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The Farseer Trilogy consists of
Assassin’s Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassin’s
Quest. The Liveship Traders Trilogy bridges a gap of time between this series and
The Tawny Man Trilogy, which continues the adventures of Fitz and the Fool some years later.
The Farseer Trilogy is probably one of the best series I’ve read since David Eddings’
Belgariad. Now that I’ve finished reading Assassin’s Quest, I can see in hindsight why I found it so difficult to get into this story. This trilogy reads as a single very long story, rather than three different parts to the same story or even three interrelated stories. It begins slowly because there are so many plot nuances to introduce and characters to get to know. Books 2 and 3 pick up at exactly the point where the other leaves off, with a prologue to remind the reader of the story so far.
The dynamics between Robin Hobb’s characters are exquisite, especially in Book 3. Hobb’s attention to detail is brilliant, and she has created a vast world and characters with great depth.
Spoilers
There are some minor spoilers ahead for the simple reason that by writing about Book 2 and 3, I’m touching on how Books 1 and 2 end. However, since this is one long story rather than three stories with definite endings, and also due to the sheer number of plot twists in the
Farseer
Trilogy, I don’t feel that what follows gives much of the story away. Proceed with caution if you prefer not to know too much about the books before you read them.
Gaffes
Only minor typo/editorial errors. In Book 3, the Fool gets a (permanent) magical substance on the fingers of his left hand. A few pages later the substance is on the fingers of his right hand.
Kettricken and Kettle’s names are switched once. And Ruddy becomes “Reddy” at the end of the book.
Book 1 –
Assassin’s Apprentice
As I mentioned, it took me a long time to get into this first book, and I almost gave up on it. I’m glad I didn’t, and I would encourage anyone trying to read this to keep going. I’ll give you a tip: keep reading (skimming if you have to) until the Fool’s riddles start coming true. From then on it gets a lot more interesting, and you’ll probably go back and reread the parts you skimmed.
Assassin’s Apprentice begins with a six year old nameless boy who ends up in the care of the Farseer stablemaster, Burrich. He is the illegitimate son of Prince Chivalry, next in line to the Farseer throne after his father, King Shrewd. When Prince Chivalry learns of the boy’s existence, he abdicates his claim to the throne in favour of his brother Prince Verity, and shortly thereafter is killed in suspicious circumstances.
Burrich names the boy “Fitz”, and he will eventually earn the name “FitzChivalry”. For a time Fitz is raised by Burrich as his apprentice. His destiny falls into place the day he is caught searching for kitchen scraps by none other than King Shrewd. With the king’s Fool as a witness, Shrewd offers his grandson a pact – total loyalty to him in return for shelter, food, clothing, and security. Fitz accepts the pact, and his life is uprooted and moved to the castle where he is given his own room. This move alarms Shrewd’s youngest son, Prince Regal, who believes Fitz somehow threatens his own claims to the throne.
Fitz discovers the significance of his room when a hidden door is revealed, leading him to the quarters of the assassin, Chade. Chade is King Shrewd’s illegitimate half-brother, and so Fitz becomes the assassin’s apprentice as Shrewd commands.
With the invasion of the Red Ships threatening the security of the Six Duchies, Shrewd commands Skillmaster Galen to form and train a new coterie of telepathic “Skill” users. This coterie will act as a support to Prince Verity as he defends the Six Duchies using his mind and Skill talent. Shrewd decides that Fitz should be included in the coterie.
Under the cruel tutelage of Skillmaster Galen, Fitz’s talent for using the Skill is deliberately sabotaged, with only Fitz’s powerful “Wit-bond” to his dog saving him from Galen’s attempts to destroy him completely.
Book 2 – Royal Assassin
FitzChivalry returns to King Shrewd and Chade at Buckkeep, barely alive after a confrontation with Prince Regal. Despite the dangers of using his telepathic link to animals, Fitz forms yet another Wit-bond, this time with a wolf cub called Nighteyes.
Prince Verity begins a quest to search for the mysterious Elderlings who came to the aid of the Six Duchies monarch centuries before in the previous cycle of the Red Ship Raiders.
With rumours of Verity’s death, Regal makes the first moves to take the throne from Verity’s wife Queen
Kettricken and Verity’s unborn child. When King Shrewd is murdered by members of the coterie, Fitz avenges his death and finds himself in Regal’s dungeon. Pregnant Queen
Kettricken and the Fool flee to the mountains, and the Fool’s prophecy that Fitz is the Catalyst he dreamed of is shattered.
There is only one way for Fitz to escape being executed as a traitor, and he needs the help of Burrich, Chade, and Nighteyes.
Book 3 – Assassin’s Quest
Only Burrich, Chade, and Nighteyes know that Fitz is alive. He is badly scarred and broken following Regal’s torture and he rejects Burrich and Chade to follow a life with Nighteyes and a vendetta to destroy Regal.
However, with his erratic Skill sense reawakened by Verity, Fitz alters course to search for his king. He is reunited with the Fool and Queen
Kettricken in the mountains, and together with a minstrel named Starling and an enigmatic and cranky old lady named Kettle, they set out to find King Verity and aid him in seeking the legendary Elderlings.
Some of the plot threads that irritated me in the first and second books (Fitz’s infatuation with Molly and his bond with Nosy and Smithy) came together with exceptional clarity in the third book. Robin Hobb has written a series that is close to perfect.
copyright © Elsa Neal 2006 (Please contact the
for permission to reprint this article.)
From
Amazon.com
The
Liveship Traders Trilogy, by Robin Hobb:
Ship of Magic | The
Mad Ship | Ship
of Destiny
The
Tawny Man Trilogy, by Robin Hobb:
Fool's
Errand | Golden
Fool | Fool's
Fate
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