Assassin's Quest: The Farseer Trilogy, Book 3

After great start with first 1.5 books of trilogy, the last 1.5 books became never-ending situations of ineptness and self-loathing for the main character.... leading to cycle after cycle of running, capture, torture and escape. Since the main character is "writing" the story down as the narrator, it's sort of stupid to send him through so many beat-down situations - you know he lives.

The plot sets up situations you can see a mile away, but the stupidity of the "hero" leaves you shaking your head. It's just hard to grasp that the villain has ZERO consequences through 3 books until the last few pages. His plots are known by everyone at the end of book one and there were no consequences???

The one bright spot was Paul Boehmer - one of the best jobs I've ever listed to.

Perhaps, if I had someone to share the entire trilogy with. Alone, no... it was just too long.

The writer really fleshed out the wit magic and bond with the wolf to an extreme, which I was all over.

Its hard to choose, but I would say the character that I enjoyed the most was the Fool, even though hearing unexpected wisdom from Night Eyes usually had me pondering or nodding in agreement.

The end is just the beginning

This book takes a strange turn from the previous books. Though, I will say each book in the trilogy has its own feel to it. The first one is a coming of age in a world of political intrigue while the 2nd is more of Fitz trying to be the glue that holds everything and everyone together. And this book is that glue breaking, and the world falls apart almost compleately. This book crushes your hopes over and over and over again. At the same time, it introduces to ideas, and further fleshes out old ones. I will say this book is too long, and should have been split into 2 books, as the first half of the book feels like its own story..VENGENCE. While the 2nd half of the book is more of a quest to find Verity.

I won't spoil the end, but its a bit sad and a bit endearing. I will say I wasn't too pleased with the hero's decisions to how to live out his final days, but to each their own.

FitzChivalry Farseer???s life keeps getting worse. He has once again barely ??? and I mean just barely ??? survived Uncle Regal???s machinations. As Assassin???s Quest, the third book in Robin Hobb???s FARSEER trilogy, opens, Fitz???s situation seems hopeless. Only a couple of people know he still lives and Molly is not one of them. She???s gone, and it seems safest for Fitz to let her live in ignorance.

Meanwhile, Fitz???s uncle Regal has declared himself king in the Six Duchies. He demands exorbitant taxes, has abandoned Buck Town and left Buckkeep in the hands of a foreigner, and has in essence given up the area to the Red Ship Raiders. Not only has Fitz suffered at Regal???s hands, the coastal duchies suffer too.

Once Fitz is standing on his own two feet again, he decides to get revenge for what Regal has done to him personally and to the Six Duchies. But Regal is protected by a coterie of skillers and some rather nasty soldiers. As Fitz tries to hunt down Regal, Prince Verity begins skilling to Fitz and asking for help. Fitz is the only person who knows that Verity still lives, but it???s not long before Regal discovers that both of his worst two enemies, FitzChivalry and Verity Farseer, are alive. Of course, Regal wants to get them before they get him.

Assassin???s Quest takes a while to really get going, and there???s some rehearsal of old events, but I think it had to be that way ??? Fitz???s recovery must be slow, or it wouldn???t be believable. Hobb puts this time to good use, though. We learn about Burrich???s childhood and grow to love him even more for what he sacrificed for Fitz. Molly also becomes even more admirable as we see her trying to make the most of her unfortunate circumstances.

Once Fitz is able to travel ??? and there is a lot of traveling ??? the pace is still slow, but by now the reader is so devoted to FitzChivalry Farseer and his wolf that it feels more like we???re spending time with old friends than trying to get through a novel. Along the way we meet a few new characters, most notably the minstrel Starling and a mysterious old lady, and eventually Fitz falls back in with some characters who we already love and have been missing. Besides the slow pace, which I really didn???t mind too much, my only complaint is that I had a hard time believing that Fitz doesn???t want Molly to know he???s alive. This felt like it was contrived to break my heart, but I must say that it worked.

In the end there is some glory for Fitz and the Six Duchies, but it???s accompanied by much heartache. This isn???t one of those fantasies where everyone lives happily ever after. Readers should know that though this is the end of the FARSEER trilogy, Fitz???s story continues in Robin Hobb???s next trilogy, THE TAWNY MAN. I???ve been listening to Tantor Audio???s excellent version of FARSEER and so far they have not put TAWNY MAN on audio, but they do have LIVESHIP TRADERS, a related trilogy on audio. I hope we???ll be seeing TAWNY MAN in audio sometime soon because audio readers are not going to want to wait for it. Originally posted at Fantasy Literature.

The final book in the series, and absolutely the best of the trilogy. The ending, to me, was all very unexpected. There was an interesting twist on dragons and the romantic interests in the the story. Definitely a suggested book, if you can handle the narrator.

I enjoyed the first book and, started to lose interest by the end of the second book. I hoped that the Third would bring some closure and it did tie up some of the loose ends, but not in a satisfying manner. The action was all second and third hand, there was a lot of time that the characters spent in a foggy fugue state that couldn't hold my attention. Even the climax of the book, the big battle with the Red ships was told in a boring dry manner. Finished, just finished, no need to reread it.

It's rare to find books this long that are actually interesting the entire time. After so many hours of having the such rich, well developed characters around, I really missed them when the book was over! I'm not a big fantasy fan, but I found this series to be different and quite unique in some of the concepts used... although that is maybe a neophyte's opinion! The ending was somewhat unsatisfying, but the rest of the book was great. I was sad when it was over.

The story is good, the narration well done, but it was all perhaps a bit too long. The length as such wasn't a problem; it's simply that it allowed the characters, specifically Fitz Chivalry, too much time to become tedious. After a while, Fitz's blinding stupidity seriously started to get on my nerves. I know not everyone can be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but Fitz's inability to grasp any concept or information not plainly spelled out for him becomes quite annoying, especially as the other characters make no effort to compensate for him. How they could possibly miss that the penny wasn't dropping for Fitz is beyond me, but somehow they do. It's a pity because it really did start to detract from the story and left the reader feeling let down. Somehow you just expect more from a story's hero than that, even if it is less realistic. There were also one or two other characters who I thought could have been written out because I never did quite see the point except to prolong the story, but that's just my opinion.

The story itself was entertaining and good, although somewhat predictable. There is, however, one twist at the end that I didn't see coming that was quite good and left a smile on my face. If you've read and liked the previous Farseer books this is a must but it isn't Hobb's best.

The characters, Ms. Hobb has created a great group of living, breathing, flawed, and unforgettable characters.

Trying to pick a favorite character between Fitz and Fool and Nighteyes is like having to decide which child is your favorite, to pick one is impossible.

He does a great job, he doesn't over power the story with his voice, he brings it to life. Not once I did think about the narrator as anything separate from the story.

Impossible to say without spoiling the story for others

Please bring the Tawny Man series to Audible.

Yes, it was a good listen but sad at times

the magic and how it was used

Awesome narration

no...

I will not put any specifics into this review and I really hope that this isn't a spoiler, but I feel that I have to say it. The first two books were pretty good and it suckered me in right away, but I was disappointed with the third book. The ending was VERY disappointing. I really felt like I wasted all my time listening to the story (and the last one was REALLY long). When you get to the end you say to yourself "okay, what was the point of all of this again?" Additionally, the last book was unnecessarily wordy. It droned on and on and kept saying the same thing over and over again. You really want Fitz to stand up and punch somebody for holding back information, it really does get annoying. I guess if you’re not looking for the perfect ending then the story is good, but I'm a sucker for a happy ending.