***Spoilers for The Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 6 of Golden Fool. References to the events of The Farseer Trilogy and The Liveship Traders. Also, warning: this post contains adult content.***
Ahoy Hobb Heads! I’m home. My time away to heal from the pain of Fool’s Errand and stretch my baby blogger wings was fun, but sinking back into the comfort of Golden Fool feels so right. And by “so right,” I of course mean Robin immediately rips open my barely-healed heart and plunges me straight back into despair and suffering. Oh, you thought we were going to leave the pain of losing Nighteyes back in Fool’s Errand? Think again.
When I started the Tawny Man Trilogy after our Robin Hobb-imposed sojourn to the Cursed Shores, I remarked that in picking Fitz’s storyline back up, we get the full Fitz experience. Likewise, in returning from my brief, self-imposed exile in Caten, here at the start of Golden Fool we surely get Fitz at his Fitziest. Which also happens to be what I love the most in the world.
He’s pouting, being the saddest of bois, getting used and abused by his loved ones, finding himself outnumbered in precarious situations, absolutely bumbling his way through romantic interactions, and – perhaps my favorite of all – leaving cryptic passive-aggressive notes in the dust on tables. Seriously, “I was here; you were not,” belongs in the Petulance Hall of Fame. I will love Fitz until the day I die. All we need is for Dutiful to leave Fitz a post-it reply:
We’ve reached the exciting conclusion to The Will of the Many! Some questions were answered, and many more were raised. Theories died, and new theories sprang to life. Loyalties have shifted yet again, and we lost a real one. Whew! What a ride!
Let’s not waste any time and get right into Synchronous.
This is it, people. Shit has officially gone off the rails heading into The Strength of the Few (releasing in November, see you back here then!). I love how James Islington handled this twist. After completing the labyrinth, Vis enters a chamber and steps into the bronze blade ring. He experiences something – it’s super painful and sucks – but when he emerges, everything seems the same. So we spend the rest of the book wondering what exactly he unleashed. I kept expecting something to show up or there to be some major shift in the world- wizardwordship was on alert! But everything continues along mostly normal (rotting arms and new powers aside), and Vis wins the Iudicium and we seem to be on our merry way. Then comes Synchronous.
Synchronous, Part 1
We are taken back to the moment Vis emerges from the bronze blade ring. It starts the exact same way… right down to the instructions getting carved into his arm. He exits the chamber and things begin to diverge. When he approaches the gate to the labyrinth, he comes to a stone that has some mumbo jumbo about needing to pay a toll for passage to Luceum, places his hands on it, and whoosh! He is transported, sans left arm(!), to a vast rotunda. There are people there who tell him to “Stay with us… the other from your world will be coming.” Fade to black on Luceum…
Synchronous, Part 2
Oh, but we’re not done here, folks! We get thrust back to the bronze blade ring emergence again. This time, there’s someone in the chamber- who introduces himself as… CAEROR!!!!
Caeror has arrived and he starts spilling the tea. This Vis is in Obiteum. They have a cute, “Oh, you know Veridious?” / “And you know Ulciscor?” small-world sort of exchange before Caeror is like, enough small talk, we’ve got to save you back in Res (apparently the name of the world we’ve been bopping in). He busts out a knife and we solve the mystery of the carved arm words!
So now we’ve got three Vis’s in three worlds. And we know that what happens to his body in one world affects his bodies in the others. (Very concerned that Caeror is just going to start writing letters to his friends back in Res on Vis’s torso.)
Synchronous rocked my world, but we have to get into the Iudicium. Shit went pretty hard.
Let’s begin by paying due respect to our big loss: Callidus. I’m going to be honest, coming into this story straight out of the emotional warzone that is Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings, this was light work for me.
I liked Callidus. He was a great pal to Vis, loyal to the end. And I am sad for Vis. First, his lady love stabs him and shoves him off a tower, then his best friend dies in his arms. It’s a rough stretch, for sure.
So how did we get here? Well, after his jaunty little Synchronism-launching side quest mid-Iudicium, Vis returns to the fray to discover that things are going a bit awry. After linking back up with Callidus and Aequa, they make a plan that involves splitting up. Callidus loses the coin flip that seals his fate, and Aequa and Vis head out on the initial mission to go for the heart of Jovan (the goal of the games).
Well, nothing fucks up your plans like stumbling upon a mass grave of all the safety teams plus a few students – YOIKS! It is gross, and I am grateful we got to gloss over Vis and Aequa retrieving Sianus’s tattooed arms as proof of what they’ve found.
Change of plans! They decide to warn the remaining competitors and GTFOH. Vis gets to Ionus, who very quickly accepts the story and peaces out. Things with Emissa don’t go as smoothly.
Before we get to the Emissa confrontation, Vis stumbles upon the bodies of three Class 4 students and has a run in with the creepy, teleporting Anguis leader we saw conversing with Relucia back at the Festival of Pletunia. He emerges as the HBIC and basically calls Relucia small potatoes. He cuts a deal: if Vis wins the Iudicium and becomes Domitor, he will let Emissa live.
Off Vis goes on a mission to save his lady by defeating his lady. (That’s going to be a fun convo, “No, honey, I swear. I only want to win over you for you. Not for me.“)
He first has to fight a Sextus guard and almost gets tossed off the tower before Emissa wields awill and saves the day. They have a sweet moment, but Vis is like, “Yeah… what was the wielding Will all about.” She brushes him off: “Shh sweetie, not now.”
And then we learn why it is always best to address things in the moment, because her eyes black over again, she stabs him in the stomach, and throws him off the tower. School romances always end poorly! (Says the woman married to her freshman dorm neighbor.)
It’s not looking great, but if we know anything about Vis- it’s that he finds a way. He pulls a magical ability (more on that in a bit) out of his ass and summons the heart to him as he falls. He’s saved (again!) by DiagoDog, makes his way back to the mortally wounded Callidus, and stumbles his way back to the Academy – dead best friend in arms – to stuff the heart back in the statue of Jovan, thus winning the Iudicium in the final moments of the test.
OH! And it’s his eighteenth birthday!
Time for my final musings on The Will of the Many:
Let’s revisit some of my predictions heading into Part III, so we can all have a good chuckle at my expense (and maybe find something to be impressed with!).
First, the bad:
My bold prediction at the end of my previous post was that Vis was going to come into contact with a family member – possibly a sister – LOL. In our catch-up with Fadrique in Suus, he makes it abundantly clear that all of Vis’s family members are dead. He saw all of their bodies. There is zero chance any of them are alive. If you even thought someone could’ve gotten away, you’re stupid and shouldn’t share your thoughts for public consumption. (I’m paraphrasing just a bit).
I was pretty gung-ho in my suspicions of Aequa. To be fair to myself, pretty early on in Part III, I started shifting those suspicions onto Emissa, but you’ll just have to take my word for it. Aequa was too obvious. And while the budding Vis-Emissa romance was sweet, we were kept at arm’s length from their dynamic in a way that screamed this was ripe for heartbreak. Emissa is very much giving “first love, not true love” energy. (Though I don’t think her betrayal is straightforward, more on that later).
Onyx did not come back to be significant (yet!). Was it even onyx that the swords were made of? The Remnants are described as obsidian. Did I just flub that whole thing?
Now, the good:
The injured Alupi returning to aid Vis! A bit of a layup, but DiagoDog (much more on double names later) did return and, though not exactly a cuddle bug, does have some sort of bond with Vis and served as his protector for much of the Iudicium.
The Vis-Emissa romance heating up on their island getaway to Suus. I mean, let’s be real, it was about as hot as a bowl of yogurt, but still.
Vis’s magical ability watch: I pointed out Vis’s ability to sense other’s presence seemed like it might hint at a magical ability, and it looks like my powers of perception were on point! He seems to get a bit of a post-portal upgrade, with his natural skills taking on a supernatural quality – fun! So far: internal people radar, some sort of semi-invincibility, and the power to summon objects.
My “Could Veridious actually be good?” theory from my Part I recap has legs, baby!! Never a doubt. (Unless you count my very explicitly stated doubt from my Part II recap, which, fortunately, I do not.)
In the main timeline (pray for me, folks), Veridious is with Vis when he wakes post-Iudicium. He tries to get Vis to declare himself to Religion, and I don’t know… I was catching a vibe of genuineness here.
Another point in Veridious’s favor: Vis’s brief interaction with Caeror in Obiteum. Caeror asks Vis if he knows Veridious and when Vis calls him Principalis Veridious, Caeror kinda gives an “Oh Veridious, you rascal” smirk. Not the reaction you’d expect to hearing about your murderer.
I’m gonna keep the Veridious train rolling here. Veridious’s possible ascent is set against Ulciscor’s hard fall in the “who-seems-cool” rankings. You know what? This seems like a perfect time to segue over to Ulciscor.
Papa Ulc: fuck you! (That felt good).
I forgot to mention this is my Part II reaction, but I started to sour hard on Ulciscor back at the Festival of Ancestors. After Vis details his harrowing, near-death escapade to the first ruins, Ulc is immediately like, “Yeah, not enough. Do better.”
And boy does he not get any better from that point on. In Suus, Vis reports that not only has he ascended to Class 4, but also his successful even more insane recon of the second ruins site. But Papa Ulc wants more. If greed is the hallmark of the Hierarchy, Ulciscor is a true company man. He insists Vis run the certain-death labyrinth or he’ll invoke his fatherly rights (you adopted an adult less than a year ago, chill out) to toss him in a sapper. Winning the Iudicium, becoming Domitor, and defying all the odds to scout two sets of should-be-unreachable ruins… still not enough for Papa Ulc.
Vek have mercy on me. I was complaining last post about the double-identity of Sedotia/Relucia. And now I have to keep track of characters copied across multiple universes 😵💫. This should be interesting for your girl.
I was already fuming that Vis named his wolf Diago (his own former name in Suus), and now I am going to be wrestling with Res-Vis, Obiteum-Vis, and Luceum-Vis.
Synchronous is death you say? Yeah… death to this blogger.
Superhero Vis! He continues to be the athlete of a generation. He is running around Solivagus, forging freezing rivers, fighting alien guards, fighting non-alien guards, carrying his dying friend, and defying the laws of sleep to an astonishing degree. Even without his new upgraded powers, he’s a beast.
Listen. The hierarchy does some pretty bad stuff, but their crimes against taste and design are right up there for me. I was horrified right along Vis at the defacing of his family’s ancestral palace. He describes:
“Gone is the character-filled hewn look of the sandstone. In its place is a monstrosity. Walls smoothed, polished, and painted garishly in the colours of Caten: orange and white and purple.”
And that’s not even the worst of it! At our first dinner, Vis observes:
“Gone is the long table in the centre, replaced by several smaller ones, each surrounded by three broad couches in the Catenan style.”
Do not serve me a formal dinner while I’m seated on an m-fing couch. This definitively proves that no amount of Will-wielding can buy taste.
Big questions heading into Book 2:
Who, pray tell, is the “person from Vis’s world” the people from Luceum say is coming? Are they referring to Caeror over in Obiteum? (I don’t think so.) Is this possibly someone who is dead?
Vis has that dream-convo with his dad, who tells him, “Death is a doorway, Son. You will see him again. No one is ever truly lost.” One of these new worlds being some sort of afterlife seems very in play.
What the hell went down during Veridious’s/Caeror’s/Lanistia’s Iudicium? Obviously, a lot more than we were led to believe. Very curious how Lanistia factors into it all.
Will Vis have to wield Will? He makes a split-second decision to request a placement with the Censor (Callidus’s father!!) post-graduation, as is his right as Domitor. This will keep him firmly in the mix of the Hierarchy governance. One of his strongest motivations through most of the story has been to avoid both ceding and wielding Will, but he ends on a note of “circumstances change.”
What role will Eidhin play going forward? He gets a default promotion to best friend via Callidus’s untimely death. And we still have the mystery of why he had to decline supporting Vis in the Iudicium. I’m excited to see how he factors in.
Will Emissa and Vis make up? I think they may work out their differences after a long period of distrust from Vis, but ultimately, I think the romance ship may have sailed for these two.
Who left the missing-from-Suus carved wooden “Diago” ship on Vis’s side table post-Iudicium? Could this be the faintest sign of life for my “family member still alive” theory?
Final remarks on my journey through The Will of the Many:
This was fun! I wasn’t sure what to expect jumping into a new story while taking a little break from the deeply parasocial relationship I find myself in with the Realm of the Elderlings. Imagine my surprise when this new story also followed a lonely boy of secret royal lineage who bonds with a wolf. Quite the niche I’ve carved out for myself!
The complexity of the world and plot pushed me at times, but I enjoyed breaking it all down and I hope you had fun following along.
Next stop: back to Six Duchies, where I pick up my main quest with book two of the Tawny Man Trilogy: Golden Fool.
***Spoilers through Part II of The Will of the Many. Includes one semi-revealing reference to Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass Series***
The intrigue is ramping up! We’ve got twists and turns; fun reveals; casual conversations over decapitated heads; and our boy Vis is climbing the Academy ladder- with a grand prize of almost certain death at the end! Weee!
There is a lot happening: school rivalries, intergovernmental agency squabbling, family dynamics, a rebel faction who may be worse than the evil empire, and – I believe – a distant and/or ancient alien race emerging (???). As a reader, it’s not too difficult to get the gist and follow along. As a ✨blogger✨, though, I feel a heightened sense of duty to understand the intricacies, lest I mistakenly label a Quintus a Quartus and humiliate myself in front of my loyal wizardwordship followers.
(Honestly, dozens of faithful readers would be a dream.)
Let’s dive off the Transvect into the Sea of Quus!
Vis, who could really use fewer extracurriculars, takes on two ill-advised missions to learn more about the ruins on Solivagus. Both involve wild schemes to thwart Academy security measures, and each time he comes a hair’s breadth from expulsion or death. Vis proves that his heroics at the Festival of Jovan were no fluke – Catenicus indeed!
***Spoilers for Part I: Chapters I-XXIV of The Will of the Many***
Starting a new fantasy series is like visiting a new city. I’m familiar with the foundational elements (that’s a building, here’s our protagonist, yay! there’s a map, and so on), but everything feels a bit foreign (wait, where is the biblioteque?). There are a lot of new names, settings, technologies, and governmental structures flying around, and as a reader, it’s a delicate dance between trying to absorb what’s going on while also moving forward with faith that it will all click into place in time.
(Likewise, I am trying to get my bearings as a blogger here, striving to discuss what’s happening while not recapping every little detail or explaining who each character is. Please bear with me as I get my sea legs on this new adventure. It’s all part of the process, baby.)
So that’s where I find myself, having completed Part I of The Will of the Many. There’s a lot of setup and world-building taking place, but I’ve been impressed with James Islington’s ability to feed us information amid a fast-moving plot. He’s great at introducing concepts and then gradually layering in more details to build our understanding without overwhelming us.
We meet Vis, our hidden-in-plain-sight orphan prince from a conquered land, doing his best to blend in among the enemy. He’s scraping by and biding time until he can get his revenge. I’m immediately in on Vis. Perhaps stepping out of Realm of the Elderlings for this side quest has me preconditioned to root for a young male narrator with the odds stacked against him, but I’ve found him quite likable so far. He’s clearly exceptional without being overpowered.
I was pretty much sold when, upon finding out he is about to fight a higher-station (and thus stronger Will-powered) opponent in the nighttime fight club he participates in to raise funds (revenge ain’t cheap, folks!), his strategy is to strip butt naked. This is the sort of unhinged action I am looking for in my main character: determination and drive; strength and speed; quick thinking and cunning; and a willingness to go to any lengths to get the job done. This is someone I can get behind!
An exciting update on my journey through realms: I will be taking a quick detour from my mission in the Realm of the Elderlings to embark on a side quest through…
James Islington’s The Will of the Many!
Fear not! This will be the briefest of detours from my main mission. Yes, my whole heart still belongs to Fitz, and I cannot wait to jump into Golden Fool soon.
But I have found that blogging through a story takes a lot more time than my previous blistering pace through a series. I don’t want to burn out or get stuck in a rut. And where we left things at the end of Fool’s Errand feels like an easy place to take a quick pause, recover a bit after you know what, and return to the Six Duchies very soon, refreshed and ready to rip.
I’m also curious to see how it feels to blog a different series and get in from the very beginning. The sequel to The Will of the Many is due out later this year, so it seemed like the perfect time to jump in.
I’m aiming to complete this side quest quickly; I have a solo adventure coming up in a few weeks, and I plan to be blissfully reunited with Fitz for that trip- so your girl is on a deadline!
Hope you enjoy this little departure, and if not, I will see you soon in Buckkeep!
***Spoilers for The Tawny Man Trilogy through the end of Fool’s Errand . References to the events of Farseer Trilogy and Liveship Traders***
I am going to need someone to explain to me how Robin Hobb spent an entire book preparing us for what was coming, only for me to be completely blindsided by Nighteyes’ death. A mere two posts ago, I was over here preaching “Constant Vigilance,” reminding myself that we were back in the Six Duchies, which means certain disaster and heartbreak. And yet, I still managed to let my guard down. After the intensity of the Piebald battle, I let myself be lulled into a moment of comfort, only to have the emotional rug viciously pulled out from under me.
Honestly, I am not ok.
Reading Nighteyes’ death felt like watching a slow-motion horror film. It began so beautifully- wolf and man reunited, curled together, slipping into the shared dreamspace. As the hunting dream progressed, there was a slow, dawning realization of what was occurring. At first, it was just an inkling that something was off. By the time we get to Fitz waking up and confirming that these final dream moments were, in fact, Nighteyes saying goodbye, I felt like I wanted to start moving backward and undo what I had just read. No, no, no… But it was too late.
My corner of the internet for sailing the high seas of fantasy fiction. Currently chronicling my journey through Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings, with all the awe, anguish, and occasional unhinged delight that entails. Grab your emotional life jacket and come aboard!
***Spoilers for The Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 25 of Fool’s Errand . References to the events of Farseer Trilogy and Liveship Traders***
Whew! The plot is thickening and the action is actioning. The titular errand seems to be approaching its conclusion, and with a bit more excitement than my typical errands. (Although a trip to the grocery store with both of my children has its share of battles.)
I have to give it up- Robin Hobb’s masterful storytelling is on full display in these chapters. I found myself particularly appreciative of the minor scene with the Wit-bonded deer from earlier in the book. When Fitz is filling in the Fool (and us) on the details of his time with the Witted folk and his learning of the ways of the Old Blood, we get an interlude where he senses a wrongness in a deer. Rolf explains that the human bond-partner of the deer merged her consciousness into the animal rather than die. This is meant to illustrate for Fitz how Wit magic can be perverted, which lays important groundwork for us to quickly catch on to what’s going on with the Prince’s lady-cat seductress.
***Spoilers for The Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 20 of Fool’s Errand . Heavy references to the events of Farseer Trilogy and Liveship Traders***
Fire up the Mystery Machine, things are getting pretty spooky in Galekeep! I am really loving the mystery vibes of Fool’s Errand. When it was revealed that we were in cat country, I should have expected things to get weird, and the atmosphere at Galekeep did not disappoint. Everyone is hiding something, Fitz is looking foine in his fancy clothes, and utter disaster lurks around every corner.
In my last post, I noted that it was great to have Fitz and Nighteyes reunite. What I failed to realize is that their time apart was actually a blessed mercy on us: giving us a break from the unrelenting slow march toward Nighteyes’ death. This is fucking brutal. I feel like I am in an emotional guillotine. The blade is going to drop and I am going to be destroyed. I know Nighteyes is prideful, but can we please fashion him a little saddle or something? Watching him push himself to the limit – all while recovering from a cat attack (did I say I liked cats before? Fuck cats!) – is a lot to handle. Fitz, who is very generous with his own life force, does a little more skill healing/life infusion, which Nighteyes flat-out forbids him from doing again.
I’m beginning to fear that the relative lack of emotional destruction in Liveship Traders compared to Farseer Trilogy lulled me into complacency. Time to get my head back in the game. We are in the Six Duchies now. Constant vigilance!!!!
***Spoilers for The Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 15 of Fool’s Errand. Heavy references to the events of The Farseer Trilogy and mentions of Liveship Traders***
After taking our time settling back in with Fitz and Friends – catching up on things we missed and reorienting ourselves to the slower pace of the Six Duchies – things seem to be taking shape in our story.
We’re back in Buckkeep, and everyone is back on their bullshit. The Fool and Chade concoct a ruse to bring Fitz back into the fold unnoticed, which naturally involves treating him like dogshit around the clock. Oh well- it’s the only way! They can’t risk him having even a single item of comfort in his hidden, windowless sleeping chamber, yet they’re somehow fine relying on an even-Clark-Kent-would-be-unimpressed level of physical disguise. Which is to say, there is no disguise. Just the trust that a servant’s outfit and a few half-hearted mannerisms (which Fitz consistently botches) will suffice. I suppose by now they assume that as long as Fitz is getting the raw end of the deal, things will work out.
The Plot Thickens
We’ve got a missing prince, and Detective Fitz is on the case! I thoroughly enjoyed watching him go full Sherlock Holmes. We get scenes straight out of Law and Order: Six Duchies:
Fitz: “Begin the night before he disappeared…” “… and tell me all that you know.”
I didn’t quite realize the Venn diagram between assassin training and detective work was practically a circle, but I’m not going to question it.
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