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thewlisian_aferReviewed at the request of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nocebo_response:
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
Assassin's Apprentice is the first book in Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, which is a satisfyingly grey-scale fantasy series about a boy who is the bastard son of royalty. It's a good first novel for the series, I think, because it leaves off in such a way that if you liked the book you'll be looking forward to the second one, but if you didn't like it, you won't feel obligated to keep reading the rest of the story.
Fantasy is, in my opinion, one of the hardest genres to write. It's so easy to make things black-and-white or to let your message get heavy-handed. When magic is involved (and it definitely is in this series) it takes so little for it to become too much, for it to be the perfect answer to everything because there are no rules. Robin Hobb avoids all of this and offers an interesting story with deeply human characters that the reader can identify with (or not) and come to love (or hate).
The royal characters' names are annoying at first because they describe the people attached to them -- Shrewd, Regal, Verity, Chivalry, etc. But when you actually start to get to know the characters, you begin to see how these seemingly positive traits actually have a darker side to them. Really interesting stuff.
nocebo_response:Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
Assassin's Apprentice is the first book in Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, which is a satisfyingly grey-scale fantasy series about a boy who is the bastard son of royalty. It's a good first novel for the series, I think, because it leaves off in such a way that if you liked the book you'll be looking forward to the second one, but if you didn't like it, you won't feel obligated to keep reading the rest of the story.
Fantasy is, in my opinion, one of the hardest genres to write. It's so easy to make things black-and-white or to let your message get heavy-handed. When magic is involved (and it definitely is in this series) it takes so little for it to become too much, for it to be the perfect answer to everything because there are no rules. Robin Hobb avoids all of this and offers an interesting story with deeply human characters that the reader can identify with (or not) and come to love (or hate).
The royal characters' names are annoying at first because they describe the people attached to them -- Shrewd, Regal, Verity, Chivalry, etc. But when you actually start to get to know the characters, you begin to see how these seemingly positive traits actually have a darker side to them. Really interesting stuff.
