Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, #1) in Hobb-A-Long Read-A-Long

Sep 03, 2015 Katie Ziegler (Life Between Words) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I absolutely LOVED this first installment of Robin Hobb's extended fantasy series. The writing was brilliant. The world building rich. The characters alive. The plot engaging. Can't speak highly enough of it. I am so excited to keep going!!

Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry navigates his way through the world. He's lonely and despised. Hated by some, helped and cared for by others, loved by very few. His is a sad story, heartbreaking even, but captivating. I just can't wait to see where hi ...more

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Nov 21, 2015 Jennifer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-suspense, sci-fi-fantasy, adventure

I wasn't supposed to like this book so much, dang it! I picked up this book on the recommendation of Samantha from Novels and Nonsense. She talks about this whole series a lot, and I was curious, and also interested in trying to find my way back into reading fantasy, since I have a couple books from the genre that I'm trying to get through before year's end. I don't think this book actually helped me narrow that list at all. Instead I now have the rest of the Farseer trilogy sitting on the top o I wasn't supposed to like this book so much, dang it! I picked up this book on the recommendation of Samantha from Novels and Nonsense. She talks about this whole series a lot, and I was curious, and also interested in trying to find my way back into reading fantasy, since I have a couple books from the genre that I'm trying to get through before year's end. I don't think this book actually helped me narrow that list at all. Instead I now have the rest of the Farseer trilogy sitting on the top of my bedside book city-scape.

Anyway, the book itself was very coming-of-agey, and fairly standard fantasy novel fare in some ways. The writing was quite excellent, though, and there was a lot of thought and world building put into the whole thing that really showed. I'm also glad that I went into this knowing the books build off each other and aren't necessarily meant to be stand-alones, because really what this book is doing is setting you up for Royal Assassin and getting you familiar with the world, its magic, and its politics. Because (and only because) this book is clearly marked as the first in a trilogy I am okay with that. And oddly, I enjoyed it. This was a really great book, and well written. I honestly wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. I was expecting it to drive me to want to read other fantasy novels (like Wise Man's Fear, which, oh man I really need to get going on that). Instead, I ended up purchasing the rest of the trilogy and reading at my desk at work so I could find out how the book ended.

I don't really have a lot to say about the plot of the book, since it did feel a little episodic or anecdotal as Fitz grows up and tells the important stories of his life. The through line was definitely Fitz's training to be the King's Assassin, and that carried the burden of the coming of age storyline well, actually. It gave the anecdotes somewhere to focus, instead of seeming to flit through childhood and years as a teenager without too much purpose. I actually can't find anything else to complain about at this point, so that's surprisingly good.

I'm excited to start the next one! ...more

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Nov 30, 2015 Adriana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-magic, 2016-reading-challenge

Good start. Loved Fitz and the fool even though the fool didn't make much of an appearance. ...more

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Feb 21, 2016 Cat rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own-in-english, read-at-2016

4.5

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Aug 21, 2015 Ben rated it really liked it · review of another edition

My first real reading of low fantasy, and I enjoyed it. The characters are complex, and the story is personal, emotional, and dialogue-driven.

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Aug 10, 2015 Amy C rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4.5 out of 5 Stars
Such good writing, such amazing world building and great character development! A must read if you like fantasy.

I loved this book. The reason it did not get 5 stars is although the ending was fast paced and kept me up late to finish I was left rather confused as to what all happened. There were also some details introduced in the beginning of the book that were never explained in one way or another. But other than that the book was fantastic. I am looking forward to continuing ...more

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