Assassin's Apprentice

The first book in the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb, and it's absolutely fantastic. I now have to find the rest of the series, and read them, because the first one is captivating enough, and then there's the first bit of the next book stuck in at the end, just to make good and sure you want to read it.
Don't know really what genre to class it in. To be honest, a big part of me things it should be in the teen section, because it's about a boy growing up and trying to find his place in the world. As he's a royal bastard (as in illegitimately conceived, not as in the other meaning... :D ), that's pretty difficult. And so he's trained as an apprentice. A web of lies and betrayal form, nearly trapping and killing him, and it's absolutely incredible. I have a sneaking suspicion that this may latch on to my list of books you absolutely have to read and which comprise my all time favourites. And I don't say that lightly.
So, an intriguing read. Classed as fantasy by the library, and I suppose it is. But it's definitely more of a character driven fantasy than what I would class as a true fantasy. There are no fantastical creatures, horses and dogs and other such common place animals abound though. Think a mideaval kind of setting in a land created by the author but with little truly different to our own at that time. Apart from the Skill, which is a kind of magic I suppose. And there are a few other similar such 'magic' things too. A surprisingly high number of illegitimate children of the royal family. Oh, and the Red Raiders, which leave people 'Forged', in that they strip them of all human decency, so that they become a terrible blight upon the land. People would rather die than be Forged and cause terror. The kingdom is starting to split up, as the costal people want more protection from the sea-borne raiders, while those who live inland do not want to pay increased taxes to protect their brethren. Nobody knows what the Red Raiders want.
And all this is told by Fitz, looking back on the events of his youth whilst writing a history of the land. There are interspersions of the history, mingled in with his telling of events, and subtle hints as to what is to come in further books. It's an absolutely incredble book at any rate, and one which I would highly recomend for anyone with a bit of time--it's a fairly long one, as it needs to be to contain such a magnificent and well thought through plot, though it still feels spontaneous, rather than forced.
As you can probably tell, I thoroughly enjoyed that book. I'll stop raving about it now though.