Product Description

A glorious classic fantasy combining the magic of Ursula Le Guin's The Wizard of Earthsea with the epic Mastery of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Now reissued in gorgeous new livery. Fitz is a royal bastard, cast out into the world with only his magical link with animals for solace and companionship. But When Fitz is adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and learn a new life; weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly. Meanwhile, raiders ravage the coasts, leaving people soulless. As Fitz grows towards manhood, he will have to face his first terrifying mission, a task that poses as much risk to himself as it does to his target: for Fitz is a threat to the throne ! but he may also be the key to the future of the kingdom.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #432 in Books
• Published on: 1996-03-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
'Hobb is one of the great modern fantasy writers ! what makes her novels as addictive as morphine is not just their imaginative brilliance but the way her characters are compromised and manipulated by politics.' The Times

At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue - murdered, it's rumored - Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders - formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill - mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments. (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author
Robin Hobb was born in California in 1952 and majored in Communications at Denver University, Colorado. Assassin's Apprentice was her first novel which began the internationally acclaimed Farseer trilogy. Since then she has found further success with her wonderful series: The Live Ship Traders and The Tawny Man. Her latest trilogy is The Soldier Son, beginning with Shaman's Crossing and continuing with Forest Mage. Robin Hobb lives outside Seattle, Washington. Her website is: www.robinhobb.com.

Customer Reviews

Depth immeasurable...
It's not very often that you pick up a book from an ordinary shelf, thinking nothing more than 'I'm sooo bored, maybe I'll read this,' and, within a few pages, discover that you have, in fact, stumbled upon genius in print.
Following the life of a royal bastard, known as Fitz, this trilogy takes you on a journey that spans years, miles, height and depth. Though easily qualified as a work of high fantasy, political intrigue, human personality and realistic motivation keeps the entirity incredibly grounded. You never catch yourself wondering just how realistic it all is- it IS real, that's a given. But there was one aspect of this story that especially caught me.
For me, characters are the measure of a good story. If you don't care about them, you don't care about the book itself. In the case of this trilogy, you find yourself becoming more and more deeply entangled in the thoughts, emotions and personality of the characters until it's hard to remember who YOU are.
In particular, I think Fitz is one of the most realistically human characters ever to inhabit the written word, and the Fool remains my favourite character of any I've ever read about. Such depth and delicacy of portrayal and narration is all too rare.
In other words, read this trilogy. You simply can't go wrong with a story like this one.

The best fantasy series in the world today!
The Farseer trilogy is without doubt the best fantasy by anyone in the world today. I first came across this book in my local library and picked it up amongst a stack of other fantasy. I didn't put the book down for anything, even sleep, for the next few days.

It was the most fantastic, realistic, exciting, touching, personal and beautiful story I had ever come across. When you read this, you are Fitz, and his life is your own from the time you pick the book up until you finish it. Although he enters a dark, secret world, taking up the trade of a professional killer, you never once lose your sympathy for this character. His love for his friends (both human and otherwise) and his loyalty to Prince Verity is depicted perfectly - never seeming forced, and never entirely out of his mind, no matter where he is or what he does. And all of the other characters are interesting in their own ways, having unique traits and personalities that are never two dimensional or poorly thought out...

Robin Hobb is now my favourite author, and I am now completely hooked. All of the books in this series are equally great, at no time does the story become less interesting, the characters are always surprising you, but always staying true to themselves.

Basically, for any fan of fantasy fiction, or even for people who would like to just try out a fantasy book to see what it's like, I recommend this STRONGLY to you. It has everything that other fantasy (and other fiction in general) so often lacks. If you don't read this book, then you are missing out on an amazing experience and I pity you!

assassins apprentice
Lets be honest, some people have imagination and some people dont. The instructions on this book should read- Dont begin reading this book until at least October or when the snow starts falling!! . Start then and you will be transported into a world that has the ability to totally consume the reader and leave you unable to put it down. You will shadow Fitz in a world where all his emotions become yours ,you feel every joy and every pain. A classic fantasy novel!