The Farseer: Assassin's Apprentice

By: Robin Hobb

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

Length: 17 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

With unforgettable characters, a sweeping backdrop, and passionate storytelling, this is a fantasy debut to rival that of Robert Jordan. Filled with adventure and bloodshed, pageantry and piracy, mystery and menace, Assassin's Apprentice is the story of a royal house and the young man who is destined to chart its course through tempests of change. Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal household by his father's gruff stableman. An outcast whose existence has forced his father to abdicate his claim on the throne, Fitz is ignored by all royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him secretly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in the young man's blood is a heritage of magic, the talent called the Skill, as well as another, even more mysterious ability.

As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts and leave behind the zombie-like husks of the townspeople to prowl the countryside, Fitz is growing toward manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission, a mission that poses as much a threat to himself as it does for his target---for Fitz is a threat to the throne...but he may also be the key to the survival of the kingdom.

©1999 Robin Hobb (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

“Intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured...at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.” ( Kirkus)

Highly Recommended that you treat yourself to this

this book exceeded my highest expectations! the story is compelling and the reader is truly a pleasure to listen to. typically i only listen to audiobooks while I'm driving or doing work around the house. this book was impossible to walk away from. I can't wait to start the next book in this series!

Good characters! Weak story line!

The main character and those closet around him the most were developed very well. I cared about them.

The writing is also excellent.

Magic system is subtle. Violence was sparse but brutal. So tastefully done on both points.

The story line just jumped around a lot and seemed like it rarely finished a subplot before it was on to a new one.

The ending didn’t evoke much feeling either. For all the character build up at the beginning the ending heavily involved new undeveloped characters that I didn’t care much about. In a new setting on top of that.

Still the writing and the characters were worth the read if you go in for that sort of thing.

Fully engaging

I'm reading these out of order, having read The Tawny Man and the Rainwild Chronicles trilogies before this one. It's truly amazing how much the author provides glimpses into a future she hasn't yet written. Obviously, I have a thing for Robin Hobb. All the books are great and this one is my favorite so far.

Tough Read

First off, the narrator is great. I have no qualms with his performance. However, the story is difficult to get through. The main character gets beat and beat and nothing goes his way. Nothing goes right for this guy and, frankly, it's kind of depressing. Even the climax at the end isn't a happy climax, except for the fact that he survives.

start of 1 on the best character works in fantasy

Robb Hobb's book is a different fantasy epic. Though set in the typical sword and armor period in a world of magic the series is not about battles and made up monsters. It is not about wielding magic spells or a magic weapons. These things are all there but what this series is about is the people.

Just excellent.

Plot, characters, tone, and pacing - I really can find no fault here. I read the entire thing in one day. Can't wait to start book 2!

Another way to come to enjoy a book.

I enjoyed the telling of the story. It changed the way I see it after reading it!

Was good

story was good, brought to this author after falling down a rabbit hole following Patrick Rothfuss and Scott Lynch. listen at 1.10x speed, makes the narration easier to swallow

An original story with unique magic

You almost expect there to be more types of magic besides just the mind stuff going on. Is truly unique makes you really care about the characters.

Good world, solid plot, deep characters

Unlike many fantasy novels, which deal with the scope of worlds or universes, often with no apparent sense of the complexity of the real world, the "universe" of this book is a single kingdom (or set of adjacent kingdoms), and the protagonist is one fateful lad. World-building is deftly handled, and the picture of the world grows with the protagonist in a natural way. While there is "magic", unlike, say Jordan's Wheel of Time, it does not play a dominant role in these books, nor is it very widespread (no real spoilers here). The story is very well told, with an intimate sense of the main character's life. Unlike many modern series, this book seems well contained as a single novel, though there is a full trilogy, which I will definitely continue with.