Assassin's Apprentice

Recently I heard some reviews stating this as a modern classic of fantasy; after finishing the book, I cannot help but agree. Fitz is a brilliant character, with much nuance in his personality and ethics, and the reader becomes completely sympathetic to his struggles. His relationships to other characters, both positive and negative, are both deep and believable; the cast throughout the whole book are well-constructed, and characters both male and female are deep and well-written. The book's descriptions are lavish and beautiful, without bogging down the story; the dialogue is well-written with clear subtext and intent behind every word; the magic system is innovative and fundamentally intriguing, a novel take I've never seen before. show more The plot itself is brilliant, full of depth and politicking without reaching the absurd complexity of the ASOIAF political layout, and I found myself hooked throughout. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, and will be reading the rest of the trilogy in future. show less

The writing is so clear and inviting that I fell into it with near abandon. I found myself living a bastard's life and smelling the intricacies of family, politics, warring magics, and a world I genuinely cared for. I've never read any of her novels before now, but I am certain to, now.
I couldn't put the first book down. I kept reading avidly and went right through the night. It had its wonderful hooks in me.
The characters all felt like real people who genuinely care about other people. It felt natural. It drew me in and made me feel the same. Being an assassin does not preclude having a heart. It was so easy to throw out the stereotypes and enjoy the ride.

Assassin's Apprentice isn't doing anything incredibly new, but what it does do it does with such a high level of craft and emotional resonance that it feels new anyways. Be prepared for pain! Born out of wedlock and growing up without parents, Fitz knows from a young age that the odds are stacked against him. Most people see him as a tool at best and an obstacle at worst. He has to fight for every ounce of respect he gets; and no matter how hard he tries, he is always plagued by feelings of loneliness and powerlessness, finding himself unable to protect the people he loves or imagine a happy future for himself. He fails, and his failures have tragic consequences. There are points where it feels like Fitz is totally alone, like he has show more somehow lost everything that ever made his life good and faces a kind of hopelessness from which he will never escape.

However, perhaps the world is not ultimately a hopeless place. Maybe things can get better. Sickness can be healed; mistakes can be forgiven; relationships can be mended. Fitz's ability to turn away from desolation before it consumes him, to continue through hopelessness, keeps him and the reader afloat. There are moments of joy. Fitz does get stronger and smarter over time; and he does find people that he can see him, at least in part, for who he really is, and care about that version of him. It makes you think--maybe there is hope for the future.

Among all the darker aspects of childhood, one thing the novel does a particularly good job of depicting is the challenges children face in their relationships with authority figures. By virtue of his low status as court, Fitz has few friends his age. The most important relationships in his life are with mentors--adults like his father's groom Burrich, the assassin Chade, and cruel Skillmaster Galen who attempt to organize Fitz's life and cultivate him into the kind of man they want him to be, and use their age, rank, and expertise to justify doing so. Fitz is aware of all the ways that these mentors don't completely understand him as a person, but he can't help wanting to earn their love and affection. He can't stop wanting to become the person they tell him he should be, and trying to see the world in the way that they see it--for good or for ill. They don't just tell him what to do, they change who he is as a person. That's what childhood is to me--the unacknowledged gulf between a child and an adult with authority over them, and the pain of looking across it and seeing how far apart you are. That's what Fitz has to confront as he tries to develop a new understanding of himself, not long to be a child. show less

Assassin's Apprentice is a novel by Robin Hobb. Six months ago, this author was unknown to me. By random chance, I'd found copies of two of her novels on the shelves of a local book exchange, and I snapped them up, hoping for light reading. I was very impressed. Soon, I discovered Robin Hobb was (1) a pseudonym, and (2) that the Rain Wild Chronicles were part of a larger cycle of novels she had written, all in a fairly-well developed fantasy world.

With that in mind, I picked up Assassin's Apprentice. Like her Dragon novels, I was hesitant to set my hopes too high. I could envision her attempts at this genre descending into cliches that would both insult my intelligence, and waste my time.

Oh, how wrong I was. To my great pleasure, I show more loved this novel! It follows the coming-of-age story of a young lad, the bastard son of the king-in-waiting, who is raised in the court of intrigue. To keep him from becoming a tool "wielded in the hands of our enemies", the king sees to his training the secret lessons of becoming an assassin.

Rather than write a stock character from a roleplay game, FitzChivalry Farseer is an engaging character from the beginning. Early in life, he perceives his threat to the throne, just by the mere act of being alive. This, more than anything, shapes his personality. He must be silent and unseen, in order to survive. His guardian, Burrich, is the King's stablemaster, and teaches him what it means to dedicate oneself to a task. Young Fitz becomes the King's Man,which, he soon realizes, requires all his life, up to, and beyond his, death. It is a question we must all struggle with: fidelity and loyalty come with a cost, and a burden of time, resources, and giving of oneself. He constantly bemoans the fact that his life isn't his, but the king's. Would you kill your best friend, at the command of your king?

Just an aside--when I was young, I remember asking a friend how he could spend ten hours a day, six days a week, at a local hated plywood mill. His answer stays with me to this day: "I do it because I love my family, and want them to be happy." That statement stunned me into thirty years of thoughts, where I still ponder how much I'd give to make my family a happy one, even at the cost of my own unhappiness. OK - that was a bit off the beaten path. Back to Assassin's Apprentice.

Hobb's characters are nice and tight, fantastically well-formed and believable, despite the fantastic, slightly-magical setting. She doesn't overextend herself by creating a complex and arcane magic to tinker incessantly with (Brandon Sanderson comes to mind), but talks about two kinds of magic: The Wit--also known as Beast Magic--and The Skill, a mental magic that allows its users to suggest and send thoughts to others. Moreover, the magic is culturally bound. The Wit is abhorred by most of the population, considered an evil and dangerous magic. The skill is primarily the domain of nobility.

Fitz's land, The Six Duchies, is steeped in the politics and machinations of its uncles, and court nobles. The trees and plants, and even the food are much like our world's, and lend a realism and credibility to Hobb's created world.

Her work is very satisfying, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is bored with the pedestrian high fantasy that usually checker bookstore and library shelves.

5 of 5 Stars. show less

I like this book a lot. It's almost 5-stars, but not quite. Just a hair below. So we can call it 4.5 stars, I suppose.

I love the way Hobb uses first person. When I was young, I hated reading first person narrative, but now I really enjoy it if it's done well. Hobb does that. Fitz's perspective is all we have, but in the scope of this story, that works best. It also helps to accentuate the relationships in Fitz's early life and his emotional ties to them. They're essential to his growth as a character and Hobb hits us with their impact. They are his own words to us and wouldn't be as heartfelt in third person.

The story does move along slowly for a good bit of the novel. Hobb's world-building is gradual but thorough. There are many layers show more here that take some time to formulate, and the foundation of Fitz's training and early life need that layering to whole the structure of the tale together. So while slow at times, it feels necessary.

For all of that, when something does happen, it packs a serious punch. Built on the foundation of the story and tied together with the emotional connections of our narrator, the punch is felt to the core. I won't spoil anything, but the last few chapters of this book really made me want to immediately start the sequel.

This was a re-read for me. For some reason, I didn't rush out and get the sequel after reading this novel two years ago. I honestly can't say why that is. But that's a mistake I won't make this time. Next up: [b:Royal Assassin|68487|Royal Assassin (Farseer Trilogy, #2)|Robin Hobb|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170692625s/68487.jpg|4668002]. show less

Assassin’s Apprentice is an odd one, because it has the slow pace of a cozy fantasy, but with very little coziness to be found in the storyline. If you need your fantasy to be an action packed, briskly paced page-turner, you probably won’t like this book. But if you like to be fully immersed in a well thought out fantasy world, can tolerate slower paced plots, and are into the intricacies and political intrigue of fantasy worlds, then I think this book would be for you. Assassin’s Apprentice is written in 1st person from a singular perspective, which is great if you enjoy being inside a main character’s head. Robin Hobb makes a cool choice to combine the more modern feeling of a 1st person narrative with an old school fantasy show more writing style, so readers who are used to recently published fantasy books will probably still really like this one.

The first half is much slower, and towards the beginning I chipped away at a glacial pace, unsure whether or not it would be worth the read. The second half gets way more interesting, building upon itself. And then Robin Hobb executes some impressive, complicated twists close to the end that had my heart racing! She’s masterful at weaving all the parts of the story together in a way that creates great payoff for the reader. She also writes characters who have depth to them, including plenty of morally gray characters, making sure they develop gradually and realistically over the course of the book. For me, it ultimately ended up being a very solid 4 star read! Absolutely continuing on with the series. show less

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I thoroughly enjoyed Assassin's Apprentice, the tale of the bastard son of a prince whose natural and supernatural gifts turn out to be useful to his grandfather in the twisted paths of statecraft in a fantasy kingdom desperately seeking allies against attack from a barely human, possibly inhuman, foe. The description of intersecting court politics and personal loyalty was intricate, fascinating and even moving. (OK, she uses puppies shamelessly as a way of engaging the reader's emotions; but I am a sucker for small furry creatures with large trusting eyes.) I will go out and get the sequel, and probably the third volume; and then consider how much further to take it.

I am trying to identify why show more Assassin's Apprentice worked for me, when the very similar (and much shorter) Yearwood totally did not. It may partly be the puppies; it may be the well-handled theme of education from many sources. But in general I think Hobb has a better political sense, and also after killing off a significant character or two in the early chapters there is a much greater feeling of suspense.

One minor linguistic whinge: the words "flout" and "flaunt" are used the wrong way round! show less