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Robin Hobb


Thor85

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Soldier's Son pissed me off so much.

Guess I'm going to be one of the very few that liked the Soldier Son Trilogy. Yeah, to be sure there were bits I didn't like, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. On the other hand I hate the Rainwild Chronicles. Can't stand them. Liked the Liveship Trilogy, so jumped on the Chronicles when they first came out, read the first one, hated it.

Mileage varies I guess.

As for a return to Fitz..............all I can say is that it better not have the Fool. As much as I like the Fool, their story together is over. It would completely undermine Fool's Fate if she brought him/her back. So no. If it is Six Duchies minus Fool then I'll give it a whirl. If the Fool's in it then I wash my hands of it no matter how good people claim it is.

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I can't believe that she's going to be writing more Fitz books. What else is there to tell? The last time I reread the books in that world, I completely skipped the Tawny Man trilogy, because the ending of Assassin's Quest was the perfect ending to Fitz's story. I don't want to have a third Fitz trilogy that gets even further off track.

Guess I'm going to be one of the very few that liked the Soldier Son Trilogy. Yeah, to be sure there were bits I didn't like, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it. On the other hand I hate the Rainwild Chronicles. Can't stand them. Liked the Liveship Trilogy, so jumped on the Chronicles when they first came out, read the first one, hated it.

I liked the Soldier Son trilogy pretty well, too. It took me about a year to get through the first book, but it picked up a lot in the second and third, and I remember not being able to put them down. FWIW, I also loved the Rain Wilds books and have liked what I've read of her Megan Lindholm books. Basically anything she writes, I'll read.

Except for this upcoming Fitz stuff. Just no.

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I can't believe that she's going to be writing more Fitz books. What else is there to tell? The last time I reread the books in that world, I completely skipped the Tawny Man trilogy, because the ending of Assassin's Quest was the perfect ending to Fitz's story. I don't want to have a third Fitz trilogy that gets even further off track.

I liked the Soldier Son trilogy pretty well, too. It took me about a year to get through the first book, but it picked up a lot in the second and third, and I remember not being able to put them down. FWIW, I also loved the Rain Wilds books and have liked what I've read of her Megan Lindholm books. Basically anything she writes, I'll read.

Except for this upcoming Fitz stuff. Just no.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of knowing what your story is, where it begins, where it ends, and what we don't need to know. And sticking to it.

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I can't believe that she's going to be writing more Fitz books. What else is there to tell?

It is suggested that people with that level of Skill can have longer lives than normal people. Fitz might just find he has outlived his "happily ever after".

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It is suggested that people with that level of Skill can have longer lives than normal people. Fitz might just find he has outlived his "happily ever after".

Not just suggested, one of the characters of the first trilogy was ~200 years old. I'm with a lot of you in thinking this is a poor idea going back on old ground but then again I'll preorder it in hardback because I think Fitz is the most fully developed and realistic characters in fantasy. People like me are why the publisher are pushing another Fitz novel as Hobb fell off my buy in hardback list after Soldier's Son.

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I think another Fitz and Fool tale is in order simply because the Fool's story isn't done and since Fitz is directly tied to the Fool, there you go. The Whites, as far as I can recall, go through 3 distinct phases: white, amber/golden, and black. We've seen the Fool in white and amber/golden and now we see the black. I think the end of the Rain Wilds chronicle could be a major clue as to what they face this time.

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I actually thought the second FItz trilogy was better than the first (which seemed to run out of steam about halfway through Royal Assasin) save for the first 200 pages of Book 1 which seemed to solely consit of people turning up to Fitz's door, asking him to come back, and then getting told to get lost. I didn't feel it necesarilly needs a new book or trilogy though as I found the conclusion reasonably satisfying - still I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt.

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Not just suggested, one of the characters of the first trilogy was ~200 years old. I'm with a lot of you in thinking this is a poor idea going back on old ground but then again I'll preorder it in hardback because I think Fitz is the most fully developed and realistic characters in fantasy. People like me are why the publisher are pushing another Fitz novel as Hobb fell off my buy in hardback list after Soldier's Son.

I think you nailed it here. I've got to believe that her sales numbers have really slipped - She's padding her novels into trilogies to the point where Soldier's Son was tough to get through.

Maybe Fitz is all she's able to do well. She wouldn't be the first author to have one good idea and have to ride it over and over. Hell, Terry Brooks has written the same book about 15 times.

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The Rain Wilds series has been problematic in that sense, both books were deemed to go on too long for a single book, and so she had to split her first one into Dragon Keeper and Haven, and then it happened again. The volumes end up pretty slim on their own right, and both teh first and third book resolve as good as none of their storylines. They're just cut off.

Which is in a way quite the same as with ASOIAF, and it's annoying with Martin as well, the books are certainly not self-contained there either. But because they are so much bigger, they offer much more meat to devour, and a single Martin book is easily two books for recent Robin Hobb.

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  • 1 month later...

Liveships is still the best, and Rain Wilds are very different, but I liked them. The third book is a great step up from the first two according to most peolpe here and I kinda agree, but the first two are still good. Some fun cameos from Liveships characters. Worth reading.

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i skipped straight to posting to avoid spoilers but i finished assassin't apprentice and kindle tells me i'm at 40% completion on royal assassin. these books are awesome. i'm very happy with how fitz's obvious uberness is held in check by the constant adversity.

btw...how spoilery is this thread?

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Yeah, there are probably major spoilers for the series spread throughout, so best to avoid it until you're done. Or start a new thread for discussion that specifies no spoilers after the point you're at.

As for your question earlier Mandy, I've only read the first 2 Dragon Keeper books (I've heard the 3rd is out but no luck finding it) and so far they've been amazingly better than Soldier Son. Partially because we're dropped back in the familiar world that I know I really enjoy, but also we get to see some updates and cameos from previous players.

I consider the story kind of weak at first, but it gets going and once you feel a connection to the characters (which I admit is hard to do at first, especially the main character) it picks up.

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The final Rain Wilds book has already been published in the Netherlands, it's quite a bit bigger than book 3. US version of Blood of Dragons ( the final Rain Wilds book) comes out in April, if you're interested in only reading finished series than that may be of interest.

I found this series quite strong in the end, very alluring in it's own way, exotic and with a good story. But you do need to see it as a whole, because Rain Wilds was basically intended as two large books, which were split into 4 volumes. So the 3rd and the 1st one really end midway through in a way. I definitely rate them higher than both Liveship and Soldier Son ( neither of which I like, as opposed to the sheer awesome of the Fitz books). Rain Wilds has some cool Liveships as well btw.

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Good to know, thanks. I love Robin Hobb. No doubt she's a wonderful writer (I even bought AND FINISHED all of the Soldier's Son books), I just hated the characters and storyline :lol:

I hated Soldier Son, never made it past the first book, but I vaguely enjoy the Rain Wilds books. I went into them without much expectation, and I do feel like it's not her strongest work, but I don't have the antipathy I did for SS, which I didn't think was very subtle and was full of characters I hated. I am interested in seeing how Rain Wilds resolves, though, whether it's more in line with the Assassin's trilogy ending or the Fool's trilogy.

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  • 3 months later...

I just finished Blood of Dragons. Thought it was probably the best of the Rain Wild books, but the series as a whole still wasn't great. The problem hasn't really changed since book 1, I just didn't ever care about the young characters, human or dragon (with the exception of Mercer). Also too little time was spent in Chalced to make the reader have a connection with those characters either. I did like both Carson and Allise and enjoyed how there characters changed and grew over the series. I hope the next novel set in this world deals with the link between dragons, Silver, Skilling and elderlings as the mythology of Hobbs world is still fascinating.

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I've been reading her Piebald Prince novells now available through Subterranean ( you can get on Amazon at a discount of course). Very good. Much too short, but great to be back in that Farseer world.

Totally agreed on your remark about the mythology of the world Adept.

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I'm beginning to think that I am some sort of freak of nature when it comes to Robin Hobb books, because I can't stand the Rain Wild books, and yet I thoroughly enjoyed the Soldier Son series. lol.

I do of course love the two Fitz trilogies, and am intrigued by the possibility of more Fool and Fitz, but I do worry that it's a Fitz book for the sake of being a Fitz book, if you know what I mean.

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I'm beginning to think that I am some sort of freak of nature when it comes to Robin Hobb books, because I can't stand the Rain Wild books, and yet I thoroughly enjoyed the Soldier Son series. lol.

I do of course love the two Fitz trilogies, and am intrigued by the possibility of more Fool and Fitz, but I do worry that it's a Fitz book for the sake of being a Fitz book, if you know what I mean.

Ahh, but how do you feel about Liveships, thats the real question.

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