Assassin's Apprentice

Assassin's Apprentice
Robin Hobb, 1995

Premise: The life of a royal bastard is always complicated, but it's even more so when certain powers might run in your bloodline. 

I tried a different book by this author many, many moons ago and was put off by it enough not to try another. But this one was chosen for a book club, so I decided it was time to give her another try. 

Verdict? It's fine. 

The characters are fine - nothing too exceptional, nothing badly done about them, except maybe that most are a bit obvious from their first appearances. There's a bit of a Shakespearean feeling to them which is enjoyable, but (again) makes them a bit dramatically predictable. 

The plot has moments of real cleverness and tension alongside stretches where I had trouble convincing myself to pick the book back up, which averages out to... fine. I did really like the way the book handled what is effectively a confusion spell being cast on the viewpoint character - that's a fine line to walk without being too obvious or too confusing. 

The writing is solid, evokes the world clearly, but I didn't find it exceptional. It gives me the feel of something that I might have really loved if I'd picked it up at the right time in my life, but right now it's not quite good enough to be exceptional and it's not nostalgic for me and it's not so bad it's good (see also: sometimes I'm in the mood for really pulpy fantasy adventure fun times and this is not that).

I don't really care what happens next to any of the characters, so I probably won't be picking up any more in the series, but I might keep it in mind if I really just want this type of solid fantasy. 

3 Stars - A Good Book