Farseer trilogy
The Farseer trilogy is a series of fantasy novels by American author Robin Hobb, published from 1995 to 1997. It is often described as epic fantasy, and as a character-driven and introspective work. Set in and around the fictional realm of the Six Duchies, it tells the story of FitzChivalry Farseer, an illegitimate son of a prince who is trained as an assassin. Political machinations within the royal family threaten his life, and the kingdom is beset by naval raids. Fitz possesses two forms of magic: the telepathic Skill that runs in the royal line, and the socially despised Wit that enables bonding with animals. The series follows his life as he seeks to restore stability to the kingdom.
The story contains motifs from Arthurian legend and is structured as a quest, but focuses on a stereotypically minor character in Fitz: barred by birth from becoming king, he nonetheless embraces a quest without the reward of the throne. It is narrated as a first-person retrospective. Through her portrayal of the Wit, a form of magic Fitz uses to bond with the wolf Nighteyes, Hobb examines otherness and ecological themes. Societal prejudice against the ability causes Fitz to experience persecution and shame, and he leads a closeted life as a Wit user, which scholars see as an allegory for queerness. Hobb also explores queer themes through the Fool, the gender-fluid court jester, and his dynamic with Fitz.
The Farseer trilogy was Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden's first work under the pen name Robin Hobb and met with critical and commercial success. Hobb received particular praise for her characterization of Fitz: the Los Angeles Review of Books wrote that the story offered "complete immersion in Fitz's complicated personality", and novelist Steven Erikson described its first-person narrative as a "quiet seduction". The Farseer trilogy is the first of five series set in the Realm of the Elderlings: it is followed by the Liveship Traders trilogy, the Tawny Man trilogy, the Rain Wild chronicles, and the Fitz and the Fool trilogy, which the series concluded with in 2017.
Background
Writing and publication
In the 1980s, American author Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden began publishing under the name Megan Lindholm in a variety of genres, including high fantasy, prehistoric fiction, urban fantasy and science fiction. Her work was critically well-received, and her short fiction was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards, but was commercially unsuccessful. In 1993, she started writing the Farseer trilogy, an epic fantasy that was in a new style and subgenre compared to her earlier work. Feeling that her shifts across genres had prevented her from building a consistent readership, and also that "the drama of adopting a 'secret identity' was irresistible", Lindholm took up a new byline, Robin Hobb, to brand her Farseer work. She continued to write short fiction as Lindholm.Hobb felt her new pseudonym freed her from reader expectations of a Lindholm book, and she "wrote with a depth of feeling that I didn't usually indulge". The name Robin Hobb was intentionally androgynous and chosen to match the Fitz novels, which were written in a first-person male narrative voice. Hobb explained in an interview that she chose the pseudonym because many readers expected a male narrator to have been written by a male author. She continued concealing her identity after publishing the books, avoiding public readings or signings of the novels for multiple years. Ogden eventually revealed her pseudonym in an interview with Locus in 1998.
Hobb has said that the core idea for the Farseer series was: "What if magic were addictive? And what if the addiction was destructive or degenerative?" She said she had mulled over that notion for many years before writing. The first book was initially titled Chivalry's Bastard before becoming Assassin's Apprentice. Hobb conceived Fitz's narrative as a trilogy, feeling that his story was too complex to fit in a single book and naturally broke into three parts. A half-wolf called Bruno that moved into her Alaskan home in the 1950s inspired the relationship between Fitz and the wolf Nighteyes. The enigmatic Fool was initially not a big part of the series outline, but grew into a major character as she wrote the novels.
The first volume of the trilogy, Assassin's Apprentice, was published in May 1995 in the US, as a trade paperback by Bantam Spectra. Three months later, a hardcover edition was released in the UK by Voyager, a newly launched science fiction and fantasy imprint of HarperCollins. The second book, Royal Assassin, followed in 1996, first as a UK hardcover in March by Voyager, and then as a Bantam US paperback in May. The trilogy was completed in 1997 with the release of Assassin's Quest as a hardcover by both publishers, in March in the UK and in April in the US. Bantam stylized the US titles in the form of The Farseer I: Assassin's Apprentice; Voyager marketed the UK editions as part of the Farseer trilogy, and also as The Farseer Trilogy. The Bantam covers of the first two books were created by Michael Whelan, and the third by Stephen Youll. John Howe illustrated the Voyager editions of all three books.
Setting
The geography of the Six Duchies resembles the US state of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, where Hobb lived for several years. Hobb's initial sketches of the setting were inspired by the panhandle of Alaska, and the Six Duchies resembled Kodiak Island, her residence following her marriage, but the final commissioned maps bore a greater similarity to an upside-down Alaska than she had intended. Hobb would write four other series using the same setting, referred to along with the Farseer trilogy as the Realm of the Elderlings.The society of the fictional universe is comparable to Western feudalism, with nobility owing allegiance to a monarch, and with distinct social stratification, although commoners retain some basic rights. The ruling Farseer line were once raiders, who chose to settle in the kingdom of Six Duchies; the royal family has a tradition of taking allegorical names. The novels' primary society resembles medieval Europe in its technology, following a Tolkienian tradition, but departing from it in depicting far greater gender equality. A few other kingdoms exist that resemble non-Western societies. As the series begins, the Six Duchies is under assault from the "Red-ship Raiders", whose raids bear resemblance to Viking invasions. Two magical powers exist: the Skill, which allows humans to communicate at great distances and for one person to impose their will on another; and the Wit, which allows a bonding without dominance between humans and animals. The former is passed on through the royal bloodline of the Six Duchies; the latter is viewed with revulsion and its practitioners are persecuted.
Plot
''Assassin's Apprentice''
The narrative begins with the protagonist, aged six, being brought from his mother to the royal family of the Six Duchies. He is given the name Fitz, meaning an illegitimate son; he learns that his father is Prince Chivalry Farseer, heir to the throne. The shame of fathering a bastard leads Chivalry to relinquish his position and retreat to the countryside: he dies a few years later, without ever meeting Fitz. Chivalry's brother Prince Verity becomes heir to the throne.Fitz swears loyalty to King Shrewd and is trained in secret as a royal assassin and diplomat by master Chade. His bloodline grants him access to a form of telepathic magic called the Skill, which he begins to train in under Skillmaster Galen. Galen proceeds to telepathically torture Fitz and blunt his ability to use the Skill; his actions are later revealed to have been at the behest of Fitz's uncle Prince Regal.
Fitz gradually grows aware of his ability to use the Wit, which lets him communicate and bond with animals, but the societal prejudice against this ability leads his guardian Burrich to discourage his early attempts to use it. Fitz's first Wit bond, with a dog named Nosy, ends when the dog is sent away by Burrich. Fitz later adopts another dog, Smithy, and bonds with him in secret, but Smithy is killed defending Burrich.
Regal negotiates a marriage for Verity with Princess Kettricken of the neighboring Mountain Kingdom to strengthen the Six Duchies against the threat of the Red-Ship Raiders. Fitz is sent to the mountains to assassinate Kettricken's brother. He finds Regal plotting to kill Verity and marry Kettricken himself but is able to thwart the attempt.
''Royal Assassin''
Returning to Buckkeep, the capital of the Six Duchies, Fitz develops a Wit bond with a wolf named Nighteyes, after buying him as a cub from a trapper. He also develops a romantic relationship with a maid, Molly, and a friendship with the enigmatic court jester, who is known as the Fool. Fitz attempts to keep both his Wit and obligations as an assassin a secret from Molly, but their relationship later ends as the result of conflict over Fitz's duties.The kingdom continues to be harassed by the Red-Ship raiders of the Out Islands. The raiders are able to turn any captives into "Forged ones"; they are rendered emotionless and behave like feral animals. Prince Verity attempts to wage war on the Red-Ship Raiders through his use of the Skill, and recruits Fitz as an apprentice, creating a Skill link between them. Fitz also hunts the Forged with Nighteyes, relying on their Wit link.
Verity and Fitz are unable to turn the tide of the war, and so Verity departs on a journey in search of Elderlings, beings from myth who may be able to help his people. In Verity's absence, Regal plots to kill his father, King Shrewd, and the pregnant Kettricken. Shrewd dies despite Fitz's efforts, and Fitz is accused of his murder. Regal has him tortured, trying to wrest a confession; on the brink of death, he retreats to Nighteyes' body at the wolf's plea. His seemingly dead body is buried. Burrich and Chade later exhume the body and persuade Fitz to return to it, which he does with regret.