Assassin's Apprentice

A royal bastard is a dangerous thing to have about the place. When the crown prince of the Six Duchies abdicates in disgrace over the boy's existence, young Fitz is left to grow up in the castle stables, scorned by nearly everyone. His only comforts are the king's fool, the ragged children of the lower city and a strange kinship with animals. Then the crown finds a use for him: he is to be trained as an assassin, and in the old magic of the Farseer line.

His tutor, loyal to another faction, would rather see him discredited, or dead. Told by Fitz himself, this opening novel of the Farseer trilogy is fantasy built on character rather than spectacle, thick with court intrigue and quiet loneliness. It suits anyone who likes their epic fantasy intimate, with a hero who earns every inch of ground.