Farseer Trilogy: My Unpopular Opinion on a Beloved Series

My very unpopular opinion of the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb.

Video channels mentioned are:

00:00 - Intro
03:48 - Spoiler Free
08:00 - Minor Royal Assassin Spoilers
08:23 - Spoiler Free 2
11:55 - Royal Assassin Spoiler
12:56 - Full Series Spoilers
17:27 - Spoiler Free Wrap Up

Music by Peter Koerhuis

[TheBookThing]

If you liked this please hit the subscribe button. Think I might need to lie down with some elf bark tea

[peterstedman]

This review is very interesting to me, since I had many similar thoughts, but after continuing the series, pretty much everything is put in its proper context. I do agree that the world building as a strength does not really become clear until Liveship Traders. A ton of groundwork has been laid, but you don’t really recognize it until you have the context of the later books.

I think the titles were poorly chosen and give the wrong expectation for the series. I’ve heard that an alternate for the first book would be Chivalry’s Bastard, and I think that would be much more appropriate title.

It’s important to remember that Fitz is not a reliable narrator. He’s a boy, and then a teenager, who was ripped from his family, turned into a tool, and then tortured. This trilogy is framed as an autobiography, which means that he’s writing this after the memory altering event in the stone garden.

[ChocolateRobs]

I just found it incredibly depressing. Anything that _can_ go wrong _will_ go wrong. Fitz' only real ability was to still be alive when all the evidence says otherwise.

[danielavezireva]

You have put into words what I could not explain to many people, on why I did not like these books. For that I thank you.

[hungrydave]

Fitz wakes the dragons so is kind of key to the outcome. Maybe verity's dragon could beat the red ships on its own, but veritys dragon wouldnt have been made without fitz helping kestrel, & stopping verity from dying as early as book 1. I dont need Fitz to be the perfect hero, hes better as a flawed observer that makes key contributions.
Also the dragons are not chucked in to fix plot. The reason they exist is a big part of the history that happened prior to them which is developed in later books. The characters are trying to understand the history of their realm and frequently misunderstand it causing the reader to misunderstand with them, but when you get to the end you realise Hobb knew and wrote their mistakes as part of the story. Thats class.

[UncleFenris]

I DNF'd halfway through book 2, so I understand where you're coming from and I think your criticisms perfectly encapsulate 90% of my grievances with the series.

[rajparmarman]

I just finished the farseer trilogy. My feeling was "why is this so popular on book tube". It was not very good. I have limited time to read, so I try to be super selective with what I am going to read next. I have a TBR list and since all the booktubers had it on their top list, I read it. I was so disappointed... I typed in "farseer books over rated" on youtube to see if anyone else felt this way. Thanks for the vids!

[raswartz]

Farseer is a slow burn no doubt but Liveship Traders is freaking excellent by any standard. You should give it a go even if you didn't like Farseer.

[indianajim]

Acknowledge you are in the minority, but never let consensus convince you you’re wrong. How many booktubers are praising it because they don’t want to be in the minority? We don’t know.

[ElectroMagneticJosh]

As someone who loved this and the rest of the Elderlings books (probably) even more - it is fun to hear a negative opinion on it. Fair play to you.

[hrimthusar]

Completely agree. I don't understand how one can make a book about an assassin so boring, with an ending so disappointing. I didn't really like the first book, but read the whole series and just do not understand what people like about it at all.

[hungrydave]

Some of your criticisms are fair, some unfair. The white ships are tied up beautifully in the 2nd trilogy, so is fitz mother. The fact that regal is above his own laws is a realistic study of power & regal even monologues about it - he doesn't need witnesses or alibis. The world building isnt as good as GOT, but its decent. I can name the dutchies. I grant you that Farrow/tilth are interchangeable though, so are some of the coastal dutchies. The main divide thats highlighted is between the inland and coastal areas. Its quite a small region. Fitz walks across it.

[phyllisd]

What I appreciate is someone stating their opinion and backing it up. Even if I totally disagree! That’s what’s so fun about reading-everyone gets something or nothing out of a book and it may be the something or nothing I got out of it.

[chaoticjustice]

Coming from a fan of the books that recently finished the trilogy, i totally understand this series is not for everyone and you actually touched on some really good critisizms

[christineyearing]

As someone who literally just finished the trilogy (today) and loved it, I totally understand all of your points. In fact, I think all of your points are totally valid and I mostly agree with everything you said but it still doesn’t change the fact that for me I was so engaged in this trilogy and I felt so attached to Fitz (and the Fool) and I would put it at the very top of my fantasy lists. I can’t wait to continue but I did try to explain it to someone and had to let them know that there was actually no assassinating going on….despite the titles of the books 😜

[PaperbackJourneys]

We might disagree BUT 2 things...

1. I've only read the first book. I might hate the next couple of books in the trilogy.
2. I love nothing more than watching Booktubers who hate books I enjoy. I don't know what it is but it's a guilty pleasure of mine. The reverse isn't true though. I rarely like watching booktubers gush over books I hated haha.

Great video mate.

[byouism]

Dude, u r correct…a book series should offer something. The apologetic book tubers do this same crap with Sanderson and his intentions of writing a ten book series to match wheel of time to cement him as the man, but 1200 pages of 1000 pages of blah blah blah. Fantasy needs the fantastic not word marathons

[kanyari]

At least once a year I think to myself: maybe I should try again, or try the Liveship... and then I remember the mindboggling boredom. Thank you for making the video I can come back to when I get the urge again.

[SevenPlanets-ClassicSFAudioHub]

Same thing happened to me except I DNF'd the first book and that was it.
Good to hear you say these things. I felt pretty isolated like something was wrong with me for not liking it..

[mje]

You have very aptly described some of my gripes with this series. I'm reading the next trilogy right now, The Liveship Traders and this one is SO much better. You have a new subscriber, as I have to assume you are an excellent connoisseur of books judging by the shelf of Discworld.