The is an oldie but a goodie and I am now reading it for the third time so I figured it warranted a post in my book botherings. "Assassins Apprentice" is the first in Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy and her first book under this pseudonym (she is really Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden born in 1952 in California). It was published in 1995. Hobb really hit the nail on the head with this series, expertly drawing you in to her fantasy world from page one. It forgoes the usually "scene setting" blah blah that a lot of fantasy writers feel necessary as a preface and instead launches into the story from the point of view of a six year old boy who is only himself learning about this new world he finds himself in so his discoveries deliciously parallel your own. The supporting characters are imbued with almost too human characteristics (the vile Regal haunts me still) and the main character Fitz is immediately and irreconcilably a cherished child or vicarious self. This first book covers the beginning of Fitz's life as a disclosed "bastard" of the then Prince Chivalry and his introduction to Buckkeep. He is initially ignored by his would be relatives and left to his own devices but after a chance encounter with King Shrewd, he is scrubbed up and sent to be trained as an assassin and protector, a job he successfully fulfills in safeguarding the throne from his treacherous uncle Regal, an act which almost costs him his own life.
The Fool, Chade, Shrewd, Verity, Burrich, Pleasant, Galen, Nosy, Molly Nosebleed and a rich caste of other characters makes for an enjoyable and refreshingly unique fantasy feast. I highly recommend this one to any fantasy fiction connoisseur!
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