Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

7 reviews

loriley's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This book is extremely slow.
The development of the political intrigue story, the world building, and the magic in this world are all phenomenal.
Plot movement is a little light

The life story of the main character is oppressively bleak. There is so little love, affection, or joy in the main character’s life, to the point where it gets hard to read.
I feel like this is the set up for a really good story, but on its own, it is not a satisfying, full story. However, since the set up is so good, I do plan on reading the series and I hope to get some satisfying conclusions later.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Grief

Minor: Slavery, Torture, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, and War

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

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

plantbaybe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

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

m_________'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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

4.0

This was so emotionally traumatic and there are fifteen more in this universe to go ...

I really enjoyed this book and am certainly looking forward to continuing the series.  I liked how Fitz's role as an assassin isn't quite what I've seen from other fantasy assassins, he's trained to be a lot more political and subtle. The book definitely has some hard hitting themes about loneliness, trauma, and living with trauma and I am also intrigued by certain side characters, and I already really love Fitz, of course.

Major CW for animal deaths.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail