Book Review: Assassin's Apprentice

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Title: Assassin's Apprentice

Author: Robin Hobb

Series: Farseer Trilogy

Format: Paperback

Genre: Fantasy

Goodreads

Blurb: 

Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

Plot: ★★★.5

I adored the plot to this book. It has a very Game Of Thrones-y feel to it (which I admit, I haven't been able to finish reading the first book of because my memory's not too good and the amount of characters in the GOT books overwhelms me too much). The story's set in a 'Middle Ages' sort of setting, which I'm a complete sucker for. Add that to a multitude of well fleshed out characters, family politics between several royal families, a dash of magic, and I'm completely sold. I enjoyed reading this book from start to finish, though there were some parts that took me longer to get through because nothing particularly 'interesting' happened, they still weren't a burden to read. 

Characters: ★★★★

The characters were by far my favourite part of this book. It's written in first-person, from Fitz's perspective, so he's the one we get to know the best out of the entire cast, but that doesn't mean the rest gets neglected. All of the (main) characters drew several emotions out of me at different points. I went from loving a character, to hating them, to loving them again in the end. The 'evil' characters are evil, but are given a reasoning behind why they are, which I find a really important point that contributes a lot towards character development. The characters were definitely given thought, and that's what I think makes a book great.

Writing: ★★★.5

I'm usually not a big fan of books written in the first person, never have been. With that said, Robin Hobb completely won me over with her writing style and her way of describing certain things. Definitely one of the best first-person perspective books I've read-- ever. 

Ending: /

Rereadability: Yes.

Final rating: ★★★★

The previous points probably already gave it away, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and immediately picked up the sequel as soon as I could. Looking forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy, and to reading more of Robin Hobb's work.