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The Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb


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I quit the Rain Wilds half way through book 2, its then only thing Hobbs have written that i have not devoured, i am minded to revisit since finishing Fitz and the Fool

 i am particularly curious as to what happened to rapskal to change him into an asshole

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3 hours ago, SeanF said:

I found him petty and not very interesting.  But, then, I suppose that is true of some really nasty people in real life.

 

Hest's final scene is laugh out loud funny.

I hated Regal. I get really frustrated by villains who only exist thanks to the idiocy/duty/rules everyone else abide by except for the villain. Same thing with Kyle in liveships. Basically I wind up disliking the other characters for allowing the villains to thrive. I don't blame Regal to act the way he does when he knows he can get  away with it. Ateast liveships had a character who called out Kyle on his bullshit and did something. It's a shame it sounds like Hobb likes these types of character.

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29 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

This is all odd to me, if asked I would have said Hobb has some of the best villians.

I enjoy a lot of the other villainous characters in the series but Regal is one I almost root for because it's the protagonists who allow him to be so villainous. But that comes at the expense of the protagonists. As I said it's a general hate of the type of villain - I've been having the same issue with Lancelot in the "warlord chronicles". I know it's intentional by the authors as their characters acknowledge it's frustrating but it gets under my skin. Doesn't ruin a book though.

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Regal also gets some retroactive development in later volumes (kind of...in the sense of we learn more about how he achieved certain things, and why he was doing them exactly).

i actually enjoyed him though, and thought the behaviour of Fitz towards him, at least, was believable because he is so bound by loyalty to his King. I suppose Shrewd and Verity allowing his shenanigans can be explained away by obsession with the Skill and the Red Ships War, and sickness/Skill-leeching . Although after the debacle with Rurisk it seems almost ridiculous Verity wouldn’t take more steps against Regal (with Shrewd at least, I can accept the doting father looking to see the best in his shitstain of a Son)

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9 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Well to be fair I haven't read the first 3 Hobb books in a looooong time, but thinking about it I tend to like to hate that type of villain, so.

Yeah it's a personal taste thing and to Hobb's credit she excels at crafting them. A bit like an annoying teenager in liveships where I have to admire the intentional ability to get under my skin.

6 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Regal also gets some retroactive development in later volumes (kind of...in the sense of we learn more about how he achieved certain things, and why he was doing them exactly).

i actually enjoyed him though, and thought the behaviour of Fitz towards him, at least, was believable because he is so bound by loyalty to his King. I suppose Shrewd and Verity allowing his shenanigans can be explained away by obsession with the Skill and the Red Ships War, and sickness/Skill-leeching . Although after the debacle with Rurisk it seems almost ridiculous Verity wouldn’t take more steps against Regal (with Shrewd at least, I can accept the doting father looking to see the best in his shitstain of a Son)

Like you say it highlights the flaws in those two characters and Verity's obsession is part of this. He's not a good leader who unfortunately has like-minded advisors. 

I like how in liveships they think of the duchies as a barbaric backwater. It does seem they are "behind" bing town in the sense the duchies feel early medieval while bing town has more of an early renaissance Florence .

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1 hour ago, red snow said:

Yeah it's a personal taste thing and to Hobb's credit she excels at crafting them. A bit like an annoying teenager in liveships where I have to admire the intentional ability to get under my skin.

Like you say it highlights the flaws in those two characters and Verity's obsession is part of this. He's not a good leader who unfortunately has like-minded advisors. 

I like how in liveships they think of the duchies as a barbaric backwater. It does seem they are "behind" bing town in the sense the duchies feel early medieval while bing town has more of an early renaissance Florence .

Yep, one thing that is great about the series is seeing the development of Buckkeep and the Six Duchies as a whole as they expand and are dragged kicking and screaming into modernity by their trading partners in the South. Hobb seems to have deliberately made different locations be at later stages of development than others. Having Buckkeep grow from a relatively small town with an imposing castle to the sprawling, lively hub of trade it has become by the end of the novels is great. Trying to think if there’s are any other book series that do something like this?

In the final trilogy I had a laugh out loud moment at Fitz being introduced to the new fashions at Court and his horrified reaction :lol: 

(Actually the time Hobb spends detailing fashion at Court is something I love a lot too)

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1 hour ago, red snow said:

Yeah it's a personal taste thing and to Hobb's credit she excels at crafting them. A bit like an annoying teenager in liveships where I have to admire the intentional ability to get under my skin.

Like you say it highlights the flaws in those two characters and Verity's obsession is part of this. He's not a good leader who unfortunately has like-minded advisors. 

I like how in liveships they think of the duchies as a barbaric backwater. It does seem they are "behind" bing town in the sense the duchies feel early medieval while bing town has more of an early renaissance Florence .

I thought the whole world of Liveships was very interesting.  To me, it seemed like the Spanish Main in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, minus the firearms.

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On 20-4-2018 at 3:43 PM, shortstark said:

I quit the Rain Wilds half way through book 2, its then only thing Hobbs have written that i have not devoured, i am minded to revisit since finishing Fitz and the Fool

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 i am particularly curious as to what happened to rapskal to change him into an asshole

 

Greetings Shortstark,

 

How did you feel about the Fitz and the Fool trilogy?

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On 4/21/2018 at 11:00 AM, HelenaExMachina said:

Regal also gets some retroactive development in later volumes (kind of...in the sense of we learn more about how he achieved certain things, and why he was doing them exactly).

i actually enjoyed him though, and thought the behaviour of Fitz towards him, at least, was believable because he is so bound by loyalty to his King. I suppose Shrewd and Verity allowing his shenanigans can be explained away by obsession with the Skill and the Red Ships War, and sickness/Skill-leeching . Although after the debacle with Rurisk it seems almost ridiculous Verity wouldn’t take more steps against Regal (with Shrewd at least, I can accept the doting father looking to see the best in his shitstain of a Son)

 

On 4/21/2018 at 5:47 PM, TheRevanchist said:

Regal was a very caricature type of villain, so I didn't find him very interesting.

 

On 4/21/2018 at 7:22 AM, red snow said:

I enjoy a lot of the other villainous characters in the series but Regal is one I almost root for because it's the protagonists who allow him to be so villainous. But that comes at the expense of the protagonists. As I said it's a general hate of the type of villain - I've been having the same issue with Lancelot in the "warlord chronicles". I know it's intentional by the authors as their characters acknowledge it's frustrating but it gets under my skin. Doesn't ruin a book though.

Regal doesn't get away with the majority of what he does. It is mentioned time and time again that the Six Duchies begin to fracture under his rule. In fact, Verity wasn't perfect here, either. Chade and Fitz tear their hair out because the inland duchies are only grudgingly supporting the war effort, while the outer-duchies don't have a consistent strategy. Some pay off the Red Ships, others don't, and the lack of cohesion is destructive.

After Regal's retreat to the inland duchies, it takes Fitz a long time to realise that he has abandoned the coastal areas because it doesn't occur to him that anyone would want to be king of less than the entire Six Duchies. Regal isn't a shallow character at all, we see him sometimes out-thinking Chade and Fitz, and other times being petulant and abrupt.

We only ever see Regal through Fitz's eyes, and he is frequently reassessing his understanding of him. The way that he made his coterie loyal to him, again something Fitz hadn't anticipated, is a masterstroke that we only learn much later. He always came across as an indifferent here and now sort of thinker, only for it to turn out that he can - and indeed does - plan ahead.

We also originally saw him as someone utterly selfish and malevolent, only for his motivations to reveal that the failure of the Six Duchies to stand together is something that he feels is overdue. His childhood grievances weren't ever really fixed by his aloof father or his upstanding - but emotionally distant - older brother. He nurses a grudge that many do in the Kingdom, and it mixes his very adult and clever side with his childish and stupid side.

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On 4/21/2018 at 6:58 PM, HelenaExMachina said:

In the final trilogy I had a laugh out loud moment at Fitz being introduced to the new fashions at Court and his horrified reaction :lol: 

(Actually the time Hobb spends detailing fashion at Court is something I love a lot too)

I started the series, but have held off reading more than the first five chapters, as I've decided I will go back and go through the Liveships and others first.

But I did chuckle a lot at his arguments with Molly about how stupid the new fashions were. It's funny since, as a kid, he was a bit proud to have the Buck blue on his chest, and how it was always emphasised that he looked like his father and so on.

I also love the way that the series discusses fashion at court. Especially the continuous contrast with how the high and mighty richy-riches always want to flaunt their wealth and style, and then there's Kettricken who dresses subtly and simply, hair in a braid and even often a weapon at her side.

Kettricken is a perfectly written female character. She's not the stupid "pretty much a man" archetype, or the "brains to the man's brawn," she's every bit the combination of politician, schemer, parent and so on that all of the other characters are. She and Chade really deserve each other. :fencing:

ETA: 

The moment when she calls Fitz "Sacrifice" at the end of the Tawny Man and Fitz smacks down Chade gave me the shivers. I absolutely love Chade's reaction, how he's just silent and Fitz can picture his stunned reaction. I love how Chade is proud of Fitz's assertion and impressed at the Queen's audacity she'd clearly support it.

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On 4/20/2018 at 8:43 AM, shortstark said:

I quit the Rain Wilds half way through book 2, its then only thing Hobbs have written that i have not devoured, i am minded to revisit since finishing Fitz and the Fool

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 i am particularly curious as to what happened to rapskal to change him into an asshole

 

Man, you really missed out the best parts of the Rain Wilds; that's where it really starts to pick up.  Each book gets better and better, and the way they dive into Elderling and dragon culture in the last book makes the slog through the swamp so worth it.  I definitely enjoyed the series as a whole far more than Liveships, which I still think is the weakest of the bunch.

It's really too bad you gave up since you've spoiled the end for yourself by reading Fitz/Fool, but you still may enjoy them.

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On 4/22/2018 at 4:43 PM, Calibandar said:

Greetings Shortstark,

 

How did you feel about the Fitz and the Fool trilogy?

Loved it, i was ambivalent about the series when it was first announced, i though tawny man had left Fitz in a good place, but Hobbs went an  did it again. i am on record as saying the first fitz trilogy had the perfect ending, so i doubted tawny man, same thing again. she nailed it.

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On 4/22/2018 at 5:20 PM, Yukle said:

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The moment when she calls Fitz "Sacrifice" at the end of the Tawny Man and Fitz smacks down Chade gave me the shivers. I absolutely love Chade's reaction, how he's just silent and Fitz can picture his stunned reaction. I love how Chade is proud of Fitz's assertion and impressed at the Queen's audacity she'd clearly support it.

 

 

This thing of sacrifice is a idea that resonates with me, i love the idea, and its one of the reasons why i thought Assassins Quest had the perfect ending, Fitz doing all he did and to be not acknowledge, just fading away, it was excellent.

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7 hours ago, aceluby said:

Man, you really missed out the best parts of the Rain Wilds; that's where it really starts to pick up.  Each book gets better and better, and the way they dive into Elderling and dragon culture in the last book makes the slog through the swamp so worth it.  I definitely enjoyed the series as a whole far more than Liveships, which I still think is the weakest of the bunch.

It's really too bad you gave up since you've spoiled the end for yourself by reading Fitz/Fool, but you still may enjoy them.

yeah, i agree with you there, i will go back and reread.

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