Hobb, Robin: Assassin's Apprentice

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Comments

[wyyknot]

Good review :)

I enjoyed this trilogy very much, but I haven't continued with this author. No reason - just sidetracked by other books. One of these days I'll get around to reading her Ship books.

[calico_reaction]

Before I read Assassin's Apprentice, emerald_ibis BEGGED me to read the Ship of Destiny trilogy, even if I wasn't sold on this first one, so it must be very, very good. I can't wait. :)

[wyyknot]

That's good to know! I must move it up on my To Be Read list :)

[_fakewings_]

Great review. I agree completely. I went on a big of a Robin Hobb trip during the second half of the summer and I ended up reading four of her books, all of the Farseer books, and the first in the Liveship traders series. I recently acquired the second book in the Liveship series and I'm looking foreward to digging into it. Still, I think The Farseer Trilogy (the Assassin books) will always be my favorite. Your in for a real treat with Royal Assassin (the 2nd book in the trilogy). It's a wonderful, heartbreaking novel.

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I just picked up Royal Assassin today. Should I just go ahead and prepare myself and get the third book as well? :)

[_fakewings_]

You might want to :)

[shadefell]

Part of what I liked about Assassin's Apprentice is that it didn't feel like a first book. If you read the rest of the trilogy, you'll see just how tightly woven the story is (and it's tight in the first book, but there's more, and stuff is picked up and dropped and hidden and picked up again later on) and how deftly Hobb is able to handle multiple plots and weave them together.

Hobb is up there with Scott Lynch for me in creating very REAL worlds that I'd love to play in.

[calico_reaction]

I can understand that, and there's a good reason for it: Robin Hobb is a pseudonym. I don't know what her real name is, but I know that she had previously tried to publish other books with little luck, so she changed her name, started this series, and whammo! Magic! :)

[vierran45]

She published several books as Megan Lindholm, before switching to writing as Robin Hobb. I've only read one of them (Harpy's Flight, but quite liked it and will probably try to get my hands on more the Lindholm books.

[tcastleb]

I think what made it seem dense to me is that she wrote so well that all the words in the paragraph are important, so I actually read them all, so it took me longer than usual to get through it. I just figured that out when I picked up a Holly Lisle book and realized I was skimming paragraphs.

I haven't read the liveship books, though the library has them. The Fool books are a continuation of the Assassin books, all told from Fitz's POV fifteen years later. And if you think the plot is twisty at the beginning, just wait until later. Robin Hobb is also GOH at World Fantasy, so I look forward to meeting her. Mostly I want to ask how much of the books she had planned out beforehand.

[calico_reaction]

So, did reading Hobb and then reading that other book make you realize you skim in general while reading?

It's funny, cause if I hadn't already known you were reading these books, you would've gotten yet ANOTHER recommendation in your lap. :) I kept thinking of you, with the whole Wit and Skill thing. :)

[edroxy]

I enjoyed this trilogy immensely but I haven't taken the time to pick up her other books. I think I've got The Tawny Man trilogy (which resumes Fitz's story) somewhere at my parents'.

Robin Hobb is also known as Megan Lindholm (actually, I believe that is her real name) but apparently what she writes as Lindholm is very different.

By the way, in French, the Farseer trilogy is composed of six books; the Ship trilogy has nine planned (they're not all published yet) and the Tawny Man six as well... that takes a lot of space on shelf... hopefully, I bought those in English ;)

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You're right, I think that is her real name. :)