Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

7 reviews

reddeddy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Violence, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Animal death, Confinement, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Dysphoria, Addiction, Medical content, Chronic illness, Alcohol, Medical trauma, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Kidnapping, Xenophobia, Bullying, Death of parent, Infertility, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Colonisation, and Drug abuse

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Body horror, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Suicide, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual content, Vomit, Ableism, Excrement, and Toxic relationship

beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

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

4.5

This may be one of the best fantasy novels I have ever read, and yet I can understand why others have had difficulty with it.

The pace is very, very slow, there is a lot of descriptive language and exposition to wade through, and even then, there isn't a whole lot of plot to be found, at least not at first. All these things considered, I can easily see why someone might get frustrated and give up.

But I found Assassin's Apprentice to be an absorbing, riveting, and immersive read - just what a good fantasy should be.

It also delivers in spades when it comes to political intrigue, which I also very much enjoy reading. The story is told from the POV of Fitz, who for

the first half of the book isn't even given a proper name

, and this was such a masterful move on Hobb's part.  You see him as he

grows from a child into a young man

. He's very observant of people and he has a

strong affinity for animals

. His keen observational skills (and at times judgmental behaviour) could make him unlikeable, but Hobb takes care to show us the other sides of him - his compassion, his kindness, his curiosity, and his thirst for knowledge all made me care about him and root for him as a character.

The other characters are well-developed too (even the villainous ones[

well, mostly</spoiler]), depicted as complex, flawed human beings, with many shades of grey.

The plotting was overall excellent, although did find the ending

rather rushed and not well-explained

, but I am willing to overlook that because of how much I enjoyed the rest of it.

4.5 stars from me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Eating disorder, Blood, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, and Death of parent

Minor: Fatphobia, War, Alcoholism, Infidelity, and Xenophobia

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Emotional abuse, Death, and Animal death

Moderate: Abandonment, War, Gaslighting, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Classism, Ableism, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Medical content

Minor: Miscarriage, Suicide, Infertility, Sexism, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Alcoholism, and Infidelity

Corporal punishment/whipping. Poisoning and aftermath. Near drowning.

revolution666's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Classism, Grief, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Murder, Bullying, Confinement, and Death

Minor: Infidelity, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Blood, and Medical content

booksthatburn's review against another edition

emotional

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

5.0

ASSASSIN’S APPRENTICE follows Fitz through his childhood and adolescence, as he learns to be an assassin for the king, and what he’s actually willing to kill for.

The worldbuilding is layered, with things explained as Fitz is told them, supplemented by insights from his older self. This leads to a gradually filled-in impression of a complex setting where details are conveyed as they are necessary, and even more is implied through the narrative. This style lends clarity. He discusses both how he felt at the time, as a child and then a teenager, and what he thinks about those events now that he’s an adult. This becomes especially important during sections such as his time under Galen, as the dissonance intensifies between events as they happened and how he was being conditioned to perceive them. There are several moments where something he does as he’s telling the story is juxtaposed with some assertion made by his younger self, showing how something must have changed in the meantime (presumably to be covered somewhere in the trilogy). 

One of my favorite things is his complex relationship with Burrich. How they are to and with each other changes throughout the story. Even when it's changing for the worse, it makes sense, and it's nice to see Fitz's growing understanding of Burrich as a person with his own internal world separate from Fitz. How Fitz views Burrich is often a great proxy for how Fitz is growing and changing, flavored by the dissonance between how Fitz is and how Burrich wants him to be.

There’s a lot of care in the narration, partly due to the balance between Fitz’s memories and his older self’s reactions to and commentaries on the memories, and partly due to what I can best describe as a lack of voyeuristic interest. One of the background plots involves raiders pillaging the coast, and, other than a few scenes where Fitz has to directly fight someone as a result of the raids, there are few descriptions of the kind of violence which accompanies such raids. Said violence is canonically happening, and Fitz frequently discusses the effects he’s observing on the people and the Kingdom which stem from the raids, but in a way that makes sense for his character. This is just one example of how the narration gives the impression of the complexity (and sometimes violence) of Fitz’s world, but does not unnaturally bend his character to direct the story towards it, nor does it shy away when appropriate. 

A great start to the series, I'm ready to read the next one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Violence, and Medical content

Moderate: Cursing, Pregnancy, Ableism, Sexism, Misogyny, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Excrement, Drug use, Child abuse, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Child death, and Death

Minor: Miscarriage and Rape

amelialincoln's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Drug use and Alcoholism

iviarelle's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was... an experience. The writing is great, the setups and payoffs are pretty satisfying, but some of the events are very upsetting and potentially traumatizing. Also, some scenes and sequences feel a little rushed, particularly the most plot-important ones. It's a bit of an odd balance for me. Don't get me wrong: I'm curious, even eager, to read more in this series and universe, but as interested as I was while reading it, I'm not as impressed with this book as a whole as I thought I would be. Also, so many content notes. See again about upsetting and traumatizing. This is not a lighthearted book you want to read as a break between heavy stuff, this is the stuff you may need a bit of a break from.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, and Torture

Minor: Vomit, Pedophilia, and Medical content