Assassin's Apprentice I #1

Product Information

The incredibly influential fantasy novel comes to comics in this first installment of best-selling author Robin Hobbs’ Assassin's Apprentice! I would highly recommend Assassin’s Apprentice and the Farseer Trilogy. As you read you become ever more immersed in the story and it just seems to get better and better.”— Fantasy Book Review A man awakens a boy in the middle of the night. His face is a map of wrinkles. He offers to teach him if the boy wishes to be a loyal servant to the king. The boy agrees without knowing what the man will teach him. What happens next? Let’s delve into Assassin’s Apprentice #4 and find out! The adaptation to the graphical novel is good - it's been almost three decades since I last read the novel, but there are still many familiar parts and if something was skipped I did not miss it. I do remember that in the novels there's an unfortunate amount of moping by the main character which is thankfully absent in the adaptation. As the space is condensed, the plot also opens up more clearly than I remember, though it does come with some pretty heavy speech bubbles full of exposition. Hobb is the author whose books Martin described as ‘like diamonds in a sea of zircons,’ the writer to press on those who turn up their noses at fantasy. Her writing is superb, her world-building irresistible, her storylines both hell-for-leather exciting and deeply introspective.”—The Guardian

I have really enjoyed working with Dark Horse to bring Fitz’s story to this medium,” says author Robin Hobb. “I’ve been very impressed with their integrity and respect for the original material.” Having recently started my reading journey following the life of FitzChivalry Farseer with the novel of Assassin's Apprentice I was eager to see how it would be adapted into comic book format. It's impossible to fit all the detail from the book into an adaptation but all the main plot points and events are here which means we get a much faster moving adventure and yet somehow is still feels like a story being told at a leisurely pace.Young Fitz lives in King Shrewd’s castle. He works for Burrich, the stablemaster. Fitz wears the royal seal, but the bastard wields no power. Old Chade offers to teach Fitz his trade. One proviso: Fitz must keep their lessons secret. Fitz has learned to keep his thoughts and feelings to himself. Chade expects the boy to question and make his own choices in life. But Fitz doesn’t like the idea of killing people, and his growing penchant for questioning authority could get him into trouble. Until recently, Fitz was only known as “boy.” The illegitimate son of a powerful noble, Fitz is taken in by his uncle, Prince Verity, who prepares the boy for a journey to the capital to meet his royal grandfather. But Fitz is not a normal child. An ancient power stirs inside him, something that will change the destiny of the Six Duchies forever!

The graphic novel covers a part of the first novel, the early childhood of Fitz Chivaldry, a royal bastard brought to the court around age six and as the machinations take place is trained in a number of disciplines - but most importantly, and secretly trained as the King's Assassin. The core plot is a variant of 'farmboy to hero' trope but an interesting one. For me, politics play a major part of the appeal.

‘Wolverine’ #25 gets extra-sized milestone issue – Exclusive preview

The cover art is not the style in the comics. The story is illustrated by Ryan Kelly with colours by Jordie Bellaire. The art suits the fantasy setting and all the characters are easily distinguishable from one another. The colour palette is sombre showing the medieval setting with flashes of colour cleverly used to portray uses of the magical abilities of The Skill and The Wit.