Robin Hobb

A fantasy tale on a man who carves a dragon out of stone with which to defend his kingdom from enemies.

Assassin's Quest

Hanna Rybchynska

This was a great adventure! I will be miss Fitz and the gang!

Vicky  Nuñez 

It took me years to read the third book of this trilogy because I was so upset after the way book two ended. And this book might not have left me much better.

I don't have much to say except it was great and such a brilliant conclusion and I hope it won't take me years to read the next trilogy.

ROBIN. HOBB

A stunningly illustrated anniversary edition of the final chapter of the beloved Farseer Trilogy, hailed by George R.R. Martin as 'fantasy as it ought to be written' and by Lin-Manuel Miranda as 'an incredible series'.

While I enjoyed the last book in this triology, I found the last part of the book a little long winded and dull comparatively.

The final travel past the mountain kingdom and finally meeting up with Verity and chipping on the dragon isn't as thrilling as the first part of Fitz going on a suicide mission to murder Regal or his journey there. I really wish the book had explored the community of the old blood, but that would have probably been a very long diversion.

The end of Fitz standing alone as a side-character in his own story and as a very important, but anonymous influence, is not as satisfying as him returning as a hero.  

I guess that's the way of real stories, the end isn't necessarily a fast paced, thrilling adventure with a satisfying end, but more of a "what now?"

I really enjoyed this triology and I am looking forward to continuing the series.

Anne Marit

While I enjoyed the last book in this triology, I found the last part of the book a little long winded and dull comparatively.

The final travel past the mountain kingdom and finally meeting up with Verity and chipping on the dragon isn't as thrilling as the first part of Fitz going on a suicide mission to murder Regal or his journey there. I really wish the book had explored the community of the old blood, but that would have probably been a very long diversion.

The end of Fitz standing alone as a side-character in his own story and as a very important, but anonymous influence, is not as satisfying as him returning as a hero.  

I guess that's the way of real stories, the end isn't necessarily a fast paced, thrilling adventure with a satisfying end, but more of a "what now?"

I really enjoyed this triology and I am looking forward to continuing the series.

Zhomart M

This trilogy consumed me for several days. I stopped living my life, but instead lived the life in the books. This book is less about assassins and magic, but more about characters, relationships, politics, growth, hate and torture. In some cases you cry from wins, but most of the time from hurt and frustration.

Probably my favorite of the three so far just because Hobb does an amazing job of bringing everything together and satisfying several points really well. The second half is definitely better, in my opinion, than the first. 

Rachel B

Enjoyable fantasy series and good story. Easy reading but entertaining. 

Alex Johnstone

Assassin's Quest (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 3)

Prashanth Srivatsa

Fantasy the way it has to be written. Makes you fall deeper in love with the genre. The concluding instalment of the Farseer Trilogy is slow yet riveting in its build up to that epic climax that is made for heroes. Gnawing through loneliness, despair, hopelessness, love and dragons, Assassin's Quest is another peak scaled in the realm of the incredible.

James Winduss

** spoiler alert **
           I don’t know if it would be right to say that I loved this book because there were definitely parts of it I didn’t love, but overall I enjoyed it and thought it was a solid wrap up to the Farseer Trilogy. It truly never fails to amaze me how many terrible things Robin Hobb forces Fitz to endure. I wanted to give up around halfway through this book, purely because it just felt like he was getting battered over and over again to no end, but I’m glad I didn’t. The return of the Fool was when this book really started to turn around for me because he is and always will be my favourite character (sorry Nighteyes, you’re a close second). I love the way the relationship between Fitz and the Fool developed over the course of the second half of the book, especially when they were Skill-bound together. I will say, as much as I wanted Fitz to get a ‘happy ending’, as a reader I am satisfied with the ending he got. I think those closest to him, while they may have loved him, always used him as a tool for their own gain/purpose and while I believe most of them would’ve been happy to be reunited with him, I think that use would’ve continued in the long run. He ended the book being able to be in control of where he went, when he went and what he didn’t when he got there and I think that, considering the circumstances, that’s satisfying enough. I am so glad I picked up this trilogy and saw it through to the end and I am looking forward to moving onto the next instalment and making my way through the entirety of the Realm of the Elderlings series.

Sade A

i feel emotionally drained now that i'm done with the farseer trilogy. 
For the final book i'd have to say it did feel a bit winding at times. There were some chapters were i was like huh?? what's the point..like the chapter titled "shepherd" or the earlier one where he met the ministrels before tradeford. But i suppose the quest like nature of the book, i mean it's named Assassin's Quest so i guess it meant we'd get to see every single part of Fitz no matter how mundane it may have seemed. 
I was sad though with everything Fitz had to go through he came up without much but it comforted me that there was always someone in his corner, can we please give it up for Nighteyes #WeArePack and the Fool even Starling sometimes. All in all great book, and yes in some parts it does slow but it is absolutely worth it in the end.
p.s: i still want to go into the book and shake Molly and say you never ever ever deserved Fitz, ugh!!

Rachel Kanyid

I am so in love with Robin Hobb's story-telling! <3

The 5 star system cannot give credit to this book.

Devansh Patil

andrea

no one told me farseer was going to be this sad.
i do have 'negative' thoughts about it and some of the characters, even the ones i like. yes, but i felt so much while reading it that i can't take away the 5 stars. i loooove farseer, but i get why royal assassin and assassin's quest have so many mixed reviews.

the beginning was amazing with fitz trying to get used to live in his own body again and deciding he wanted to live as a human, so great and heartbreaking and sad. 
sometimes i felt frustated because i wanted to see what other characters were doing. i would have loved to have verity, patience, kettricken or even molly povs, but this story is told in 1st person narrator and we're inside fitz's head all of the time. it wasn't an awful experience and, actually, i've grown to appreciate it a lot and consider it one the things that make farseer special and different. but at some moments i felt that fitz's journey was becoming extremely repetitive or slow-paced, and i couldn't help but imagine how farseer could've benefited from, at those points, seeing what verity was up to instead of leaving it as a mystery until almost the very end. 

because i can't shut up about the characters i will expand a bit.
- fitz, the fool and nighteyes are just the best. on their own and when they're together they're just wonderful characters that make you laugh and cry and i love them so much. the three of them are one being at some point of the story and i think it is so beautiful. they're a little family, and the fool and nighteyes love fitz in such a pure and genuine way that i can't help but smile. i want them to be together forever. truly the best characters of this trilogy, they shine once they're reunited.

- i have conflicting thoughts about verity even today. in the first book i remember verity as one of my faves, in the second i was a bit reluctant and now... i like verity, i love how he becomes a father figure to fitz and i do believe they loved each other. it doesn't excuse how he used him for his purposes, even if he was doing it for the greater good (view spoiler)[ and i'm sorry but i will explode if i don't include fitz and verity exchanging bodies for a while just so verity could have sex with kettricken so she will have an heir after he dies. like. did he. have sex with his wife while being in his nephew's body? and when fitz is obviously startled by this he says he doesn't regret it? that was craaazy. at some moments fitz and verity's bond made feel a bit... icky. like when in the second book fitz doesn't know how to separate his thoughts from verity's and he can feel him having sex with kettricken while he has sex with molly. that's crazy, sometimes robin hobb comes up with Insane things and just writes them. (hide spoiler)]. 

- my beautiful queen kettricken is another character who doesn't have a single break. it was so painful to see her so sad and hopeless, i just wanted to see her and verity happy but this is a fantasy book no one is truly happy lmao. still. i love kettricken, i was sad to see her like this because of all the trauma and pain, but she was still strong and amazing and brave.

- burrich and molly (view spoiler)[ well, i'm not mad at it! i felt it for a while, that miss hobb was dropping hints about this and... okay? i love burrich and i feel so bad that he believes fitz is truly dead and now wants to take care of his daughter nettle because she's the only thing left of fitz in this world... or so he and molly think. and molly falls in love with him because he offers her the safety and the compromise she could've never gotten from fitz. i only feel bad because fitz is heartbroken by this, but from molly and burrich's point of view i can only wish them the best. i'm happy molly got a chance to be happy, as well as burrich who was always described as a lonely man. (hide spoiler)]

- chade and patience are characters that i like a lot, but sadly we don't see a lot of them. like it happens with verity, i have conflicting thoughts about chade (interesting how i feel this with eeevery single father figure fitz has) and how he acted towards fitz. patience was so absent here, which makes me sad. again, i would've loved to see at least one or two povs from her, just to see how she was dealing with everything.

the ending i did not love, true, because i felt terrible for fitz and how everything ends up for him. he never gets a break, he doesn't get to be genuinely happy, he has to give up on the people he loves for them to be safe and get their own happy ending. but what about fitz, our main character, the man we've been rooting for since he was a child??? it hurts me to think of him. if i didn't know that fitz and the fool see each other again in tawny man and later again in fitz & the fool trilogy i do think my rating would have been slightly different, but... i'm just excited to see them again, and i can confidently say i liked this without regrets because i know there is more to come.

idk if this makes any sense. i only know that i love miss robin hobb, fitz, the fool and nighteyes and that i want more and i will be reading every trilogy belonging to the realm of the elderlings. period

Marisa Petri

More detailed review to come but my fav read of the year so far and deserving of a million stars

Dave Perkins

Everything came together. Last 100 pages worth the journey of the first 700 🐺. Don’t give up!

Aditi

The first half of this really dragged. I understand the reason for it but that didn't make it any better for me. I liked the new characters introduced though not as much as the ones from previous books. The main romantic relationship was just as annoying as in the first two and I'm glad to be done with it. The second half was considerably better but the ending wasn't very satisfying. In terms of the magic, I'd hoped to learn as much about the Wit as we did about the Skill but that was kind of brushed over and I'm still hoping for more in the future books.

Brianna

The third book isn’t what one would expect it to be but neither has this trilogy been for me. Robin Hobb is clearly intentional with everywhere she takes us and I am rarely if ever disappointed by the end.

Cams Campbell

I really loved this trilogy when I was in my late 20s, which I now find strange as it was after my Masters degree when I would've said that I was educated. I suppose a 10-year career with the written word after my graudation and some experience of life have revealed this book as what it really is, a poorly-written and over-long derivative tale. 

It was the notion of the skill and the wit that intrigued me I think, and it still kind of does, as it makes me think about art and religion and spirituality in the modern world. But George R.R. Martin got there first, at least with the idea of bonding with animals, and I didn't know that on first pass with the Farseer Trilogy. 

So, why did I keep going with it this time around? It was probably intrigue about the dragons. I'm blessed with a poor memory, so I can reread books without spoilers! But the ending was rather disappointing. 

So, two stars. Not sure whether I'll read the Tawny Man or not. I did try the Live Ship Traders for a second time, but quit after not very long at all. Maybe it's time for something new. Can anyone recommend something? My favourites are Thomas Covenant (I know, I know) and Song of Ice and Fire. Something along those lines would be good.

I would have given it more than 5 stars if i could.
Loved the writing style 

*eyes sparkling in admiration*

If a story is a flight journey Pilot Robbin Hobb definitely knows how to land it. I feared a crash (as i always do when i read fiction. A bad end will spoil the whole story) but not even a bump it was smooth landing definitely satisfied. 
The seat is also a very comfortable one (first person narration).

For whole trilogy:
The trilogy had every ingredient needed for a good story love, heartbreak, suspence, sacrifice, pain, dilemmas, etc
i particularly liked the choices made by fitz as he goes along especially those near the end of the story more specifically the last one and i most love how he transformed from a boy to a man throughout the story. 

 you will plunge into confusion only to be slammed by sudden clarity moments later. 

i dont have words anymore nor do i feel i have put it all into words. as hobb said words are feeble things i wish i could skill you my feelings on the book.

Manish

Alost

well, let's he Frank. boring as hell at parts

Cheryl Hedlund

This finale of the Farseer trilogy is long and sometimes drags the way a cross-country road trip does. It is traveling and questing to a far goal and destination. Hobb has been building up to this and we know the stakes are so high. Danger pursues Fitz and the band that comes together to find the rightful king Verity and hopefully also secure the help of Elderlings, if they are indeed more than just myths on dusty scrolls and depictions on faded tapestries. The character work and the arcs for the central people are rich and emotional. There are a couple of interesting new characters that become members of the questing band. My favorite was Kettle. I was right about some of my predictions from the first two books about where things would go for the conclusion. But there were some real surprises as well. There were very interesting and significant reveals about the world and the magic systems. Still, I am left with curiosity and a feeling that there is so much left to explore and learn about this world. It is great to know there are plenty of Elderling books left to read. And apparently one of my favorite characters of all, the Fool, appears at least in cameos in most of them. Speaking of this character, they are pretty clearly non-binary or gender fluid as well as asexual. There is even actual conversation explicitly questioning gender norms and definitions of types of love and what that even means. This was published in 1997. There was very little representation or discussion like this going in books at that time.

Helene Skjørvold

3,5⭐️
This was a reeeeeeeally long book, and it took me ages to get through. I didn’t get as in touch with the characters as I hoped, and it didn’t rip my heart out, as many others experienced.

Liv Strefford

A bit drawn out, but a brilliant story and character development just as good as the previous books. I didn’t really like the ending that much, especially the way Kettle’s character was kinda wasted, but I really enjoyed the epilogue. Not the best book of the trilogy, but well worth the read, nonetheless

Jenna Kathleen

Assassin’s Quest was a rollercoaster, and I'm pretty sure it was a good thing, but I'm not 100% sure yet. Parts of this book were so painfully boring to read that I had to set it down for a while, which was made into a longer while when I lost it under a blanket. Some parts had me shaking my head in disbelief, but other parts of this book were so wonderfully satisfying. There will be spoilers for the series, so read at your own risk.

I suppose I’ll start with the things I didn’t like, and while I didn’t enjoy some aspects, I could mostly understand why they were included. The beginning took me quite a bit longer to get into than the first two. I felt like I was being fed the plot summaries from the previous two books and what Fitz needs to do and why it is so vital he recover quickly. I was just itching to get to the actual story instead of reliving the other books. However, I appreciated the length of time spent on Fitz’s recovery. He took a very long time to recover and there were good spurts and relapses and even when he embarks on his journey, it is obvious he is not at his full strength yet. Recovery time is something I think a lot of authors (fantasy or other fiction) don’t necessarily spend a lot of time on, but then process and length lose its significance. Not all authors leave it out, but from my own reading experience, it doesn’t seem plausible when characters recover from near death experiences within a matter of pages. The problem is convalescence is not the most exciting thing to read.

Another thing that dragged a bit was the time spent on the Skill Road. I almost gave up. At the same time, it was so fascinating because rather than putting myself into Fitz’s misery, I joined him in misery as I suffered through trying to read this dry part of the book. I did not like that part at all, but retrospectively, it made me empathetic to Fitz. I also understood why this part of the book took so long. It would be ridiculous if the party found Verity after only one or two chapters. He’s been gone for over a year - it shouldn’t be easy or quick to find him.

My love of Fitz slowly decreased over the course of the series and most of the time in Assassin’s Quest, I just shook my head at anything Fitz did. I understood his stupidity when he was young and naive, and I understood that a lot of the time, his decisions will be ruled by his emotions. However, I expected some of his foolishness to fade as he grew up and became an adult. You’d think so many near death experiences would knock some sense into a person. His emotions seem to change so easily to whatever suits the plot. For example, his love for Molly and his desire to meet Nettle drive him when he seeks out Verity. His wish to keep them out of court intrigue motivates a lot of his bargains, and his longing for them lead him to foolish actions multiple times. Then, all of the sudden, he is so easily able to give up Molly to another and be contented with watching them from afar. For him to reach this level of maturity all of the sudden just doesn’t seem likely considering his track record.

Now onto some things I think really worked in this book. There’s a portion of the book that Nighteyes is away from Fitz, but overall, there was a lot more involvement of Nighteyes in both dialogue and just presence. That was great. He was always one of my favourite characters and all his lines are awesome. I think with him included more and the slow acceptance of the Wit by certain characters, including Fitz, Hobb could explore the beast magic a lot more. The appearance of the Old Blood was one of the best parts for me. I would really love to see Fitz go back to interact with the Old Blood - really hoping that comes up in a later series/book.

Another character I was happy to see more of was Fool. He was always an enigma in the other books, and in a lot of ways, he still is a puzzle in Assassin’s Quest, but there are a lot more aspects of Fool that are shown in this one. His weird relationship with Starling was one of the only parts that made getting through the Skill Road section bearable. 

The ending is what really makes this book wonderful. Finally discovering Kettle’s secrets started the fantastic conclusion to the trilogy. It felt a bit rushed, but I had been waiting as it built up for hundreds of pages and I was really happy with the way everything wrapped up.

Jade Flynn

Reading The Liveship Traders trilogy before the Farseer one was an interesting experience. It didn’t have that much of a negative impact apart from one pretty important thing was spoilt for me. I’ll reiterate that Hobb really needed a better editor because 200-250 pages could’ve been cut out and it would’ve still been the same story. Saying that I’ve fallen in love with the world she’s created - I’ve been to Bingtown and Buckeep, The Mountain Kingdom and the Rainwilds and I’m excited to discover where Hobb decides to take me next in The Realm of the Elderlings.

Assassin's Quest

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