My first foray into the works of Robin Hobb has not left me disappointed! Her work is brilliant, I can't believe it's taken me this long to pick up one her books even though I've known of her for a long time. The Assassin's Apprentice is brilliant, a well-written classic fantasy with great characters, political intrigue and some awesome twists and turns. It did take me awhile to get fully involved in the story, but this may be more my fault than anything as I was in a slight reading slump when I started out, thus the main reason why I could only give it 4 stars instead of a potentially well-deserved 5. Despite this, however, I absolutely flew through the last half of the book and couldn't put it down until I finished! I cannot wait to read more of Fitz and his adventures in the rest of the trilogy and fully expect the rest of the books to possibly be able to reach my favourites shelf! Here's hoping!