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  • The Farseer: Assassin's Apprentice

  • Written by: Robin Hobb
  • Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
  • Length: 17 hrs and 18 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (572 ratings)

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The Farseer: Assassin's Apprentice cover art

The Farseer: Assassin's Apprentice

Written by: Robin Hobb
Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
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Publisher's Summary

With unforgettable characters, a sweeping backdrop, and passionate storytelling, this is a fantasy debut to rival that of Robert Jordan. Filled with adventure and bloodshed, pageantry and piracy, mystery and menace, Assassin's Apprentice is the story of a royal house and the young man who is destined to chart its course through tempests of change. Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal household by his father's gruff stableman. An outcast whose existence has forced his father to abdicate his claim on the throne, Fitz is ignored by all royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him secretly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in the young man's blood is a heritage of magic, the talent called the Skill, as well as another, even more mysterious ability.

As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts and leave behind the zombie-like husks of the townspeople to prowl the countryside, Fitz is growing toward manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission, a mission that poses as much a threat to himself as it does for his target---for Fitz is a threat to the throne...but he may also be the key to the survival of the kingdom.

©1999 Robin Hobb (P)2010 Tantor

What the critics say

“Intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured...at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.” ( Kirkus)

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What listeners say about The Farseer: Assassin's Apprentice

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

you really can't judge a book by its cover

... Because the cover is absolutely terrible, but the story within is well paced, handily delivered and totally engrossing. If you are a fan of the 2/3rds finished kingkiller chronicles, then you will love this book AND Robin Hobb is the the Cal Ripken Jr of deadlines.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

This series just goes on and on and on

This series just takes too long to get anywhere and like a soap opera just rehashes the same dramatic content over and over again. Don't start and look elsewhere for you audio entertainment.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Pretentious

I made it part way into the third chapter and just couldn't any more. The story is mildly interesting but the language is absurdly overblown and also sprinkled with basic errors - in just that short span there were two occasions where the author used "he and I" when it ought to have been "him and me", which might have been acceptable if the tone had been folksy and colloquial, but it was not at all. The reader was no help; he read in an awkward, pompous style with odd, seemingly random overemphasis. He also made what may have been pronunciation errors, or else they were the author's misspellings. Two I recall were saying "reveries" when "revelries" was clearly meant, and saying "bite" instead of "bile". There were others.

I was prepared to put up with a few infelicities of language and was trying to ignore the narrator's eccentricities, but eventually the tedious, meandering style just wore me down. Bor-ing. This is a book for laying down and avoiding.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

terrible narrator

seems like a good book but I just cant listen to this narrator drag out the story.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good, but a bit depressing and slow to start

The first 3 chapters were so slow I almost gave up on the book. Then it picked up and was quite interesting.
Overall a good book, but the bitterness and senseless cruelty of those around the protagonist make it quite depressing to listen to.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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If you liked Name of the Wind

similar concept, I imagine this book helped influence it. I'll be reading the next one.

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A good book and a complicated story

This is the first book in a trilogy. I had read the paper book a very long time ago and did not remember the story. I thought the audio would make it easier to get back in. The plot is rather complicated. The main character is a lovable boy who is put into an impossible situation. So it makes it easier for the reader to forgive him for becoming the king's assassin. It looks like even though the master teaching him to use the "Skill" tried to brake him and make him fail, Fitz can use the "Skill" in the end. I suppose the next book will tell us how he used it from then on."
The narrator was very good.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

underwhelmed

Narrator was good. It seems like these books are either something you love, or you just don't. I read the Ranger's apprentice books to my 6 year old son, and this seemed like it was in the same vein. Felt like a YA novel to me. A good one, but I was hoping for a bit more nuance, surprise, complexity, and maturity.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

nope

Did not like the narration. Accent/voice seemed affected. If an rp English accent was wanted, they shouldn't have chosen an American actor to narrate.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Don't Give Up

While reasonably effective at setting up the main plot, the first three chapters in this book are genuinely *tedious*. Fortunately, once Robin Hobb gets developing 'Fitz' - bastard son of a Prince - into a magically-gifted assassin (using what is known as "The Skill"), the worldbuilding, characterization, and plotweaving are revealed as impressive and worth reading. If you can make it through the most boring bits, the book morphs into a thought-provoking cerebral Fantasy Novel.
Hobb's understanding of pacing is deficient - and he isn't good at scripting action - but the political dynamics of "The Six Duchies" are well-conceived and believable, the threat posed by a quasi-Atlantean species known as "The Raiders" attacking coastline villages is interesting & credible, and the coming-of-age/learn-magic character development is capably delivered (albeit nowhere near as good as that of Patrick Rothfuss's 'Kvothe'). This is a slow-starting but imaginative & passably readable book.

Less fortunately, charges from reviewers that the narration is subpar are legitimate. Don't get me wrong.. Paul Boehmer is undeniably professional - exhibiting excellent diction, timbre, cadence, and tone, for example - but he reads too slowly (setting playback speed at 1.15X yields the most comfortable experience) and has an uninspired voice-acting repertoire (characters all sound annoyingly similar with the same somewhat prissy Middlesex accent - Boehmer doesn't even attempt another accent until the final chapters).

Taken altogether, 'The Farseer: Assassin's Apprentice' rates a respectable - if unspectacular - 5.5 stars out of 10. It is certainly worth a try (you could easily fall in love with the writing style and the rich setting), but I personally found the deficiencies outweigh the strengths. I won't be continuing with this particular set of books within Hobb's imaginings. I have heard good things and will likely give the 'Tawny Man' subtrilogy (Books 7-9) a try instead.

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1 person found this helpful