Reviews with content warning for Death - Assassin's Apprentice

The prose was nice. Found the world-building a bit boring in a way that it's a very box set medieval European fantasy. Nothing much happens except for like last 50 pages, we're just following main characters growing up.
I'm also pretty sure this book fails the Bechdel test (I only started actively looking for examples halfway through but yeah... It's visible it was written a while ago). There are hints at a queer character and a character with nonconfirmed gender.

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briely's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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poison_frogs's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.0

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britreads's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I was nervous to read this. I heard that this is a slow read and many people prefer Hobb's other series. But I had so much fun reading this and I want to finish the whole series. (I predict the other two books will be 5-star reads for me.)

What I admire most about this book is Hobb's ability to trust readers and let them make their own conclusions, even though we're in Fitz's perspective. the entire time. There are several times where the solution to a mystery is revealed and it's not treated as a major revelation in the narrative, but it is still satisfactory. I also found her writing to be extremely detailed and rich. It felt like an immersive read. And this world felt fully fleshed out and lived in.

I really connected with a lot of characters in here. Not just FitzChivalry, but also Burrich, Patience, Verity and to a lesser extent Chade. The evolution of Fitz and Burrich's relationship is one of the best in the book with Fitz and Verity's relationship running a close second for me.

I was also impressed with how progressive this story felt despite being published in the mid-90s. There are a lot of well-rounded female characters in here. This world is inspired by medieval Europe, yet there is no reliance on extreme misogyny or sexism. In fact, in this world, men and women have equal rights to rule. It's a small detail that I really appreciated, especially when compared to other fantasy novels/series written around the same time.

This is a slow-paced novel. We start off with Fitz when he is a young boy, around five or six years old. The story ends when he's roughly 18. I liked the slow pace as we had a chance to track Fitz's successes and failures, particularly when he begins to learn the Skill. And Fitz grows a lot during this novel. By the end, he is much more aware of his position as a King's man and the dangers that comes with the title. I appreciated this thoughtful approach to Fitz's tale. There are some action scenes, but the story is mostly focused on the emotional and mental impacts that stick with this young person.

This is my favorite read of the year and I really hope the rest of the series lives up to the expectation that this novel created. And I can't wait to dig into the other novels in this world.

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jo_lzr's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really liked the prose of the book. I sympathized a lot with Fitz. There is, also, a strong focus on Fitz's mental health. Even though descriptions were a bit exhaustive at times, Robin Hobb's talent in story crafting made up for it.

I think that the fog that Galen put in the mind of Fitz so that he would forget about his ability to Skill, which caused him to hate himself so much that he wanted to commit suicide is an interesting metaphor for real life. I don't know if that was something the author did on purpose, but it is interesting to think that in real life the perspective of oneself can become fogged through abuse and gaslighting.

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