Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb. Published in 1996 by Spectra Books.

Summary

The bastard son of the ‘King-in-waiting’ becomes the catalyst for change within the kingdom after his father abdicates his position and the palace power-dynamics begin to shift. The young boy is brought up under the shelter of Prince Chivalry’s former stablemaster, though his true purpose in remaining at court is to be apprenticed to the King’s assassin. Gifted with an animal-communing ability and an uncanny knack for getting noticed by the wrong people in power, the bastard known only as ‘boy’ to most, and ‘Fitz’ to his gaurdian, grows to maturity as dark shadows begin to loom.

First, the coastal villages begin to fall prey to terrifying raiders who pillage senselessly, never taking for themselves, but only as a means of destroying and disheartening the folk they prey upon. Then there comes the first Forging—when a whole village of folk are kidnapped and then returned changed, all their human decency drained from them until they are more ferocious and fey than a wild animal. The kingdom grows weaker as more and more of its people fall prey to Forgings, and the King appears to be doing nothing more than levying heavy taxes to hire soldiers who have little effect against the swift, relentless raiders. Last of all, Fitz’s absent father is killed in an ‘accident’.

In a race against the fair spring weather which brings the enemy ships, Fitz and the new King-in-waiting make personal sacrifices, navigate swirling palace intrigue, and discover deep treachery as they seek a means of surviving the kingdom’s hovering threats.

Themes

There were two main themes to this moving first installment of a three-book series—Identity and Companionship. The theme of identity was the stronger, and was mainly fleshed out by the main character’s own search for meaning to his existence, as well as his struggle with the fact of his bastardy. Fitz goes for most of the beginning chapters without a true name. People call him ‘boy’ if they are kind and ‘bastard’ if they are not; village children who play with him call him ‘new boy’. His guardian calls him by Fitz, more like one would call a pet by a nickname, not truly as an act of naming. It was, after all, not anyone’s place to give the bastard a name when his own parents had not.

Fitz spends the majority of the book searching for himself. Why did his existence drive his father away from the throne? Why do people hate him for no reason other than his parentage? Why did his father not take him in, or more directly cast him aside, instead of providing for him from a distance?

Fitz also struggles with his identity through the exploration of his gifts and talents. He has an ability of speaking with animals, which his guardian says is sub-human, dangerous, and forbidden. But Fitz can’t fully let go of that piece of himself. He also is talented with scribe-work, but because of his bastard lineage and his royal parentage, he is told he cannot apprentice to the scribe because as soon as he left the palace he would be assassinated by his father’s enemies. His freedom is an illusion. He learns the skills of an assassin, but when he begins to go on missions for his King his loyalty and values are consistently tested. Is he a killer? Or does being a King’s man mean something more?

His romantic relationship with a village girl is another facet of his coming to understand himself. There is something he learns from her about how privileged his life is, and yet she has far more prospects, despite her drunken father’s debts and her own illiteracy, because she is not a bastard and a potential threat to the royal line. This girl, Molly, also fleshes out the second theme of the novel, the theme of companionship. In many ways, Molly reveals Fitz’s loneliness. She is a close friend, but even she knows nothing of him being an assassin, and she can’t begin to understand his beast-sense or what it’s like to be educated but not free to come and go as one wishes. When he realizes his own romantic feelings for her, he’s unable to grasp whether she feels the same, or how to proceed in their relationship.

Because of his beast-sense, Fitz’s other companions are most often dogs. These companions are able to understand and befriend him in the uncomplicated way he is missing out on with humans. His first puppy companion, Nosy, is like his shadow. They share sensory information, even pain and hunger, until Fitz’s guardian discovers their connection and puts a stop to it. The loss of Nosy underscores how truly companion-less Fitz is without his dog. He fears and respects his guardian, but has no love for him. No one else in the entire kingdom seems to have much fondness for Fitz. The King apprentices him to the assassin as a farmer puts a strong ox under a plow—purely for utilitarian reasons—and even the strange court Fool who sometimes gives Fitz advice, often seems to do so for his own practical ends. Fitz is ceaselessly searching—for himself, and for a true friend.

Imagery

I really admired the creative use of imagery Robin Hobb used to depict the interpersonal connections between living creatures, especially humans. The concept of Forging—of being stripped of one’s humanity—was mainly described as a person who no longer had any thread of connection to any other living thing, someone who was only living for themselves in a brutal, devouring way. But normally, each person has a web of living chords binding them to their loved ones and neighbors, even their pets and farm animals. One character, someone more lonely and aloof from others, was described as having only a few tenuous connections, though they were still not as detached as the inhuman Forged. I thought this image of our relationships being a large part of what makes us human, or even just a living creature, to be very appropriate.

Another image used to represent the changes of identity within Fitz’s character was the shifting of his clothing’s embroidery from that of an obvious bastard to someone with their own unique, legitimate standard. Because the novel is set in a medieval kingdom, it mimics the medieval use of standards to show the identity of certain characters. Fathers would pass down their standard to their son, and bastard sons wore their father’s standard slashed in half by a garish red band. Fitz begins his life at the palace with only the plain, poor clothes of a stablehand, until the King notices him and apprentices him to the assassin. Then he is given the clothing of a royal bastard. Later in the novel, the King-in-waiting, Fitz’s uncle, gives him his father’s name and designs a new, unique standard for him, thus removing the stain of his bastardy and declaring him to be his own man.

Recommendation

Not only do I highly recommend Assassin’s Apprentice, I really can’t wait to read the rest of the series. This was Robin Hobb’s debut novel! It’s incredibly impressive how skillfully she wove together the plot and all its secretive twists and turns, as well as managing several character arcs and the deeper, compelling themes of the novel. At no point was I the least bit bored. And when Fitz was struggling with certain aspects of his purpose in life I found myself moved by the ease with which the novel portrayed his experiences and offered nuggets of truth without preaching or breaking me out of the story itself.

There was a wonderful framework of foreshadowing which pushes the plot along at several key points. You read this first book understanding that the main character is looking back on events in his early life, that there have been great costs to him along the way, that he is dying perhaps and wants to record for those who come after what it took to defeat his enemies. All of this provides a somber backdrop for the points of the novel in which Fitz is a young, innocent boy, and later on, a naive, self-assured teen. I also enjoyed the ‘historical’ recordings at the beginnings of some of the chapters which were never dull but always added some information to the story which you couldn’t really have gotten from Fitz’s firsthand narration.

If you enjoy books with palace intrigue, plot twists you don’t see coming, detestable villains and impossible quandaries, then you’ll enjoy this medieval fantasy novel.