This book started off slowly while Robin Hobb built the world in which this trilogy will take place. Once the story got going though, I did not want to put it down. Looking forward to reading the next book in the trilogy. ( )

Assassin's Apprentice isn't doing anything incredibly new, but what it does do it does with such a high level of craft and emotional resonance that it feels new anyways. Be prepared for pain! Born out of wedlock and growing up without parents, Fitz knows from a young age that the odds are stacked against him. Most people see him as a tool at best and an obstacle at worst. He has to fight for every ounce of respect he gets; and no matter how hard he tries, he is always plagued by feelings of loneliness and powerlessness, finding himself unable to protect the people he loves or imagine a happy future for himself. He fails, and his failures have tragic consequences. There are points where it feels like Fitz is totally alone, like he has somehow lost everything that ever made his life good and faces a kind of hopelessness from which he will never escape.

However, perhaps the world is not ultimately a hopeless place. Maybe things can get better. Sickness can be healed; mistakes can be forgiven; relationships can be mended. Fitz's ability to turn away from desolation before it consumes him, to continue through hopelessness, keeps him and the reader afloat. There are moments of joy. Fitz does get stronger and smarter over time; and he does find people that he can see him, at least in part, for who he really is, and care about that version of him. It makes you think--maybe there is hope for the future.

Among all the darker aspects of childhood, one thing the novel does a particularly good job of depicting is the challenges children face in their relationships with authority figures. By virtue of his low status as court, Fitz has few friends his age. The most important relationships in his life are with mentors--adults like his father's groom Burrich, the assassin Chade, and cruel Skillmaster Galen who attempt to organize Fitz's life and cultivate him into the kind of man they want him to be, and use their age, rank, and expertise to justify doing so. Fitz is aware of all the ways that these mentors don't completely understand him as a person, but he can't help wanting to earn their love and affection. He can't stop wanting to become the person they tell him he should be, and trying to see the world in the way that they see it--for good or for ill. They don't just tell him what to do, they change who he is as a person. That's what childhood is to me--the unacknowledged gulf between a child and an adult with authority over them, and the pain of looking across it and seeing how far apart you are. That's what Fitz has to confront as he tries to develop a new understanding of himself, not long to be a child. ( )

"Non fare ciò che non puoi disfare, fino a quando non avrai considerato ciò che non puoi fare una volta che lo hai fatto." ( )

regno dei 6 ducati
gioventu di Fitz
Arte/Spirito ( )

Recently I heard some reviews stating this as a modern classic of fantasy; after finishing the book, I cannot help but agree. Fitz is a brilliant character, with much nuance in his personality and ethics, and the reader becomes completely sympathetic to his struggles. His relationships to other characters, both positive and negative, are both deep and believable; the cast throughout the whole book are well-constructed, and characters both male and female are deep and well-written. The book's descriptions are lavish and beautiful, without bogging down the story; the dialogue is well-written with clear subtext and intent behind every word; the magic system is innovative and fundamentally intriguing, a novel take I've never seen before. The plot itself is brilliant, full of depth and politicking without reaching the absurd complexity of the ASOIAF political layout, and I found myself hooked throughout. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, and will be reading the rest of the trilogy in future. ( )