Book #83 of 2020: Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb (The Fitz and the Fool #3) The closing chapters of this 2017 fantasy novel form a meaningful sendoff to the hero and world first introduced in 1995’s Assassin’s Apprentice. Overall, however, the book is far too slow and exposition-heavy — and because the larger Realm of …
Continue reading “Book Review: Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb”
Book #39 of 2020: Fool’s Quest by Robin Hobb (The Fitz and The Fool #2) A marked improvement over the start of this trilogy, but still rather slow-paced and occasionally a bit tedious in how it retreads familiar territory from earlier in the Elderlings saga. (Of course Fitz is going to insist on doing something …
Book #26 of 2020: Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb (The Fitz and the Fool #1) When I first read this novel in 2015, I gave it the following lukewarm review: “Ideally, any sequel should justify its own existence. Why are we returning for another chapter of this story? What new developments require plucking these characters …
Continue reading “Book Review: Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb”
Book #211 of 2019: Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb (The Rain Wild Chronicles #4) This final volume in The Rain Wild Chronicles embodies all of the problems of that fantasy quartet. It’s long and uneventful and curiously detached from its characters, none of whom seem to have much of an arc or any particular …
Continue reading “Book Review: Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb”
Book #180 of 2019: City of Dragons by Robin Hobb (The Rain Wild Chronicles #3) Fantasy author Robin Hobb can effortlessly spin out a tale, but this quartet remains one of the weakest elements within her larger Realm of the Elderlings saga. Although this third volume is at least more action-packed than those before (and …
Continue reading “Book Review: City of Dragons by Robin Hobb”
Book #151 of 2019: Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb (The Rain Wild Chronicles #2) In my review of the first book in this Realm of the Elderlings quartet, I complained, “Not much happens, and then it just continues not happening right through the end.” Yet compared to this sequel, that original novel was action-packed. At …
Book #130 of 2019: Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb (The Rain Wild Chronicles #1) The fourth series in Robin Hobb’s larger Elderlings saga starts out pretty slowly (and doesn’t improve much on that front, if memory serves). That’s a common fault in the author’s works, but it’s so aggravated in this initial Rain Wilds novel …
Book #110 of 2019: Fool’s Fate by Robin Hobb (The Tawny Man #3) On balance, this final volume in Robin Hobb’s The Tawny Man trilogy probably has too much falling action after the major plot stakes are resolved. And it’s odd that the Piebald threat which loomed so heavily over the previous books is mostly …
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 …
Book #91 of 2019: Fool’s Errand by Robin Hobb (The Tawny Man #1) As expected for the seventh entry in her larger Elderlings saga, the world of Robin Hobb’s first Tawny Man novel feels quite well-developed and lived-in at this point. And it’s a real thrill to revisit the surviving characters from her initial Farseer …
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more