Old Friends & New Beginnings
***Spoilers for The Rain Wild Chronicles through chapter 9 of Dragon Keeper. Mentions of the events of The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders Trilogy, and The Tawny Man Trilogy are fair game, too.***
After starting off with a good amount of stage-setting and introductions, our story is picking up quickly! Each time I start a new RotE series, I’m never quite sure what to expect, and the transitions from one storyline to another can be a bit jarring. Let’s examine:
- Starting The Farseer Trilogy: Who’s this little boy? Oh yay, a puppy! 😦
- Farseer -> Liveship Traders: I miss Fitz. Who are all these awful people? Talking Ships?!
- Liveship Traders -> Tawny Man: Yay, Fitz! I miss Malta. Booo, Chade.
- Tawny Man -> Rain Wild Chronicles: I miss Fitz. A whole new cast of characters? Serpents be struggling!
I suppose with each change, I worry about leaving the magic of the previous series behind. But with every new installment, it never takes long before I find myself swept away by the incredible characters and plots- whoever and wherever they may be.
The moral of this rambling prologue: never doubt our supreme leader, Robin Hobb.
So what exactly is hooking me so far in RWC? Thank you for asking.
Trehaug
I’m enthralled by this new slice of life we are getting in Dragon Keeper. We’ve spent most of our time in the realm among the upper echelons of society. Sure, our characters may be down on their luck and facing hardship, but by and large, our main POVs have come from the privileged class.
So spending time in the slums of Trehaug with Thymara was a real breath of fresh air (kind of literally, since the poor live in the treetops). I’ve been fascinated by the social strata of the Rain Wilds, especially how Thymara’s family is forced to move higher and higher into the trees as their status sinks lower and lower.
Trehaug itself is such a unique setting. It’s hard to grasp the sheer immensity of this treehouse town, but Hobb does a fantastic job unfolding it for us. We got a small peek into life in the trees during Liveship Traders, but having so much additional color and detail filled in now is incredible. No offense to that smelly, sewage-filled pirate town – or even my beloved Buckkeep – but this may be my favorite setting in all the realm.
One of my favorite details is the naming of the various housing regions. Thymara’s family currently lives high up in the Cricket Cages, having been pushed there after being forced out of the art district, the Bird Nests, due to rising costs from gentrification. The only place higher to move from here is the Tops.
These details add so much whimsy and texture that it’s impossible not to feel enveloped in the Rain Wilds’ rich ambiance.
Ahoy, Mateys! (pt. 1)
If we ever get my Dragon Court procedural (and if you weren’t with me on my Liveship journey, don’t worry about it), Alise is going to be a force to be reckoned with.
We pick up with her exactly where we left off: miserable in her marriage to Hest. She insists that Hest honor the part of their contract allowing her a trip to the Rain Wilds to observe the dragons (sis needs a vacation). He’s not pleased- and, determined to maintain his position as “Top Dick,” also picks a fight with his lover, Sedric, when Sedric encourages him to be minimally decent and grant Alise’s request.
Hest, exasperated by both legal wife and functional “wife,” throws up his hands in a real these hoes be wildin’ moment and decrees Sedric will escort Alise on her dragon-seeking adventure.
What a fun pairing this should be!
Sedric then turns POV character, and we get a mopey boy to fill the Fitz-sized hole in our hearts. My favorite petulant Sedric moment:
“Trehaug was the prime city in all the Cursed Shores for a Trader to find Elderling goods at a reasonable price, and he’d had to race past it without even a glance because Alise feared she wouldn’t get to see her smelly, deformed dragons.”
Honestly? I can relate. At this point, Sedric is like a luxury vacationer dragged along on a roughing-it camping trip. But he feels primed for real growth- and I suspect those smelly, deformed dragons may just capture his heart.
In fact, I can see both Alise and Sedric breaking out from under Hest’s shadow and finding their own place in the world. I’ll get back to Alise shortly (don’t you worry), but I couldn’t help wondering: who in this region might catch Sedric’s eye?
And who crossed my mind (not just because they practically share a name)? Selden. Years have passed, so he should be of age for some romance. And while not every arc needs to be romantic in nature (though it would be nice), I like the idea of these two opposite sides of Hest’s shitty partnership coin finding both themselves and the love they deserve.
Welcome to the POV squad, Sedric!
Ahoy, Mateys! (pt. 2)
Imagine my delight when Sedric and Alise reveal they haven’t booked passage on just any old ship. Nope, it’s our old friend ShipFitz Paragon, complete with Captain Trell, Althea, their young son, and Clef.
We’re so intimately familiar with Paragon and crew that it’s slightly jarring seeing them through a relative stranger’s eyes. And frankly, I did not appreciate how often Sedric dismissed Paragon as insane. (He may be a bit nuts, but he’s our nutso, so stfu.)
They primarily serve to shepherd our new friends, both physically and through knowledge, toward their dragon-seeking adventure. Regardless of their role, it was just wonderful to be back in their midst.
Musings!
🚨 New Wayward Boy Alert 🚨
Warming up to new characters usually takes time, but whether it’s the familair setting or Robin being the GOAT, I am getting down with these characters at record speed.
Enter: Tats.
We meet him climbing onto Thymara’s branch during her post-fight-with-evil-mom reflection hour. (Ok, evil might be a tad strong, but Thymara’s mom is a rough hang. At best: vapid.)
I (obviously) instantly loved their teen-angst dynamic. Thymara doesn’t just feel unworthy of love, she’s been explicitly told that it’s forbidden to her. And Tats, a marked-slave orphan from another world, is clearly enamored.
He signs up for the dragon keeper job alongside her, and we’re also introduced to a dickhead rival for her affection (a sort of a bizarro Grag situation). I’m sat. My popcorn is buttered. I’m rooting for these two!
Where is Wintrow?
We’ve checked in with Althea and Brashen, heard mentions of Malta and Reyn, plus Selden- so where is my most favorite would-be-priest-turned-reluctant-bad-boy pirate king usurper?
We know Hest is heading to pirate town. Is this the duo we’re destined to see?
Careful, Hest. He took down the king of all assholes, Kyle. You should be child’s play.
(My deepest apologies to Ronica and Keffria for not giving a flying fuck what they’re up to.)
Lady and the Tramp
Speaking of these hoes be wildin’, Leftrin didn’t make a huge impression on me in the opening chapters- but boy does he come roaring back into the story.
This is where I really started to feel giddy.
Paragon delivers Alise and Sedric to Trehaug, but from there they need a second ship capable of navigating the shallow waters to Cassarick, where the “dragons” reside.
Lucky for them – and for us – our favorite flat-bottomed barge, the Tarman, happens to be setting off in that very direction. As Alise and Sedric rush to board, we get the most Jack seeing Rose for the first time moment between Captain Leftrin and Alise.
Think I’m exaggerating? Exhibit A:
“She had large gray eyes set wide apart in a heart-shaped face. She had bundled her hair out of the way, but what he could see of it was dark red and curling. Freckles sprinkled her nose and cheeks generously. Another man might have seen her mouth as too generous for her face, but not Leftrin. The single darting glance she gave him seemed to look not into his eyes but into his heart.”
Easy, loverboy!
Safe to say our rough-around-the-edges river rat is immediately smitten with proper Bingtown lady Alise- and I couldn’t love this more. Yes, he’s a bit shady. Yes, I’m ignoring red flags like I always do for sailors on the Cursed Shores. 🤷♀️ YOLO.
After Alise’s self-perception as plain and the emotional deep-freeze of her marriage, seeing someone outright bewitched by her? Love this for her!
The way I want this man to ravage her and remind her she’s desirable.
And listen, if Lana Del Rey can marry a swamp tour guide, Alise can ditch her douchebag husband for a barge captain. This is how I will be picturing them moving forward:
Breaking the 4th Wall
Part 1: wizardwordship gets corrected
Alise drops this line that felt aimed directly at me:
“The Rain Wilders who found the dormant dragons in their cases, sometimes incorrectly called cocoons, had no idea what they were.”
Yes. I have repeatedly called them cocoons. Oops!
Part 2: wizardwordship gets clocked
Hest patronizes Alise with:
“You’d come of age in a harsh time in Bingtown. You needed to escape reality, and what could be a better fantasy than tales of Elderlings and dragons?”
You know what? It is a harsh time. And I will never apologize for getting wrapped up in tales of Elderlings and dragons.
(Side note: Am I Alise?)
I’m very excited to learn more about what’s going on with the Tarman. We’ve gotten several intriguing clues:
- Leftrin mentions crafting something for it from the found wizardwood
- Remarks around its ability to sail just as well, if not better, with a reduced crew
- Allusions to something new beneath the waterline
- And little lines like:
“The barge moved up the river steadily, avoiding shoals and snags as if bewitched.”
Are we going to be introduced to a figurehead that lurks below the surface?
Lots of “point-at-the-page” moments in these chapters. My favorites:
“She stroked an insignia on the side of the kettle, an image that looked rather like a chicken with a crown.”
“All had believed that Tintaglia was the last true dragon in the world. To discover it was not so was shocking, and the tale of the black dragon who had risen from the ice was almost too far-fetched to believe.
Some prince of the far Six Duchies had unearthed the dragon…”
“She recalled that his original boyish face had been damaged, chopped to pieces; some said by pirates, while others believed his own crew had done it. But someone had recarved the splintered wood into the visage of a handsome if scarred young man.”
Onward to Cassarick!
wizardwordship 