Robin Hobb - The Farseer Trilogy (Book Review)

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"Farseer Trilogy" by Robin Hobb
Book One: "Assassin's Apprentice" (Amazon: US, UK); paperback, 464 pages; Spectra/Voyager (1996)
Book Two: "Royal Assassin" (Amazon: US, UK); paperback, 675 pages; Spectra/Voyager (1997)
Book Three: "Assassin's Quest" (Amazon: US, UK); paperback, 757 pages; Spectra/Voyager (1998)

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''The Farseer Trilogy'' is not the newest thing on the fantasy fiction scene anymore. I was aware of Robin Hobb's reputation long before I've actually picked something of hers up to read, and when I finally did, it was the 2nd trilogy (''The Liveship Traders Trilogy'') I decided to start with. I was advised that it is the best of her three thematically connected trilogies, and also that it has less in common with the preceding and the following trilogy. I've now finally read ''The Farseer Trilogy'' and while the latter statement is true, I found out that I cannot really agree with the former.

First thing I've noticed (and liked) is that Hobb focused on a single POV. That is the main reason why I could say I prefer ''The Farseer Trilogy'' to ''The Liveship Traders Trilogy'' – Fitz is a delightful character who, despite his often whining, never really annoyed me as much as, for example, Malta Vestrit in Liveship Traders did. A lone POV also means a smoothly flowing storyline – there are no annoying cliff-hangers that tempt you to skip the next few pages (I know some people enjoy cliff-hangers, but I don’t like them at all!), neither you prefer one POV to another (which can easily happen when there's plenty of them). On the other hand, a lone POV can easily get you bored and offers much less variety of opinions and, well, points of view.

Fitz's problems are that he's rather prone to wild underestimations of himself, whining and acting recklessly (killing your enemy's aides in the middle of the hall, which is, at the same time, packed with people, is a no-go, even if you are not an assassin, bred for discretion and so on). He also conjures up some profoundly illogical ideas, and I've never seen an assassin so trustful and so disdainful of taking at least a basic degree of security measures. However, he's only human after all, and a very troubled one on top of that, so these mistakes of his can be forgiven.

'Wit' and 'Skill' are two concepts that both play an essential role in this trilogy, being two crucial elements of Hobb's world-building and the closest thing to magic that can be found in the books. 'Skill' is a way of mind-reading or better, information-sharing, which runs in the royal family of Farseers and is used mostly to aid the ruling monarch, as a way of communication between him and his spies, generals, messengers and other Skilled individuals. 'Wit', on the other hand, is rumoured to be a remnant of the people who originally inhabited Six Duchies territory – it’s an ability to bond with animals, sharing thoughts, feelings and senses with the beast you bond to, and is in Six Duchies widely regarded as barbaric and abominable. Both Wit and Skill are well explained in the books, making a fairly fresh and innovative take on the matter of magic in comparison to other books where exceptional and unusual abilities are rarely explained and often seem to originate from nowhere.

"The Farseer Trilogy" books otherwise follow the usual pattern of trilogies. "Assassin’s Apprentice", the first book, introduces Fitz, his childhood and his first experiences with Wit and Skill, not to mention that it opens more than a few questions which are, of course, mostly left unanswered right up to the end of the trilogy. It also sets the scene for things to come and introduces some important elements such as Fitz’s first love and his relations with other people inside Buckkeep. The second book, "Royal Assassin", answers no questions but complicates things some more; it is also more action-packed than the first one. We witness battles against Red Ship Raiders (and, later on, the threat from Fitz’s other enemies) as well as Fitz’s internal struggles; the style flows smoothly between inner emotions and exterior action. The plot is intriguing, but at the same time woven through with some very predictable elements, for example, Rosemary’s role in the course of events. Hobb makes up for that with some quite unexpected twists and turns, but there are also some pieces of information that seem to be left forgotten – for example, Fitz’s weapon of choice is supposed to be an axe, but he only uses it once or twice (Hobb remembers that axe in "The Tawny Man Trilogy", though).

The majority of questions (including an explanation for the Forging) that are introduced in the opening volume are answered in the third book, "Assassin’s Quest". There are two exceptions, though: how come that Starling never wrote a song about Fitz? And why we had to wait so long for the chipmunk to complete his task? (The first of these is actually answered in "The Tawny Man Trilogy", as I later found out, but there is still no answer to the latter one.) Fitz also has a very uncanny (and unlikely) ability to survive in just about every situation, not to mention his sudden mastery of Skill, but this is not really as bothersome as the boring walk through the woods and snow we encounter in the second half of "Assassin’s Quest". I think that was the only part of the three lengthy books that felt a lot long-winded, but luckily, that little misstep lead to a very fulfilling ending that met my expectations and concluded the trilogy nicely.

All in all, "The Farseer Trilogy" is a beautifully written and intriguing read. I’d recommend it as one of the must-reads for epic fantasy fans and fantasy readers in general. Don’t expect an all-time classic, though - it’s a great book and mostly a joy to read, but because of the flaws mentioned above, falls a bit short of masterpiece.
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