Assassin’s Apprentice – Robin Hobb

Recommended by an author in a Guardian article if I remember correctly, and annoyingly the Barbican Library only has the third and final part of this trilogy on its bookshelves… so I bought all three via AbeBooks after I’d sat and read the opening chapter in a second hand bookshop on a visit to Sue in Edinburgh aeons ago.

Worth the wait – we meet the boy / the bastard on his arrival at Buckkeep and see him grow under the care and tutelage of Burrich, Chade, Galen and Lady Patience into Fitz / FitzChivalry, apprentice assassin, whilst his innate abilities with the Wit, and eventually the Skill, see him bond with castle dogs Nosy and Smithy, and royal relatives King Shrewd and Prince Verity.

Author’s webpage: Assassin’s Apprentice – Robin Hobb (The Farseer Trilogy 1)