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essinink 's review for:
Assassin's Apprentice
by Robin Hobb
I made the mistake of doing the math; It's been about half my life since I read this book. My younger self was spirited away by Hobb's storytelling, entranced by Fitz, and the Fool, and the Six Duchies. I read the Farseer books, and the Tawny Man books, but skipped Liveship Traders (it wasn't at the library), and never did get around to the conclusion of the series when it was published (too busy with real life to read.)
It's interesting to come back to a book after so long. With many details lost or buried in my memory, and a very different lived experience to lens through, it was almost like reading it for the first time, and also a bit like meeting a childhood friend.
With a title like "Assassin's Apprentice," you might expect this to be all edgy intrigue and murder. The fact of the matter is that the book starts when Fitz is six years old, and his early years as a royal bastard are fairly mundane. Even when he does begin training as an assassin, it's handled very matter-of-factly. The slow burn plot has much more to do with Fitz's coming of age and interpersonal relationships, and the wider court intrigue in which he is inevitably entangled. The characters' sorrows are grounded in events, not scattered like last-minute seasoning through the plot.
The book holds up well. Hobb doesn't shy from hurting her characters. It's not gratuitous, but loss and struggle shape them (and by extension, the plot.) For every success, there are one or two major failures, or stumbling blocks, or losses. It's a constant uphill, and with Fitz so young in this book, sometimes he caves to adolescent despair. His life is not one of ease. Nor, as we know from the framing story of old Fitz writing his history, will it ever really improve.
These books are still quite popular, so I'm waitlisted for the rest of the Farseer Trilogy. Looking forward to continuing this reread.
It's interesting to come back to a book after so long. With many details lost or buried in my memory, and a very different lived experience to lens through, it was almost like reading it for the first time, and also a bit like meeting a childhood friend.
With a title like "Assassin's Apprentice," you might expect this to be all edgy intrigue and murder. The fact of the matter is that the book starts when Fitz is six years old, and his early years as a royal bastard are fairly mundane. Even when he does begin training as an assassin, it's handled very matter-of-factly. The slow burn plot has much more to do with Fitz's coming of age and interpersonal relationships, and the wider court intrigue in which he is inevitably entangled. The characters' sorrows are grounded in events, not scattered like last-minute seasoning through the plot.
The book holds up well. Hobb doesn't shy from hurting her characters. It's not gratuitous, but loss and struggle shape them (and by extension, the plot.) For every success, there are one or two major failures, or stumbling blocks, or losses. It's a constant uphill, and with Fitz so young in this book, sometimes he caves to adolescent despair. His life is not one of ease. Nor, as we know from the framing story of old Fitz writing his history, will it ever really improve.
These books are still quite popular, so I'm waitlisted for the rest of the Farseer Trilogy. Looking forward to continuing this reread.