Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.
So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin
The first book in the Farseer trilogy was a pleasant surprise for me because before reading it (or listening in this case) I thought it was just another young adult fantasy book that I always avoid, but I saw many great reviews about Hobb's writing and decided to try the audiobook.
While I thought it wasn't a mind blowing fantasy book, I can tell that the praises for Hobb's writing are well deserved. The world of the Six Duchies was awesome, seemingly simple at first but intriguing enough to keep me reading and trying to know more about it.
What I enjoyed the most was the protagonist. Fitz was a great character and since this is a sort of coming of age story of a bastard trained to be used as a political tool by his king I connected with him immediately and "suffered" with him all the ordeals he goes through while growing up.
The other characters were pretty awesome too, we get to know them better through Fitz point of view and even though you find the typical secondary characters such as the fatherly figure, the bad guy, the grumpy instructor, etc. I didn't find them annoying or unoriginal at all.
On the other hand I have to say that this book reads like a long introduction: there is a lot of set up, world building and character development, so be prepared for it.
While I thought it wasn't a mind blowing fantasy book, I can tell that the praises for Hobb's writing are well deserved. The world of the Six Duchies was awesome, seemingly simple at first but intriguing enough to keep me reading and trying to know more about it.
What I enjoyed the most was the protagonist. Fitz was a great character and since this is a sort of coming of age story of a bastard trained to be used as a political tool by his king I connected with him immediately and "suffered" with him all the ordeals he goes through while growing up.
The other characters were pretty awesome too, we get to know them better through Fitz point of view and even though you find the typical secondary characters such as the fatherly figure, the bad guy, the grumpy instructor, etc. I didn't find them annoying or unoriginal at all.
On the other hand I have to say that this book reads like a long introduction: there is a lot of set up, world building and character development, so be prepared for it.
I thought that the way Hobb introduces us into the world of the Six Duchies was fantastic because each chapter begins with a short excerpt of ancient legends or back stories for some characters, this make it easier for the reader to understand how the magic and other aspects of the Realm of the Elderlings (the world where this stories take place).
I usually love this kind of "introductory books" but in this case the ending was a bit predictable in my opinion because there weren't many significant plot twists.
My opinion about the audiobook: it was fantastic, one of the best audiobooks I have listened so far. Paul Boehmer does an awesome job portraying the different voices in a very convincing way, his narration is top notch.
The only drawback I found was that at the start of each chapter there are some texts that tell legends of the Six Duchies and he didn't pause to give me an idea that it wasn't the main text, this was a minor inconvenience during the first few chapters but stopped being a problem as I became accustomed to his narration.
Rating 6/10: Despite the negative aspects I thought it was a good (not excellent) fantasy book. The world of the Six Duchies is pretty cool and some mysteries like the Red Ship Raiders (the bad guys in this universe) left me wanting to read more about Fitz's adventures.
