Fool's Quest

[Gertrude]

I agree with Kay, it was annoying. All of that evidence, and didn't the Fool even tell him that the Whites are so spread out genetically that they pop up from regular seeming couples?

Anyway, loved this book. Most of my reasons have already been mentioned, except for ...

[spoiler] King Verity speaking to Fitz in the garden of stone dragons. It was fleeting, but comforting. She really is pulling out all the stops and making this the final chapter in Fitz's story.[/spoiler]

[Calibandar]

Man you guys have me tremendously excited about reading this book.

Just a few more weeks and its vacation time.

[Darth Richard II]

Fitz is a dumbass. That's what makes him fitz :p

[C Rutherford]

I think the gender issue with Bee makes a huge difference.  Plus we are looking in as readers, he is involved as a character if that makes sense.  I don't see Fitz as stupid.  He is myopic due to his grief at Molly's decline and then her death.  I think Hobb does a perfect job of portraying why Fitz takes as long as he does.  And I think he is not only willfully blind, but he has so much baggage that is tied into it by the end of the first book even while he is unknowing of events back home that put Bee in danger, he simply cannot put all the pieces out on the table and take the time to realize they belong to the same puzzle.  Let alone try to put them together.

 

Fitz has constant distractions.  And he comes close a couple of times before the first book ended but he had other things going on.  And of course there was the whole Bee being a girl that helped throw him off.   As for Molly's lengthy pregnancy, I don't recall once where Fitz truly realized she was indeed pregnant from the time she said she was.  He thought she was demented for most of that time.  Even when Bee was born why would he not just think she was premature?  And was just small.  His attempt at rationalizing it made sense to me and hardly made me think he was stupid or dense. 

[Kelli Fury]

He expressed a lot of guilt for wrongly assuming she was senile, once she had the baby he admitted he was wrong. There is no indication he still thought that was the case at any time.

I liked the book for a lot of reasons, but claiming his not putting it together over nine years or even after she is kidnapped by the Whites and the fool said his Unexpected Son was who he was holding when Fitz knew he was holding Bee is a huge stretch is ludicrous. For some amount of time you can brush it off for some of the reasons given, but after he knew who the kidnappers were there is no ghost of an excuse no matter how blind or deluded you are

[emberling]

Just finished.

 

[spoiler]Argh, clifhangers. Torture. Loved the book.

 

The consistent failure to see Bee as the unexpected son was really hard to swallow, yeah. But as I got further along in the book I think it became much clearer what Hobb is trying to do with that thread, even though it's lacking a bit in verisimilitude. Because gender and genderfluidity has always been a theme hovering in the background of the series (at least since A.Quest, though I think there were touches earlier) and this is the book where that really comes to the foreground. One of the big arcs of this book is that Fitz gradually learns to understand and accept first Ash, then Amber, to the point where he is willing to be seen openly as Amber's lover in Kelsingra, and (in grand Fitzian tradition) is saddled with an 'apprentice' in Per who he needs to teach this acceptance he barely has hold of himself. So in light of all that, the failure of Fitz and others to connect Bee with the 'son' is the first step on that arc - the initial unsatisfying state at the story's beginning, brought on by the flaw that Fitz overcomes: assuming that a boy and a girl are entirely different, incomparable creatures. The Fool would see through that in a heartbeat, of course, if he knew Bee well enough -- but there were at least two, probably more, times when Fitz was about to reveal something about Bee that would have made it obvious and was interrupted at the last minute. That was what was egregious, I think. And also the failure to see Bee as a White at all, Son prophecies aside, but I ascribe that failing to the previous book. 

 

Another thing in that department I thought was weird was - by my vague recollection, Bee's pov at the end of Fool's Assassin had her identifying as a boy, didn't it? I remember being shocked by how immediately she took on the Son persona they ascribed to her, and I interpreted it as representing something like Amber, another persona for her that Dwalia knew about from the prophecies, one that maybe somehow had obedience to the Whites encoded in it. But what we learn about Vindeliar's powers doesn't square with any of what I remember of that scene. I wish I had the book to compare it ... there's definitely no indication of Bee identifying as anything other than a girl in this book; practically every time she is referred to as a boy she mentally comments on it being wrong.

 

I don't remember it ever being clear whether Beloved's genderfluidity, which he at least implied was acceptable in his childhood culture, came from being raised by the Servants or by his original parents (those of the triad marriages), but if it wasn't before, Dwalia's confusion about Sons and girls surely cements it as the latter.[/spoiler]

[shortstark]

Read it, loved it, cant wait on part 3...Agree with the annoyance being shown by some towards fitz and his fitziness, but i put that down to just the author ratcheting up the tension, but fucking hell, enough already..

 

All that said this book had me hooked pretty much from the jump, and the great moments reminded me why i love these books so much, Fitz coming out party had me tearing up for real, and the penultimate chapter was breathtaking.

 

I have said this before, repeating.. FitzChivalry Farseer is the best written character in all of fantasy to me and just when i am thinking that the tale is told Hobbs goes and pull more tricks out the bag..bravo...

[awesome possum]

 

[spoiler] The Elderling is Rapskal. Only, he's not really clumsy friendly little Rapskal anymore, he spent too much time with the memory stones of Kelsingra and assumed the identity of Tellator, which is why he was immediately the Elderling to lead the dragons against Chalced. And why he wanted Thymara so much. So yes, he was friendly and joking around at the start, then he got to the Elderling city (before everyone else too) and became Tellator (kind of).
Also want to add that I think deep down Fitz knew about Bee. He even says that he is the best at lying to himself. That would lead me to think he knew deep down, but couldn't admit it, even to himself.
[/spoiler]

 

 

Ahh okay, yeah, I must have read through that book too fast because that only slightly rings a bell for me.  Going to definitely need to give them a reread before the next book.

 

Anyway, loved this book. Most of my reasons have already been mentioned, except for ...

[spoiler] King Verity speaking to Fitz in the garden of stone dragons. It was fleeting, but comforting. She really is pulling out all the stops and making this the final chapter in Fitz's story.[/spoiler]

 

Oh yes, another part where someone mysteriously started cutting onions around me while I read.  

 

Fitz is a dumbass. That's what makes him fitz :P

 

Indeed. But if he wasn't such a dumbass the plot of these books would go something like, "Fitz has a dilemma.  Fitz discusses his dilemma with his powerful family.  Dilemma is solved, Fitz also kicks someone's ass.  The End."

[HexMachina]

Okay, finished now. Annoyed with myself because there is now a year to wait. *sigh*
[spoiler]I don't know whether this was the plan all along, but I've been impressed with threads from all of the works set in the Realm of the Elderlings being brought into this final trilogy.
Ok, and both Shine and Lantern were much better in this novel. Far more interesting and compelling characters than they were in Fool's Assassin, where they seemed almost comically awful. And I love Perseverence and Ash/Spark. The supporting cast in this trilogy is holding up well to the long-loved Fitz and Fool duo.
Reading the fate of the Withywoods staff was hard. I know very few of them were well established characters, but even so, I felt very distressed reading about them all, from the little kitchen girl (Elm I think?) who can't stand to be around men anymore, to Shepherd Lin's attempted suicide, the male gardener who was raped and is now mocked with "I would die before I let that happen..." Damn, I was struggling through that chapter. Gosh, I think someone is cooking onions here...excuse me a moment.
Eliania was also great, despite her very brief page time. It probably hit me about the same time it hits Fitz in the novel that of all of them, she probably understood the most what he was going through, since her mother and sister were both kidnapped too, and, when it comes down to it, by the same people. Her angry outbursts were very understandable.
The Fool's accounts of Clerres were suitably horrifying. Totally on board with Fitz wiping them all out. Monsters, they are.
Another small yet hard hitting moment for me was Kettricken whispering "Verity" when she slept beside Fitz, and then later telling him she knows he fathered her son.
And finally, damn. Just when I thought I'd steeled my emotions Hobb goes and drops poor Phron on me. And thus is my head canon of Malta and Reyn living happily with their healthy child destroyed :crying:
[/spoiler]

Emberling:
[spoiler] I don't recall Bee identifying as male in Fool's Assassin, though like you I could easily be mistaken. I had vague memories that she only heard of the unexpected son title right before she was captured and the book ended. I might be wrong though, I'll look that up. And I don't recall anything else that indicated her identifying as male either, but I'll have a quick browse.
As for Beloved's gender fluidity , I assume it comes from his parents, rather than the Servants. The little excerpts at the start of the chapters seem to indicate he was accepted there warmly at first, but only in the sense of "ohh goody, another prize bull for our breeding stock." And then they quickly grew irritated with him and eventually kept him imprisoned with the other Whites. I can't imagine them encouraging ideas/concepts such as gender fluidity. and Fool/Beloved indicates fond memories of his family so I'd be inclined to think it comes from there [/spoiler]

[Sparrow spoiler]

ya it is fitz. a little daft sometimes.

[shortstark]

So.. Is there a thing developing between Fitz and Kettericken? Spider sense tingling..

Would be a bit messy

[Sparrow spoiler]

I wondered the same thing. Cant say I would be mad. But, I would always think of verity as dragon showing up and eating fitz.

[HexMachina]

Eh, I would say no more so than there has been in the previous trilogies. They have always had something of a special relationship (unsurprising. He is the biological father of her son after all) but it doesn't seem like it will develop into anything. Both of them retain too much love for Verity (and Fitz for Molly) to allow themselves to have another relationship, especially with each other.

[Darth Richard II]

 

 

 

 

Indeed. But if he wasn't such a dumbass the plot of these books would go something like, "Fitz has a dilemma.  Fitz discusses his dilemma with his powerful family.  Dilemma is solved, Fitz also kicks someone's ass.  The End."

 

Oh, I agree 100 percent. Wh would read a book about some perfect red haired asshole who excels at everything he does, never makes any mistakes, and has super awesome ninja sex? Pffft.

 

Really, Fitz is like...the anti-Kvothe.

[shortstark]

Eh, I would say no more so than there has been in the previous trilogies. They have always had something of a special relationship (unsurprising. He is the biological father of her son after all) but it doesn't seem like it will develop into anything. Both of them retain too much love for Verity (and Fitz for Molly) to allow themselves to have another relationship, especially with each other.

And I would say that what they have been through together would make the perfect fit... It's the political and familial ramifications that would be the issue..

[minisam]

I have been a Hobb fan for years, FA and FQ have been amazing to sit and plough through. Fitz is still Fitz but a little older and wiser and i just love bee and her wolf father. The skill is the thing i loved the most about this book especially with more information on the skill stones and what the skill is exactly. All in all disapponted i have to wait a year now to conclude the life of Fitz.

[Tijgy]

:crying:  :crying:

 

The book is only released in Belgium the 30th of august. Stupid Flemish bookstores 

 

:crying:  :crying:

[AshOrSpark]

Eh, I would say no more so than there has been in the previous trilogies. They have always had something of a special relationship (unsurprising. He is the biological father of her son after all) but it doesn't seem like it will develop into anything. Both of them retain too much love for Verity (and Fitz for Molly) to allow themselves to have another relationship, especially with each other.

 

Totally agree with you.  There's always been a bit of a tension there between them, that they never fully acknowledged.  I've always been relieved when nothing happens between them.

[C Rutherford]

I tend to think Kettricken has been written explicitly as a person who had one person and that is it.  Fitz on the other hand, despite Molly always being the 'one' is more adaptable and I think, assuming he survives, could find someone else.  I agree that Verity is too much between the two of them.

 

Any tension I feel has more to do with the burden of secrets they share and their shared loved for Verity and how it shaped and shapes those secrets.

[Brendan Moody]

The question isn't whether it's plausible within the fiction for Fitz not to put things together within a certain timeframe; the question is whether it's satisfying in literary terms to make readers wait hundreds of pages across two books for characters to discover things the readers already knew. In small doses dramatic irony can be potent, but when overplayed and hammered home it can also frustrate, especially in a series that is, ah, not exactly fast-paced in other respects. I enjoyed Fool's Quest very much-- it reactivated my enthusiasm for the setting and the characters, which Fool's Assassin had failed to do-- but structurally, it has some real issues.