The Assassin's Apprentice

Back in 2006 I decided to spend all my reading time devoted to Robin Hobb and read her first nine book in one big stretch. When The Assassin's Apprentice first came out my friends got it and read it and proclaimed it be the greatest thing ever... at the time I was uninterested in the bulk of the fantasy genre, I was still pretty much a sci-fi and TV tie-in kid - reading Doctor Who and Red Dwarf books like they were the only books that existed. I've moved a bit beyond that mentality now, and so, in 2006 - about 10 years after her first book - I decided to finally give Robin Hobb a shot.

Holy crabsticks.

I was missing out. I went straight through this book to the other two books in the Farseer trilogy. I then read Hobb's followup trilogy - The Liveship Traders - and from there I went straight into her Tawny Man trilogy. Nine books all up... roughly 6700 pages altogether. What a wild ride it was, I felt like I had taken a long and fantastic journey with all her characters, I felt like I knew Fitz (the narrator/protagonist of the first and last of the three trilogies) personally by it's end and I was very sad to finish the books.

The Assassin's Apprentice is the first of the these books, the Farseer trilogy. Fitz tells us his story in flashback, writing it down as if he were writing a history of the Six Duchies (the pastoral and medieval-ish land in which he lives). He is the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, who was heir to the Farseer throne, only Chivalry has to abdicate once Fitz's existence becomes public knowledge. Fitz is taken under the wing of King Shrewd and brought up by Prince Chivalry's right-hand man, the stablemaster Burrich. He is also brought up in secret by the King's assassin, Chade... King Shrewd seeks to make Fitz useful to the Farseers by making him a royal assassin. A decree both cruel and merciful.

I won't go into too much detail about all the machinations of the Farseer court and what character is what, you might as well read the book if you want all that. What is at the centre of this book is Fitz's learning of two different magics... one being the Skill, a royal magic that is only taught to the Farseers and is generally held in high esteem. And the other being the Wit, a 'beast' magic that Fitz seems to have a natural aptitude for - and a magic that is forbidden in the Six Duchies.

This book deals mainly with Fitz's upbringing and learning of the ways of the Farseers. Where the book differs with others in the fantasy genre is that Fitz is very much at odds with all those around him... he is a loner, and he seems to be of little importance in the grand scheme of things - he is, at the most, a tool to be used by the Farseers in their inter-familial struggles and varied attempts at diplomacy. There is no quest for Fitz to embark on and he has no central desire to improve his lot in the world. In fact, his motivations are almost non-existent - making him a strange kind of fantasy protagonist and something of an anti-hero.

As a stand-alone book, The Assassin's Apprentice fairly satisfying. The story builds to a strong finish and answers enough questions so you won't feel duped into having to read the next book. Like all good series-fiction, the desire to read the next story comes purely from an enjoyment of the characters and setting and wanting to know more. It's quality storytelling at it's finest.