Paging Dr. Frankenstein
***Spoilers for The Rain Wilds Chronicles through City of Dragons. Mentions of the events of The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders Trilogy, and The Tawny Man Trilogy are fair game, too.***
City of Dragons – ✅ One more book to go in our Rain Wilds Chronicles adventure, and then it’s time to buckle the fuck up and dive into the final trilogy of this RotE experience.
So with that, I’m going to jump right in with a character who proves likability has nothing to do with being compelling.
Hest
If Hest is a monster (and he is), here we finally meet his maker. And of course, it’s the final boss of boy moms: Hest’s mother. She enters the story as coddling and enabling as you might expect.
Robin Hobb isn’t called the queen of character (not sure anyone calls her that specifically, but still) for nothing. Hest is already one of the richest characters in the story, even without much direct page time. But the chapter we get to spend with him and his parents, especially his dynamic with his mother, adds even more depth to an already vivid portrait.
And he makes such a great villain. For me, he’s right up there with Kyle (and maybe Chade?) in the RotE loathsome-men rankings.
What makes him so terrifying is how real he is. He’s not a pale, ethereal magical woman in an ice palace. He doesn’t steal souls or chop up his foes. He’s just an asshole. A charismatic, entitled, deeply spoiled man taken to the extreme.
We see him encouraged to reclaim Alise and Sedric as if they’re property – and to secure any claim they might have to Kelsingra (good luck with that). But we also get to watch him taken down a massive peg when the Chalcedean mercenary he tried to have killed shows back up.
And listen, I don’t think of myself as sadistic, but I can’t lie, watching Hest get literally walked like a dog while writhing in poisoned-induced agony? Worked for me.
“He had licked the man’s boot. Not once or twice, but like a dog, lapping at it over and over until the Chalcedean had stepped away.”
But instead of taking even a shred of humility from this experience, Hest vows to pay it forward:
“There was, he decided, only one way to purge himself of the terror and humiliation that the Chalcedean had forced on him.
He would pass them on to Sedric.”
😬 Healthy.
I can’t wait for this storyline to culminate. OF COURSE, I care deeply about the dragons and Elderlings 👀, but Alise and Sedric vs. Hest is the heart of the tension in this series for me.
And while I would like to see Hest get eaten by a dragon (which is still very in play), I do suspect this comes down to a more human conclusion. Man vs. man (man in the universal sense, Alise can get in on this payback too).
I want to see Hest forced into direct comparison with his replacements, Carson and Leftrin, and watch him come up painfully short. That’s not to reduce Sedric and Alise to damsels in distress, but Hest needs to face some real men and see what true partnership looks like.
Hest side note: he has such strong Gaston energy. This is all I can picture when I think of Hest bopping around Bingtown:
Just as everything culminated with our Liveship battle back in Ship of Destiny, it feels like all our pieces are now converging in Kelsingra. A lot of Rain Wilds Chronicles has been setup – very fun and satisfying – but setup nonetheless.
It’s time for shit to go down.
As I like to do, here are a few things I’d like to see settled as we wrap up our dragony quartet:
- Hest goes down (see above)
- Selden gets rescued and reunites with Malta and Reyn (and maybe some new Elderling friends 👀)
- Sedric and Carson part amicably (sorry Carson, but I still think you’re more a “good time, not a long time” situation)
- The dragons and Elderlings claim Kelsingra, fend off treasure hunters, and restore the city
- I would say Sintara gets a mate and chills tf out, but we see how well that’s worked out for Tintaglia so…
MUSINGS!
With Selden heading to Chalced, and Tintaglia just deciding to depart the region, I’m curious how we are going to get him out of this pickle.
And so help me God, if I have to witness the Duke of Chalced take a bite out of that sweet boy – it is on sight.
Staying here for a moment – Tintaglia mentions she lost the ability to perceive Selden while he’s been out on his dragon search, which raises questions.
How far does dragon telepathy extend? Are we talking strong walkie-talkie range? What’s the deal here?
And how far is Chalced from Kelsingra?
This is opening some major “how far is the flight time between King’s Landing and Dragonstone”-type questions for me.
Of course I’m going to talk about Rapskal and Thyamara getting it on. But to be frank? I’m tired. The uncertainty from Thymara is never-ending.
So, Thymara and Rapskal find themselves in a very comfortable bathhouse in Kelsingra. It turns out all she needed to get over the hump was a clean body and a comfy bed- which I get. Don’t make a move on me after months of camping either. Blech.
We get part two of sensual wing play 🫦, and then they go all the way.
But then – in a shocking turn of events – the very next morning, we are right back to square one.
And I do empathize. She’s young, confused, scared. This isn’t simple, and she shouldn’t be pressured to know what she wants. That’s not how things work.
Still… it’s maddening.
Have sex with Rapskal. Have sex with Tats. Start a sexy Elderling throuple. Devote yourself to the Elderling clergy and a life of celibacy.
At this point, I just need forward motion.
Oh, have I forgotten to mention Malta’s birth scene?
Probably because I blocked it from my brain in a vain attempt at self-preservation.
Because, DAMN. It was absolutely bonkers. If somehow you’re reading this (weird) without having read City of Dragons (even weirder), Reyn leaves his heavily pregnant wife to navigate rickety rope bridges back to their Cassarick accommodations in the middle of a treacherous storm (lowkey the least believable thing that has happened in RotE so far).
She gets lost. Goes into labor. Gets kidnapped by a Chalcedean thug and dragged to a brothel. Gives birth on the dirty floor while the Chalcedeans actively discuss dismembering her and passing her off as dragon parts to the Duke.
Malta – our ultimate survivor – gives birth unnoticed, kills one of the creeps while the other leaves for supplies (you know, the dismembering and preservation supplies), and escapes back into the storm with her barely alive baby.
But the queen persists. She makes it to Tarman, who is able to keep the Rain Wilds-touched baby alive temporarily, but notes he will need the aid of a dragon to transform into an Elderling and survive.
You know, even in a series that doesn’t center on Malta, she still manages to steal the show. A true star 💫 .
(Also, Reyn: I know Malta is a force and you were getting dog-walked a la Hest following her lead, but how about walking your heavily pregnant wife to the fucking door next time? Still love you, boo.)
I will not be distinguishing between the various Chalcedean spies/merchants/mercenaries/etc. until I am absolutely forced to. Begasti Cored, Sinad Arich – potato, potahto.
(Side note: I went back to the “Cast of Characters” at the beginning of my eBook to find those names (this isn’t a bit, people!!) and saw this listing: “THE CHALCEDEAN: Hest’s nemesis.” GTFOH. They are all “The Chalcedean” to me.)
What in the fuck is happening with these bird handlers?
Of course I dutifully read the correspondence chapter-end interstitials and semi-absorb what’s going on. But at a certain point, there’s only so much I can keep track of. We’ve got memory stone revealing the history of a lost city, Chalcedean spies and politics, tertiary keeper romances – it’s a lot!
That said, I did enjoy when this side drama briefly bled into the main story, as Leftrin returns to Cassarick with messages from the keepers and crew to be sent off by bird.
The Cassarick bird handler is the troublemaker, right? Trehaug is where Erek and Detozi (newly married – mazel!) currently reside, with Erek’s (?) nephew(?) holding down the birds in Bingtown (???). Something like that.
So I’m wondering if these messages from the Kelsingra crew routing through Cassarick are going to have ramifications in the near future.
Good thing I have suffered through enjoyed each and every correspondence we’ve been treated to 😵💫.
No one skeeves me out more than Hest’s new manservant/fuck buddy, Redding. Though advised by his father to make the trip to the Rain Wilds alone, he of course brings his little lap dog along.
It does amuse me how annoyed Hest is by him, but their boat scene was nauseating.
“Redding smiled at him and with the tip of his tongue licked the sausage suggestively.”
Realizing I should probably touch down on Chalced – the Duke, the murders, his daughter, the schemes, etc., etc. But…
Let’s just say the Duke sucks, his Chancellor-turned-heir-apparent sucks, and they better keep their grubby paws off Selden.
I am intrigued by his feminist poet daughter, though. Burn it down, sister!
Onward we march! Blood of Dragons coming shortly. 🫡
wizardwordship 