New trilogy featuring Fitz and the Fool by Robin Hobb

[Starkess]

Must...not...click...boxes...

[The BlackBear]

I feel like pointing out something I noticed in her trilogies. Fairly lucky deaths that the heroes don't have on their conscience.

Farseer Spoilers

Regal the pretender has been defeated and all is well. But he's still a anagging loose end, but Fitz can't kill him so: the psycho weasel kills him.

Liveship Spoilers

Kyle Haven after causing trouble is now free, but he's not going to stop causing trouble and whilst his family are sorting themselves out, he's a loose end in the narrative. So: he's killed by a stray arrow from another ship.

Tawny Man Spoilers

The Pale woman, it's all her fault she did terrible things, but in the end she is defeated. Fitz has been all noble and is just ignoring her, but she's clearly out to cause more damage: so I guess it's lucky she lost her hands and froze to death.

Rainwilds Spoilers

Hest, Alice and Sedric have freed themselves of him and he's no longer a part of their arcs, but he's still got power and is in no way planning to take this lying down, so: he gets eaten by Kalo.

[Starkess]

Well I think that's an intentional theme of hers. While violence is sometimes appealing, choosing not to kill people is generally considered a plus for the characters. And that evil characters eventually cause their own demise is a pretty common idea.

I think it works especially well in her works because it balances against the fact that Fitz is, in fact, a killer. But he's not a killer for himself, and that is an important distinction for him.

[Darth Richard II]

Ha, I loved the uh. that last spoiler box up there. I thought that was fitting.

[ᴛɪᴍᴏᴛʜʏ]

That really bothered me, to be honest. The setting went over a span of books from one I really enjoyed to one I don't like very much and that little event rather nicely summed up why that probably is.

ETA:

@The BlackBear

That's a nice observation.

Worse than any of those examples for me was

Burrich. Because of the absurdity of the circumstances surrounding it. Hobb really had to stretch to get him on that island in the first place, and so that everything could work out afterwards.

Perfect circumstance plotting is ubiquitous in fantasy but that was pretty bad. I like the Tawny Man books but the above is just one of the better examples of my largest problem with them when held up to her other stuff: I could see the seams. Sometimes I'd be reading and picturing a bullet point on her outline. It didn't feel as organic as her best work somehow. I might be crazy and the only one who feels that way though, I don't know.

[Migey]

You're definitely not. I have repeatedly stated my love for Liveships, yet I always thought it was a little cheap

to have Kyle die like that.

I think one of the most interesting ways to explore characters is to push them through hard situations, and make them do things which are morally grey, and see how they react to their own actions and how they handle it. This isn't literature, but look at Breaking Bad. Jesse becomes an interesting character to me not because he has such a unique personality or anything, but because of the things he is forced to do (ie, killing an innocent man to protect himself and Walter) and how he reacts to them. In The Last of Us, Joel only really becomes an interesting character to me when you see some of the very questionable things he does, and how he deals with that and reacts to the situation around him. Hobb is amazing at characterisation, but she does often fail at this particular technique, and while she knows how to put her characters through adversity and help this shape their characters, she really does shy away from making them do things which are very morally abhorable. Having things conviniently fall into place and resulting in the death of a loose end can work once or twice, but she really does it way too often.

[Calibandar]

Glad to see my fears regarding Chade going dark side are unlikely to be realised.

I'm glad she isn't going down that route, if indeed she is not.

We have no idea of course. But I'd rather old Chade stay on Fitz's side for the most part, they are a team of sorts, even now.

[Spockydog]

I'm glad she isn't going down that route, if indeed she is not.

We have no idea of course. But I'd rather old Chade stay on Fitz's side for the most part, they are a team of sorts, even now.

You're right, and thinking about it, nothing in the synopsis actually rules it out.

While I can't remember any specific examples, in the Tawny Man, I certainly got the impression that Hobb was sowing the seeds of some future power struggle between Chade and Dutiful/Kettricken..

I hope it doesn't come to that. Betrayal at the hands of Chade would be particularly hard on Fitz, probably about the worst thing that could happen to him.

Guess it's nailed on, then.

[aceluby]

After finishing Liveships I'm slightly disappointed only because I felt the ending was a little 'too' happy, not the bittersweet I was expecting after farseer. Time to take another break from Hobb while I read some Abercrombie and Words of Radiance. See you guys in a few months when I take on Tawny Man so I can catch up before the next trilogy is released.

[Calibandar]

Synopsis from UK Edition

Tom Badgerlock has been living peaceably in the manor house at Withywoods with his beloved wife Molly these many years, the estate a reward to his family for loyal service to the crown.

But behind the facade of respectable middle-age lies a turbulent and violent past. For Tom Badgerlock is actually FitzChivalry Farseer, bastard scion of the Farseer line, convicted user of Beast-magic, and assassin. A man who has risked much for his king and lost more…

On a shelf in his den sits a triptych carved in memory stone of a man, a wolf and a fool. Once, these three were inseparable friends: Fitz, Nighteyes and the Fool. But one is long dead, and one long-missing.

Then one Winterfest night a messenger arrives to seek out Fitz, but mysteriously disappears, leaving nothing but a blood-trail. What was the message? Who was the sender? And what has happened to the messenger?

Suddenly Fitz's violent old life erupts into the peace of his new world, and nothing and no one is safe.

[HexMachina]

Looking back at the ending of Fool's Fate, it's not really that surprising Hobb returned to Fitz. IMO, the ending of Fool's Fate feels as though she wanted to go on, but she cut things short because of the length of the novel so far. It seemed almost as though she was bringing things to a temporary end simply because she had to, rather than because she felt the story was over.My opinion anyway.

Also, Liveship Spoilers:

Althea got raped last night. I think I need a hug :crying:

[The BlackBear]

Also, Liveship Spoilers:

Althea got raped last night. I think I need a hug :crying:

And there will be absolutely no consequences.

[HexMachina]

And there will be absolutely no consequences.

I know :crying: (its a reread, although I seem to have blotted this bit out of my memory till I got near it again...)

[Jussi]

http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2014/05/check-in-interview-robin-hobb.html

Robin Hobb: Book 2 is moving along nicely. Working title is The Fool's Quest. Not set in stone, but I rather like it.

[lojzelote]

What will be the last one - Fool's Apprentice? She doesn't even want the titles to be innovative, does she? :)

Fool's Assasin spoilers

In fact, from what I've been spoiled for, the Fool indeed

may get an apprentice.

[Brendan Moody]

I got an advance review copy of Fool's Assassin. I had some issues with the structure similar to ones I've had with past books by Hobb, and I'm not as much of a fan of the way she writes emotional dynamics as I once was. But it also reminded me of what I liked about her books way back when, and there are some new twists on familiar concepts that make for very compelling reading. I'll certainly read the rest of the trilogy as it comes out, and I may double back and reread the earlier Realm of the Elderlings books (or in the case of the Rain Wilds Chonicles, read them for the first time).

[peterbound]

I got an advance review copy of Fool's Assassin.

I fucking hate you.

[Lylor]

.

[HexMachina]

I fucking hate you.

:agree:

You hold him down, I'll search the bookshelf

[Migey]

Also, Liveship Spoilers:

Althea got raped last night. I think I need a hug :crying:

Wow. Like, this is one of my favourite series but I definitely need to reread it because I have to admit I've completely forgotten that. I've looked it up, so I know where it is, but I can't for the life of me remember reading it or remember how it affects her character after that. Huh. Can you remind me of the circumstances and ramifications and see if it jogs my memory?