Loved it. Been a 10 year wait since the end of "Fools Fate", Very much looking forward to next installment. An angry vengeful Fitz is my prediction. Graeme

This is the first Robin Hobb book I've ever read and I have to wonder how it's taken me this long to discover her! While it would have obviously helped to have read the earlier trilogies, this book was written so that characters and past events were explained well enough for a Hobb newbie to appreciate. I really enjoyed immersing myself in a world where people can be 'Witted' to animals, and can communicate with each other telepathically ('Skilling'). Hobb has a gift for character development and I found the first-person narratives worked really well. The book ends on a major cliff-hanger, which was well built up to, and which has left me longing for the next instalment. I will have to while away the time until the next book is published by going back and reading the series from the start!

Of all of Robin Hobb’s books in this series, Fool’s Assassin is perhaps the slowest paced. Joining FitzChivalry some time after his last trilogy of books, we encounter him at his most peaceful with him living wife Molly and trying to have a normal life. Although not boring, if it were not for the past two trilogies of character growth with FitzChilvalry the book would be a slower read than I found it. The first half is the slowest part of the book and there are times when the story appears to be starting to gain momentum yet that is often short lived. The pacing does not start to become more intriguing until perhaps the last quarter, but when it does it then really starts to pick up pace. The whole book feels like one big bridge in the lead up to the real story of the trilogy, and only provides us more than an adequate time getting to know the newer characters of this trilogy.

As someone who reads Fantasy I have been, over the years encouraged to read books by Hobb by friends of mine. For some reason, every time when I hefted a volume in my hands and flicked through the pages, I have put the book back but I thought getting a preview copy would be a way to settle the question once and for all. Personally, I don't like first person narratives but there are exceptions (Iain Banks, for example), it is however something to bear in mind as you read my review. I just didn't get the Fool's Assassin, or getting it, felt it. The beginning was good and dramatic but then the tale seemed to pass slowly by - it was like getting on a very good train which flies along but then you watch the distant landscape as it goes slowly past. True, after the first third of the book the pace does change, perhaps the middle ground is where the narrative voice now concentrates... There are parts which are like flashes of drama, the whole thing is well written and plotted but it just seemed familiar to me and comfortably so, even down to the last twists (which if you can't see coming will have you grasping the book so hard your knuckles turn white...) so no, not for me the rest of this series, I'm afraid - for those who are new to fantasy and like slow moving books then this would be a grand introduction - but I feel you should know that some fantasy can just kick along... If you like your hero miserable or self loathing - then Thomas Covenant has more than FitzChivalry is ever likely to have... If you like older characters who actually seem to have learnt from their lives, then there's always Waylander and if you like your epic to build up and keep going then J V Jones series starting with The Baker's Boy are all solid suggestions....

I have to admit, fantasy isn’t for me! I found myself labouring through this very large tome, confused and not really understanding a lot of the dialect. Things like men being ‘witted’ to animals made no sense to me. I found the names and places overwhelming, and trying to follow the story was hard, as I had to flick through to see the connections! I imagine it must have been much easier to read if you are familiar with this genre. Having read others reviews, however, I can appreciate that this was a long awaited follow-up to a very popular writer of fantasy. I did manage to read through to the end, which did leave even me wanting to know what happened in the rest of the trilogy!