Assassin’s Apprentice

Robin Hobb
1995

This is the first book in the Farseer trilogy, and the story of a boy who is handed over to the royal family of Farseers when he is six years old. The bastard son of the King in Waiting, Prince Chivalry, he has no name and is known simply as Fitz or the bastard. His father abdicates and goes to live in the country where he dies, never having met Fitz.

Fitz lives with Burrich, who was Chivalry’s man at arms until the abdication and is now the Stable Master. He runs wild in the city streets with beggar children and bonds with a dog called Nosy. When Burrich learns that Fitz has bonded to the child he is angry, because Fitz is using an old magic called the Wit. The Wit allows a person to communicate with animals, and they can bond with a particular animal until the person and the animal begin to absorb each other’s traits. It is considered a perversion punishable by death.

Fitz also has the potential for the Skill, another type of magic that the Farseers and a few others can use. Fitz comes to the notice of King Shrewd, who decides that he should be educated and put to use. He is apprenticed to the Royal Assassin, a mysterious man called Chade, and eventually also tries to learn the Skill with the Skill Master Galen. Galen and Prince Regal despise Fitz, but he has a protector in Prince Verity who is the new King in Waiting.

This novel seems at first to be quite straight forward. Fitz is a young boy who is growing to manhood, learning about the world and finding friends and trying to avoid his enemies. It becomes complex in a slow and subtle way, until you realise that there is politics and scheming all through the book and you have come to it slowly and without confusion. Robin Hobb is an excellent writer and the story is told from a first person perspective, so it is easy to find yourself immersed in the life of Fitz and his everyday activities.

Throughout the book you see how both the trivial and the important impact on Fitz, and the story flows beautifully. In many ways this is the archetypal fantasy novel and fulfills all the hopes that a fantasy reader has when picking up a novel by an unfamiliar author. The climax manages to both complete this story and set the stage for the sequel without leaving too many unanswered questions and I very much look forward to the next book.