I don’t remember noticing any slowness the first time I read it, but I did this time since I already remembered those parts so well. As Fitz got older and started getting embroiled in more interesting events, the pace started to pick up and I got wrapped up in the action all over again, even though I knew what would happen.

I’m giving this 4.5 stars. Based on this book by itself, I probably ought to round it down to 4 stars on Goodreads. However, I can’t help factoring in the nostalgia factor and my knowledge of how it sets the foundation for the books to follow, so I’m going to round up to 5. ( )