If you have finished Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice and find yourself wandering about with that peculiar emptiness that comes when a beloved story ends, then you have come to precisely the right place. For there are other worlds awaiting you, dear reader—worlds just as rich with intrigue, just as tender with heartache, and just as wonderfully concerned with the making of young people into something rather more than they were before.
What made Fitz’s story so terribly compelling? It was, we suspect, the intimate way we lived inside his head, feeling every slight and triumph as keenly as if they were our own. It was the slow, careful building of a world that felt entirely real. And it was, above all, the transformation of a lonely, unwanted boy into something remarkable.
These twelve books possess that same enchantment.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Here is a tale told by a man recounting his own legend, and what a delicious conceit that is. Kvothe—innkeeper, former arcanist, and legendary figure—sits down to tell a scribe the true story of how he became the most notorious wizard his world has ever known.
Like young Fitz, Kvothe begins as an orphan whose cleverness is both his salvation and his curse. The prose here is nothing short of magnificent, each sentence polished until it gleams. We follow him from a troupe of traveling players, through years as a street urchin, to his audacious entry into a school of magic.
The story moves at precisely the pace it ought to—which is to say, it takes its time, allowing you to fall quite helplessly in love with its world and its wounded, brilliant, infuriating hero.
The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
In the warrens of Cenaria City lives a boy named Azoth, who has learned that survival requires quick judgment and calculated risks. His greatest gamble? Apprenticing himself to Durzo Blint, the city’s most feared assassin—a wetboy, they call him, for he deals in death that leaves things rather wet indeed.
The transformation from Azoth to Kylar Stern mirrors Fitz’s own journey in the most satisfying ways. Here is a young person learning terrible skills while grappling with questions of loyalty and love. The criminal underworld is rendered with impressive detail, and the relationship between master and apprentice burns with the same complicated fire that Fitz shared with his own mentors.
Terry Brooks called it unforgettable, and so it is.
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
Simon is a kitchen boy, a daydreamer, a mooncalf—and he is about to have his comfortable world shattered entirely. This is the book that George R.R. Martin called one of his favorites, the book that Patrick Rothfuss says changed how people thought about fantasy altogether.
The similarities to Assassin’s Apprentice are striking and intentional, for Robin Hobb herself has acknowledged Tad Williams’ influence. We listen to Simon’s inner thoughts throughout the tale, sharing his confusion and wonder as civil war threatens the land of Osten Ard and an undead Storm King stirs from ancient slumber.
At eight hundred pages, it demands patience—but patience, as any good gardener knows, yields the sweetest fruit.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
What if Oliver Twist had grown up to become the most audacious con artist his world had ever seen? Scott Lynch imagined just that, setting his tale in Camorr, a Venice-like city of canals and mysterious Elderglass towers.
Locke Lamora leads the Gentlemen Bastards, a crew of thieves who steal from the nobility whilst pretending to be nothing more than petty criminals. The intricate plotting will keep you guessing, and the relationships between the Bastards burn with the same fierce loyalty that bound Fitz to his companions.
Though the book is full of witty dialogue that lightens the mood, make no mistake—this is dark fare indeed, exploring what happens when a world built on lies collides with genuine loss.
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
If you have ever wondered what fantasy might look like stripped of its comfortable certainties, Joe Abercrombie has your answer. Here are no clear heroes, only people—flawed, selfish, occasionally noble people—trying to survive in a world that cares nothing for their struggles.
Logen Ninefingers is a barbarian who has run out of luck. Jezal dan Luthar is a nobleman whose selfishness is exceeded only by his skill with a blade. And Glokta—poor, magnificent Glokta—is a torturer who hates everyone, including himself. The writing crackles with dark humor, and the questions Abercrombie raises about good and evil will stay with you long after you close the book.
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
From the quiet village of Emond’s Field come three young men whose lives are about to change forever. When Trollocs attack and a mysterious Aes Sedai appears, Rand, Mat, and Perrin must flee their homes, pursued by servants of the Dark One.
Robert Jordan deliberately evoked the Shire in his early chapters, creating that same sense of comfortable belonging before shattering it entirely. The world he built is staggeringly detailed—complete with its own systems of timekeeping, currency, and magic—and the journey across it feels genuinely epic.
With fourteen books in the series, you shall have companions for quite some time. The Wheel of Time has sold over forty million copies, and there is good reason for that.
Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
Here is a world where the villain has already won. A thousand years ago, the Lord Ruler ascended to godhood and reshaped the world into a place of ash and mist, ruling it ever since as an immortal tyrant. All rebellions have been crushed. All hope has died.
Enter Vin, a street urchin who discovers she possesses extraordinary magical abilities. Recruited by the legendary thief Kelsier, she becomes part of an impossible heist: to overthrow an empire. The magic system—Allomancy, the burning of metals to gain powers—is wonderfully inventive and satisfying to witness in action.
Vin’s development from wary, untrusting orphan to confident revolutionary mirrors Fitz’s own journey in beautiful ways.
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
On the island of Gont, a boy named Ged discovers he has a gift for magic. Proud, impatient, and dangerously overconfident, he makes a terrible mistake: attempting forbidden magic, he unleashes a shadow creature that will hunt him to the ends of the earth.
This is the book that introduced the idea of wizard schools to fantasy, decades before a certain boy with a lightning scar. But it is also something deeper—a meditation on the necessity of knowing oneself, shadows and all. Le Guin’s prose is spare and beautiful, her Taoist philosophy woven throughout without ever becoming heavy-handed.
The shadow Ged faces is no external enemy. It is himself.
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip
If you loved Assassin’s Apprentice for its emotional depth and beautiful prose, Patricia McKillip will enchant you utterly. Sybel is a young wizard who lives alone on a mountain, calling legendary beasts to her with the power of their true names. When a baby is thrust upon her care, she must confront the world she has avoided—and the capacity for love and revenge that dwells within her.
The prose here is crystalline, each sentence polished to gleaming. The book won the World Fantasy Award, and it is easy to see why. McKillip explores isolation, grief, and the terrifying weight of great power with a delicacy that never diminishes the story’s impact.
This is a quiet book, but it is earth-shattering nonetheless.
The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan
In the city of Imardin, only the wealthy are permitted to learn magic. Sonea, a slum dweller, shatters that comfortable arrangement when she accidentally knocks out a magician with a stone thrown through a magical barrier. Suddenly, she is hunted—for a rogue magician is dangerous indeed.
The Magicians’ Guild that pursues her shows the same class-conscious society that shaped Fitz’s world, and Sonea’s journey from distrustful outsider to powerful mage follows a satisfying arc. Trudi Canavan excels at building sympathy for her characters, and the magic system is explained with pleasing clarity.
Though written for a younger audience, these books possess genuine depth.
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Celaena Sardothien is an assassin—the most notorious in her kingdom—and she has spent a year in the salt mines for her crimes. Now the Crown Prince offers her freedom: compete to become the royal champion, and serve four years before earning her liberty.
What sets Celaena apart from most fantasy assassins is her refusal to be grim about it. She loves fancy dresses and fine music as much as knives and strategy. She is cocky, vain, and wonderfully dramatic. As her fellow competitors begin dying in mysterious ways, the story transforms from tournament tale to magical mystery.
It is rather like the Hunger Games for assassins, one might say, and it is tremendous fun.
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
For those who wish to lose themselves in a world as vast and detailed as Robin Hobb’s, Brandon Sanderson offers Roshar—a storm-swept land of mystery where wars rage over ancient magical weapons. Three characters drive the narrative: a soldier who has survived too many battles, a young scholar seeking forbidden knowledge, and a warlord consumed by vengeance.
This is slow-building epic fantasy at its finest, rewarding patient readers with revelations that recontextualize everything that came before. The magic system is intricate, the worldbuilding immense, and the character development exactly the sort that made Assassin’s Apprentice so beloved.
Be warned: once you begin, you shall be committed for many thousands of pages.
Finding Your Next Adventure
Each of these twelve books offers something precious: the chance to live inside another person’s journey, to feel their struggles and triumphs as vividly as your own. That is the gift Robin Hobb gave us with Fitz, and it is a gift these authors offer as well.
Perhaps you shall find yourself drawn to the lyrical tragedy of Kvothe, or the moral complexity of Logen Ninefingers. Perhaps Vin’s transformation will capture your heart, or Ged’s confrontation with his own shadow will illuminate something within you.
Whichever path you choose, may your reading be as rewarding as that first journey through the halls of Buckkeep. The worlds are waiting, dear reader. All you must do is begin.
