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beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
This may be one of the best fantasy novels I have ever read, and yet I can understand why others have had difficulty with it.
The pace is very, very slow, there is a lot of descriptive language and exposition to wade through, and even then, there isn't a whole lot of plot to be found, at least not at first. All these things considered, I can easily see why someone might get frustrated and give up.
But I found Assassin's Apprentice to be an absorbing, riveting, and immersive read - just what a good fantasy should be.
It also delivers in spades when it comes to political intrigue, which I also very much enjoy reading. The story is told from the POV of Fitz, who forthe first half of the book isn't even given a proper name , and this was such a masterful move on Hobb's part. You see him as he grows from a child into a young man . He's very observant of people and he has a strong affinity for animals . His keen observational skills (and at times judgmental behaviour) could make him unlikeable, but Hobb takes care to show us the other sides of him - his compassion, his kindness, his curiosity, and his thirst for knowledge all made me care about him and root for him as a character.
The other characters are well-developed too (even the villainous ones[well, mostly</spoiler]), depicted as complex, flawed human beings, with many shades of grey.
The plotting was overall excellent, although did find the endingrather rushed and not well-explained , but I am willing to overlook that because of how much I enjoyed the rest of it.
4.5 stars from me.
The pace is very, very slow, there is a lot of descriptive language and exposition to wade through, and even then, there isn't a whole lot of plot to be found, at least not at first. All these things considered, I can easily see why someone might get frustrated and give up.
But I found Assassin's Apprentice to be an absorbing, riveting, and immersive read - just what a good fantasy should be.
It also delivers in spades when it comes to political intrigue, which I also very much enjoy reading. The story is told from the POV of Fitz, who for
The other characters are well-developed too (even the villainous ones[
The plotting was overall excellent, although did find the ending
4.5 stars from me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Eating disorder, Blood, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, and Death of parent
Minor: Fatphobia, War, Alcoholism, Infidelity, and Xenophobia
lizziaha's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.75
I’m putting my faith in the idea that this book is laying a very strong foundation for the 15 other books. Unfortunately, Fitz is a very lonely child, so the story only really picked up for me in the last quarter of the book, when he began establishing and using his relationships with others. This book has a very straightforward style of writing, which occasionally read as telling instead of showing. It’s a complex book with a lot of moving parts, and you have to explain them sometime, but it did result in somewhat dense chunks of text sometimes. I wasn’t sure at the beginning but I’m definitely curious to see where this goes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, and Abandonment
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Grief, Ableism, Misogyny, Alcohol, Child abuse, and Physical abuse
Minor: Bullying, Infidelity, Infertility, Rape, Death of parent, and Eating disorder
maeverose's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.25
TL;DR:
Not a lot happens in the first half, mostly an introduction to everything and following Fitz as he grows up and trains to be an assassin. Second half tried to do too many different things back to back. I assume setting stuff up for future books but it felt a bit jumbled. Maybe if the beginning had been condensed it could’ve been spread out better. I really like the writing style and world building. I don’t know if I would say the book itself is too long or more so that big books just can’t keep my attention. I was only mildly interested for a lot of this book.
Characters
Characters
So far I’m not that connected to Fitz. To me he felt a little void of personality outside of having a strong moral code, liking animals, and being a teenager. Some of the side characters were much more interesting to me. Mainly Chade, Burrich and the Fool. My favorite character so far is the Fool.
‘The gender of the Fool has been disputed. When directly questioned on this matter by a younger and more forward person than I am now, the Fool replied that it was no one's business but his own.’ — You tell ‘em. (I say, as I’ve decided that he’s transmasc non binary..)
A Note
‘The gender of the Fool has been disputed. When directly questioned on this matter by a younger and more forward person than I am now, the Fool replied that it was no one's business but his own.’ — You tell ‘em. (I say, as I’ve decided that he’s transmasc non binary..)
A Note
For people who haven’t read the book yet: I feel like chapter 15 deserves a bit of a warning. Specifically for telepathic mind rape and suicidal thoughts/attempt. There’s some build up to what happens within that chapter, but it’s much more intense than most of the book leading up to it.
I was gonna include a whole rant about the never corrected ableism but decided I was being over dramatic so I’ll spare you. I just find it annoying that people only ever seem to care about ‘time period accuracy’ (being as this is clearly based on medieval times) when it allows them to treat their marginalized characters poorly. I know this was written 30 years ago but still. It irked me.
I was gonna include a whole rant about the never corrected ableism but decided I was being over dramatic so I’ll spare you. I just find it annoying that people only ever seem to care about ‘time period accuracy’ (being as this is clearly based on medieval times) when it allows them to treat their marginalized characters poorly. I know this was written 30 years ago but still. It irked me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Death, Animal death, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Excrement, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Misogyny
Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Infidelity, and Pregnancy
Graphic: poisoning, telepathic mind rape, mental loss of self (becoming zombie-like), drowning, in one scene a dog is in a lot of pain and distress due to a bone stuck in its throat. Fitz removes it and the dog is fine, but the scene is very graphic. Moderate: self hatred, suicide baiting, eugenics
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