Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

36 reviews

chrisb913's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

This book was incredible. It is very slow paced. Hobb takes great care to coax out the story unfolding before you and is not in a rush to do so. She also incorporates a lot of flowery prose that slows down the reading even further. But this story is incredible. And painful. We experience the story through the eyes of Fitz who is the bastard son of the prince-in-waiting Chivalry. We watch him grow from 6 years old into young adulthood as he learns to navigate this world that he was thrust into. He experiences so much and Hobb does not hold back any punches. Fitz goes through it in this installment and it just makes you want to wrap him in a hug and protect him. This will be a series I recommend to everyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Infertility, and Death of parent

indigo_fox's review

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.75

 I didn't expect to like this story as much as I did in the end. At first I found the writing boring but at some point I was captivated. Hobb built a fascinating world and I loved learning about it as I read. I loved seeing the bonds between the characters and how those changed over time. I still have some questions but maybe those will be answered in the next book?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infertility and Infidelity

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

scramuel058's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Infertility

reinynights's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Classism

Moderate: Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Death of parent

vampires's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

5.0

What the fuck

it definitely starts slow, which is not a bad thing, but i did not expect it to be 5 stars until everything begins snowballing and it feels like everything is wildly out of control but from an author perspective you can tell that robin hobb had everything so tightly under control and plotted to the minute. her handling of the plot and all the infrastructure supporting it was so good. also, she never pulls a single punch. there were like 2 things that i think she softened that could have been worse, but even then, she only transformed something bad into a different bad thing rather than hesitating on the trigger. like she just aimed the gun slightly to the left instead but still shot it anyway. WILD. i love the complexity of the web connecting the different characters that is gradually spun into place. also i love that the women are real characters and feel like real people, even when their position in the narrative would make it very easy to write them as more archetype (i don't want to include spoilers in this review so i won't name names but there are a couple of characters that applies to). there is the story unfolding in front of us, and then the story unfolding simultaneously off page, and then the story that already unfolded in the past that is dogging the narrative and you can feel its presence and every so often you are thrown a few crumbs to piece together. INSANE

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, and Grief

Minor: Infertility

halefa's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.25

The first part - maybe the first 60-70% - I would give a rating of 2,5/2,75.
The second part of the book I would give a rating of 3,75/4.

The beginning of the book is an incredible slow burn.
I don't particularly enjoy stories written from children's perspective, and that might be the reason for me disliking that part so much. Unfortunately for me, the main character is a child (6-12 years old) for most of the book.
Most of the book is also focused only on that child and various things that happen to him. There is no general thread or story arc yet, and the main character is rather passive and unopioniated (I mean - he's a child!).

The second half of the book luckily picksup pace. Now a teenager, the main character makes more decisions and takes actions. Also, a general plot develops giving the world more authenticity and relevance. A generic evil shows up and different characters' agendas to deal with it are revealed.
This part was far more engaging and interesting to read.

And then there are the last couple of chapters happen where the pace quadruples and everything explodes.

Apart from being of the opinion that the book stays in the childage era for far too long, I am sad we didn't get to know more about the aspect of the story that is actually in the title: "Assassin's Apprentice". 
We only get vague hints and weak side sentences once in a while about what the assassin education included and I would have wished for more details and creativity here.
(Also I don't get Chade. Really weird mentor vibe.)

I noticed that the book contained barely any positive descriptions of women and the language used to describe female characters is often heavily inspired by the idea of stereotypical medieval terms.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal death, Infertility, Grief, and Death of parent

baobaebye's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Physical abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

s_nova's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and War