Rating: 
Summary: A FANTASTIC & unconventional new fantasy
Review: This is the gripping premier of a thoughtful and original new trilogy! I picked this book up based on the fantastic cover art by Michael Whelan. After reading the back cover, I wasn't certain, but I decided to put down the five bucks or so to buy the mass market paperback. Boy, am I glad I did! I bought the second volume in trade, and was waiting at the bookstore for the third volume in hardcover.Robin Hobb is wonderfully original, and her characterization is fantastic! You never catch her characters doing anything that makes you say, "Wait a minute, he wouldn't do that! He's just not like that!" They are flawed characters, some of them tragic, some of them flawed by the very virtues they embody. Fitz is a stubborn, willful boy, but he is also a very likeable boy. The Fool is a mystery, always speaking in riddles that sometimes seem wise and sometimes seem like nonsense. Chade is dark, but also a sort of father-figure to Fitz, as is Burrich. The narrative is well-paced, the prose comfortable. The characters are drawn with wonderful attention to detail and stay true to themselves. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Hobb isn't actually as new to writing as you may think...Robin Hobb is a pen name for Megan Lindholm, so you might want to check out her other books, too!
Rating: 
Summary: A tale of duty, sacrifice and injustice
Review: I am writing this review because I found this trilogy impossible to put down but emotionally draining. This was the kind of story that grabs your guts as well as your mind. If you have read Haldeman's "All My Sins Remembered", you know what I mean. After I finished the last Assassin book I spent hours trying to sort out my feelings. It hit me that hard. After I read the first book I told my wife she might like to read it. Now, I don't think so. This story isn't light entertainment, its something you experience. If you want a black and white hero story, go elsewhere. If you want a story that can pull you in, wring you out, and leave you feeling like you have really been through something, then read this. This is good, strong stuff. If it makes you a little sick, don't say I didn't warn you. I will mention that the book, being a narrative from the point of view of main character, flows much better than the typical multi-party fantasy novel that has to hop from person to person to keep things synchronized. The flow is so strong I literally had difficulty putting the books down, stealing any spare minute I could to read just one more page. Thank goodness it was only a trilogy - I wasn't getting near enough sleep.
Rating:
Summary: Fantasy novel for the uninitiated
Review: I do not read fantasy. That was always my brother's realm. But a friend encouraged me to pick up this trilogy and I always like to read my friends' recommendations. I read all three of these books in a week. The characters were interesting and well developed and the story kept branching further and further. Hobb does not always give the reader what they want, plot-wise, but in the end she has created a better story for it.
Rating:
Summary: A hypnotic tale
Review: Hobb is different from the other fantasy writers, who tell you who is the good guy, who is the bad and jumps into the action within the first page. He makes you think, through his portrayal of the characters as a well-rounded person, with strengths and weaknesses. Then he makes you think about whether those qualities and the circumstances he is in, makes the characters a good guy or a bad one... or both?? Fitz Chivalry is not a hero. He is an anti-hero. He was abandoned when he's young, with a wild talent in his head, impatient, brash and trained into a cold-blooded (or not quite so cold-blooded)assassin. How is he going to win his struggle against what fate has spelt out for him? Is that all there is to his life or is there more ... such as another life, adventure, or creature waiting for his arrival. I couldn't stop once I started reading it. Hobb not only puts characters into a different perspective, showing us much more reality than we have encountered in other books, but also draws a more hypnotic, mystic tale about dragons. Read for yourself to find what lies beneath...
Rating:
Summary: Vividly clear and lucid writing at its best
Review: Robin Hobb says in few words what takes many authors several pages to acheive. This, the first book in the amazing Farseer series is lush with description and enticing characters. Hobb is successful in describing each scenerio in as few words as possible, while giving them a brilliant clarity and connection to the reader. It was if I was watching the book unfurl on a movie screen. Truely brilliant. The story of Fitz, the "flawed hero" is wrought with troublesome situations and court intrigues, but doesn't get bogged down in the minutia of other similar stories. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy novels, or anyone who likes to see a curious display of the human character.
Rating:
Summary: Solid read
Review: Assassin's Apprentice is fairly straightforward for the fantasy genre. We have a common boy thrust into an important role with whom the reader can relate and political intrigue (clouding the overt evil presence) that is left unclear at the end of the novel, thus leading into the others in the series. But Hobb does a good job of keeping the characters interesting and the plot moving along without depending on gruesome battle sequences. The first-person narrative voice also allows the reader to immediately relate to Fitz. The best element of the book is perhaps the strong sense of world-building. Despite its 400+ pages AA leaves many items touched-upon but not fully developed, such as exactly how the magics are related and work; the history of the Outislanders and the people of the Six Duchies; the role and past of Fitz' teacher Chade. By being not fully developed I mean the book / world has a feeling of reality and "bigness" rather than a feeling of being unfinished. Finally, the whole concept of becoming an assassin is inventive. So this is definitely NOT a book that falls into boring genre trappings. After I finished AA my wife asked me if I would recommend it. The book was not quite good enough to merit an UNSOLICITED recommendation. But if someone were interested in reading Hobb but uncertain I definitely recommend this. Of course, if the rest of the series improves or worsens that could alter the previous statements... we'll see in a few weeks.
Rating: 
Summary: Hobb must have been paid by the word
Review: Do not read this book. This starts as a somewhat charming story about a royal bastard who is disliked and used by everyone. However, it is almost impossible to like the main character. He does nothing but whine for the entire trilogy except when he is bonded with a wolf. The actual story was OK, I just wish he had left out all that stuff about dragons in the last book. The entire trilogy consumed around 1700 pages in all--Oh what I would have given for an editor's pencil. At one point in book III, the author takes 6 pages to describe a group of questors climb over a rock slide in their path. This scene didn't advance the story line, it was just there. By the time I slogged through all three books, I was so tired of the author's verbosity that I couldn't wait for it to end.
Rating:
Summary: Original, and exciting in many ways.
Review: I must admit I expected much from this book based on the reviews I've read here, and I wasn't dissapointed. A story of a prince rising into glory (not in this volume yet) and saves the day isn't new and far from original. However, the apprenticeship of "Fitz" ,as he is called, to an Assasin is original and opens massive doors of possibilities in the plot. I usually try to figure out what will happen next in the stories I read. In fantasy, it is easy to predict the future of the protagonist, not in this book though. I had a hard time trying to predict what will happen just to be suprised by something totally unexpected. Moreover, the author gets you to love the main characters. The first person view of the narrator is also another feature that I rarely see in fantasy books (other than Glen Cook that is). Overall, I found this book to be enjoyable and hard to put down, if not for my human impulses to sleep, I would've went through day and night to finish this book.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Incredible
Review: My title really says it all. I was completely engrossed in this series fromt he first page. Characters are rich and detailed and Hobb is wonderful at creating intense drama and suspense throughout the trilogy that kept me on the edge of my seat. Thouroughly engrossing, detailed, lively and above all very human. Hobb now stands out on my list of favorite writers.
Rating:
Summary: Epic fantasy at its best
Review: This book is one of my favorites. Robin Hobb has a great talent of taking her characters and making them real, making her plots lifelike. She begins to exercise this in "Assassin's Apprentice". Not all of Fitz's plans work the way they're supposed to--in fact, very few of them do. Such is life. That's what's so great about Robin Hobb. I could expect any of the things in this book to be real. An engrossing book, original, and lifelike. But beware, those of you who plan to read on: it gets dark.
| 
