I Read Books: Fool's Assassin

Fool’s Assassin

After the adventures of the previous books Fitz gets his happy ever after. He retires to Withywoods and marries Molly.

For a while it does seem as though this is a happy ever after. And Hobb’s real skill is in making his quiet years, occasionally interrupted by family and politics, fascinating. The deep details and strangeness, combined with Fitz’s flaws and blindspots allow the novel to carry us through even as nothing happens for a while.

You can’t ever have a happy ever after. Fitz has been healed by the Skill magic and this has restored his youth. Molly meanwhile ages as usual. She begins to fail. She then claims miraculously to be pregnant. As this is impossible and she claims it for two years both Fitz, the servants and Nettle their daughter assume she’s suffering from dementia.

She give birth to a small and strange daughter and things… well mostly they go back to a slow daily life that occasionally gets strange. In the last few chapters change comes and overwhelms and the plot is revealed, though that implies deeper mysteries.

Read This: If you are already caught up in Fitz’s earlier stories, Hobb has more tricks to pull from the bag
Don’t Read This: Six or possibly thirteen books in is no place to start