I enjoyed how complex the world and plot was. I’ve been reading a lot of more straight-forward books, I suppose, because I really enjoyed the cryptic clues and red herrings and foreshadowings, as well as the background “noise” of the world created. The world Hobb created wasn’t unique in any startling way and parts of it seemed reminiscent of other works and worlds created by other authors, but the overall organization was pleasantly new enough that I wasn’t bothered. Gripes: The beginning showed more promise and foreshadowing than I felt was realized in the book (perhaps later books in the series will fulfill what I envisioned could come to pass), the climax was dramatic but VERY short, there seemed to be many passages and even whole chapters that had really no point to them except as further illustration of the fantasy world, which seemed kind of a cheat; the description should have been more natural, maybe. The characterization was excellent (only a couple characters seemed like stock fantasy characters), but the main character was too withdrawn and introspective for my tastes (too much like myself to fully enjoy it). If anything the book seemed short because of the uneven pacing (a loooong buildup with a very short climax), but the myriad loose ends is precisely to my tastes.

First of all, this book is pretty interesting, because its capturing world and good characters. I would absolutely recommend this book to all those beginners who read fantasy. Still, it could have been so much better. Even though you are fascinated by reading it, you feel that somehow this book is a bit too long for you, and that the writer failed to do something.

It has a reason. Hobb does her best to juggle in the conventions of the apprentice story in fantasy. This book contains the lonely youngster, the father- character, the friend that dies, the jealous enemy, the pretty unreachable girl and of course the militant background. But, Hobb fails to use her limits to create something new and brilliant, as it is in Ender’s Game, A Song of Ice and Fire, Warchild or even Harry Potter. Actually, instead of having a complete and concise strocture to build the story, the plot is all mixed up. Fitz is always being transformed from one thing to another, most of the time so that we cannot understand why and how ta hell,till even he cannot figure out who he is.

This mess hurts not only the story but, shame, the characters. When we cannot understand what happens to Fitz, we stop understand and identify with him either. Eventually we can’t show interest in his choices. Same with the other characters. A lot of siquences could have been easily deleted from the plot, that simply has too many people in it. Sometimes, when a character is in the scence, you have to go a few pages backward to tell who it is exactly. The result is that even the writer gets confused, as we can see very well in the end, a really lame and misunderstood one.

This is one of the best series I’ve ever read. True, The Assassin’s apprentice is just a warming up; the true, big story begins only in the next book. But I love the way Hobb writes her characters. It’s not only Fitz (who, IMO, is the best written and developed character in fantasy so far), but all the other characters. They feel so, well, REAL. There are many fantasy books where I feel the characters are my imaginary friends. But Hobb writes hers in such a way that I feel they are my NEIGHBOURS, living just around the corner.

Hobb creates an interesting world here. A kind of telepathy known simply as the Skill was once quite common among the people of the Six Duchies, but once the near-constant wars settled down, the Skill was no longer needed by the royalty and battle commanders to guide their troops. It fell into disuse and was taught only to naturally apt members of the royal line. Then, the King-in-Waiting, Chivalry, has a bastard son. The boy’s existence is unheard of until he is brought to the king, Shrewd (members of the royalty are given names such as this in accordance with an ancient, but now defunct, belief that a child is shaped by his or her name). Once he learns of the boy’s existence, Chivalry abdicates his chance at the throne in order to maintain the honor of his family and people. The boy is then trained to become King Shrewd’s assassin.

This is quite good. Not the best book I have ever read, but it captured my interest. I believe this is Hobb’s first book, so I look forward to catching up on what she has written to date.

Did I read this already? I can’t remember.