Robin Hobb

Assassin's quest

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

Assassin's Quest

aybüke

"Tomorrow," he told me gravely. "We shall be ourselves again. The Fool and the Bastard. Or the White Prophet and the Catalyst, if you will. We will have to take up those lives, as little as we care for them, and fulfill all fate has decreed for us. But for here, for now, just between us two, and for no other reason save I am me and you are you, I tell you this. I am glad, glad that you are alive. To see you take breath puts the breath back in my lungs. If there must be another my fate is twined around, I am glad it is you."

struggling to rate this bc it took me forever to read. i have no real complaints about the story itself. it was interesting seeing fitz go off on his own a bit in this book

taylor

3.5- 4

struggling to rate this bc it took me forever to read. i have no real complaints about the story itself. it was interesting seeing fitz go off on his own a bit in this book

a little too repetitive at times but it didn’t bother me TOO much. the ending was not what I was expecting but I guess it a nice conclusion to the trilogy. honestly my favorite parts of this book were probably nighteyes and the fool <3. 

millie

3.75⭐️

a little too repetitive at times but it didn’t bother me TOO much. the ending was not what I was expecting but I guess it a nice conclusion to the trilogy. honestly my favorite parts of this book were probably nighteyes and the fool <3. 

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.

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

Assassin's quest

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