Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy) (original 1995; edition 1996)

Yeah, so this has been on my to-read list for a little over a year now and I'm kicking myself for not picking it up until it was the Sword and Laser read for August. Royal court, assassins...so much mystery and intrigue! Love it and started on the first chapter of book 2 as soon as I read the last page.

I really like Fitz character. I appreciate that while he is young and not yet wise enough to quickly and easily figure out all plots, he is smart enough to listen to his teachers and think through his actions and consequences. Also a fan of Burrich, Molly, Lady Patience, and Verity.

I may add more thoughts later, but right now I honestly have to get back to the next book in the series! ( )

When I started reading I was a bit disappointed. Some of my friends had this book in their favorites so I was expecting something unusual or extraordinary. But this is a classic old-school fantasy done in medieval settings.

Book is easy to read and soon you are entangled in lives of the people of Six Duchess, cheering for the good guys. This book follows the childhood of Fitz, the royal bastard and the troubles he encounters in court (although he spends more time in kitchen and stables). :)

I have a feeling the next book in trilogy [b:Royal Assassin|68487|Royal Assassin (Farseer Trilogy, #2)|Robin Hobb|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1323721053s/68487.jpg|4668002] is going to be much more intense because Fitz, our hero, will be a grown up and have even more responsibilities. ( )

When I first read this, I was captivated. It's brilliant fantasy, the underlying concepts come together in a way that's fresh and interesting, the characters are amazingly put together, ... the list of praise could go on, and on, and on. ( )

This book was so wonderful that it humbles me as an aspiring author.

I'm working on my review; I'll put it up after it goes live at FantasyLiterature.com. ( )

Alrighty, well... let me first start by saying that I had REALLY high expectations for this one. Unfortunately, this book didn't meet them. That's not to say that it was a bad book, or that I didn't like it, but I just expected to love it, and I did not. It was a good story, a little slow at times, but good.

I had a few issues with the book though, and I think almost all of those can be laid at the feet of the narration. This is told in "memoir" form 1st person POV, so it had a kind of distance that I just couldn't really get past. I never really connected to any of the characters at all, not even the main character. I felt for him in the trials that he went through, but I never really sympathized with him. Any feelings that I had were more along the lines of how I would feel in the given situation, rather than understanding or sympathizing with how the character was actually feeling. To me, that's a big difference.

There was also a whole lot of telling going on. All the history and political turmoil and learning and everything was related by just telling us it happened. Granted, some stuff needs to be told because Fitz wasn't there to experience it, but the combination of that and the telling of what he DID experience was a bit too much for me. We don't see Fitz at weapons training, he tells us he attended. We don't see him sneak into Mistress Hasty's room and take the scissors at Chade's behest, he tells us he did. We don't learn with him, we are told he has learned. The exception is with Galen's training, which we attend with him... but even this felt distant to me, though it's hard to really explain just why. Perhaps it's the same issue that Galen kept saying... that Fitz was closed off.

But there were things that I liked. I loved his affinity for and understanding of animals. I loved that Fitz stuck to his guns about who he is and what he's willing and unwilling to do, even if it hurt him. I liked the concept of training to be an assassin, even if the training was kind of...unorthodox. I liked The Fool, and Rurisk, and Kettricken, and Burrich, and Chade, and even Verity.

Speaking of Verity, I might mention that the royals' names were distracting to me, and kind of led to this book feeling like a YA story for much of it. The royals are named after the traits they are supposed to embody. King Shrewd, Prince Chivalry, Prince Verity, Princess Patience, Queen Desire, etc. I found it a bit hard to take it seriously with names like this.

There were some other things that just didn't work for me, but I'm not trying to nitpick... much. Overall, I thought this was a good story. I might continue the series at some point, but I think I'll save that for a rainy day. ( )