Robin Hobb

Robin Hobb is the primary pen name of Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, an American fantasy author best known for the Realm of the Elderlings, a sprawling sequence of interconnected trilogies beginning with the Farseer Trilogy (Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, Assassin's Quest) and continuing through the Liveship Traders, Tawny Man, Rain Wild Chronicles, and Fitz and the Fool trilogies. The books follow assassin-in-training FitzChivalry Farseer and a large surrounding cast across decades of invented history, and are widely praised for emotionally unsparing character work that many fantasy readers rank among the genre's finest.

Ogden also writes as Megan Lindholm, the name under which she published earlier in her career, keeping the two pen names associated with somewhat different tonal registers -- Lindholm for more experimental or contemporary-inflected fantasy, Hobb for the epic Elderlings sequence that made her reputation. She has cited her years living in Alaska, including time spent among Alaska Native communities, as a formative influence on her writing.

A new reader should start with Assassin's Apprentice, the beginning of the Farseer Trilogy and the natural entry point into the wider Realm of the Elderlings, which is best read in publication order given how heavily later trilogies build on earlier ones. There is no film or TV adaptation; the series' reputation rests entirely on its prose and characterization.