Nostalgia is a funny thing. It can color our interpretation of things and is often difficult to divorce oneself from. Such is the case with Robin Hobb’s latest series opener Fool’s Assassin. Focusing on the retired life of FitzChivalry Farseer, now Tom Badgerlock, it shows him dealing with a primarily sedentary life. He watches his wife age past him, his own aging slowed by the magic healing that saved his life, and finds himself suddenly beset by unexpected child late in life. The story plays very much like a bildungsroman except instead of a youth maturing into adulthood it is an older man learning how to be a father.
King of the Nerds!!! 