I finally decided to dive into this story about Fitz, the bastard son the the king and his journey as the assassin's apprentice because I really want to read the books about the boats. What I found here was writing I immediately fell in love with but a book that kept me at arm's length from the action. 

For a lot of the book, this doesn't feel like a fantasy story. We are learning about court politics and Fitz and how he fits in with the world he is in. I don't mind this because that's usually my favorite part of fantasy novels. The magic involved here has to do with connecting to other people's minds and it is given to us in a way that feels like "well duh, this is a natural part of life" This means we are picking up on things as we read. I really enjoy that style of world building when it makes sense to do it. It made sense here.

There are a couple of things that lowered my rating here. First, Fitz has such a sad life and for much of the book, it doesn't feel like he has any agency to get out of it. It feels like he's really getting beaten down over and over again for a while and that can be exhausting to read. The other thing is that until the last quarter or so, the reader is held away from much of the action. Because of the nature of the magic, we see things happening through Fitz's mind and we aren't directly in it, or we get a quick list of things that are happening. I wanted to feel more involved in the plot.

Overall, I will continue the series because the characters and the writing are strong enough to keep me interested. And I want to read about these boats.