Assassin’s Quest: Engrossing but too long

Reposting to include Marion’s new review.

Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb

FitzChivalry Farseer’s life keeps getting worse. He has once again barely — and I mean just barely — survived Uncle Regal’s machinations. As Assassin’s Quest, the third book in Robin Hobb’s FARSEER trilogy, opens, Fitz’s situation seems hopeless. Only a couple of people know he still lives and Molly is not one of them. She’s gone, and it seems safest for Fitz to let her live in ignorance.

Meanwhile, Fitz’s uncle Regal has declared himself king in the Six Duchies. He demands exorbitant taxes, has abandoned Buck Town and left Buckkeep in the hands of a foreigner, and has in essence given up the area to the Red Ship Raiders. Not only has Fitz suffered at Regal’s hands, the coastal duchies suffer too.

Once Fitz is standing on his own two feet again, he decides to get revenge for what Regal has done to him personally and to the Six Duchies. But Regal is protected by a coterie of skillers and some rather nasty soldiers. As Fitz tries to hunt down Regal, Prince Verity begins skilling to Fitz and asking for help. Fitz is the only person who knows that Verity still lives, but it’s not long before Regal discovers that both of his worst two enemies, FitzChivalry and Verity Farseer, are alive. Of course, Regal wants to get them before they get him.

Assassin’s Quest takes a while to really get going, and there’s some rehearsal of old events, but I think it had to be that way — Fitz’s recovery must be slow, or it wouldn’t be believable. Hobb puts this time to good use, though. We learn about Burrich’s childhood and grow to love him even more for what he sacrificed for Fitz. Molly also becomes even more admirable as we see her trying to make the most of her unfortunate circumstances.

Once Fitz is able to travel — and there is a lot of traveling — the pace is still slow, but by now the reader is so devoted to FitzChivalry Farseer and his wolf that it feels more like we’re spending time with old friends than trying to get through a novel. Along the way we meet a few new characters, most notably the minstrel Starling and a mysterious old lady, and eventually Fitz falls back in with some characters who we already love and have been missing. Besides the slow pace, which I really didn’t mind too much, my only complaint is that I had a hard time believing that Fitz doesn’t want Molly to know he’s alive. This felt like it was contrived to break my heart, but I must say that it worked.

In the end there is some glory for Fitz and the Six Duchies, but it’s accompanied by much heartache. This isn’t one of those fantasies where everyone lives happily ever after. Readers should know that though this is the end of the FARSEER trilogy, Fitz’s story continues in Robin Hobb’s next trilogy, THE TAWNY MAN. I’ve been listening to Tantor Audio’s excellent version of the FARSEER trilogy.

~Kat Hooper

Recently I read the FARSEER trilogy by Robin Hobb. They’ve been reviewed here at FanLit, so I’m only going to review Assassin’s Quest, the third book and final one in the first trilogy of this very long series.

The protagonist of the trilogy is FitzChivalry, illegitimate son of king-in-waiting Chivalry, oldest son of King Shrewd. Chivalry abdicated. Fitz was raised at Buck Keep on the coast of the Six Duchies by the royal stablemaster, Burrick, and mentored by the king’s poisoner, Chade. King Shrewd’s youngest son, Regal, schemed to betray the Six Duchies to the raiders of the Red Ships, while king-in-waiting Verity used his magical farseeing ability, The Skill, to try to stop the raiders, with limited success. Fitz struggled to fit into the family, and also with his own magic. He could bond with animals, a gift called the Wit, to which the citizens of the duchies reacted with fear and disgust. Fitz can also Skill. At the end of the second book, Regal managed to kill King Shrewd and assumed the throne, since Verity had gone off on a quest to bring back the ancient allies called the Elderlings. Verity’s queen, Kettricken, has fled for her home kingdom, and Fitz is tortured by Regal until he takes poison in his cell and seems to die. Chade and Burrick resurrect him. With his bonded wolf Nighteyes, Fitz sets out to find Verity and bring him and the Elderlings back to Buckland—after a brief detour to kill Regal.

Fitz has a lot on his plate. He must remain “dead” to the populace and especially Regal; he has to fend off the Skilling of Regal’s coterie, while seeking Verity and the Elderlings. He has to travel across rough country in late fall and early winter to find the last place Verity was seen. He has to hide Nighteyes. He must also hide his first love, Molly, and her child from the Skill of Regal and his minions, while letting her think he is dead.

The strength of Assassin’s Quest, and the whole trilogy really, is in the characterizations. We follow Fitz from his memories as a six-year-old, for eleven years as he grows and struggles. Verity is also a complicated, struggling character, as is Burrick, torn between loyalties, wallowing in regrets, and pushing away his own animal-bonding skills. In Assassin’s Quest, we meet Kettle, an old woman on a pilgrimage. At first she seems a lot like Lady Thyme, who we met in Book One, but as the story progresses, we see she is a very different person, with her own regrets, struggles and motivations.

Verity’s queen, Kettricken, has changed since the second book, worn down by grief and failure, still faithful to the memory of her husband. She remains a brave, tough and practical woman. This book also reveals more of Fitz’s third, unofficial mentor, the Fool.

As well as rounded and complicated characters, Hobb introduces us into a real world with a real history, with alliances that are shaky and cultural memory that is dark. She does this in large part through sections that open each long chapter. These are written by future-Fitz, as part of his desire to create a complete history of the Six Duchies. More on this later—while the sections were interesting, they created an unfortunate structural problem.

For me, there were three serious problems with the book, which did affect my enjoyment. The first one is simply that this book, of all of them, was simply too long. I realize that for people who love epic fantasy, this is a feature, not a bug. For me it was a bug. Furthermore, the fact that all the action and resolutions happen in the final 25 pages of the 800+ page book was another bug. The repetitions of Fitz’s thoughts and conversations, while they create realism, did not enhance my reading experience. Once the secret of the Elderlings is revealed and King Verity returns, Hobb races through the clean-up with the air of someone brushing off their hands and saying, “Finally, done and dusted.”

The other structural problem is those historical sections. Often, future-Fitz shares insights or information that present-tense Fitz doesn’t know. When present-tense Fitz misses the clues, he starts looking stupid. Since first-person Fitz has a tendency to miss the obvious at the best of times (Exhibit A, every single thing with his first love, Molly), he really doesn’t need these books to make him look stupider, especially because he is not a stupid character.

Another thing Hobb did well—Nighteyes, the wolf. I’m not convinced Fitz’s animal companion is an authentic wolf (throughout the trilogy, Hobb takes pains to show that the Wit bond, or the Old Blood as it is also known, changes both partners in the bond); but, Nighteyes is an excellent canine. Hobb has paid attention to dogs in her life, and she nails Nighteyes’s gestures. I found his wolf-thoughts plausible. Nighteyes has small patience with Fitz’s angst-fests, and neither did I.

I didn’t adore my introduction to the world of Hobb, but I liked it enough that I’ve ordered the first book in the next trilogy, THE TAWNY MAN.

~Marion Deeds