Assassin's Apprentice
Novel by Robin HobbWikipedia
36
MENTIONS
18
EPISODES
16
PODCASTS
Search complete. 36 mentions across 18 episodes found for "Assassin's Apprentice".
Oct 7, 2026
speaker_2HOST
Truly.
speaker_2HOST
And Ulrick points out that while the series begins with Assassin's Apprentice, the most vital animal companion doesn't actually enter the narrative until the second book, Royal Assassin.
speaker_1HOST
Which introduces us to Nighteyes.
speaker_2HOST
Now, the setup here seems pretty standard fantasy fare at first glance.
speaker_2HOST
Steven is not holding back.
speaker_3HOST
No. [laughs] He pushes heavily for Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice.
speaker_3HOST
Hobb is renowned in the genre for her excruciatingly intimate, almost painfully detailed character work.
speaker_3HOST
Her inclusion suggests that for Steven, the ideal gateway relies purely on intense emotional bonding with a flawed protagonist, prioritizing internal character evolution over external plot mechanics.
Sallie ChedburnHOST
I've never thought about it that much, but because I was reading it with a little bit more care this time, that did strike me.
Sophie BishopHOST
After reading Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, which is now my favourite fantasy book of all time, I was comparing the world-building as well.
Sophie BishopHOST
I think the problem that akatar has jumped into is it's similar to fourth wing in that it starts quite quickly into the action which is good in some books because you want to grip your reader and that's completely understandable a lot of people would say that robin hobb is very slow paced and they'd be right but i think the benefit of being slow paced is you can gently reveal things and you can you know, show through the eyes of your character and the things they're experiencing, what this world is like.
Sophie BishopHOST
Whereas because that hasn't happened in this book in Akatar, there was a lot of exposition of like what the situation was, who are fairies, who are we, what's my family background, what's this treaty, right? What's the relationship between all these characters? And it felt sloggy to me.
Steven WalkerHOST
...
Steven WalkerHOST
The Assassin's Apprentice, which is the only one I've read by her.
PB SquamerHOST
Oh.
PB SquamerHOST
Yeah, I don't know.
Mia ToddHOST
Very briefly, there does often tend to be a sort of a trend of women writing fantasy being classified as YA and not taken seriously as fantasy writers, which is why you'll often see women writing high fantasy or things like that will write under gender neutral/male pseudonyms.
Mia ToddHOST
Most notably, I think is, uh, The Assassin's Apprentice.
Mia ToddHOST
Robin Hobb, um, is a woman writing fantasy, but writing under a male pseudonym.
Mia ToddHOST
But it is, I think, it is something that kind of fantasy in some ways is a little bit of a boys club and then, yeah, women tend to get relegated to something like a YA label.
speaker_1HOST
They require smaller budgets, fewer locations, but the final two books we are looking at suffer precisely because they focus on internal growth rather than flashy tropes.
speaker_1HOST
Let's look at Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice, published in 1995.
speaker_2HOST
FitzChivalry Farseer, a royal bastard trained as a killer in a court that runs on political marriage and the grinding down of people into useful tools.
speaker_1HOST
The magic in this world is genuinely unpleasant.
speaker_1HOST
And you have the Skill, a psychic craft that the royals use to communicate over long distances, but it is highly addictive and literally eats away at your sense of self until you become a hollow shell.
speaker_2HOST
The plots turn on loyalty, addiction, and severe emotional damage.
speaker_1HOST
I always point out that fantasy casting conversations usually start with someone holding a glowing sword looking heroic, but Assassin's Apprentice starts with a little boy mucking out a dog kennel abandoned by his father.
speaker_2HOST
The power of Robin Hobb's writing is the slow, agonizing accumulation of detail.
LizaHOST
I read two books.
LizaHOST
One was called The Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb.
LizaHOST
And this is one of those things that I get all the time.
LizaHOST
Like, if you like this, then you should be reading this.
Joanna RobinsonHOST
This, this whole series is 16 books, five interconnected series, but this first one's just a trilogy, so I'm, I'm gonna start small, chip away, and see how far I get.
Joanna RobinsonHOST
But Assassin's Apprentice is where I'm starting.
Joanna RobinsonHOST
Thank you to Bronwyn for l- lending this to me.
Joanna RobinsonHOST
I'm really excited about it.
SarahHOST
Well, I know what Kylo would recommend, I think.
SarahHOST
Assassin's Apprentice? Yeah.
KylaHOST
I've been...
KylaHOST
Have you read it? Sorry,
AxelHOST
Let me get my game face on.
AxelHOST
so yeah let's talk about that so we mentioned in the main episode we're starting a comic book club series and we read Doom's first appearance in Fantastic Four number 5 in 1962
GordonPANELIST
Yeah.
GordonPANELIST
His very first appearance in all of history.
NickHOST
Wait, am I right about that? I think it's Robin Hobb.
NickHOST
I know it's Robin Hobb.
NickHOST
So this woman wrote this series of books called the, well, the first book's called The Assassin's Apprentice.
NickHOST
So basically it's a kid who is a bastard but of a royal line who, when he's born, they can't have him in the keep because they're going to be like, They don't want to kill him, but they've got to push him away so he's not in a spotlight that no one knows about him.
8 more episodes mention Assassin's Apprentice.
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