 Hey guys it's Liana and I'm here today to talk about Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. This is not quite a classic of fantasy but it's like getting there where I feel like fantasy readers all generally respect Robin Hobb. And I'm not holding it up right now but I do own the Anniversary Edition which I pre-ordered thinking I would have read this by the time it came out and I didn't. But I have finally read this. I read it because I wanted to but I read it for the Get It Done readathon for the prompt to start a series and yeah this is the first book in the Farsier Trilogy. Is that right? It's like Chiliges and Triliges and Triliges all in the same world by Robin Hobb. Yeah it's the Farsier Trilogy, Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, Assassin's Quest, and then a bunch of other Triliges. I read it and I really really liked it. I mean I'm not surprised but I didn't kind of really know what to expect other than that it would be fantasy and that a lot of people really like it and I knew that it wasn't grimdark so I wasn't expecting that and it's not. It really reminded me of a book I read around this time last year which was a self-published book called Dawn of Wonder by whoever it's by Jonathan Renchel. Is that right? That doesn't sound right. Is it right? I don't know. But Dawn of Wonder, if you like Robin Hobb, if you like Assassin's Apprentice I recommend that book. It's really good. I mean I recommend that book in general but if you like this I think you'd like that. But back to Assassin's Apprentice. I didn't really know what the plot was about. I just knew that it was about Fitzshill refarsier and I was like what a ridiculous name. This is literally the most fantasy name I've ever heard Fitzshill refarsier. Like it sounds like a farce but in a good way. And I feel like a lot of this is kind of that way where it's a lot of these like really traditional fantasy things in a way that I guess it could be ridiculous but it's not because it's done well and it's done in a way where you're like yep this is fantasy. This is straight up fantasy. This is what when I think about a vague hypothetical dream scenario curling up with a fantasy book and a cup of tea and it's raining. This is the type of fantasy book that I'm just vaguely imagining. That's what it is. It's this kind of vaguely historical European type inspired setting with nobility and royalty and power structures and mystery and magic and it's that. And the main character is so sympathetic and I recently ran into it about Sorcery of Thorns and Gwendover Deception for the fact that the main characters were really childish and so a lot of what they did and said was just so unrelatable and unbelievable in terms of being just dumb. So the main character in Assassin's Apprentice, he's a really little kid to start out with and by the end of the book I think he's like 14. And so a lot of what he does is quite mature for his age but a lot of it isn't and or a lot of it isn't, I mean it's fine for his age but that's what I'm saying. It's forgivable that he would make the kind of mistakes he makes or that he'd be naive about the things that he's naive about because he's kind of been treated badly his whole life and there's a lot of things that were just never told to him and people keep secrets from him and there's a lot that he's kind of had to figure out on his own and there's like magic stuff that if no one ever explained it to you're also kind of trying to figure it out on your own and he's quite young actually so he's doing the best with what he has in a really believable and really sympathetic way. So it works. So the premise with the plot which I didn't really know at all going into it is that Fitzgillory Farsier is the bastard of the heir to the throne and there are three princes and so the oldest princess is his bastard and his only child because his wife hasn't given him any heirs but the prince doesn't really claim him or acknowledge him so that just generally the royal establishment kind of absorbs Fitz and takes on raising him, feeding him, educating him so he doesn't really ever see his father or anything. He's raised kind of by the village so to speak so there are people that used to work for his father, there are people that work for the king, there are people that just work in the keep that are all kind of coming together to raise little Fitz but even the fact of like his name because there's a lot of naming conventions in this world so his father never bothered to name him, his mother didn't name him, so Fitz means bastard that's also true of our world so that's where that came from but anyway so like people kind of call him Fitz and so that's kind of becomes his name and his father's name was chivalry so Fitzchillory and he's just sort of piecing together his world and piecing together his position in it and it's kind of hard to navigate because he is a royal birth and royal blood but he's a bastard so he has more rights than a lot of people but also considerably less rights than other people and it's just a lot more gray and confusing about what exactly is his place and who exactly he should answer to and you know whatever so he's a kid who's kind of figuring that out for himself. The king gets him to start training with a sort of royal assassin who begins to secretly teach him about poison and about how to fight with the blade and how to sneak around and how to listen in and how to be a spy kind of which is really interesting and kind of slow but in that fantasy way of your main character it's growing up and figuring out the world and learning more and you're learning with him and then the end of the book it gets really going and I don't want to say because I don't want to spoil it because this is a good book and I recommend you do read it so I'm not going to do a spoilery review but sort of everything that has happened to people he's encountered the things he's learned the things he's been training for kind of all come together in the climax of the book in a really great way it's it's not the most like fast-paced like exciting type climax it's not like a giant battle scene or something like that but it is really exciting and really and again I don't want to say heart wrenching but it is kind of emotional I don't know like I feel like throughout the book like because he's such a sympathetic little boy that when he gets abused by people or when he gets tricked by people or when he like learns these life lessons in a rough way their heart really breaks for him and um there's like some of that in the end of the book too where everything he's learned has kind of really paid off but also in a heartbreaking way so it was just it was really good I really liked it I give it a four out of five stars because I think the beginning had some pacing issues in general I don't mind the slowness of it but I think a slightly better sense of kind of where this is going would have been good and it actually reminded me of the criticism that I mostly got when I first started writing my own story which it was really bad then and I'm it's so much better now but one of the criticisms that I got that I totally agree with and I'm glad it was pointed out to me so I fixed it and I think I wouldn't totally rewrite this but it's a little bit here is at the beginning it's just kind of stuff happening two fits he's kind of living his life and learning stuff and meeting people and like it's fine but like girl like why like what's the point and so like in my own work it was kind of that way where I knew everything was leading and these were all important things for the my audience to know about or to have seen happen but the audience doesn't know they're important so they don't know what to look out for and they don't know why they're being told it and it's just kind of like life happening to the characters for a bit so I reorganized the chronology of my story and I think there is this plot or device of having each chapter begin with a text that's like in this world and referencing these events so it's giving you some worldbuilding that way but also some insight into where this is going because I think it's meant to be written by Fitz when he's considerably older and reflecting on this time in his life so there's some of that because there's a sense of like okay he's going to end up in a place in his life where he's able to write about it so stuff happens I guess but I don't know building in more of a sense of where he ends up so you have a directionality would have been good because that's kind of why name of the windworks a little bit better is because it doesn't just start out with cloth as a kid and like both of his parents and then close the university you know where he ends up because he's the one telling the story you know that things go epic and really bad you just don't know how so following his childhood it's no longer just like I guess there's a kid and I guess he's learning stuff this is when he was a kid and he's learning stuff at some point it's going to get legendary and then really bad so you're like looking out for it with this it was like the beginning of clothes story except you don't know what ends up happening with clothes at all in any way for all you know Fitz dies in childhood you know like you could assume that he doesn't because he's the one telling kind of telling the story because it's in first person but you're like so what happens to you who are you yeah this is the beginning of your life but where is this going so it's a bit of that in the beginning which it's not a huge criticism because I was still engaged and was still enjoying it and I really liked the characters and I liked the world so I didn't mind but it would have helped it I think I would have given it five stars if it found a way it doesn't have to be the same plot device and the same structure as name of the wind it doesn't have to be the present day Fitz saying let me tell you my story and how I came to be where I am now like it doesn't have to be that but some way to give a directionality to the plot that frames why we're seeing this and gives context for it I would like that then it would be five stars for me but otherwise I really really enjoyed it and I think it's really well written and the characters are really memorable and your heart just breaks for Fitz he's such a sweet character he's not like just a total cinnamon roll like he's got some spunk and he's a character that you want to root for and he's not perfect at everything he makes mistakes understandable ones less understandable ones but ultimately all fit for his character and it was just a lovely world to be in and I can see why hob is so well liked and since this is the first book I would guess that like later books kind of flow a little easier or work out pacing issues a little bit more so I'm really looking forward to reading more of the books in the series and these series is and more from Robin Hobb because for the first book I really enjoyed it I really did so let me know in comments down below if you've read Robin Hobb if you've always meant to read Robin Hobb if you never plan to read Robin Hobb how you felt about Assassin's Apprentice if you read it if you felt similarly or differently about how it was structured and paced um I post videos on Saturdays and sometimes Wednesdays so like and subscribe and I'll see you when I see you bye