The opening trilogy of the Realm of the Elderlings follows FitzChivalry Farseer, the illegitimate son of a prince who never took the throne, from his childhood in the stables of Buckkeep Castle through his training as a royal assassin and his role in the Red Ship Wars that threaten the Six Duchies. Hobb establishes the universe's central concerns from the first pages - the cost of duty, the pain of isolation, and the particular cruelty of a world that uses people without acknowledging what it takes from them. The Fool appears here for the first time, beginning one of the most celebrated relationships in contemporary fantasy fiction.