The Farseer Trilogy

by Robin Hobb

The opening trilogy of the Realm of the Elderlings follows FitzChivalry Farseer, the illegitimate son of a prince who never took the throne, from his childhood in the stables of Buckkeep Castle through his training as a royal assassin and his role in the Red Ship Wars that threaten the Six Duchies. Hobb establishes the universe's central concerns from the first pages - the cost of duty, the pain of isolation, and the particular cruelty of a world that uses people without acknowledging what it takes from them. The Fool appears here for the first time, beginning one of the most celebrated relationships in contemporary fantasy fiction.

Part of Realm of the Elderlings

The Realm of the Elderlings is the creation of Robin Hobb, a secondary world fantasy universe built across five trilogies and a standalone novel published between 1995 and 2017. Set primarily in the Six Duchies, the Bingtown Trader coast, and the Rain Wilds, it is a universe defined less by its world-building than by the depth and honesty of its character work - Hobb's sustained examination of what it costs to live an exceptional life in a world that does not reward exceptionalism cleanly. Magic in this universe takes several forms - the Skill, a telepathic ability used by the Farseer royal line; the Wit, a bond between humans and animals regarded with suspicion and fear; and the mysterious transformative power of the Rain Wilds that shapes both its human inhabitants and the living ships of the Bingtown Traders. Dragons, Elderlings, and the ancient civilisation that preceded the current world provide a mythological depth that reveals itself gradually across the full sequence.

Publication Order

1
Assassin's Apprentice
1995
2
Royal Assassin
1996
3
Assassin's Quest
1997