Assassin's Apprentice

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780006480099.

A glorious classic fantasy combining the magic of Ursula Le Guins The Wizard of Earthsea with the epic Mastery of Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings. Now reissued in gorgeous new livery. In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma. Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chilvary Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility. So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribbing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.