Now I will give my thoughts on the trilogy as a whole.
I am not sure if by not reading the Liveship Traders (trilogy after Farseer set in the same world with different characters) it has hindered my thoughts and reading pleasure of Tawny Man.
I'll start off by saying that I loved this series, even more so than the Farseer Trilogy (although out f the 6 books I still find Assassin's Apprentice to be the best). I thought that Hobb delivered a much more well rounded Fitzchivalry and the set up and execution was much better than Farseer.
Fool's Errand was a great introduction back to the world of the Six Duchies, well paced and the slow seeping of new characters helped easy me in.
The Golden Fool is perhaps the weakest of the 3 books but ultimately I think Hobb used it to set up everything she needed to for Fool's Fate. A little less action packed than what I would have liked but still gripping none the less.
Fool's Fate was exciting the moment I picked it up, but just over half way through it, I thought Hobb had made the same mistake as in Assassin's Quest and left herself with too little room to tie up all the loose ends in the story. I am glad that I was proven wrong. I also loved how Hobb did not change Fitz into a character I would have despised by being one who would have solved everything. She told a very fantastic story and the hero to be is not who you would have thought.
The ending reminded me of Return of the King (Book 3: Lord of the Rings). There were a lot of pages to tie up the story and unlike LOTR, Hobb had 6 books worth of story to tie up. I got a bit emotional during the end of the book as there was a lot of sad moments, funny and happy moments. I also realised that I had followed Fitz from his childhood and that I won't be reading anymore about him.
The only regret I have of these books is that I didn't read them earlier. I had hesitated so long because of the way Assassin's Quest had ended, very anti-climatic (however do leave some time in between series) . One thing I feel strongly about is that you cannot read Tawny Man without reading Farseer first. There are so many little links between characters that you would not understand and you wouldn't get that emotional understanding (would be like watching Clerks 2 without first watching Clerks).
So read Tawny Man if you've read Farseer already, and if you haven't read Farseer...well don't miss out on one of the best 1st person narratives you will ever read.
You can also visit www.robinhobb.com for more info on her works (plus her site is just cool).
5 comments:
Sorry to say it but I gave up about 200 pages into the second book. I enjoyed Farseer and the pirates one was a hoot, but for me everything just hit a brick wall with this series. There's slow-paced and there's snail's pace and then there's stopped. 100s of pages seemed to pass with people sitting around whingeing. Maybe that was good character stuff, but I prefer my heros to have about 2 pages of angst before they decide to get off their butts and do something, not 2 books.
The books are well-written and have great characters, but do the stories have to be so slight?
I find it, if you could sit through Royal Assassin and Assassin's Quest you should have been able to read through The Golden Fool.
Perhaps you should give it another go because Fool's Fate was really good.
As I said tho, Golden Fool is the weakest of the 3 and it's not as whiny as Royal Assassin and it's better written than Assassin's Quest
You could be right that it's me rather than the books. I read them when they first came out and in the intervening years my frustration did grow with authors who take 200 pages to clear their throat.
I think for me is that I really fell in love with Fitz again and because of that I could read through The Golden Fool.
You liked the first two series, so why not give it another go at it later? You know she's not a bad author!
Sold 'em on eBay. Not buying again!
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