Book #100 of 2019:
Golden Fool by Robin Hobb (The Tawny Man #2)
This second Tawny Man novel is as slow-paced as the rest of author Robin Hobb’s wider Elderlings saga, but it benefits tremendously by situating its hero back at his old home of Buckkeep with a variety of interesting people to bounce off and devious schemes to uncover. In this way it improves dramatically over the first volume of this trilogy, which spends far too long in pastoral isolation before any meaningful developments.
Once more Hobb has crafted an exceptional character-driven fantasy, with personalities that prickle yet breathe with life. My personal highlight is an explosive conversation about gender and performative identity around the story’s midpoint, which was revelatory to me as a younger reader and still seems a rarity for genre fiction. Hobb’s refusal to pin down the Fool with easy labels is a bold authorial stroke, as is the empathy she extends to the neurodivergent Thick. I won’t say that these figures constitute perfect representation — check their names, if nothing else! — but they show the writer granting a measure of dignity where others would include a punchline at best.
Whereas much of the previous book could feel a bit perfunctory, this title pays off numerous long-running arcs and ties the court intrigue at Buck more meaningfully to the heretofore-distinct events of the earlier Liveship Traders trilogy. It’s a welcome return to form for author and protagonist alike.
★★★★☆
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