Assassin's Apprentice

Assassin's Apprentice is the first book of the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb, a pseudonym of the American writer Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, published in 1995. Hobb drafted it under a working title, Chivalry's Bastard. It follows FitzChivalry, a royal bastard brought up at Buckkeep Castle, from his first training in a trade his family keeps quiet about through to the early years of his service.

Fitz is the unacknowledged son of a prince, left at the castle when he was six and raised around the stables by a stablemaster who had once been a soldier. He is the son of Chivalry, the King-in-Waiting, and his existence is a problem that the court solves by keeping him useful and out of sight. His grandfather the king decides the boy can be trained as an assassin, which means lessons in poisons, handwriting and the parts of politics that happen at night.

Fitz also has the Skill, the magic of the royal line, and a bond with animals that his people consider shameful. Raiders are burning towns along the coast, the king is failing, and an uncle wants the throne that his own brother's son has a better claim to. Fitz is trained to serve the crown while the family he cannot claim divides into rivals, and he succeeds in protecting the throne at almost the cost of his life.

The Farseer Trilogy continues with Royal Assassin and Assassin's Quest, and the characters reappear in later Hobb series set in the same world. This first volume establishes Fitz, Buckkeep and the magic systems that the rest of the books work with, and the Liveship Traders and Rain Wild Chronicles take place in the same world at the same time, with some crossover.