“Assassin’s Quest” by Robin Hobb

Assassin’s Quest is the last volume of the Farseer trilogy. I gave both Assassin’s Apprentice and Royal Assassin glowing reviews, but didn’t enjoy this one quite as much.

I don’t want to say too much about the specific plot points since it’s the third book of the series, and this blog is for general audiences. However, this book is quite different from the other two. As should be obvious from the name, this book involves a quest (started in Royal Assassin). The atmosphere in this book is more of an adventure, seeking the unknown. The previous books were set in known territory and involved a lot of political intrigue and court plots. All of this has now been resolved.

Most of our favourite characters from the previous books return, sometimes in unexpected places. Some characters have undergone a bit of an unexpected metamorphosis, which is pretty interesting.

I didn’t expect the book to be as sad as it was. Even though everything ends satisfactorily, Fitz is still in the shadows, and still melancholy. As per general fantasy tropes, I expected him to end up the Farseer king with Molly at his side. This didn’t happen. The book ended realistically, but not extremely happily.

I really enjoyed the two new main characters – Kettle and Starling. They had interesting stories and motivations, and made great additions to the story.

I wish the Red Ship Raiders had been explored more. Their motivations were explained in one of the chapter-prologues, but given the prominence of their threat, I expected them to play a bigger role.

Overall, a decent but somewhat unsatisfying end to the trilogy. Luckily, there are a few more trilogies in this world, and Fitz features in one of them!

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