A review by rg9400
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective slow-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

This book had a ton of hype, so I avoided it, concerned it would not live up to the hype for me. The first half certainly had me feeling like that was an inevitability. It's pacing is methodical at best, often feeling very introspective and abstract. People really praise Hobb's character writing, but Fitz in the first half felt kind of like a typical angsty male teenager protagonist. The other thing I knew about this book and series was that it caused a lot of emotional damage, so I sort of knew what to expect in regards to how certain things were going to shake out, leading them to maybe not have the same impact. All of that said, the second half did a great job of reinvigorating my interest. The story becomes about court politics, but not in the grand scale but rather in this very intimate way, focused on just a handful of relationships. In general, the book manages to hone in on only a select number of characters and their relationships, allowing those dynamics to really grow. I also wasn't expecting to enjoy the world, but I actually found myself interested in how the different magic actually worked. Overall, I wasn't blown away by this book or Fitz as a character, but I was expecting that. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that I still enjoyed it, namely its politics, its worldbuilding, and its side characters. In that way, I am much more optimistic about this series than I was for First Law because I definitely enjoyed this a lot more than The Blade Itself. I am looking forward to reading the sequel.