I’d say I’m falling behind on my reading, but Goodreads is telling me I’m ten books ahead, so nevermind. I am, however, falling behind on the TBR that I’d set out to read this year; this is especially true for any high fantasy I’ve tried to read this year. Thankfully, in my case, I’d started out the year with a high fantasy, just to get it over with, and I actually enjoyed my first entry into Robin Hobb books!
Special thanks to the lovely ladies at Alexa Loves Books and Hello Chelly on the Flights of Fantasy challenge and their bi-monthly book club. This month, they’ve decided to delve into Robin Hobb’s Farseer trilogy, though like me, they only managed to get through the first book, Assassin’s Apprentice. Like my last FOF post, I’ve posted my snippet below.
From Alexa Loves Books:
The second month of our Flights of Fantasy Book Club is officially over! In March, we invited you to read the Farseer trilogy along with us. Today, both Rachel of Hello Chelly and I will be sharing our thoughts on Assassin’s Apprentice, the first novel in the series, as well as answering three questions – and we’re asking those who read the books to share their own answers, whether in the comments or in a post of their own. Without further ado, here are my thoughts on this Robin Hobb novel!
Overview
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.
General Comments
I’ve developed a different mind set when I’m reading high fantasy as opposed to the usual fantasies I read. This includes adding an extra dose of patience, because high fantasy tends to take its time developing worlds and characters and plots, and usually, I see things speed up only near the end of the book, once the groundwork is made.
This seems to be the case for Assassin’s Apprentice, where the beginning is slow-going and it takes at least a couple hundred pages in to get into the meat of the story. As I’ve written in my review, it took me a while to take to most of the characters and the world. However, when the story finally did get going, I was riveted, and I wanted to know more.
The Questions
1. Who is your favorite character? I’m still not sure what to make of Fitz, other than that it’s his story and obviously he’s going to be the one the reader has to have the most sympathy for. I do like Fitz, but I did find the other characters more interesting, albeit there’s little about them that I know so far (I mean, Lady Patience and Kettricken sound like they’d be awesome female characters later on). If I had to pick from the book, I’d say Verity, hands down. He was this dark horse that nobody really thought would amount to much, up until things in the book pit him into situations where he had to step up. We don’t see much of him for most of the novel, but I loved his involvement with Fitz and vice versa.
2. Which is your favorite book? Yeah, I have every hope that the rest of the trilogy will be better than its introductory novel, but since I haven’t read the other two books, I couldn’t say.
3. Would you read more books by this author? Oh, definitely. I tend to use a slower pace when it comes to high fantasy, because I like breaking each book up months at a time. I’m pretty sure the last high fantasy I’d finished was The Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks, and that seriously took me over a year to get done, lol. No telling when I’ll get to the rest of this Hobb trilogy, but I am looking forward to more of this author!
Story and Somnomancy 