The Farseer

The Farseer is a trilogy which starts off with Assassin's Apprentice. The main character is Fitzchivalry, the illegitimate child of Prince Chivalry of the Six Duchies. In the first book Fitzchivalry is a small child being raised by a stableman loyal to Chivalry. King Shrewd has Fitzchivalry trained as a royal assassin and he finds himself drawn into the intrigues at court and the politics of the land which sometimes call for the aid of a royal assassin... Along with internal strife, barbarians reminiscent of vikings are raiding the coast of the Six Duchies 'forging' the people. Essentially this means that their humanity is taken from them, leaving them as brutal animals.
Fitzchivalry is gifted with magic. Hobb describes these magic abilities in some detail, and I think she uses magic in an interesting way, representing intellect and emotions. Hobb really has created a fantastic story with people you care about. The hero Fitzchivalry is gifted but not invulnerable. He makes mistakes and faces many challenges and continues to mature throughout the story.


The trilogy continues with Royal Assassin and the series is brought to its end with Assassin's Quest. The first two book are similar in that most of the plots take place around Buckkeep, the royal castle. In the third book Fitzchivalry ventures forth on a quest which involves travelling through a large portion of the Six Duchies. On his journey he has to struggle with conflicting loyalties and Hobb continues to explore and develop the magic of her world.


Hobb wraps up the plots nicely enough in Assassin's Quest, but I feel she did hurry to bring the story to a rather abrupt end. This is a very minor quirk though, this is first-rate fantasy. I seldom read the same book several times but I will definitly be reading this series again.
Robin Hobb is a pseudonym for Megan Lindholm.