AA: Don't click unless you are finished - Spoilers.

[Jonathon]

On the whole, I really enjoyed this book. Don't get me wrong, it has flaws but what book doesn't?

I think I have to go with the Fool as my favourite character. He's just that bit different to everyone else around him and that makes him really stand out in my mind, admittedly we haven't (as of the end of the book) seen all that much of him, but I find him fascinating because of that. We haven't been exposed to much of how his mind works or what his motivations are, there's enough of a mystery around him to make him interesting.

I wanted to say Burrich for my favourite character but after some of his reactions to Fitz and the Wit, I can't help but draw comparisons to some folks' attitudes towards homosexuality. The Wit is as much a part of the physical make-up of Fitz as my sexual orientation is of me and some of the things that Burrich said struck a little too close to home for me to be entirely comfortable.

I'm also interested to see how Fitz continues to develop over the course of the series because he has the makings of a character that could truly be interesting even if he's not quite there yet.

[Walter]

The book started a bit slow for me, but did not find that terribly surprising, since genre literature like fantasy typically has to provide a sense of time and place without which the reader will be lost. It did pick up for me afterwards, but slowed down around Chapter 17. At that point I continued reading due to a combination of both wanting to know what happened next (a good thing) and reader inertia (a not so good thing).

The latter is more of a technical storytelling criticism than anything else, and has something to do with maintaining interest through variety of experience. That is, I could only watch the main character get beaten down over so many pages before starting to feel numb. And when one feels numb, one cares less.

A good story, for me, is like a ship on the sea. It will sink to the depths, rise to the skies, up and down, interspersed with periods of calm reflection. If the only emotion I am allowed to experience is grief for the protagonist, then (like the odor fatigue from smelling violets) my empathy for him or her will diminish over time. And if it goes on long enough, I will ultimately arrive at a place where I simply stop caring. Now granted, it did not get to that point in AA. But it did skirt the edges.

Now granted, something like this is a subjective experience. A young person who has had his or her heart broken can listen to any number of days worth of heartwrenching ballads, and be none the worse for wear. There will be those for whom the doom and gloom from Chapter 17 on will be a bit much, those for whom it was not nearly enough, and those for whom it was just right. For me, from Chapter 17 on, it got to be a bit much.

Which is not to say the book did not have wonderful moments. After the (prerequisite) sluggish start, it did take wing and at times virtually flew. During those moments I leapt from page to page, anxious to experience whatever came next.

Which is why I'll be giving the book four stars. And while I am comfortable critiquing fiction (I do this for critters.org), I feel much less comfortable giving an extensive text review to a fellow writer, and intend only to briefly summarize my feelings. Perhaps I will feel differently over time, but that's the case for right now.

Here's how I plan to review it: "A solid tale by an experienced storyteller. Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice flies in places, but sometimes is weighed down by a bit too much doom and gloom on the shoulders of its youthful protagonist. Despite this, I found it well worth the reading."