Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

15 reviews

kell_xavi's review against another edition

3.0

This tale follows Fitz, the illegitimate son of a prince, who is left to the royal family at the age of six. The book follows the boy from his young life as a stable hand and street kid to his teenage years, through his education in sword arts and writing, and to his teenage years training in the art of espionage, poisons, and the Skill. Fitz possesses both the Skill, the in-world name for a form of mind connection and control with people, and the Wit, a similar ability with animals. The Wit, Fitz' use of it with dogs he befriends, and the stigma that surrounds it, was one of my favourite elements of the novel. Sadly, this aspect of the character stays in the background except for its influence on relationships with other characters, and as a handy deus ex machina.

King Shrewd reigns over Buckkeep and its six duchies along a coastline, where there is growing trouble from Red Ship Raiders, who have an unusual method of terrorizing the people of the kingdom. This appears to be the main conflict of the series, though this initial book is largely putting all the pieces on the board. I came to realize through this book that the reason I've seldom sought out epics is the long timeline they cover, and my preference for relatively short, well-explored periods as opposed to broad swaths across ten years (which we have here). While there are strong emotions around education, the Skill, the Raiders, assignments as an assassin, and the royal house, a great many are navigated with more speed and less depth than was needed for me to care about the unfolding plot and setting. There is a trauma here, for inhabitants of the dutchies losing their people and homes, for the prince attempting to fight a war he hasn't the strength for, for Fitz when he is abused by a teacher; I was looking for a lot more sensitivity, concern, and attention on these aspects.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Drug use, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Infertility, and Misogyny

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

3.0

I tried reading this book multiple times and put it down when I was uncertain how I felt about how it was progressing.  I’m glad that this time I persevered because it is a very engaging start to a story that lays a lot of groundwork for a tale that I think I’d like to follow.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

immovabletype's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Infertility, Misogyny, and War

Minor: Rape and Suicidal thoughts

reddeddy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Infertility, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cursing, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and War

onthesamepage's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I reread this on audio as a refresher, because I'd like to continue with the Realm of the Elderlings at some point, and it's been over 15 years since I first read this.

People often talk about how nothing happens in books, and how that's a bad thing. And I can agree with that sometimes. But this is a prime example of a book where nothing happened, and I still cared about it anyway. We're seeing Fitz grow slowly from a young boy into a teenager. Most of this consists of training montages, or Fitz performing tasks for someone. But I can't help but be invested in him as a character. The magic system continues to be intriguing, and I loved Fitz's bonds with animals.

The last 20% or so progresses a lot faster than the first part, and I may need to reread the very last part physically to make sure I remember what happened (audiobooks do make me zone out every once in a while). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Ableism and Animal death

lizziaha's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.75

I’m putting my faith in the idea that this book is laying a very strong foundation for the 15 other books. Unfortunately, Fitz is a very lonely child, so the story only really picked up for me in the last quarter of the book, when he began establishing and using his relationships with others. This book has a very straightforward style of writing, which occasionally read as telling instead of showing. It’s a complex book with a lot of moving parts, and you have to explain them sometime, but it did result in somewhat dense chunks of text sometimes. I wasn’t sure at the beginning but I’m definitely curious to see where this goes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Infertility, Infidelity, Rape, and Death of parent

clarabooksit's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Drug abuse

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Excrement, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

Corporal punishment/whipping. Poisoning and aftermath. Near drowning.

eileenp59's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

Minor: Biphobia, Body shaming, Child death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Slavery, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Stalking

maeverose's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

                         TL;DR:

Not a lot happens in the first half, mostly an introduction to everything and following Fitz as he grows up and trains to be an assassin. Second half tried to do too many different things back to back. I assume setting stuff up for future books but it felt a bit jumbled. Maybe if the beginning had been condensed it could’ve been spread out better. I really like the writing style and world building. I don’t know if I would say the book itself is too long or more so that big books just can’t keep my attention. I was only mildly interested for a lot of this book.

                       Characters

So far I’m not that connected to Fitz. To me he felt a little void of personality outside of having a strong moral code, liking animals, and being a teenager. Some of the side characters were much more interesting to me. Mainly Chade, Burrich and the Fool. My favorite character so far is the Fool.

‘The gender of the Fool has been disputed. When directly questioned on this matter by a younger and more forward person than I am now, the Fool replied that it was no one's business but his own.’ — You tell ‘em. (I say, as I’ve decided that he’s transmasc non binary..)

                          A Note

For people who haven’t read the book yet: I feel like chapter 15 deserves a bit of a warning. Specifically for telepathic mind rape and suicidal thoughts/attempt. There’s some build up to what happens within that chapter, but it’s much more intense than most of the book leading up to it.

I was gonna include a whole rant about the never corrected ableism but decided I was being over dramatic so I’ll spare you. I just find it annoying that people only ever seem to care about ‘time period accuracy’ (being as this is clearly based on medieval times) when it allows them to treat their marginalized characters poorly. I know this was written 30 years ago but still. It irked me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Slavery, and Pregnancy

Graphic: poisoning, telepathic mind rape, mental loss of self (becoming zombie-like), drowning, in one scene a dog is in a lot of pain and distress due to a bone stuck in its throat. Fitz removes it and the dog is fine, but the scene is very graphic. Moderate: self hatred, suicide baiting, eugenics