Assassin’s Apprentice: The first of many Robin Hobb books for me in 2025

I devoured the Liveship trilogy last year, a series I picked up kind of on a whim. It was my favorite read(s?) of last year, so I was delighted when, immediately upon finishing the third book, I saw how many other books Robin Hobb has written. DELIGHTED. I decided to space them out so as to savor them like the delicacies that they are. I took a break for a few months and was 33% into Demon Copperhead by which, while so well written, was starting to feel like a slog, and I decided that it was time for a little Hobb pick-me-up. So I read Assassin’s Apprentice in two days because it’s just really good, you guys.

Brief summary: Fitz is a bastard of the King-in-Waiting. His appearance at the Keep’s door at 6 years old sends ripple effects throughout the court. He is treated as an outcast and lives in the stables but his obvious parentage and aptitude in the Skill, which runs in the royal bloodline, gives him a few strategic advantages – and gives others a chance to use him for their own ends. As he grows, he is trained and tutored in various disciplines as individuals in the court figure out how he can be put to use – or put out of the picture. This is a slower book, spending a lot of time on Fitz’s growth and relationships, emotions, skills acquisition, and threads of information that are clearly leading to more drama later in the series. This is not a book of Big Adventure and Grand Quests, and the titular assassinations are not front and center at all – it’s very “humans just trying their best, with some magic,” which is my jam. There are moments of real heartbreak and moments of triumph as Fitz comes into his own.

There are two things that I think set Hobb’s style apart in my mind. First, the worlds are really deliberately built. She introduces threads and themes to build a complete world, but it’s just the right pace, never too much at a time, never too slow, always enough to keep you interested but not alienate you. Personal preference, but I hate fantasy books that throw me into the deep end so I feel like I have to re-read the first chapter just to keep all the new information straight. I also hate palace intrigue that’s too thick to decipher. Hobb manages these two things masterfully.

Second, her plots are truly character-driven. It never feels like the plot was laid out and the character’s decisions were forced into the plot. There are many times that a character makes a decision that you know is THE WRONG DECISION YOU IDIOT but you also know the character well enough that yes, of course they were going to do that–it’s who they are!

Cannot wait to get into the second book of this series! I give this one 4/5 stars only because compared to Liveship it’s a bit slower and the emotions I felt while reading it weren’t as all consuming, ha!