Jump to content

Robin Hobb


Thor85

Recommended Posts

I don't know why people always separate the three trilogies..

Probably because they are three separate trilogies. Each trilogy has its own distinct beginning, middle, and end. You don't have to have read the farseer trilogy to fully enjoy the liveship trilogy, and you don't have to have read the liveship trilogy to fully enjoy the tawny man trilogy. They are all connected, certainly, but they are each fully realized trilogies on their own.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know why people always separate the three trilogies.. I really don't. It also bugs me when people only read the 1st and 3rd trilogies because they love Fitz and never give Liveships a chance. I have found, from everyone I've ever suggested read it, that Liveship Traders (books 4, 5, 6) are their favorite - as are they mine.

I am one of those terrible people who has read both the Assassin and Fool trilogies without reading the Liveship books. Somehow the concept of the Liveships just seemed creepy to me. Shrug.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am one of those terrible people who has read both the Assassin and Fool trilogies without reading the Liveship books. Somehow the concept of the Liveships just seemed creepy to me. Shrug.

Oh, it is creepy. And pointed out as such.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

So, weirdly, the UK and US edition of the next book, City of Dragons are not coming out until February next year, but the Dutch edition is still scheduled to come out next week. It's been listed as such for several months now.

Also, they are showing that book 4, Dragon's Blood, is due out in the Netherlands late November. They do have a history of early releases so I will follow up and see if they will actually be released at this time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Robin Hobb just gave some confirmations for her next two novels.

City of Dragons:

US release: February 2012

UK release: April 2012

Blood of Dragons:

US & Uk release: April/May 2013

Disappointing news for English language readers, I will definitly pick up the Dutch editions now. Blood of Dragons comes out at the end of this month, 1.5 years ahead of the first language release. Never seen anything like it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

I've read the farseer trilogy, tawny man trilogy, liveshiptraders trilogy and half of Dragonkeeper. You can't compare it to ASOIF, useless to try, but I like them in their own way. Hobb has a comepletly different POV and another kind of story. It's not that character-driven, there's a lot that belongs to the circumstances (I wouldn't call that deus ex machina in general, it's just a different kind of story).

I liked the way she writes, but that's personal taste, I like storys that are built up slowly generally. I *love* Fitz, he's one of the best characters I've ever seen. I love his depressive mood and I love the way the first person perspective is done. Sometimes I wanted to shout at him and tell him that he's a selfish asshole, I really wanted to punch him into the face for the silly things he's done, especially when it comes to Burrich in the last tawny-man-book. Burrich was my favourite character besides Fitz, so what had happend drove me insane. A character you want to shout at how stupid it is touches you. A book doesn't always give you what you want, and so do characters. It's not important that the storyline and characters go the way you wish it to, as long as it touches something deep inside of you. I never judge a book shortly after I've read it, a good book is a book that I remember 10 years later.

A big demerit for me was the fool. IMO giving him a major role was the biggest mistake Hobb could have made. He was okay for me in the first two farseer-books, as long as he stayed in the background more or less. I could live with his role in the third-farseer book, though it was slightly enough for me. But hell, in the tawny man trilogy... *shook my head* I'm out of words. I simply hated him.

It got even worse (though I didn't think that was possible)

In the liveshiptraders trilogy. I'd love to decapitate him, reanimate him, cut him into pieces, reanimate him, burn him, reanimate him, burn him again... When I read the tawny man trilogy I always thought: "Hell, I know why the white woman tries to kill him. If I was any of the characters, I've tried that too", but when I read the liveshiptraders, I wished she had hurried.

Another demite was the first book of the tawny man trilogy. She could have spared it, really. For me it seemed like she wanted to write another book about Fitz and publisher said: "Okay, but only one. Let's see how it runs and if it sells well, you can write another" That book is comepletly unnecessary. It has no connection to the rest of the story and nothing (espacally nothing important) happens.

And in the liveshiptraders there was no character I could identify with. I liked the book, I read all three within 14 days, and it was quite a good amusement for long cold evenings. I would regret it if I didn't read it, really. But there wasn't one single character I liked. That's a pity, it could have been a damn good book if it had more likeable charakters. The story starts to fade in my head, because the characters didn't touch me. It's hard for me to remember them, 'cause my brain works that way that I remember characters mainly, and the storylines only as a part of them.

Doesn't matter, all in all I enjoied reading the books and I'll read all further books that belong to that world. Fools errand and the liveshiptraders were okay for reading it once, but I won't read them again. If it comes to the farseer trilogy I'm sure that I'll read them again several times :cool4:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm back-and-forth on the Liveship Traders. I love the world and I love how she gradually keeps laying out pieces of the backstory and hints of past glories. But something was definitely missing...Farseer is one of my all-time favorites and really pulls me in. LT feels like a more drawn-out, slightly less-engaging version of it. It seemed like the attempts at epic scope kept coming off as slow pacing. LT is still a C grade to me, but that's a passing grade for sure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm back-and-forth on the Liveship Traders. I love the world and I love how she gradually keeps laying out pieces of the backstory and hints of past glories. But something was definitely missing...

I was fascinated by the idea to read a book settled in Bingtown, which was the most magical place I could imagine. For me a bit of magic passed away with all that boring balls and the kind of society. IMHO a lot of the story was pressed on Kennits shoulders, but he couldn't carry it. I don't remember him a lot, though a bad ass as a POV character always is a highlight for me. I don't even know the names of that couple, the girl with the mad ship and her boyfriend. Anything with A... Damn, the story was about her, and she was so colourless to me, that I forgot the name. Malta and her strange brother were simply not likable to me... That's what I'm missing compared to Fitz, the farseer cast was a lot better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Robin Hobb's a bit like frozen supermarket pizza. It isn't all that good and you know it's bad for you, and there is better pizza to be had at a restaurant or a parlor. But if someone else bothers to heat it up it's still pizza, and you probably will have a slice.

I read The Farseer trilogy and thought it was okay, but it was good enough for me to read the Liveship trilogy, I guess. I probably wouldn't have finished that one (especially with the oh so cliche rape scene, hate those), but I wanted to read the Tawny Man and I'm OCD about reading things in publication order. So I finished Liveships and then read Tawny Man. I can't say I really loved any of the 9 books, but they were apparently good enough to keep me coming back that long.

Once I read that the new series had a mostly new cast I finally just made a clean break with Hobb.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

So, the 4th book is out and I got it today. For anyone interested, the 3rd book is quite a bit shorter than the last one. The third one comes in at some 380 pages, but Dragon's Blood is 500 pages.

It's out already? In English?

Where can I get it, because it's not shown as released on Amazon...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...