Review: Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.

Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.

Reading Format: Kindle ebook
Year Read: 2013
Star Rating: 4 stars

This is the first book by Robin Hobb that I have read and it won't be the last.It is the first book in the Farseer Trilogy although I believe that a couple of her other series also take place in the same world.

I thought that Assassin's Apprentice started out a bit slow and I found myself wishing I was reading something else instead but then once I got to the part where Fitz (the bastard son of Prince Chivalry) and Burrich (his father's right hand man) start talking about "The Wit", it started to catch my interest and then I became quickly sucked in.

Fitz possesses "The Wit", an ancient and distrusted magic which allows him to bond telepathically with animals. He forms a relationship with a young puppy called Nosy shortly after he is left with his father's men; he was dumped on their doorstep by his maternal grandfather. Fitz's relationship with Nosy doesn't last too long once Burrich realises that Fitz has "The Wit" and he dispatches the dog.

"The Wit" was what had originally drawn me to the book as it is a similar skill to that possessed by the Stark children in Game of Thrones. And I love everything about Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

After a few years in the care of Burrich, Fitz goes in to the King's service (his paternal grandfather). His father isn't around as he went in to exile once it became known that he had a bastard son.

What I like about the book is how Fitz goes from being a small boy who nobody wants or has use for to a boy who lots of people want (in a way). After being in the service of the King for a while, he becomes an Assassin's Apprentice and even the Keep's Scribe wants Fitz to become his apprentice. He learns "The Skill" which proves to be both good and bad for him.

Fitz does assassinate people in the book but it doesn't detail them as such just that he's done it or is preparing to do it which I quite liked. Normally I like a good helping of blood and gore but I found the lack of it in this book quite refreshing. I have the second book of the series, Royal Assassin, ready and waiting on my kindle so I will get to it at some point soon hopefully.

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