Yet another post of mine censored from reddit:
After I finished reading the Song of Ice and Fire I have been looking for some other book to read and several sources recommended me the Assassin's Apprentice. I had several reason to expect the book was going to be good:
I had read only good things about Robin Hobb as a writer, and a lot of people recommend this particular book.
What does the title "Assassin's Apprentice" suggest to you? For me, it had me imagining a plot full of cool action and political intrigue full of interesting assassination scenarios. What it doesn't suggest is a boring "autobiography" about a spineless serving boy passively observing likewise boring events around him.
Usually, when the book is bad and I don't like it it doesn't infuriate me: I just put it down and look for something else to read. It is usually very easy to tell a bad book from the beginning judging by it's prose...which bring me to my third point:
- The surprisingly decent prose kept me expecting until the last word on the last page that all that I had previously read was an overly long prologue, and the real action is just about to start; that the main character would go off on his own to avenge his father, kill his grandfather, start a war for the throne...do bloody anything interesting!!!
Every time I expected the plot to finally begin it never did. There was no plot. Not even a bad one. The was no plot at all.
It never delivered. The book never even tried. And there were no red flags to warn me about it. That is what infuriates me most: if I knew that it is a book without a any plot I wouldn't have wasted my time with it. At the end I felt like someone played a practical joke on me.
I don't know why anyone suggested me this joke of a book. I am not saying that Robin Hobb is a bad writer since this is the only one of her works I have read, but I really have no wish to read any of her other work after the disappointment that the Assassin's Apprentice was.
EDIT:
"The Kingdom of the Six Duchies is on the brink of civil war when news breaks that the crown prince has fathered a bastard son and is shamed into abdication. The child's name is Fitz, and he is despised!Raised in the castle stables, only the company of the King's fool, the ragged children of the lower city and his unusual affinity with animals provide Fitz with any comfort.To be useful to the crown, Fitz is trained as assassin: and to use the traditional magic of the Farseer family. But his tutor, allied to another political faction, is determined to discredit, even kill him. Fitz must survive: for he may be destined to save the kingdom."
Thank you to u/A_Gringo666 for providing this "summery" that is being used to promote this sorry excuse of a novel. I take back any positive things I might have said about it. This is blatant false advertising and anyone who actually suffered through the novel will know it.
[–]jet199 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun - (0 children)