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Reactions from the Realm: Fool’s Assassin, Prologue – Chapter 5

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Return of the King

Alternate title: Good Golly Ms. Molly

***Spoilers for Fool’s Assassin through chapter 5. Mentions of the events of The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders Trilogy, The Tawny Man Trilogy, and The Rain Wilds Chronicles are fair game, too.***

Oh, hello there, friends. Not expecting to see me so soon? Well, we are back! And I can barely contain myself.

Quick peek behind the curtain: I had intended to read longer chunks of the story before pausing to react – maybe breaking the book into thirds. But here I am, a mere five chapters in, and I had to heed the call to write.

Sometimes I just know I’ve hit a turning point, a fulcrum in the story, and I strongly feel that now. We’ve had five chapters of catching up, visiting old characters, getting the lay of the land – both physically and politically. And after two years of Molly claiming pregnancy – and, by all rational interpretations, losing her mind rather than bearing a babe – she has given birth to her and Fitz’s tiny baby.

Holy shit. What did I just read?

So this felt like the moment to pause – process everything that’s happened as we step back into this world and Fitz’s mind – and gear up for wherever we are going from here.

Returning to a Fitz-focused trilogy feels a bit like reading in a different language. Or perhaps more accurately, returning to one’s mother tongue. A flood of familiarity- terms and characters I didn’t even realize I missed: “Forged”, Lady Patience being eccentric, Thick, Fitz being so fucking Fitzy…

The tone is so distinct. Both Hobb modes are good, but nothing quite hitz like Fitz.

I’m actually a little sad that this is the last time I will make this transition and have the experience of sinking back into the intimacy of Fitz’s POV. It’s a direct contrast to starting our southern sojourns, which feel novel and take time to settle into. This is a coming home.

So as we once joined Fitz in a façade of peace in his cabin with Hap, so too we find our boy (and yes, no matter how much he reminds us of his age, he will always be our boy) comfortable at Withywoods, living the seemingly content life he’s always sought.

And though that contentment isn’t false – his love of life with Molly is very real – the cracks in the façade start to show almost immediately.

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Reactions from the Realm: City of Dragons, Chapter 9 – Epilogue

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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.”

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Reactions from the Realm: City of Dragons, Prologue – Chapter 8

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Ooh I’ve been waiting for this…

***Spoilers for The Rain Wilds Chronicles through chapter 8 of City of Dragons. Mentions of the events of The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveship Traders Trilogy, and The Tawny Man Trilogy are fair game, too.***

I never rarely nail a prediction (see: Chade, still kickin’). But the predictions and wish list I left off with at the end of Dragon Haven, in relation to where we pick things up in City of Dragons, were pretty spot on.

Let’s check in:

The fallout: Hest.  ✅

He hasn’t discovered the full story yet, but we do get a visit with the rage monster.

More ties to the broader RotE: Malta and Reyn. Selden. Amber/the Fool. Tintaglia. What is Wintrow doing? Let’s get some old friends back in the mix. ✅

No Wintrow or Amber/the Fool yet, but we do get significant time with Malta and Reyn 😍 , Selden 😬, and Tintaglia as we open the story.

Chalced? ✅

We got our first POV from Chalced proper. And boy, that Duke is a real dickhead!

Re: Kelsingra, I asked: will we discover remnants of Fitz’s time there? ✅

Yuppers! Just as I was seriously starting to doubt that this was even the same place, Alise finds Verity’s city model and evidence that “Fitz wuz here.”

All in all, a very satisfying start to the back half of our penultimate RotE series.

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Reactions from the Realm: Dragon Keeper, Chapters 10-13

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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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Reactions from the Realm: Fool’s Fate, Chapters 34-Epilogue

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I’m in a Glass Case of Emotion

***Spoilers for The Tawny Man Trilogy through the end of Fool’s Fate.*** 

Well, friends – I have concluded my read-through of the Tawny Man trilogy. What a beautiful culmination to an incredible series. I was struck by how complete this story felt when combined with the Farseer Trilogy. They may stand as separate series, but they truly feel like necessary companions. While both are remarkable on their own, it’s the arc of all six books that I find almost unbelievably stunning. This ending leaves me with a strong sense of closure, and a deep curiosity about how the Fitz and the Fool trilogy will complement, expand upon, and ultimately conclude Fitz’s story.

Before diving into the emotional conclusion of our tale, I have to address my personal state as I write this post. I debated whether to include this, but what’s the point of blogging if not to show up authentically and share a piece of oneself? This endeavor has always been about connecting across the human experience, and what I’m going through now is something almost everyone can relate to. It also ties closely to the themes of the text, so I’d feel remiss not to include it.

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Reactions from the Realm: Fool’s Fate, Chapters 30-33

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How Fitz Got His Groove Back

***Spoilers for the Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 33 of Fool’s Fate.***

If the revelation of how Fitz was previously able to return to his deceased body thrilled me last post, then that was just the appetizer for this section’s full buffet of answers. There’s a lot to cover, so allow me to get right to the goods.

Fitz and the Fool are lingering in their market-square campsite, recovering and wrestling with where things go from here. Once again, we get that wonderful parallel between the Fool’s sense of lostness and desire to retreat from life, and Fitz’s past experience:

“…you cannot hide forever from your life and friends. Eventually, you must face it again.”
He almost smiled. “This, from the man who spent over a decade being dead.

They almost feel outside of time in this suspended healing sojourn, but eventually the Fool declares himself recovered enough, and it’s time to rejoin the story. Not before a detour to the stone dragon garden for a visit to Girl-on-a Dragon.

Turns out the Fool has promised the rooster crown to the sort-of-lead minstrel of Girl-on-a-Dragon’s entombed coterie, Realder- a former wearer of the crown. (The crown/Skill-dragon/coterie lore goes pretty dense here, so let’s just stick with that and keep it moving).

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Reactions from the Realm: Fool’s Fate, Chapters 27-29

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Everything Everywhere All at Once

***Spoilers for the Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 29 of Fool’s Fate.***

I fear it’s not the most compelling analysis for me to come to the keyboard each week just to say that was the most incredible thing I’ve ever read. But what the fuck else am I supposed to say? The way this story continues to weave and build is truly unreal.

These chapters had me… affected. In every way possible. From an emotional parting and death that somehow gets relegated to a footnote, because everything else that happens overshadows it, to what I would argue is the most erotic scene I have ever read.

It feels like we’ve reached the crescendo of Fool’s Fate, so I’m curious what’s left for us in the remaining eight chapters or so. The way this volume culminates so many storylines begun all the way back in Farseer also makes me wonder what’s in store for the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. I know we still have some story left to tell, so I’ll save my reflection for the end. But are we going to get Molly before we close out Tawny Man? Or is Robin going to dangle her on the other side of an entire quartet? (I’m assuming Rain Wild Chronicles, like Liveship Traders, will be a separate storyline from the Fitz trilogies, with a little world-building overlap.)

Ok, enough filibustering. I need to get into what actually happened so I can get back to reading posthaste! It’s going to be hard for me to not just copy in 50% of Robin’s words, insert bow-down GIFs, and hit publish. The writing is that incredible. But I shall do my best to share actual thoughts.

Good news: The Pale Woman did not cut off the Fool’s head.
Bad news: She did mercilessly torture him and deliver him to an undignified death.
Great news: Fitz, with the wisdom of Yoda, realizes that death is life, and, possessing the magic of life, he can work with this.

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Reactions from the Realm: Fool’s Fate, Chapters 22-26

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Me Want Dragons, Me Get Dragons

***Spoilers for the Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 26 of Fool’s Fate.***

So let me get this straight: I am supposed to just go about my regular life – work my full-time job (sadly, blogging for an audience of none doesn’t pay the bills), make dinners, drive my kids places, etc. – while Burrich is reuniting with Fitz on Aslevjal?

Oh, Robin, you sneaky little Hobb, you. When I saw the chapter title “Reunion,” I assumed it would be Fitz reuniting with Dutiful, Chade, and the rest of the dragon expedition gang. Never in a million years did I expect him to hobble back into camp and straight into Burrich’s strong embrace.

Did I have some questions about how Burrich – mostly blind and crippled – managed to make the harrowing journey across sea and glacier on his own? I did. But Burrich is the embodiment of “where there’s a will, there’s a way,” so I’m willing to go along with the “yada yada, he bumped into Longwick and made it to base camp” explanation and keep it moving. (I did at least appreciate Fitz questioning this seemingly impossible feat as well).

Their reunion is incredible, but there’s not much time to sit down and catch up, because, partially thanks to Web using his bird to tattle the slaying plans to Tintaglia, the situation with Icefyre has turned into a full-on pressure cooker. And when that cooker’s lid blasts off (barely a metaphor), it is on.

After attempting a controlled demolition of the ice encasing Icefyre, Fitz’s forgotten cask of explosive powder goes off unexpectedly, getting the job done (and taking out a few of those extraneous characters I’ve previously mentioned- RIP Eagle). Suddenly, we go from zero dragons to three in a matter of moments. First, Icefyre emerges in rough shape. Second, Tintaglia, punctual queen, arrives on the scene to collect her man. And third, because things can never go smoothly, the Pale Woman’s animated stone dragon, embodying the unhinged soul of Kebal Rawbread, awakens and clunkily hauls itself from the excavation pit.

Dragon Rawbread is given a clear missive from the Pale Woman: defeat at least one of the “real” dragons to prevent their procreation. (Gotta say, it’s handy having Fitz tuned into all the Skilling and dragon communicating throughout the battle. He’s basically our personal CB radio, picking up all the signals and keeping us in the know.) And so, a dragon battle ensues.

It was impossible not to think of Drogon and Rhaegar vs. the Night King’s undead Viserion during the Battle of Winterfell while reading this scene. (A rare Game of Thrones Season 8 bright spot. Well… not literally bright, but you know what I mean. I digress.) Icefyre is depleted but enormous; Tintaglia is comparatively tiny but fierce; and Dragon Rawbread is malformed but vicious. It’s quite the battle.

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Reactions from the Realm: Fool’s Fate, Chapters 18-21

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In Our Horror Era

***Spoilers for the Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 21 of Fool’s Fate.***

Holy shit. Is this the peak of modern literature? I know we have a ways to go, folks, but this section of chapters blew my fucking mind.

Up until now, events on our dragon-slaying journey had been unfolding fairly mundanely. Something had to give. And that thing – as I so deftly predicted – was the ice. And once it broke, everything went nuts. The tonal shift that accompanied Fitz and the Fool’s fall from the glacier’s surface into the hidden world beneath was magnificent. Suddenly, we were in a horror story, and I was on the edge of my seat.

I know I am constantly glazing my lord and savior Robin Hobb and her mastery, but the culmination of storylines in this section was on another level.

So what all went down? (You know, aside from Fitz and the Fool, literally going down.)

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Reactions from the Realm: Fool’s Fate, Chapters 14-17

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Bad Trips

***Spoilers for the Tawny Man Trilogy through chapter 17 of Fool’s Fate.***

We are in it now, friends. I don’t even know where to start. We’ve got the intense drudgery of traversing the glacier; Fitz getting drugged and tweaking out; a charged Fitz-Fool confrontation; the Black Man of Aslevjal creeping around; a Skill attack; and an awakening Wit-awareness of Icefyre under the ice.

We are just around the halfway point of Fool’s Fate, and I don’t think I could possibly be more excited for the conclusion of this trilogy. I have no idea what’s coming, but that won’t stop me from speculating!

I’m typically more of an in-the-moment sort of reader, but as the glacial expedition got underway, a few things started to click. All of a sudden it dawned on me that of course Fitz would have some sort of Wit/Skill connection with Icefyre that would impact his looming decision regarding the dragon’s fate. And then we get this brief moment after Civil and the Fool’s fight, when Fitz has a flash of clarity about his ability to Skill-heal the Fool:

“I cannot say how I knew what it was I had glimpsed. Perhaps something in that closed circle of touching told me. I drew a shaky breath and reached recklessly toward his face with outstretched fingers.

‘I can heal you,’ I told him, amazed and breathless with the discovery. The knowledge of my newfound power rushed through my blood, hot as whiskey. ‘I see what is wrong, the bits that are broken and how the blood pools under your skin where it should not. Fool, I can use the Skill and heal you.’”

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