Like A River

***Spoilers for The Rain Wild Chronicles through chapter 13 of Dragon Keeper. Mentions of the events of The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders Trilogy, and The Tawny Man Trilogy are fair game, too.***

It might just be that I am writing this on December 26th, but the Island of Misfit Toys vibes have never been stronger.

There are two elements really jumping out to me so far:

1. how rapidly my feelings keep shifting, and
2. the amount of mirroring happening, on both a micro level within the story and a macro level across Hobb’s entire body of work.

Let’s start with my emotional whiplash.

Shifting Feelings:

In my last post, I had a lot of pep in my typing fingers. After Dragon Keeper’s bleak opening, the story started gaining momentum. Then I dove directly back into a Sintara POV and realized it was the lack of dragon experience that lightened things up. I mean, with lines like:

“And now they were masters of nothing, doomed to mud and carrion and, Sintara did not doubt, a slow death by slog up the river.”

… it’s hard to be buoyed by optimism.

As counterbalance to the dreary dragons, we have Captain Leftrin floating in the clouds with his crush on Alise. Sir- you are a grizzled, murdering (only once, but that counts), ruthless river man. Get ahold of yourself! As hard as I rode for their meet-cute, I have to admit I developed a smidge of an ick this time around. Leftrin is fucking gone for our girl, and Alise is relishing the attention, but it doesn’t feel like they’re on equal footing. Alise seems more lost on the sauce of someone being into her (rightfully!) than genuinely attracted to Leftrin, so surprisingly, I’m finding myself a bit worried for the captain’s heart.

It’s not just them- my feelings across the board have been shifting as rapidly as the Rain Wild River itself. Part of Liveship Traders’ brilliance is how Robin Hobb not only develops characters, but actively reshapes our perceptions over time. Most notably, of course, with Malta- going from the absolute worst to the Elderling queen we worship. In Malta’s case, it’s a long arc, but here in Dragon Keeper, I’m finding my opinions shift chapter to chapter.

Take Sedric. Sympathetic one moment, near-villainous the next. We learn he doesn’t care for animals (red flag), so Alise’s hackles are raised at his interest in assisting the dragons. She doesn’t know his actual motivations like we do, but she’s right to sense something is off:

“Oh, he shared some of her scholastic interest in dragons, but she had never seen him pet a dog or talk to his horse. And now he was going to assist this girl in doctoring a dragon? There was something here, and she felt she stood at the edge of a strange and perhaps dark current. Could he possibly be interested in the girl? She was so young and so peculiar looking. It would be very inappropriate.”

Alise’s ability to read a situation, as ever, remains unmatched.

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