Shaman's Crossing (The Soldier Son Trilogy, Book 1) 
Nevare Burvelle is the second son of a second son, destined from birth to carry a sword. The wealthy young noble will follow his father—newly made a lord by the King of Gernia—into the cavalry, training in the military arts at the elite King's Cavella Academy in the capital city of Old Thares. Bright and well-educated, an excellent horseman with an advantageous engagement, Nevare's future appears golden.
But as his Academy instruction progresses, Nevare begins to realize that the road before him is far from straight. The old aristocracy looks down on him as the son of a "new noble" and, unprepared for the political and social maneuvering of the deeply competitive school and city, the young man finds himself entangled in a web of injustice, discrimination, and foul play. In addition, he is disquieted by his unconventional girl-cousin Epiny—who challenges his heretofore unwavering world view—and by the bizarre dreams that haunt his nights.
For twenty years the King's cavalry has pushed across the grasslands, subduing and settling its nomads and claiming the territory in Gernia's name. Now they have driven as far as the Barrier Mountains, home to the Speck people, a quiet, forest-dwelling folk who retain the last vestiges of magic in a world that is rapidly becoming modernized. From childhood Nevare has been taught that the Specks are a primitive people to be pitied for their backward ways—and feared for their indigenous diseases, including the deadly Speck plague, which has ravaged the frontier towns and military outposts.
The Dark Evening brings the carnival to Old Thares, and with it an unknown magic, and the first Specks Nevare has ever seen . . .
Reviews
Anyway, the long and short is simple. I read the first two Soldier Son books back to back and enjoyed them. They're not the greatest books Hobbs has written, but if you liked the Farseer books, then these are worth your money.
Our hero. Nevare, is the second son of a recently elevated second son. In this world of Gernia, second son's are soldier son's and thus our hero is born and raised to be a soldier - and by golly does he dogedly go about it.
As the book progressed, getting tediously bogged down in mind numbing details about Nevare's upbringing, military encounters, spiritual encouters and dreams, I realised Hobb has chosen to tell this novel from one view point only - Nevare's. Unlike her previous books where she has woven the talk around one or a few strong and interesting encounters, this book is told from one person's point of view - every single solitary chapter. With teeth-grinding detail, Hobb informs of us all the good, the virtue's, the flaws and values of this one character. Some other characters take shape within the book, but never does Hobb stray from telling the story from Nevare's viewpoint and only his viewpoint. It gets tiring at times because he isn't exactly the most likeable character in the book.
And then there are the names... I don't know why but there seemed to be an incredible lack of imagination devoted to creating names for this new land and tale by Hobb. Everyname, be it city, country or person's name seemed to be the result of a 2 second think job beforehand. What is a country with stolid values? What is a country with great fictional fantasy significance? Combine those 2 and voila, we get the country name for this novel! What is a fine sounding estate in the UK? Change a vowel and voila, we have an fine estate-sounding name for a Lord's place/village etc. What is a masculine spounding name? Change a vowel or consonant and voila, you have a character's name. Some of these were so obvious it made my eyes roll as I read them...
But despite the burgeoning flaws in this book, it is not a bad read, even if it gets tedious in places. It defintely could have done with some chapters devoted to developing other characters and plot lines, but I recall the first book in the "Liveship Traders" trilogy by Hobb's not being particularly exciting either. So I can only hope this trilogy will improve like a fine wine as Hobb's developes it as well. But if this is your first time in reading a book by Hobb's, then its best to start at the beginning and read the King's assasin books first and work through her other trilogies, because I'd hate for you to give up on this author before you've read her best stuff, ie the previous 9 books she wrote!
Nevarre stubbornly refuses to believe that his life is being affected or influenced by the magic. FitzChivalry refuses to admit he's a Catalyst, and refuses to believe in the Fool's prophecy.
Anyway, you do want to smack Nevarre. Because sometimes he's being stubborn, sometimes he reacts emotionally, and sometimes he insists on living in his narrow life-view - molded by his upbringing as a little soldier, religion, and rural, sheltered upbringing.
This is a realistic character. His patrol mates at the academy are realistically portrayed - Gord, fat & picked on, but patient and thoughtful; Spink, the poor New Noble boy who struggles at math; Trist, the handsome charismatic type; etc. His uncle, Epiny, etc are also well portrayed.
For folks complaining that this is slow compared to the Farseer, they apparently haven't read "Assassin's Apprentice" 6+ times like I have. It moves with the same sort of pace - almost all character driven storytelling and setup, little action.