This was pretty weak. Hobb seems to delight in torturing her heroes endlessly, and in this book, that includes the Fool as well as Fitz. Each time I opened it, I dreaded finding out what fresh hell would be inflicted on Fitz, and I was rarely "disappointed." This has always been signature Hobb, o...
The first of Hobb's series I read. Hobb has her own way of building a protagonist-they make mistakes, have major regrets, and can suffer for a long time. It's fantasy, and large sweeping events do happen, but Hobb revels in character development and the primacy of intimate, loving relationships...
This was a bit different from the other Realm of the Elderlings books. It is a first-person account from the mother of a minstrel who was close to the Piebald Prince, and tells the story of the Prince's conception, birth, life, and death.It is interesting to the person who is wondering whether or...
Tragic. Simply tragic. What I expected before I read the book? I thought the W.princess and the the P. prince were lovers! (For most books, I don't read synopses). Never in a million years would I have thought it would be a story about mother and son.I am giving this novella 5 stars, because I go...
It has been 10 years since I last read a book set in the Six Duchess. Returning to this world was like putting on a well worn pair of slippers - it's warm, comfortable and fits snuggly. Set long before Fitz hits the scene this is a quick and dirty telling of how being Witted became a bad thing, a...
The Farseer trilogy is an epic life adventure of Fitzchivalry Farseer; the bastard son of a king-in-waiting who abdicated the throne for love. As royal bastards go, they have no official standing in the court and cannot succeed the throne or become the heirs. But because his father acknowledged h...
Robin Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy numbers among the epic fantasy reads that I always intended to read again. Having read Assassin's Apprentice again, it's clear why her books are considered classics that you will find at almost every good bookstore.What starts with the almost standard trope of the...
I am torn between 3 and 4 stars on this. I found the story intriguing and it kept me up past my bed times way too many nights. But the third book was not quite as satisfying as I would have liked, and I thought the promise of some of the foreshadowing did not really pay off in the end. Still, ...
Ok so I started this and to be truthful it drags out, thankfully I speed read so can ignore some content. But the plot was fascinating. The skill, the wit! And I found myself thinking about the forged ones for days. A book that makes you want to buy the next and haunts your mind for a few days de...
I will rant about this book, there's no doubt in my mind. I'm simply trying to gather my thoughts. Let's try with the first book, "Assassin's Apprentice," shall we?I liked Book I. It was a beginning story, a training story. Young FitzChivalry is the bastard son of King-in-Waiting Chivalry and has...
Updated August 2014.Originally posted at Fantasy Literature. http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...“Alone again. It isn’t fair. Truly it isn’t. You’ve the saddest song of any man I’ve ever known.” ~Starling Birdsong, minstrel to Queen KettrickenI squealed with delight when I recently opened a ...
I really haven't read enough Robin Hobb. She has flown under my radar, mostly because my first encounters with her were through the library, and I have this bad habit of checking out books in the middle of the series (ahem, Golden Fool) and then wondering what the hell is going on. Last year I ...
What is this book...? Well, it's the continuation of Fitz's storyline. It's also the continuation of the Fool's storyline and Bukkeep's storyline. I would also go so far as to say that this is the continuation of the Elderlings world. This book, although focused on Fitz most of the time, is actua...
First let me say that I have another series on my shelf by Robin Hobb. When I started this trilogy I noted from others who had read it and reviewed it that several of them said it was far from Robin Hobb's best work. Several also said if you haven't read anything by Robin Hobb don't start here. S...
Final verdict: a great antidote to A Game of Thrones, with brilliant, complicated characters.My friend introduced to me to Ship of Magic because I'd been complaining about annoying stupid characters. She recommended Robin Hobb in general, but Ship of Magic especially, primarily for Althea Vestrit...
It's ridiculous that as a sedate middle-aged woman I find myself in the role of a twirling and fluttering fangirl, yet, here I am, ensorcelled by Robin Hobb's imagination to the point of wanting to shout out my adoration in forms that belong to readers far younger than I am -- gifs, OMGs and WTFs...
Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb is the concluding book in The Liveship Traders series. I have absolutely loved this series and was excited to read the final installment and see what fate awaits some of my favorite characters in fantasy.Ship of Destiny and all of Robin Hobb’s fantasy books are extr...
Bitter sweetness or sweet bitterness...Epic. I was absolutely crazy when I finished the final, 6th book about The Fool and the Assasin, I couldn`t read, couldn`t sleep, concentrate or communicate with people - I got lost in the thoughts and emotions after absorbing this Story. The funny thing is ...
** spoiler alert ** I love Robin Hobb. I really do. I’ve reread the Farseer trilogy a couple of times over the years. I loved Tawny Man. (Not so much the Madship series, but there you are.) But this Soldier Son trilogy… It’s unique; there’s a lot in it that I’ve never seen before. The chara...
He coughed and spat. “Stop it!” he choked and tried to put a threat in his voice. “Get out of my room. I’m getting up. I won’t be late.” Despite his plea, water slopped against his face again. His stupid sister was going to get it now! He opened his eyes to a new nightmare. He dangled face-down f...
Regal shouted the words. He stood swaying in the door, face red with drink and anger. Behind him I glimpsed his guard, and little Rosemary peeping around the corner, wide-eyed. Somehow she managed to slip past the men, to race to Kettricken and clutch at her skirts. For an instant our tableau hel...
Even more unusual was for her to be fairly bursting with enthusiasm to speak to them. Thymara and her father were scarcely inside the door with their baskets before her mother spoke. Her eyes were bright with hope. “We’ve had an offer for Thymara.” For an instant, both the young woman and her fat...
Bright blue skies overhead gave a false promise that summer might return. The fog and the clouds drew back, revealing changes in the countryside. The river had changed gradually, with the far bank slowly advancing back toward them. Perhaps, Leftrin thought, they had finally passed through the rem...
Not even the individual islands, small as they may seem, are under the sole command of any single lord or noble. In fact, there are no ‘nobles or lords’ recognized among the Outislanders. Men have status according to their prowess as warriors and the richness of the spoils they brin...
No individual man, no matter how Skilled, could stand alone to fend the Red Ships from our coasts. King Shrewd summoned before him Galen, the Skillmaster, and directed him to create for Verity a coterie to aid the prince’s efforts. Galen resisted this idea, especially when he found that one of th...
SHE PUSHED BACK from the table, causing Malta’s pen to leave a squiggle on the paper. She stood up and rubbed her eyes. Malta watched her aunt walk away from the table and the scattered papers and tally sticks on it. “I have to go out,” she announced. Ronica Vestrit had ju...
As a small child, her nursemaids found her stubbornly independent, and yet lacking the common sense to take care of herself. One remarked, “She would go all day with her laces undone because she could not tie them herself, yet would suffer no one to tie them for her.” Before the age of ten, she h...
In this dream, I am myself. I am trying to run away from something, but I can only run in a circle. I rush as fast as I can, trying to run away, but always I find I am running directly back to the most dangerous place. When I tumble too close, they reach out and catch me. I do not see who they ar...
This was not the existence of the heir son of a Bingtown trader! He had never lived in such miserable conditions, let alone travelled in them. He’d lost count of the days he’d been confined below decks. He still wore the same garments he had been wearing when the Chalcedean had abducted him. Now ...