Assassin's Quest - Robin Hobb

So ends the first trilogy. Still got several more to chomp through at my leisure, and very much looking forward to them. This book had a more active feeling on account of it being a quest and not confined to one place. Otherwise, more of the same. I loved the stuff about carving a dragon and imbuing it with your emotions. Seems like a metaphor for artistic projects. Very glad I borrowed these books. Fitz takes his place in my brain alongside Roland and Cloud.

Royal Assassin - Robin Hobb

More of the same, and very satisfying. Fitz is a wonderful main character, I really felt for him. There's a great line in this one, or passage, where he gets suddenly very angry at being moved around like a piece on a chessboard. Having had time to get acquainted with the setting and characters though, I have noticed these books are not all that well written. There not much economy, lots of kind of pointless adverbs and so on and it gets a bit frustrating. The story and characters make it worth it.

Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb

My first actual foray into the overcrowded genre of high fantasy (not counting Lord of the Rings or Dark Tower) and I loved it. The setting is vividly evoked but doesn't steal the show. Each character is very well-written. The story is all politics, espionage and assassination, but with a streak of the supernatural. The magic is very subtle (all about telepathy and empathy) and the "Red Ship Raiders" are superbly frightening. The spying and assassination stuff reminded me very much of the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion. This is one writer I'll definitely be coming back to.