FITZ OF FURY

FitzChivalry Farseer is fighting mad. Bastard grandson to the old king, and apprenticed in his youth to the court assassin, he now finds himself separated by his dangerous trade from the woman he loves and the child he will never know. His mentor, Verity, the King-in-Waiting (and uncle by blood) is possibly dead on a desperate quest of his own, and Fitz, can only watch as their kingdom is ravaged by ferocious Sea Raiders after being abandoned by the usurper king, Prince Regal.

In Assassin’s Quest, the final installment of Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy, Fitz has only one goal left in his shattered life — to find and kill the contemptible Regal, who has destroyed Fitz's own life, before Regal's negligence and conniving can destroy the entire realm.

From the opening sequence of Fitz reluctantly detaching himself from the freedom and relative simplicity of life as a wolf, courtesy of his link to his bond animal, Nighteyes, to the arduous journey through the mountains, always trying to stay one step ahead of Regal's thugs (not always successfully) in search of Verity, who calls irresistibly to Fitz through telepathy called The Skill, this page-turner sucks you in like the vortex of a tornado.

Fitz and Nighteyes' companions include an ancient woman who seems to know a lot about The Skill, an often troublesome minstrel who tags along determined to fashion a heroic ballad from Fitz's adventures that will make her fortune, and Verity's intrepid bride, Queen Kettricken of the mountain kingdom. Diverse as they are, they strive to work together as a unit. Or as Nighteyes exults, "We are pack!"

Also along for the ride is the latest iteration of the oft-evolving Fool; not quite as "colorless" as before, but just as sharp-tongued, enigmatic, insightful and compassionate. Referred to by some as a White Prophet, the Fool was the first to nickname Fitz as "Catalyst" (to Fitz's great annoyance), while Nighteyes sometimes calls him "Changer."

One of Fitz's few pleasures (but just one of many for the reader) is the immediate and easygoing alliance that develops between his two closest friends, Fool and Nighteyes. The wolf calls Fool "the Scentless One."

This only highlights intriguing questions hinted at about the Fool's age, origin, species (perhaps not exactly human) and gender. Which, having already read the next trilogy in Hobb's ouevre, The Liveship Traders, opens up to me a whole new raft of possibilities around one of the principal characters in those books.

Hobb is an Equal Opportunity storyteller: Guards, warriors, Skillmasters, armorers, artisans, all are as likely to be female as male. Hobb herself is a master weaver, embroidering rich details into her massive and complex tapestry — each trilogy from a different point of reference and a different region, but all part of the same engrossing world.

Hobb Fan Alert:  25 years after the release of Assassin's Apprentice, all three books in the Farseer Trilogy have just come out in matching hardcover editions — illustrated, yet! Launch date was October 1st. In stores as we speak!

These are the three Anniversary Edition covers. Pretty cool huh? Click here to see what Hobb has to say about it!

SATURATED FITZ

Coming of age finds FitzChivalry Farseer increasingly drenched in two glamorous and dangerous forms of magic.

As the trajectory of his story continues in Royal Assassin, Robin Hobb's second installment of the Farseer Trilogy (after Assassin's Apprentice), Fitz, bastard son of the old king, must learn to manage the gifts he's inherited (legitimately, or not) from his royal Farseer bloodline.

Through The Wit, publicly condemned as "Beast magic," he is so attuned to animals, he can share their thoughts, feelings, pain, and adventures.

Far more sophisticated, and potentially more treacherous is The Skill, a sort of Vulcan mind meld (but no physical contact required) by which a Skillmaster can enter the minds of friends and foes alike, flinging powerful support to allies in danger, or confusing the minds and distorting the actions of enemies.

Having failed Skill training as a youth, Fitz's powers are random and unpredictable — but increasingly potent.

The character of the mysterious Fool grows more intriguing here, as his friendship with Fitz deepens — and his cryptic prophecies become more pointed.

But the key relationship in this book is Fitz's bond with Nighteyes, a wild wolf pup he rescues from the cage of an unsavory animal vendor.

The perils of The Wit — that the human soul might be tempted to untether itself and be literally carried away by its wild bond animal — is explored from every possible angle and leads to a gripping, literally death-defying finale that will have you racing for the finish line — even as your inner reader screams that she doesn't want the book to end yet!

Like any junkie, the minute I finished this book, I groped immediately for the next injection — oops, installment — to find out what happens next. It does not disappoint.

Btw, just because I'm coming so late to this series doesn't mean that zillions of others have not already fully embraced Hobb's fabulous books. Here is one of the more interesting alternative covers I found online.

I don't know where it comes from; there was no attribution, and my knowledge of the Slavic-seeming title (Polish? Czech?) is, well, nonexistent. Anybody recognize it? But one thing seems certain: Hobb's  popularity is global!