Fool's Assassin

This must be my favourite of all I have read by Hobb so far. Jesus Christ this book, every moment in it is pure gold for me. Not that I am happy with everything that happened oh no, but this being 14th book in the Real of the Elderlings everything that happens resonates so deeply with me . For fear of spoilers I can not elaborate more. But this is the pinnacle of writing for me so far. The mysteries , the misery , the joy, the pain everything just washes over you and you feel drenched my emotions. Excellent , excellent , excellent book. Loved everything about it. Realm of the Elderlings in general is a masterpiece, and Hobb takes deliberately slow pace some times to make certain events that much more abrupt and shocking. Master writer, show more epic story , cannot wait to continue, and cannot recommend the Realm of the Elderlings more, it is indeed life changing. show less

I should probably admit right now: I've never read anything else in this sprawling, multi-series, universe. I went into this with no preconceived ideas of what this book and its characters would be. And I loved it. There were parts where I just grinned like a fool as I read, because the writing was so good and the events so pleasing. Not to say everything in this book was joyous, because it wasn't, but more to say I found pleasure in the reading of this book. It hit me in an emotional place.

Here's a thing I truly, truly liked: Fitz is aging. His wife is aging. A lot of this book has to do with aging and the limits of age. As I am aging, this is something I've begun looking for.

I also liked the portrayal of family and found-family and show more how loyalty to one's family is so important. And I liked that Fitz frequently and kindly gets called on his nonsense.

Some of the absolute best parts in this book were of Fitz and his daughter. I could have lived in that world.

The ending got me, the book made me happy, you should read it. show less

“Time is an unkind teacher, delivering lessons that we learn far too late for them to be useful. Years after I could have benefited from them, the insights come to me.”

Many years have passed. FitzChivalry Farseer's days as a royal assassin and spy are long behind him. Having fully adopted his Tom Badgerlock identiy, he and his wife Molly have retired to Withywoods to spend the rest of their days together as they care for the estate. Haunted by memories of his old friend the Fool and wondering what has happened to him since their parting, Fitz finds himself at relative peace as he reflects on his past. When menacing pale skinned strangers appear at Winterfest and seem to have killed someone in Fitz's house, Fitz realizes his past is show more not done with him and he'll have to use some of his old skills if he is to protect the future of those he loves.

I don't know how she does it. Robin Hobb is the queen of the slow burn and some of the most wonderful characterizations, and best character relationships, I've ever read. Fool's Assassin is the first book in Hobb's final Elderlings trilogy titled The Fitz and the Fool and is the 7th book to star Fitz. Just when you think you've known all you can about a character Hobb proves you wrong and continues to add layers to the complex and rich world she's created and the characters that live here.

There will be some spoilers beyond this point. You've been warned.

Much of this book is devoted to the domestic daily life at Withywoods and I loved every minute of it. Hobb's prose is gorgeous. Fitz spends a lot of time being introspective of his past as Molly runs the house. I never really was a fan of Molly throughout the series. I think both time and being away from Farseer politics has helped mellow her character out so she's the most tolerable she's been to date. Even still, their relationship is a bitersweet one. Due to events from the Tawny Man trilogy, Fitz doesn't age normally and has to watch as Molly's mental health slowly declines as she ages. It is with great joy and much confusion to learn that Molly is pregnant in her 50's. The new addition to the family, their daughter Bee, is a surprise and a delight. It was wonderful reading about her and getting to know this character.

Since the focus of this book is on Withywoods, those of you hoping for old characters to make a return will be disappointed. While Chade and the others do make appearances, they are not central to this story though I suspect some of them may have bigger roles in the remainder of the series. Still, Fitz is Fitz and proves yet again that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

As I mentioned earlier this book is a slow burn. While the action is kept to a minimum until the very end there is plenty of tension throughout. It makes for an emotional and engaging read with some scenes being deeply moving. This is Robin Hobb - you just know the peace for Fitz and his family can't last. The last 100-150 pages were intense, with that final chapter being so high adrenaline that it took me a while to calm down after reading it!

Fool's Assassin is a fantastic start to this new trilogy. For those who have not read Robin Hobb, you definitely need to start back at the beginning with Assassin's Apprentice. Now it's straight on to book two for me. show less

Wow.

I mean, WOW.

I've read something like nine, now ten of her books at this point and they were all epic doorstoppers split as trilogies, and this one may actually be my favorite of them all.

Why? Well, it wasn't because there was a ton of death and grief in it. Indeed, middle-aged retired Fitz having a well-deserved life with his childhood sweetheart and bringing a new winter baby into their lives was probably the sweetest damn thing the author could have done for him.

She writes it so well that I don't even miss all the epic dragon battles or the battles with the Forged or the battle for the kingdom on the high seas, with Skill and Wit fighting together for once. No. In this case, it's introspection and memories and trying to put all show more the hard crap behind him and settling into the life of his dreams.

Too bad he's aging slower than his wife and he fears that she's going mad because of a pregnancy that lasted two years.

But what is the real kicker is the fact that she wasn't crazy.

In fact, his kid has both the Wit and the Skill.

This is where it gets really interesting, because we see this kid grow up with our favorite hero, the Catalyst without the White Prophet, and we as readers are making all the connections as Fitz does not, safe in his marital and familial bliss, even after his poor wife has died. On top of that, his daughter Bee is easily one of the most fascinating characters in the book.

No, the thing is... this book is objectively sedate. The currents of being a dad, missing his old friend the Fool, loving his wife... all these things are written so well that it's gripping and fascinating, but as we keep feeling the tension build, knowing that something will inevitably go wrong, we're left hanging on the edge.

Nearly the entire book is a setup. We know this. We're just reveling in a gorgeous span of time, giving Fitz the peace he'd always desired after having become the most deadly assassin and mass-killer of the land.

I just didn't expect to be completely bowled over by this slow boil and the emotional reunion or the rest that immediately follows it.

I cried. I stopped reading and I cried. That's the kind of effect this book had on me, and I generally don't cry with any books. I'm too used to plots and situations.

This one caught me unawares. Hard. So. Ten stars. :)

I'm gonna plow through all three of these doorstoppers in a row. :) show less

This one gets back to the unapologetic realism that got me hooked to this series in the first 2 trilogies. Ms. Hobb establishes from the start that we should set aside our desire for predictable plots and fully formed character arcs. Reality is messy and people rarely get to have closure. I think something we are too accustomed to nowadays is that art is escapism into a world in which everyone gets to have a finished story. This shows that there is a different approach. One in which art can be a mirror to society that not only reflects the best of it but the worst of it, and in many cases there's more wrong than right. Ms. Hobb strips away all of our preconceptions of what we think a fantasy novel should give us and shows us another show more way, one that I never knew was missing in our fiction. There are others who I feel attempted this but from what I've read so far she does this in a spectacular way. I'm on board with where this is going. Let's do this! show less

This review is based on an e-galley, which I will miss very much when it expires.

Fool's Assassin is Robin Hobb's fourteenth novel in the Realm of the Elderlings books, and although so far I'd say you could probably get away with just reading the other Fitz trilogies before reading this one (The Farseer Trilogy, The Tawny Man Trilogy), you definitely wouldn't want to leap straight into this.

The most important thing for fans to know about this book is that, although the Fool gets equal billing in the title of the series, he's not on the page much in this book. Don't think that this is his story more than the Tawny Man trilogy is. In fact, there is in general a lot of building in this book and it mostly focuses on Fitz's family show more relationships and daily life.

That is not to say that I don't like this book. I do. Robin Hobb regularly rips my heart out every hundred pages or so. The Realm of the Elderlings is, as always, fascinating, and her characters are a pleasure to spend time with, even when one wants to shake them. I remember a LiveJournal community called fitz_is_stupid. Fitz remains, in some respects, rather stupid. I don't want to include spoilers for a book well into a series in a review published months before the release date, so I'll just say that something happens less than halfway through the book that seems rather obvious to me, and which Fitz has seen all the evidence for, that he still hasn't gotten at its end. But he is Fitz, and even though he's been well trained in observational skills of the kind that he uses when he reports to Chade, he's still amazingly oblivious in some areas.

This is very much a latter book in a series and the first book in a trilogy. Starting here wouldn't give you a good entry point, and stopping here without the intent to continue wouldn't be satisfying. If you're the sort of person who sometimes can't handle waiting for sequels, this might be a good series to wait to be completed before you start. As for me I'll be on the second book as soon as I possibly can. show less

The first two trilogies in Robin Hobb’s FitzChivalry Farseer series contain some of my favorite fantasy books. Fitz is a compelling protagonist, the supporting characters are often just as fascinating, and the worldbuilding is top-notch. Sadly, Fool’s Assassin, the first book in the third trilogy, didn’t quite measure up for me.

The story begins about a decade after the events of the previous book. Fitz is well into his forties now and living a quiet life at Withywoods, the estate his father retired to (and then died at) after abdicating the throne. Court politics rarely intrude: Fitz has little interest in resuming his role as the crown’s assassin or advising the new ruler. Instead, he’s enjoying his marriage to Molly, the show more childhood love he was separated from for almost two decades.

All this is fine—I don’t begrudge Fitz’s happiness, especially after what Hobb put him through in the earlier trilogies. And the themes of maturation and change are in keeping with the earlier books’ arcs. But the first entries in the series mixed Fitz’s personal problems with existential threats to the kingdom. Fitz also journeyed far afield, exploring new lands and old magics. In Fool’s Assassin, he barely leaves Withywoods. Much of his time is spent on mundane tasks such as maintaining the estate or supervising the spoiled (and unnecessary) charges foisted upon him by Chade, his former mentor. The stakes remain relatively low, our knowledge of the world doesn’t expand much, and there’s little sense of wonder. (Where are the dragons?!?)

Things pick up near the end, when the Fool—Fitz’s best friend—finally reappears and begs him to complete an unpleasant task. But by the time I got there, I felt like the book’s previous chapters could have been compressed into the first act, with Fitz’s decision leading us into act two.

None of this is to say that I hated Fool’s Assassin. We’re still talking about Robin Hobb, after all. She gives us Bee, a great new character, and we get to see the world from her point of view. I also enjoyed the part where Fitz questions his reliability as a narrator. “There were a few years where I fancied myself quite the hero,” he says at one point, “and other times when I saw myself as star-crossed and unjustly oppressed by my life … perhaps I had not been as honest … as I might have been. I had been young, I excused myself, and who does not put himself in the best possible light when he presents his tale …?” Given that Bee’s sections are in first-person as well, and that Fitz frequently burns his journal entries, we’re left with the impression that Hobb is a compiler rather than an author, salvaging her subjects’ writings as best she can and then arranging them—along with excerpts from relevant authorities—into a coherent manuscript. It’s artifice, of course. But I’m always curious to see how authors justify (or don’t) their narrators’ supposed ability to perfectly recreate moments and dialogue from the past.

In any case, it won’t be long before I pick up Fool’s Quest, the next entry in the series. I trust Hobb to right the ship, especially now that we have a clear heading. I just wish Fool’s Assassin had gotten there faster.

(For more reviews like this one, see www.nickwisseman.com) show less