I have to disclaim my disclaimer. It is virtually impossible for me to be un-biased about this book.  Unabashed admiration for the author, and genuine fondness for the world she has created doesn’t make what I have to say about it irrelevant though.

I know my blog entries have been missing in action for a while. This book was announced a year ago. I couldn’t wait until the release! In March, I got the ARC from Netgalley. I have to admit I fan-girled my way into oblivion. I immediately said to myself, to do this justice I have to read the whole series over from the beginning. It’s dense, there’s a lot of prophesy, magic creatures, and roughly a zillion characters who directly influence the plot, so I need a refresher! Let’s do this … all 15 books. Yeah, you heard me. FIFTEEN! I started my journey in March, and finally arrived at book 16, Assassin’s Fate  on June 15th.

I love this book.

I know we throw the phrase “I love this book” around sometimes, but I really mean it. Ms. Hobb has created something special with this series. It is a highly developed world with truly fascinating multi-faceted characters. I love that by the end, in the culmination of all the separate storylines, the series resolves finally into being about love and acceptance. She also has a way of making the reader feel that you truly know these people. For instance, I was surprised when someone mentioned an observation on a Robin Hobb fan board about a very important character, named Nighteyes. He is one who you become intensely attached to, and whose presence is felt throughout the 16 books but actually only appeared in books 2, 3 & 7. Astonishing! In another authors hand, a character appearing so infrequently could tend to melt away into the ether. Instead, Nighteyes is an integral part of the story and a favorite among so many fans.

(**extremely vague spoilers in this next paragraph**)

But it is the two main characters, Fitz and the Fool who truly capture your heart. I approached this book with trepidation. I felt in my heart I knew what was coming by the end of the book. It wasn’t that it was predicable, more like this is a road we are traveling on and we all know the final destination. It was hard for me to get there. I was thinking about it on my drive home one night and found myself feeling choked up just thinking about an eventuality that hadn’t even happened yet! When I finally reached that point of the book, well let’s just say that it’s 4 days later and I still feel very emotional about it.

I can’t recommend this book enough. I have a bad habit of forgetting plots of books after a while. I remember having read a book, and whether I enjoyed it, but they get fuzzy after a while. That’s part and parcel of reading so many books I guess. Robin Hobb’s Elderling series is not something I’m ever going to forget. These characters are a part of my life. You all know what I mean right? Because I try to tell normal non-book blogging people how I feel about this and they look at me like I’m crazy.  How do you help them understand how books can affect you? That a well written book can make you feel as though you’ve made friends, their happiness brings you joy and you mourn their passing. I don’t know how to communicate that to people who don’t already know this truth. What I do know is that this is a good book, it is a great series, and she is a remarkable writer.

Song for this book: Welcome to the Black Parade – My Chemical Romance

It starts a bit slow, then ramps up to adventure. At times you just want to smack Fitz for stupidity and being stubborn. Chade is now absolutely unlikable. Despite that, the book is more than carried by the delightful, young Bee. 

Bee, a late in life child born to Fitz and Molly is slow to grow and mature. Servants of the Four from Clerres, school for the White Prophets, kidnap her because of the prophesy of the Unexpected Son. Enduring harsh treatment, violence and trauma, Bee learns to survive. Her thread is emotional, heart breaking at times and finally trumphent as she overcomes great odds to win her freedom.

Thinking Bee dead, Fits and Fool seek revenge against Clerres for the destruction of Bee and the torture of Beloved. Embarking on the long journey, they are accompanied by Chade's son FitzVigilant, Chade's apprentice Spark/Ash and Bee's stableboy friend, Perseverance. 

We get to visit Kelsingra, dragons and elderlings from the Rainwild books to see how things have progressed in the past 18 or so years. Also, revisited are Bingtown, Paragon, Vivacia, Kendry and crews. 

In their travels, Amber bribes Paragon to sail them to Clerres against Captains Althea Vestrit and Brashen Trell's wishes, by telling the ship she may know how to bring a dragon out of the ship's wizardwood. Amber was right. 

Finding that Bee is actually alive, our heros plan to breach Clerres. In the idiocy that is often shown when Fits and Fool are together, the Fool goes off alone and is captured, making it a rescue for two. Bee, in the meantime, works on rescuing herself. 

A novel of strength, weakness, survival, redemption, transformation and vengeance, this is a fitting end to the trilogy.

Robin Hobb does it again with a wonderful book

I've been a fan of this series for a long time, and checking back it looks like the first book was published in 1995- 22 years! And now it all comes to an end. Many authors seem unable to wind up series, so kudos to Robin Hobb for bringing this to a graceful close.

This book, like the previous two in this last trilogy, are split POVs between Fitz and his daughter, Bee. Bee has been kidnapped by the servants of the White Prophets and Fitz finally figures out that she is still alive. 

This was a looooong book, and I feel like there were some pacing issues. Bee and Fitz were three months apart timeline-wise in the last book, and Hobb had to somehow get them concurrent. This worked out to lots of travel time for both characters. The book was mostly a long series of voyages. Fitz is brought into the Liveship milieu and meets Paragon, the ship who Amber (the Fool) carved with Fitz's face. I feel like Hobb really wanted her different series to come together in this book, but it felt a bit overstuffed to me. I haven't read the RainWild books because the Liveship books didn't speak to me the same way that the Assassin series has. Therefore, I had no idea who a lot of these characters were or how I was meant to feel about them. Rapskal the Elderling seemed somewhat obnoxious and somewhat damaged, and I felt like I was missing a lot of backstory between him and his dragon, Heeby. I didn't know Tarman or his crew, Boy-o or the folk from the Pirate Isles. So a lot of what happened to these characters was missing an emotional resonance for me. And they detracted from further character development of Lant, Spark, and other characters who could have used it. 

Meanwhile, Bee is undergoing horrors at the hands of her kidnappers. There are many scenes of her being abused. I get the feeling that Hobb was trying to set her up to fill a particular prophetic role, but the repetitive descriptions of beatings, escape attempts, etc, weren't pleasant to read in the least. You are warned. 

In the end, a daring escape takes place, destruction is visited upon the bad guys, dragons get their revenge. Lots of action! 

I started to try to write this as a spoiler-free review, but I don't think I can do that and still discuss how I feel about the ending to this series. 

I have read series-ending books in which the author seemed to have lost heart or interest in the series. Hobb doesn't fall into that trap- she seems just as invested in the emotional arcs of her characters as ever and tried to communicate that passion to the reader. In fact, it feels a bit like the book devolves into melodrama by the end. Fitz is transformed by the magical Silver, but is also infected with the same worm parasites that killed the mysterious messenger at the very beginning of the series. I was interested to see how the Silver would affect him, but it ended up just keeping him alive long enough to return to where Verity carved his dragon so that Fitz could carve his own stone soul repository. The end of the book was Fitz trying to live long enough to complete his carving, eaten from within by worms, while surrounded by his loved ones. Meanwhile, he's putting all his memories into the carving so that he is losing his emotional connection to all those who have gathered to mourn him. It's beyond tragic, it's almost cruel (I know it's odd to say that about fictional characters). But poor Fitz! He's tormented himself with self-doubt all his life, has never truly let himself be happy, and now he's denied the chance to rebuild his relationship with his (very traumatized) daughter. He doesn't get his golden years after all. He doesn't really get to learn from his mistakes and grow emotionally. It's a tragic character arc, and it's somewhat unsatisfying for those of us who have rooted for Fitz for 9 books now. 

I also feel like I still don't entirely understand the prophecies from the Fool. Was Fitz the Destroyer or was Bee? Who was the Unexpected Son in the end? Was Bee's Catalyst Dwalia, the Fool, or both? Or neither? How does the Silver relate to the Skill? Or the Wit? How can dragons both come from stone and from sea serpents? What happened to the original Elderlings? I guess I had hoped for a bit more concreteness for some of these questions.

However, I was engrossed for all 847 pages, which is quite a feat. If you are a fan of Fitz, you will want to read the end of his story.

I cannot stress how important it is that all readers read the previous books that the author has written about this world; there are so many things you will miss out on if you don’t and it adds so much enjoyment to all the series. This is my recommended reading order: FARSEER TRILOGY, TAWNY MAN TRILOGY, LIVESHIP TRILOGY, RAIN WILDS tetralogy and then THE FITZ and FOOL trilogy. At one point I thought reading the LIVESHIP TRILOGY before TAWNY MAN was preferable, the stories are so closely related that I think it is more of a personal preference; if you want to stay in Buckkeep and the characters there you can and it you want to broaden the world read LIVESHIP first then TAWNY MAN.

Here is my spoiler review for this final book in this trilogy. The story picks up where she left us in the second book and Bee is still a prisoner of the White Prophets who are trying to return her to their home in Clarres; it’s been a long, hard journey and the journey is far from over but Bee will grow stronger both physically and emotionally before the story ends.

This final book in this trilogy (but hopefully not the world) answers so many questions that I’ve had throughout my reading experience in this amazing world; what happened to the Elderlings and why, why did Icefyre bury himself in ice all those years ago and why Dwalia hates Fitz and the Fool so much and the child she believes to be theirs. You finally get to experience the horrors of Clarres and the ones who rule it with an iron hand no matter what they must to do anyone who they feel may threaten how they want the world to be. Robin Hobb has answered so many of the questions I've had while reading these books. ( I owe her a huge personal thanks for these books; I’ve always loved to read but after I lost my daughter in 2005 I lost all interest in everything for over four years and it wasn’t until someone insisted I read the FARSEER trilogy that I began to snap out of my long depression and discover consolation in other worlds). 

This series is a grim one, the abuse of Bee in almost never ending and the suffering of all, even those who should is almost too much as is the relentless self pity of too many characters and while I loved that Nighteyes was a part of this story, I wondered why he couldn’t connect with Fitz long before he did. Yes, it was important that he help Bee, but it seemed that he should have helped them both. The story could have lost some of the darkness if Nighteyes could have conveyed to Bee that her father was on the way and that he did love her. How and why did he transfer to her and ignore everything that he and Fitz had been through until almost the end? Yes, Fitz would have wanted him to protect his child, but I think he would also have wanted her to know that he was coming after her and that he loved her. (Will he and others be a part of future books in there are to be more)?

Yes, Bee becomes stronger; she’s the new White Prophet, she has the skill and if there are future books I think she will also have the witt (this is the only way that Nigheyes could have been with her for so long) and she will be trained by the best person possible, Kettricken, Verity's queen with her protector Per by her side. The dragons and Elderlings have returned and the evil of Clarres has been destroyed, but I am sure a new evil will pop up. The ending of this story will make everyone who loved this series cry and while I understand why she wrote it this way, I could almost wish that it could have been different.

4.75/5 STARS: **I want to thank the author and/or publisher for providing me with a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review; all opinions are mine.**

As posted on Goodreads:

I have been putting this review off for much too long.

I am disappointed. Deeply, achingly disappointed. Robin Hobb spent decades carefully sculpting an utterly perfect, captivating, compelling, breathtaking narrative featuring living, breathing characters with rich, consistent inner lives in a relationship that read as more real and important than any I have previously encountered in fiction.

So why does the ending ring so false?

'Ware spoilers.

Let's just get this out of the way: no, I am not butthurt because Fitz and Fool didn't end up banging. Sex and romance were never where I envisioned them ending. I LIKE the representation of true love as platonic between them. I feel romance would have added absolutely nothing to their unspeakably gorgeous relationship.

What is bothering me is how stiff, unnatural, and forced their actions are throughout this book, as Robin Hobb abandoned her usual character-driven writing to railroad them to her designated endpoint. This applies to Fitz and Fool's interactions, to Fitz's choices throughout the entire final arc, and even to Bee through much of this last book.

What is also bothering me is the lack of a narratively appropriate conclusion to the story and character arcs as previously presented.

Regarding the first point, in what world does it make sense to finally, climactically resolve the issue of gender and homophobia between Fitz and the Fool--and then immediately go back to those same old fights? What is Hobb's problem, exactly, with allowing the two of them to fall into uninhibited mutual affection and support? The conflicts feel bizzarre at this point. Unnatural. Forced. The same can be said of the series of choices which leads to a worm-riddled Fitz stumbling into the Elderling quarry. An in-depth review of all the ways Hobb has contradicted her own magic system and lampshaded Fitz making un-Fitz-like choices would be painful, so I'll limit myself to one example:
-Fitz and Nighteyes openly acknowledge that Fitz has worms.
-Fitz and Nighteyes discuss remedies, and decide between them that a copper coin would be simple and effective. This is an obvious, commonsense approach in Fitz's mind, learned as a child.
-Fitz kills his tormentors in the Elderling ruins and loots their bodies. Coins are specifically mentioned.
-Fitz then doesn't check for a copper coin, or swallow a copper coin, or ever think about remedies again at all?
-?????
Hobb's Designated Perfect Ending relies on handing Fitz the Idiot Ball so many times it becomes ludicrous. This is not the character-driven writing that made the Realm of the Elderlings my favorite series for so many years. This is, frankly, weak.

And what is this ending that is so important that Hobb sacrificed the charm of her characters and the intoxication of her writing to achieve?

It is flat. It is tasteless. It is unsatisfying. It gives not even a nod to the themes of choice and destiny which have been central to the Prophet/Catalyst dynamic. It does not satisfy the narrative promises established by Fitz and Fool's relationship. It produces no emotional catharsis. It demonstrates no character development.

The ending is empty.

In short, Assassin's Fate is unworthy both of Robin Hobb's demonstrated skill and of the glorius construct which is the preceding series. This book ruins the series.

My recommendation to future RotE readers is to stop following Fitz and Fool at the end of Fool's Errand. That is as close as RH came to neatly wrapping up their plotline. That is the closest I have experienced to satisfaction regarding these two fine characters, my favorite in all of literature. I hope that by skipping this last botched arc, your experience will not be as disappointing as mine has been.

It has been a couple of weeks since I finished Assassin's Fate and it has taken me that long to let it settle. In fantasy, several factors play into the execution; world building, coherent social/magic systems and characterization being just some of them. World building and systems are important, but above all (at least for me) are characters I can invest in. I have been fully invested in FitzChivalry Farseer through three trilogies now; The Farseer Trilogy, The Tawny Man Trilogy, and now The Fitz and the Fool Trilogy. There are many memorable characters in the Six Duchies, but Fitz is indelible in his messy, chaotic, maddening humanity. His small, mysterious daughter, Bee, is another unforgettable piece of the tapestry. Following Fitz's life from bastard child to middle-aged man has been frustrating, rewarding, horrifying and often heart-breaking. 

I'm not going to try to synopsize Assassin's Fate other than to say that after several years of relative peace living as Tom Badgerlock with his beloved Molly, Fitz's life falls apart with the seemingly impossible pregnancy of Molly. After a very long gestation, Molly brings forth Bee, a tiny girl who takes an inordinate amount of time to grow and develop. Molly dies when Bee is still a tiny child. Bee seems backward and odd in the extreme, but Molly gives her all the love and attention a child could need. When Molly dies, Fitz is overcome by grief and at a loss about how to raise Bee. The Fool's sudden reappearance complicates matters. The Fool has been horribly tortured by the sadistic White Prophets on the island of Clerres where the Fool grew up and then returned to, expecting a warm welcome. Fitz's efforts to save the Fool's life ensure that he is not at home when Bee needs him most. Bee is kidnapped by a band of the same White Prophets and Fitz's estate and people are destroyed. Fitz becomes convinced that Bee is dead and wants revenge. The Fool is not sure as he has had dreams about Bee. The two set out on the long journey to Clerres and Fitz's ultimate fate.

Robin Hobb incorporates elements and characters from the Farseer books as well as from the Liveship Traders and the Rain Wild Chronicles. I confess that I have read neither Live Ship or Rain Wild. In fact, after The Soldier Son Trilogy, I laid off Hobb's books. I found the Soldier Son books tough going. No doubt it would have made The Fitz and the Fool a richer experience had I read them but it was always Fitz's voice, and now Bee's, that intrigue me. Fitz's ultimate fate is not what I ever would have chosen or wished for him, but ultimately he is Robin Hobb's creation and her vision. I don't doubt that we will see more of the Six Duchies and the Farseer Dynasty, but Fitz will be missed. To sum up, I ran across a Facebook meme from one of the many "bookish" sites I frequent that expresses my feelings exactly:

 me: This book brutally ripped out my heart and tore it to shreds then stomped it into the
        ground as I drowned in a sea of tears and basked in eternal sorrow.

me:  Here read it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for an advance digital copy. The opinions above are my own.

RATING-  5 Stars

I really liked many aspects of this story, such as the relational bonds between the main characters.  The emotional feelings they bore for each other came through strong.  There is fair amount of action, not much true romance, but there is strong emotion emitted through the pages, the magical world created is very interesting and unique in many ways.  Overall story was very interesting, though aspects of it seemed off at times.  I thought the world building was a little incomplete.  Many times that doesn't bother me as I half find it boring, but there were times when I tried to immerse my mind into the story only to find I didn't have much of a picture of my surroundings.  I was afraid I was going to be disappointed in the ending.  Ultimately, I enjoyed the ending itself, however there seemed to be a lengthy and tiring prelude to getting everyone set for the ending.  In the beginning I felt a strong affinity to Bee's character, but as the story progressed to the climax, I had become less interested in her.  I liked the writing style of the author.  It seemed to flow well and there didn't seem to be the strain you see with some authors to throw in extraneous words just to make people get out there dictionary.  There were a fair amount of literary words used and I find that to be fine, while I find it slightly annoying if I have to look up a definition only to find it doesn't quite fit.  Overall this was good book and if you like fantasy I expect you will give it at least four stars, I would say it probably closer to 4.5 for me.

I enjoy all of this author's books and this one is no exception, but it's also not my favorite.  I suppose I wanted a different ending which may be why this isn't my favorite but you can't fault the writing or the storytelling

She has done it. 

This was a long arc in a trilogy of trilogies, but it was worth every winding road Fitz walked just to be here, at the finale, and at the culmination of Robin Hobb's creative dream. Upon reading the final word in Assassin's Fate, I grabbed my copy of Assassin'a Apprentice and began the series anew. 

It is majestic.

It’s been a few weeks since I finished Assassin’s Fate and I’m still struggling to put how I felt about it into works. I’ve been a huge fan of Robin Hobbs ever since I first picked up a copy of Assassin’s Apprentice nearly 20 years ago when I stumbled across it at the library. In all that time I don’t think there has been another author who has so consistently made me fall in love with her characters and the world that they live in. I’ve sat up the entire night at least 3 nights now, reading this book 3 separate times.

I don’t want to chance spoiling anything for the people who haven’t read the book or are just getting started on the series so I’m not going to go into much detail. I will say that I think this is by far the best book Robin Hobb has written so far. I’ve never had a book make me feel so many different emotions at one time. I laughed, I cried, I cheered, and I got angry over and over again as I read this book. I don’t really know how she managed to pack so many different emotions into a single book.

Since I’ve been reading this series for almost 20 years now I probably had my expectations set way too high for this book, but Robin Hobb somehow managed to exceed my expectations in just about every way. I’ve always said if there is one thing that I think this author does better than anyone else it’s write the ending to a trilogy or series. I can still remember finishing Assassin’s Quest years ago and just being awed by the ending — Assassin’s Fate surpassed that ending in every way possible. Robin Hobb has a lot of work ahead of her if she eve wants to top this book at some point in the future.

There probably isn’t a single person that I wouldn’t recommend this book to over and over again, though I would highly recommend that everyone who hasn’t read the rest of the series do so first. Anyone who tries to start here will be completely and utterly lost.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the most Robin Hobb-esque of all Hobb's novels, and no wonder since it combines plots and characters from three series of novels. Although at times it felt like reading a guided tour through a Wiki of her characters, there was something undeniably satisfying about seeing so many of the strands of Hobb's earlier work come together. I'm giving this book four stars because, well, if you're reading this book it means that you're a fan of Hobb and her stylistic mannerisms and flaws don't bother you so much. But at the same time, as a reviewer, I feel compelled to mention that if you have previously been frustrated with issues like repetitive scenes and situations, characters feeling paralysed and impotent, as well as some less thoughtful instances of violence against women - then you won't find this a relaxing read, as all those issues are present in a major way. However - if you want to find out what finally happens to Fitz and the Fool so badly that you've read this far, then who cares, right? I read the first Farseer trilogy a long time ago now, and this felt to me like a fairly satisfying conclusion to that story.

This is the end…

Già, con questo volume si appone davvero la parola fine alla variegata e composita saga degli Elderlings di Robin Hobb, una delle mie scrittrici fantasy preferite.

Amo la Hobb, come sa tratteggiare fondali, storie, atmosfere e soprattutto personaggi, tanto da creare mondi che spesso sono più veri e intensi di romanzi non fantastici.

Purtroppo per me questo libro è stata una grandissima delusione – e non tanto del finale, ma proprio a livello tecnico e narrativo.

La maggior parte della trama è composta da due viaggi estremamente lunghi: quello di Bee e quello di Fitz, del Matto e dei loro compagni. Entrambi convergono verso la medesima meta, tuttavia seguiranno sentieri differenti e travagliati per arrivarci.

I due viaggi sono un espediente per ripercorrere e annodare le fila di tutto il mondo della saga, scoprendone anche nuovi aspetti, rivelazioni, dando risposte e sollevando altre domande.

Purtroppo ho trovato questo accorgimento narrativo tanto interessante – e un po’ commovente, era una panoramica per dare l’addio a tutto e tutti – quanto macchinoso.Continua a leggere

Il senso di artificiosità e forzatura percorre tutto il libro, pesantemente ed è ciò che non me lo ha fatto apprezzare.
Conosco lo stile della Hobb e a mio avviso in Assassin’s Fate trapela poco, solo in alcune pagine.

Persino nel trattare momenti significativi emotivamente, tutto mi è sembrato calibrato e studiato senza l’amore e la compartecipazione che ho sempre apprezzato.

Oltre a ciò, si sprecano lungaggini e ripetizioni, troppe.

Sono convinta che pochi autori SFF possiedano il tocco umano della Hobb, ma qui l’ha perso nel concentrarsi troppo nel concludere una delle migliori saghe fantasy mai scritte.

È difficile addentrarsi maggiormente nell’analisi del testo senza cadere in spoiler di quest’ultima trilogia. Senza contare che fatico enormemente a scrivere questo poche, scialbe righe – vuoi la delusione, l’incredulità di aver letto qualcosa che non ha niente a che fare con la scrittrice che amo.

Robin Hobb writes detailed stories with characters that are realistic and full of history. She then places them in a world that is complete, that contains danger and delight. 

This particular story focuses on Bee and her father FitzChivalry Farseer who hail from Buck in the Six Duchies. Bee has been taken and is being dragged across countryside and ocean as a prize for a group of cruel rulers. 

FitzChivalry believes Bee dead at the hands of those who attacked them.  He is intent on vengeance, recruiting others to his cause as he travels to Clerres with the Fool (also known as Beloved). 

This book takes some reading, it is not a short tale. And, it is book three of a complete set (the first two being Fool’s Assassin and Fool’s Quest), so if you read it first, you really are missing out!

I have enjoyed continuing the stories of the Fool and FitzChivalry and have found it hard, waiting to read them. Now this book is published, it is a signal to all to start immersing in this tale.

Having read every book in both the Farseer Trilogy and the Fitz and the Fool series a huge fan of this series, I was eagerly awaiting this book.  Unfortunately, I was disappointed. 

At the end of book 2, Fitz's daughter Bee was kidnapped from her home by a group who use the dreams/prophecies of the Whites for their own purposes. This group, called the Servants, also tries breeding Whites to be able to further their control over their dreams and therefore what happens in the world. Confused? Wait, there's more. 

Remember way back in an earlier book, Prince Verity had released dragons again? Well the Servants did really nasty things, and now dragons want to get even. There seems to be yet another trilogy, the Liveship Trader trilogy, which tells the tell of ships that are alive and sentient, made from what's believed to be a special kind of wood, but that is really made of what was originally dragon's eggs that have fossilized. These ships belong to families for generations, and absorb the thoughts and memories of those families. 

All of these various story lines and more come together in Assassin's Fate, which attempts to tie things up relatively neatly.  If you haven't read the previous books in the Fitz and the Fool series, this book will not make any sense to you. And at 800+ pages, that's a long time to be confused.  The book could benefit from some strategic editing!

Robin Hobb is an incredibly talented author, and one of the best things about reading this book was discovering she has written another trilogy, the Liveship Trader trilogy. I will definitely be reading that one, and am confident that it will be as great as the Farseer trilogy. Unfortunately, this final book in the Fitz & the Fool trilogy just doesn't measure up to what I've come to expect from Robin Hobb.

Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb is the final book in The Fitz and the Fool trilogy, itself the third trilogy of trilogies about Fitz. It's book nine, is what I'm saying, or book twelve or sixteen if you count the Liveship books and the Dragon books, which aren't about Fitz but are related. Those two series aren't strictly necessary to understand the events of Assassin's Fate, but I dare say they help, which was not the case for Fool's Assassin or Fool's Quest. I haven't read any of the dragon books nor the final Liveship book and I felt a very small lack. On the other hand, the previous Fitz books — The Farseer Trilogy and the Tawny Man Trilogy as well as the preceding volumes of the Fitz and the Fool trilogy — are definitely necessary to make sense of the assassin's fate. This review will contain spoilers for the earlier Fitz books. The blurb also contains spoilers for the earlier books in this series.

Prince FitzChivalry Farseer’s daughter Bee was violently abducted from Withywoods by Servants of the Four in their search for the Unexpected Son, foretold to wield great power. With Fitz in pursuit, the Servants fled through a Skill-pillar, leaving no trace. It seems certain that they and their young hostage have perished in the Skill-river.

Clerres, where White Prophets were trained by the Servants to set the world on a better path, has been corrupted by greed. Fitz is determined to reach the city and take vengeance on the Four, not only for the loss of Bee but also for their torture of the Fool. Accompanied by FitzVigilant, son of the assassin Chade, Chade’s protégé Spark and the stableboy Perseverance, Bee's only friend, their journey will take them from the Elderling city of Kelsingra, down the perilous Rain Wild River, and on to the Pirate Isles. 

Their mission for revenge will become a voyage of discovery, as well as of reunions, transformations and heartrending shocks. Startling answers to old mysteries are revealed. What became of the liveships Paragon and Vivacia and their crews? What is the origin of the Others and their eerie beach? How are liveships and dragons connected?

But Fitz and his followers are not the only ones with a deadly grudge against the Four. An ancient wrong will bring them unlikely and dangerous allies in their quest. And if the corrupt society of Clerres is to be brought down, Fitz and the Fool will have to make a series of profound and fateful sacrifices.

When I started reading Assassin's Fate, my recollections of the previous book were a little vague. I remembered the gist but not the precise ending, which turned out to be a little bit of a problem since Assassin's Fate picks up very soon after Fool's Quest left off, especially from Bee's point of view. It is took me longer than I think it should have to work out why Fitz was so convinced Bee was dead because I'd forgotten the events at the very end of Fool's Quest. I don't think this would be an issue if I'd read them closer together. This contributed to me not getting into the book as quickly as I would have liked. The start of the book felt a bit slow and while I wasn't bored I also wasn't as gripped as I am accustomed to being by Hobb books. As a result, it took me about three weeks to get through it, since I got distracted by several Hugo-shortlisted things (mainly short fiction) along the way. On the other hand, it took me only a couple of days to read the second half of the book, in large part because that's when things got really interesting and difficult to step away from. So I suppose it's fair to say the pacing is a little bit off. This is a pretty long book (around 850 pages according to Goodreads for both the US and UK editions) and, in my opinion, that means it can't afford to waste too many pages on less exciting events, even if they needed to happen.

One of the things I really liked about this book was how it tied together all the other series set in the same Realm of the Elderlings universe. As I mentioned at the start, it's not completely necessary to read the Liveship books before reading Assassin's Fate, but we do get a kind of extra Liveship-centric epilogue,  which I think fans of that series will appreciate (and those who haven't read any Liveship books will feel as confused by as Fitz was). I also think Hobb ended Fitz's story in a nice way, although the ending took a bit of time to process and gave me rather a lot of feelings. Not to mention, the book is called Assassin's Fate, which should give you some hints about what might happen in it, but by golly Fitz sure has a lot of fates. The latter parts of the book were a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. The end was an ending for all the Fitz and Fool books.

It's hard to say anything very concrete because of wanting to avoid spoilers, but Bee's story was interesting — although she got more than her share of slow bits before the story picked up. I enjoyed learning more about Cleres and where the Fool came from. I also enjoyed reading the start-of-chapter extracts from Bee's dreams, especially once they started happening and we were able to retrospectively join the dots to the events they predicted. There were a few parallels between Bee's life and Fitz's which, towards the end, really emphasised how she was his child more so than Nettle had been, and not just because Fitz was more present in Bee's childhood. But I don't want to venture into spoiler territory.

So, if you've read the other Fitz books, then I strongly recommend finishing off the story with Assassin's Fate. If you haven't also read the Liveship books, then I recommend doing so before Assassin's Fate, especially if you had any general plans to read them at some point. Assassin's Fate contains some critical spoilers for those books and also contributes to their story in its own right. If you haven't read anything by Robin Hobb before, this is pretty much the worst possible place to start. Go back and start with Assassin's Apprentice. This is one of my favourite fantasy series and has been with me for a significant chunk of my life. It was bittersweet to say a final goodbye to the characters and the world.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: May 2017, Del Rey (US) / Harper Voyager (UKANZ)
Series: Fitz and the Fool book 3 of 3
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Robin Hobb’s genius isn’t flashy.

The world she has created is fully articulated, complete with complex characters and histories, detailed magical systems, and fully realized political intricacies, yet she rarely is mentioned alongside Brandon Sanderson and others recognized as fantasy’s greatest world-builders.

Her prose isn’t particularly flashy in the same way as writers such as Patrick Rothfuss, and almost never draws attention to itself, allowing the characters and their emotional journeys to provide the fireworks.

Hobb certainly can be clever with her dialogue, but she’s only occasionally laugh-out-loud witty along the lines of Scott Lynch.

Instead, Hobb’s success has always depended upon compassionate storytelling and characters who drive the plot, rather than the other way around. In “Assassin’s Fate,” Hobb completes the third book of the Fitz and the Fool trilogy, the fourth such trilogy Hobb has written about this world, and the third trilogy focused upon FitzChivalry Farseer, his friends, and his families.

Even now, after spending thousands of pages and countless hours with these characters, “Assassin’s Fate” provides even more evidence that Robin Hobb’s ability to emotionally punch readers in the gut remains unparalleled.

As the book begins, Fitz’s home has been attacked and his daughter Bee kidnapped. Unaware that Bee still lives, Fitz, the Fool, and a small collection of companions have begun their journey to Clerres, hell-bent upon a vengeful suicide mission. Their enemies already have seen their plans defeated once by Fitz, but some still believe that Bee could be their salvation, a once-in-a-generation figure upon whom the wheels of fate turn.

Against villains who may know their every move in advance, Fitz, now a past-his-prime assassin whom readers have followed since he was a young boy, is under no illusions regarding their chances of success – he considers this his final mission, with no higher goal than to destroy those who stole his child from him.

At one point, the Fool chastises Fitz for risking his life unnecessarily, and asks him if he wants to die.

“Yes,” I admitted it. “But not yet,” I added. “Not until I’ve put a lot of other people in the ground.”

Earlier in the book, Fitz, whose adventures have so often been undertaken out of duty or for love of his kingdom, admits that he has no higher purpose in this final mission.

“Fool, I care nothing for anyone’s vision of a better future for this world. The Servants destroyed my child.” I spoke into the darkness. “I care only that they have no future at all.”

But unbeknownst to Fitz, Bee is alive, held by captors whose casual and unending cruelties are documented in painstaking detail. Bee’s point-of-view chapters describe her beatings, fear, fatigue, pains and injuries, as well as the many times that she dares briefly to hope before that hope is snuffed out once again.

Assassin's Fate by Robin HobbIncredibly, Bee’s point-of-view chapters are even better than those narrated by Fitz, a stunning accomplishment considering that many readers, myself included, are reading this book because of how incredible a character and narrator Fitz has proven to be. Bee’s perseverance and determination will fondly remind readers of Fitz’s younger days as the target of Prince Regal’s abuses. Those cruelties provided the emotional fuel that made you cheer, even when Fitz made decisions that were ill-conceived but emotionally satisfying. Here, the threats and violence perpetrated against Bee are so well-written that you can’t help but spend much of the book enraged on Bee and Fitz’s behalf.

At times, Hobb’s table-setting is so effective that it’s hard to remember that Robin Hobb’s books aren’t one of the “Taken” movies. Fitz may have a particular set of skills, but these books have never descended into a series of vengeful murders. Hobb doesn’t shy away from the violence, but she won’t revel in delivering vengeance either. It gives her books a higher purposed, but I’ll admit – at times, all I wanted was to see the Fitz of old murder his enemies in righteous vengeance.

While Bee suffers, Fitz faces challenges in getting to Clerres, even after he learns that she may be alive. His company’s journey takes it to the Rain Wilds, where the magical liveships serve as the cornerstone of the traders’ way of life. Readers who have not read the Liveship Traders Trilogy may very well be confused at times, though it is possible to follow the plot even without a complete understanding of the traders’ back stories. Ultimately, the story of the liveships plays a key role in Assassin’s Fate.

Not surprisingly, the book’s conclusion packs Hobb’s usual punch. Hobb obviously put significant thought into how to conclude this trilogy and it showed, as threads dating back to the original trilogy came back into play and made the conclusion feel less like the ending of a simple trilogy, but a way to encapsulate the entire story Hobb has told to date.

Fans who have followed Hobb since she first introduced us to this world in Assassin’s Apprentice can’t afford to miss this one. It’s a story that was 22 years in the making, and Hobb’s ability to draw rage and tears and – when she chooses, elation – from her audience is stronger than ever.

This really should have been Fitz and Fool book with Bee as a Novella. This whole trilogy was disappointing. This book especially was difficult to get through and just did not pull you along and make you want to keep reading through the night.

FitzChivalry one of my favorite ever characters. Assassin's Fate is the perfect end to his story.

What a beautiful conclusion to multiple series. This was probably my most anticipated book of 2017, and it did not disappoint. I've loved the world of Fitz, and the Liveship Traders, and the Rainwild Chronicles, and this brought so much together. I would recommend that people read all those series before this one - for one thing, they are all excellent. And for another, it adds so much depth to this series, and especially this book, to have all of that beautiful background.

There is not a lot that can be said about this book without spoilers. It was emotionally draining and beautiful :)