Assassin's Fate (Fitz and the Fool #3) - Robin Hobb

⭐ 10/10

I read the first book in this series more than 4 years ago. I remember starting the first one in line to get my first COVID shot. And here we are, 16 books later, at the end of one of my favourite fantasy series. Sad to see it go, but this final entry is among the best, and it ends in a completely satisfying way.

As a whole, this final trilogy is maybe the weakest of the series, with the first two books setting up the avalanche of this final book. This book is enormous, so I think some of it could have been distributed differently, but whatever, I think this is a masterpiece finale. The books are all pretty slow, but this one reminded me of the final book in the third trilogy, where all of a sudden there is tons of action, tons of travel, and tons of change. Hard not to compare to Wind & Truth, which I read after, but the way this tells a broad story, bringing together disparate storylines in ways that are meaningful and not just easter eggs, is really satisfying.

I can't really begin to explain the plot without the context of all that came before it, but this book centers around a dramatic rescue. Almost all these books feature a single perspective, but the additional perspective of the person who has been captured is really great. Felt like such a natural transition, which is hard to do when there is kind of a single main character for most of these.

I found the parent/child relationship to be really effective, with the stakes feeling so high. I also thought the final pages were really beautiful, a full-circle send off of an iconic character. Overall just a really satisfying ending to a series I have really savoured.

As a final ranking, here is how I would rate all the different sub-series:

5. Fitz & The Fool Trilogy (5th entry)

4. The Tawny Man Trilogy (3rd entry)

3. The Rain Wilds Chronicles (4th entry)

2. The Farseer Trilogy (1st entry)

1. The Liveship Traders Trilogy (2nd entry)

This should be encouraging, since this massive series starts strong, but don't get me wrong, I loved every one of these books, and even the worst trilogy had possibly one of the best books of the whole series in it. This world feels unique and well thought out, but is also based around strong characters, with world building that happens naturally over the course of many years.

I don't want to be hyperbolic, but this may be my favourite start to finish non-Tolkien fantasy series. Wheel of Time has some brutal books in the middle, ASOIAF isn't finished, Kingkiller isn't finished, Sanderson broke my heart with his continual degradation. It has all the aspects I love in those books, with a level of completion and finality that is incredibly satisfying, but still leaving some amount of mystery that let's my imagination linger on this world.