cover image Assassin’s Fate: Book III of the Fitz and the Fool Trilogy

Assassin’s Fate: Book III of the Fitz and the Fool Trilogy

Robin Hobb. Del Rey, $28.99 (864p) ISBN 978-0-553-39295-1

In the lusciously complex third Fitz and the Fool epic fantasy (after Fool’s Quest), themes and threads from the related Six Duchies series pull together in a dazzling finale that caps 20 years of writing and more than 15 books. FitzChivalry Farseer, a reluctant assassin who has done the dirty work for the Farseer monarchy under King Verity all his life, is once again pursuing those who have harmed his family. He believes that his precious daughter, Bee, has been forever lost in a Skill-pillar after being kidnapped by the Servants of the Four. With his usual cronies—the Fool, Lant, Perseverance, and Spark—doggedly attending, Fitz tracks the path Bee would have taken to the isle of Clerres. What Fitz doesn’t know is that Bee survived her trip through the Skill-pillar only to be cruelly mistreated—violence that forges her into a weapon against her captors. Hobb’s exquisitely drawn characters, fast-paced plotting, and enthralling prose beguile readers through a blockbuster of an ending for this trilogy and for the overarching series. Agent: Chris Lotts, Lotts Agency. (May)