Rating: Summary: blah. Review: The plot makes this trilogy work, sort of...until the end, a clumsy ham-fisted end.But, the worst aspect of this trilogy is Fitz, as with most male protagonists written by a woman, he is completely unbelievable!!!! He belittles himself for his rashness but all I ever see is his indecision. He has gifts he does not hone. He nit-picks as his mistakes. He has enemies that he allows to fester. He has motives that's explanations go past all rational reasoning. He has loved ones that he cannot honestly express himself too....and this is a guy who is an Assassin and a king's man? He's a futz. He learns nothing. He has no philosophy, no moral...except you live, you futz, you die. How can he devote such loyalty but doubt it so? A Regal perspective should of have been much more interesting. Let me take a breath.... Also the overall mood of the novels is wallowing. 1600 pages of misery, it's quite tiring. The same devices are rehashed across all 3 books (and many times in each): indecision, physical abuse and recovery, wit, skill, the lost of molly. After he lost Molly in the 1st, 2nd books I would think Hood could move on. Nope. I read the "The Curse of Chalion" right before I read this, it a much less mind-numbing read. I hope Bujold doesn't make a trilogy out of it.
Rating: Summary: Bittersweet Review: You know, I never quite understood the concept of "bittersweet" before. It was too hard to think of two contradictory things existing together, yet there is no better word to describe the finale to the Farseer trilogy. In Assassin's Quest, we finally get some answers that have been floating in the air in the last two books. We don't get ALL the answers however but we do get enough of them that the ending is satisfying. We get a much better picture of The Fool, and surprisingly, we get a much better understanding of Regal. I think that with each book, I grow to love the characters more and more. Especially Verity and Kettricken. It is indeed a talent for Hobb to take a character, make them full of the faults of humanity, yet make them so beloved. I also repsect her decisions with the plot of the novel. She stays clear of the proscribed fairy tale endings which give this story a wonderful depth. This is speculative fiction at it's best. I refuse to leave Fitz and the Six Duchies. Thank goodness for the Tawny man series. :-)
Rating: Summary: Satisfying conclusion to a confident series Review: In _Assassin's Quest_, Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy rolls to a compelling, if overlong, climax. Like the previous two volumes, a slow start gradually gives way to a gripping tale that is near-impossible to put down. The start is slower than ever here, however, and the book's rather inflated page-count seems to be more given over to detail and colour than narrative; much of it feels like a re-treading of old ground. In particular, the early section, on Fitz's recovery and his repeated descents into Wit 'addiction', feels cumbersome and several chapters too long. We've seen Fitz struggle through long convalescences before; Hobb has analysed Fitz's relationship with Burrich, with Molly, with Nighteyes, etc. at length elsewhere. If the prose were not so readable I'm not sure I'd have persisted past the opening 200 or so pages. Once the new material gets going, though, this is a conclusion well worth the effort. The various plot-strands and themes of the trilogy reach a satisfying and entertaining pay-off, and the new characters who join in the ride add an interesting (and vital) new dynamic to the tale. Well-written fantasy from a formidable imagination, that suffers only from that perennial fantasy pitfall: absorption in its world at the expense, at times, of the story's pace. Recommended, nonetheless, as a superior example of its type.
Rating: Summary: Assassin's Quest Review: Though I still found this to be good, solid character-driven fantasy, I thought it was the weakest of the trilogy. The book was too long, with the Old Blood element in particular seeming irrelevant. Perhaps because of authorial exhaustion, the end -- the climax readers had been waiting for -- was rushed and skipped-over, told in a distant POV rather than as the events took place. And the conclusion was unsatisfying. We've already seen Fitz as a scarred hermit in the woods. To have him end up in that state once again seems circular rather than progressive. The bittersweet quality of the end didn't bother me, but the "back to square one" feeling did. However, the book still has strengths, especially in the characters and the suffering the author puts them through. Throughout the series the worldbuilding, while not a work of genius, is solid, and the sentence-level writing is effective in a workmanlike way. Having read this series, I intend to seek out more of the author's work. All comments are reader reaction only. Though I am widely read, educated and hope to be a professionally published writer someday, I am not an editorial professional.
Rating: Summary: A Little Disappointing Review: This series came highly recommended to me from friends. I enjoyed the first two books of the series as they both worked towards a climax, and delivered. For the third and final book (this one), I anticipated an intriguing plotline that would capture the essence of the characters, placing them in situations which would test their development. This, of course, did occur - but I found the climax to the trilogy unsatisfying. The story unfolded slowly allowing characters to be developed. The characters were tested in the end, but I felt there wasn't enough political intrigue - unlike the first two books - to truly make this series great. In other words, it just wasn't clever enough. I also felt the end of the Red Ship war didn't receive enough treatment, especially considering this was the threat to the Six Duchies, and that the quest was based on eliminating the Red Ships. Robin Hobb is a good writer and I definitely will read her future books in the hope of something special.
Rating: Summary: Good read but an abrupt ending Review: This is the third of the Farseer trilogy. Hobb continues to write a gripping tale that is rich with human emotion and intrigue. The exploration of the source(s) of magic are deeper and more confusing in this book. And it is still a very novel approach to magic. My big complaint with this series is the suddeness with which it ends (and it's not much of a complaint since I still gave the book four stars). After 2 6/7 long books of personal soul-searching, political infighting and family jealousies, everything is resolved in less than 100 pages. The solution with Regal is particularly abrupt. It all fits neatly together, but the ending doesn't have the rich detail that the rest of the series had which left me with a very anticlimactic feeling.
Rating: Summary: Excellent end to a great series Review: I very much enjoyed this series. The hero, Fitz, was original and believable. I read the series faster than I have any book in the last year, easily. The ending of the series was sad in many ways, but would have been sadder if Hobb had taken the easy way out and pasted a happy ending on poor Fitz's journeys. I am actually hoping things come together for him a bit more in the Tawny Man series, but I can't read that one until the last book comes out (too hard to wait to see the ending).
Rating: Summary: Pretty Far Fetched Ending and the Plot Got Away Review: I like the series but the ending didn't do it justice. The plot seems to have gotten away from Hobbs on this one and I think she just missed the boat. This kind of turned into one of those David Eddings "travel" stories where all of the tale is told over a series of long journeys. And that type of a story is over done and boring. The very end was pretty cool, a tad bit far-fetched, really far fetched actually, but it worked somehow. I think that a better resolution could have been written in a lot fewer words. We already loved the characters, we already love the plot, you don't need to re-endeer them to us with lots of meeningless dialogue.
Rating: Summary: Could be a good read... Review: The first book succeeded in establishing an interesting, engaging world. The characters were also very real. Unfortunately, for me, the second and third book in the trilogy fell far short of being considered enjoyable. My biggest complaint about the trilogy was that the main character, Fitz, although not a coward, was certainly not a hero. Through all his failures, I still kept hope that in the end he would succeed. It wasn't a decisive failure in the end from a sword blow, but an emotional one where everything Fitz once held dear was gone, and he simply had not the heart to move on. Though the end was real and believable, and no loose ends were left, it was certainly not satisfying. Would I recommend the trilogy? That all depends on the person. If the reader can enjoy an emotionally-wrenching and depressing story, the Farseer trilogy is a good story. However, personally I did not enjoy the read because after finishing the series, I was left with the same hollow heart as Fitz.
Rating: Summary: Worst of its kind Review: Most fantasy books can be described as someone lights and raises a torch in the darkness. Different books, different amount and kind of light. But your spirit soars, because there is light in the darkness so you feel good after reading the book. With the Farseer trilogy, there is only darkness in the dark and I felt miserable after reading the books. I am happy only because other people thinks these are good, so I was able to get rid of them.
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