The Reread - Realm of the Elderlings #1: Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

It has been more than five years since I read The Realm of the Elderlings and I am due a reread. 

Several years ago, I dogsat for a friend for an extended time while she was in Europe. Her dogs were adorable, but it was quite a bit of work to go back and forth to her house multiple times a day. She gave me a big gift card to Powell's and told me I had to buy something fun. I bought the ENTIRE Realm of the Elderlings saga. 

Lately I've been in a reading valley. It's not a slump - I've read some very good books - but the books are not exciting me or making me eager to read them. So the advice I've always gotten about these situations is to do a reread. So here I am. First up is The Assassin's Apprentice. 

Fitz is the bastard son of Prince Chivalry. His mother's family abandons him at a royal home and he's raised in the background of court, mostly hanging out with the stableman, Burrich, who is his father's man. Well, King Shrewd realizes that Fitz could be useful, so he convinces Fitz to tutor under Chade, Shrewd's assassin. Along the way, Fitz realizes he has a special bond with animals called the Wit, which is taboo. He's also tutored by a dickwad named Galen to try to be able to Skill, a talent only those with royal blood have, but Fitz is not good at it. Anyway, he has to go on a mission to kill someone and he sort of succeeds, but more by accident than anything else. Meanwhile, Prince Regal, second in line to the throne, hates Fitz, so I'm pretty sure that's going to be important. 

Let's all pour one out for Nosy and Smithy, Fitz's dogs who, sadly, do not make it through the entirety of this novel. 

Look, this book is SO GOOD. Fitz is a traumatized child who immediately clings to any adult who shows him any attention. No one actually teaches him the nuances of the court, so he never has any idea what's really going on. He has no idea why Regal and Galen despise him, even though to the reader, it's crystal clear. Dogs show him real affection, so of course he develops his Wit, even though Burrich tells him it's shameful. It's such a great character study of poor Fitz. And we sort of know, before we're even halfway done with this first book in this entire eighteen book series, that it's always going to be poor Fitz.

I listened to the audiobook and it's so good. If you haven't read this, what are you waiting for? 

5/5 stars

Lines of note:

All events, no matter how earthshaking or bizarre, are diluted within moments of their occurrence by the continuance of the necessary routines of day-to-day living. Men walking a battlefield to search for wounded among the dead will still stop to cough, to blow their noses, still lift their eyes to watch a V of geese in flight. I have seen farmers continue their plowing and planting, heedless of armies clashing but a few miles away.  (Chapter 3)

You guys, I just looked this up. It is the same exact passage I marked when I read this in 2020. 

"...Burrich's shown you both how to work, and how to obey. Two things that Burrich himself excels at. You're not especially strong, or fast, or bright. Don't think you are. But you'll have the stubbornness to wear down anyone stronger, or faster, or brighter than yourself. And that's more of a danger to you than to anyone else." (Chapter 4)

So much foreshadowing in this book, friends. Fitz is so incompetent at everything he does. 

"There isn't much in a man's head," he told me, "that can't be cured by working and taking care of something else." (Chapter 5)

Right? I get out of bed to take care of my girls. 

"Keppet," said the woman at the next mat as I completed my purchase. I glanced at her, thinking she was addressing the woman I had just paid. But she was staring at me. "Keppet," she said, quite insistently, and I wondered what I meant in her language. It seemed a request for something, but the older woman only stared coldly out into the street, so I shrugged at her younger neighbor apologetically and turned away as I stowed the nuts in my basket.

I hadn't gotten more than a dozen steps away when I heard her shriek "Keppet!" yet again. I looked back to see the two women engaged in a struggle. The older one gripped the younger one's wrists and the younger one struggled and thrashed and kicked to get free of her. (Chapter 6)

Click to show spoiler

THIS IS FITZ'S MOM. 

 

The more tolerant Chade was, the more surly I felt. (Chapter 7)

Teenagers, right? Or, alternately, me when I'm hungry. I hate it when my husband is super reasonable when I'm pissed off. 

Men cannot grieve as dogs do. But we grieve for many years. (Chapter 24)

Poor Fitz. 

Hat mentions (why hats?)

so many new garments, hats, and accoutrements for Regal (Chapter 19)

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Do you reread books? How often? What motivates you to do a reread?