Before things gets heated, I will proclaim my undying love for most of Hobb’s works in the paragraph below, because that appears the custom among underwhelmed, and therefore apologetic fans. Feel free to skip the next paragraph instead! Glorious and beautiful storytelling . . . Hobb lets rip with revelations, treachery, vengeance, sword fights and full on magical mayhem.”—SciFiNow First published through the Del Rey publishing label, this was the original book in the ‘Fitz and the Fool Trilogy’ to come out. Setting up the new line of books, it was also the fourteenth book to come out in the ‘Realms of the Elderlings’ to come out too, establishing a whole new narrative. Released on the 12th of August in 2014, it would later be followed by a sequel the following year, as it would re-establish already pre-existing characters into new situations. Melville, Peter (2018). "Queerness and Homophobia in Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogies". Extrapolation. 59 (3): 281–303. doi: 10.3828/extr.2018.17.

Nearly the entire book is a setup. We know this. We're just reveling in a gorgeous span of time, giving Fitz the peace he'd always desired after having become the most deadly assassin and mass-killer of the land. a b Cooke, Paul (December 20, 2003). "Icy twist in the tale: Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb". Birmingham Post. Gale A111485966. Now, let’s get on to the best part of the book and what truly makes this book superb, the new character, Bee. I can’t emphasize this highly enough, Bee is an incredibly well-written character and I truly love reading about her. Just from this book alone, she has become one of the best characters Hobb ever wrote and also, she has a POV! Yes, that’s right, for the first time since Assassin’s Apprentice, this is the first time in Fitz’s series that Hobb included another POV other than Fitz, and this is a brilliant decision. I’ll be honest here, Fitz is a wonderfully written character but I’m not a huge fan of him, being inside his head for the whole trilogy can be tiring and sometimes annoying. Bee’s POV provided a dynamic and nice change of pace from Fitz’s POV that the series have sorely needed for a long time; it’s also fantastic to see other people’s thoughts on Fitz from another POV rather than only from Fitz describing what other people feel about him and dialogues. This series of series of books made me better understand the meaning of 'character driven' fiction. Robin Hobbs' ability to so accurately portray so many aspects of the human experience is second to none, at least in my experience. Loneliness, belonging, happiness, depression, love, grief... and duty, loyalty, betrayal, revenge, solitude, humility, family, parenthood... the list goes on. In FitzChivalry Farseer, the Fool, Nighteyes, Bee, Althea, Brashen, Alise, Sedric... all of these emotions and actions are so believably portrayed, that a lot of the time I enjoyed the exposition, the conversations and the calmer moments in the books better than the action. That's not to say that the action was bad; only that the characters were that compelling.

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There isn't much I can say here unfortunately, as even the slightest explanation of what this plot is about will ruin some major reveals and plot twists for the reader. But suffice it to say the plot was absolutely marvelous. The pace of this story is admittedly very slow, but this isn't a bad thing when this author has instilled so much trust in the reader by this point that this story is going somewhere wonderful. Even with the slow plot, the stakes are high and my heart was beating out of my chest at several times in the last act of the book. The story direction obviously means—once again—that the book is almost completely zero of action sequences. I’m seriously glad for this, Hobb in my opinion is a not a good battle/action scenes writer, Hobb is always at her best when she dived deep into her characters’ personalities and thoughts. Reading her prose about Fitz contemplating about the passage of time and how age changed a person physically and mentally in this book turns out to be the best sequences she ever wrote so far; she could go on and on about this and I’ll devour it with joy.

The Fool alters his actions and mannerisms to maintain the façade of the characters he plays. As King Shrewd's jester, he is acrobatic, sing-song, and fond of publicly embarrassing most who speak to him. Lord Golden delights in finery and frippery and flirting. Some of these traits appear to be part of his intrinsic personality. Even in private he is frequently sarcastic and takes great pleasure in teasing his friends. He comments on his delight in dressing himself and Fitz in fancier clothing, and also appears to enjoy making himself up as Amber. However, he is also prone to graveness or even despair when reflecting on his role in the world and the tasks he feels he must accomplish. Many of us have a particular series (whether it’s books, films, graphic novels or a TV show) that we follow over a number of years and that comes to mean more to us than most fiction, the characters growing with us and changing as we change. For me, that series is Robin Hobb’s Realm Of The Elderlings books, which I started reading nearly 20 years ago, in 1998 (the first book was published in 1995) and which has just come to a possibly-final conclusion with the publication of the latest book, Assassin’s Fate. This series has had a huge impact on me and, I think, many others, so what I want to offer here is a fairly personal reflection on the highs and lows of the whole series, and on how effective Assassin’s Fate is as a conclusion, if that is what it turns out to be. I am very rattled. These books have meant so much to me in the past two months. I don't want to get too personal, but I'm in a stressful and difficult part of my life, and these books have been an incredible escape, a source of joy and tears, an inspiration, and a release. And this community has made me feel very welcome. Your respect for spoilers (not a single thing was spoiled for me!), your willingness to engage in conversation with a new reader and even your help in digesting the series as I went through it, greatly enhanced my experience, and I thank you guys sincerely.Fool's Errand was published in October 2001 by HarperCollins Voyager in the UK, [3] and in January 2002 by Bantam Spectra in the US. [4] The second volume followed exactly one year later in each country, and was titled The Golden Fool in the UK and Golden Fool in the US. [5] The concluding book, Fool's Fate, was released in October 2003 in the UK, [6] and in February 2004 in the US. [7] The series was marketed as The Tawny Man trilogy, [4] and is also known as the Tawny Man trilogy. [8] [9] The UK covers were illustrated by John Howe, while the US versions were designed by Stephen Youll. [4] [5] [6] [7] But FitzChivalry Farseer is not without weapons of his own. An ancient magic still lives in his veins. And though he may have let his skills as royal assassin diminish over the years, such things, once learned, are not so easily forgotten. In fact, I felt like the characters from Liveships and Rain Wilds took too large a part of the story. It was definitely nice to visit them again, and I imagine for readers who waited years it was more nostalgic, but it also felt slightly like fan service. I'm not saying they weren't important to the story, but it saddened me to see Althea and Brashen suffering, when it felt like their story was already ended. And Wintrow got way too little attention in contrast to Rapskal, for example. On the other hand, I appreciate how Hobbs made her characters feel even more true to life by showing that their lives continued past what we got to see of their story. How Wintrow didn't "get the girl" in Etta, at least not like he hoped, how Kennitsson wasn't exactly a paragon of virtue (pun intended), how Malta and Reyn, Phron, Thymara and Tats and the other keepers didn't exactly prosper in Kelsingra. I appreciate it, but it still felt incongruous with Fitz's story. I enjoyed the separation between the characters between series. So to make matters worse, Fitz’ narrative voice felt distant throughout. I understood him being subdued and weary after his traumatic past. I did. What I didn’t understand was why he not only had to be morphed into a shadow of his former self, but also into a stranger. I mentioned how his training and skills - his “edge” - appeared to have vanished. Small examples that stood out: despite having experienced a similar childhood, he repeatedly told his bullied daughter “Oh, they don’t hate you!”, like your average clueless parent in a silly children’s book. And he showed his belly like a submissive wolf whenever one of the women in his life scolded or threatened him - and Molly, Nettle, Shun, even Bee had in common that to varying degrees they ALL treated Fitz with disdain, contempt, and sarcasm. I couldn’t handle letting my ereader do a search for the number of times he grovelled, muttering how “sorry” he was, but it was a lot.

This ending was one for Hobb herself. It was also one for the fans. Will the emotional aspect work as well on more recent fans, who haven't spend as long as we did with those characters? I don't know. Another thing I enjoyed was that the queer aspects were much more underlined than in the previous trilogies which often felt like a traditional heteronormative fantasy with a twist of queerness. This world may not have the words for queer or ace but you'd have to be blind to miss them here. The setting of the Elderlings novels, in particular the Tawny Man trilogy, has been recognized as resembling the Pacific Northwest, where Hobb grew up. [10] [11] Scholar Geoffrey B. Elliott notes that the Out Islands feature ice- and glacier-filled isles as well as a group of people with a matrilineal system of rule; this shares resemblance to Northwestern geography and indigenous cultures. [10] Hobb wrote two further series in the same world: the Rain Wild Chronicles and the Fitz and the Fool trilogy, which the series concluded with in 2017. [1] [12] Plot [ edit ] Fool's Errand [ edit ] a b Brown, Charles N.; Contento, William G. (2010). "Hobb, Robin". The Locus Index to Science Fiction: 2004. Locus.

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This is where Robin Hobb shines, and I have said many times in the past that Robin Hobb is the single greatest character writer in all of fantasy. This book is the best of her character writing, and I've never read something that comes even close to the quality as this book in this regard. This is a book that wouldn't be possible without the groundwork laid before. It builds on the history we have with these characters and exploits it. The story that we see unfold has echoes the story that has gone before. Like a piece of music it builds on themes, reflects earlier melodies, improvises around them, and plays an old refrain. The questions of the Fool's gender are raised several times throughout the series and never definitively answered. Fitz believes the Fool is male. In Assassin's Quest, Starling Birdsong becomes convinced the Fool is female. When masquerading as Amber, the Fool is exclusively perceived as female. Likewise, Lord Golden is believed male, except by Jek, who sees Amber in disguise. The Fool was presented to the Pale Woman as a young child, and she both called the Fool by name (“Beloved“) and referred to the Fool as a male when they first met again many years later. Repetitive clues. Look, I’m someone who usually blazes through books, devouring them as fast as I can. I’m therefore probably the last person to point out the culprit in a murder mystery. Then how is it possible, I ask, that a writer that I hold in such high regard due to her proven brilliance in weaving subtle hints and clues into a story, managed to insult my intelligence so this time? I was so disappointed in Hobb’s Fitz in this book. I found it unacceptable that in spite of an avalanche of clues - almost patronizing in their blatancy - Fitz was this blind to the gigantic elephant in the room: the fact that his daughter was a Mary Sue “white prophet”. Robin Hobb is the author of three well-received fantasy trilogies: The Farseer Trilogy (Assassin’s Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassin’s Quest), The Liveship Traders Trilogy (Ship of Magic, Mad Ship and Ship of Destiny) and the Tawny Man Trilogy (Fool’s Errand, Golden Fool, and Fool’s Fate) Her current work in progress is entitled Shaman’s Crossing. Robin Hobb lives and works in Tacoma, Washington, and has been a professional writer for over 30 years.

Much to Fitz's reluctance, the Fool leaves him on a journey to his home Clerres. Over a score of years, Fitz meets and reconciles with Molly; the trilogy ends with them together in Chivalry's former estate. A complex tapestry of adventure, betrayal, destiny, and unrelenting peril . . . Hobb’s expertise is evident as always.”—Publishers Weekly A new character appears and becomes an internal narrator too: there's not only Fitz's voice but this new character's too. I accepted it, but this new character does have a lot of Fitz's faults: sometimes moping, a bit too self centred, and oh so angsty as the trilogy progresses. It grated a bit, particularly at the end of the trilogy where, I thought, it took a bit away from the emotion. I also have to admit being (as often) annoyed by Fitz about this new character as I wanted to shout to him: "How come you don't realise what that character is? Are you blind or stupid? You've known someone like that for ages!" Hobb knows the complicated workings of the wayward human heart, and she takes time to depict them in her tale, to tell her story sweetly, insistently, compellingly. . . . A book meant to be inhabited rather than run through.”—The Seattle Times I just didn't expect to be completely bowled over by this slow boil and the emotional reunion or the rest that immediately follows it.When we are children, we believe that our elders know all and that even when we cannot understand the world, they can make sense of it. Even after we are grown, in moments of fear or sorrow, we still turn instinctively to the older generation, hoping to finally learn some great hidden lesson about death and pain. Only to learn instead that the only lesson is that life goes on.”