# The Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb



## Werthead (Aug 28, 2016)

*The Farseer Trilogy #1: Assassin's Apprentice*



> The Six Duchies are troubled by internal strife. King Shrewd's eldest son and heir, Prince Chivalry, has fathered an illegitimate son. Riven by guilt and controversy, Chivalry abdicates his position and goes into into exile. His son, Fitz, is raised in Buckkeep and tutored in the ways of becoming an assassin. For King Shrewd, Fitz is a weapon he can use to further the cause of his kingdom. But all Fitz wants is a home and a place to belong.
> 
> _Assassin's Apprentice_, originally published in 1995, is the first volume in *The Farseer Trilogy*, the first of nine books focused on the character of Fitz and also the first book in a sixteen-volume series entitled *The Realm of the Elderlings*. For a book that launched an enormously successful series, it is relatively small-scale and restrained.
> 
> ...


----------



## Stephen Palmer (Aug 28, 2016)

I absolutely loved the original trilogy, and you're right to say she's a gifted communicator of character and emotion; but I wonder if her continued "exploration" of her fantasy land is maybe a problem. I simply couldn't imagine writing so many novels based in the same milieu. Same thing for Pratchett: brilliant though he was, I got bored after about book 7.


----------



## Werthead (Aug 29, 2016)

I think there is a key difference in that Pratchett didn't really explore the same milieu: the world changed, radically, over the course of the books (the world evolves from medieval/renaissance in the first book to firmly Victorian steampunk by the end) and his books spanned the entire planet. His writing style and thematic concerns also radically evolved over the course of the series and the tone could vary immensely.

Based over the six Hobb books I've read and what I know of the later seven, the world pretty much stays the same with some minor shifts in politics but certainly no major technological or sociological innovation, and the stories all take place in the Six Duchies, the Rain Wilds, the Cursed Shores or a couple of offshore islands, spanning an area maybe the size of Alaska (or a little bit more) at best.


----------



## Werthead (Sep 15, 2016)

*The Farseer Trilogy #2: Royal Assassin*



> Winter has fallen, bringing a brief respite from the depredations of the Red Ship Raiders. Fitz, returning to Buckkeep from the Mountain Kingdom, finds Prince Verity working hard to build ships and watchtowers to defend the coast, but everywhere the conniving Prince Regal is working to undermine his brother and pave his own way to the throne. When Verity embarks on an ill-advised quest to help save his kingdom, it falls to Fitz to try to hold everything together in his absence.
> 
> The middle volume of The Farseer Trilogy is Robin Hobb's attempt to avoid "middle book syndrome", that annoying situation where a book has no real opening or ending. As such, Royal Assassin tries to work as its own self-contained story in the structure of both the larger trilogy and the much larger Realm of the Elderling sequence beyond that.
> 
> ...


----------



## Werthead (Sep 26, 2016)

*The Farseer Trilogy #3: Assassin's Quest*



> Betrayed, tortured and left for dead, Fitz has survived the depredations of his mad uncle Regal and been taken to safety in the countryside of the Six Duchies. Plagued by nightmares and trauma, Fitz eventually recovers enough to swear himself to two tasks: the murder of Regal and the safe rescue of Verity, the long-missing true king.
> 
> _Assassin's Quest_ concludes the *Farseer Trilogy* in a manner that I don't think anyone was quite expecting. The first two volumes of the *Farseer* series are traditional epic fantasies in many respects, but ones where more overt displays of magic and violence are rolled back in favour of a deeper emotional storyline and character development. Still, with their intrigue, battles, romance and betrayals (if separated by lots of long-winded introspection), there is much of the standard fantasy template within them.
> 
> ...


----------



## ratsy (Sep 26, 2016)

Hey Werthead. Thanks for sharing. These books are some of my all time favorite reads. Hobb's books are one of the few that I actually get excited to read when I know they're coming soon. I still set aside everything when a new release comes out. Though her new series suffers from some excess bloat at times, I am still a huge fan. I do like that each series brings something different to the table. I loved the Farseer books, but liked the Tawny Man even more. The Liveship were so different and opened the world up to some really cool things. The Rain Wilds took us down a totally different path, and returning to Fitz in the new series feels just right. 

I look forward to your thoughts on the others if you are getting to them


----------



## Werthead (Oct 15, 2016)

*The Liveship Traders #1: Ship of Magic*



> The Bingtown Traders have grown rich from the use of the liveships, great, sentient sailing ships made of the fabled wizardwood. After three generations of captains die on their decks, they quicken into life. Epheron Vestrit's death brings the liveship Vivacia to life, but the jubilations of the Vestrit family are cut short when it is revealed that the ship will pass into the ownership of Kyle Haven, the husband of Epheron's eldest daughter, rather than to his younger daughter Althea. Furious at this betrayal, Althea vows not to rest until the Vivacia belongs to her again. This resolve only hardens when Kyle decides to use the Vivacia to carry slaves, to the horror of his family.
> 
> Meanwhile, an unusually eloquent and cultured pirate captain named Kennit schemes to become King of the Pirate Isles. His plotting involves liberating slaver ships, winning the hearts and minds of the people...and finding and capturing a liveship.
> 
> ...


----------



## Werthead (Nov 13, 2016)

*The Liveship Traders #2: The Mad Ship*



> The fortunes of the Vestrit family have become more desperate. Their liveship, the Vivacia, has been captured by the notorious "pirate king" Kennit and is now helping liberate slaver ships on the seas between Jamaillia and Chalced. The Vestrits have no choice but to help refloat the mad liveship Paragon in the hope they can convince the deranged vessel to help them regain the ship and rescue their kin.
> 
> _The Mad Ship_ is the middle volume of *The Liveship Traders* trilogy and very much reads like one. The story doesn't really start or finish, instead transitioning from the beginning to the end without necessarily having a defining storyline itself. The storylines begun in _Ship of Magic_ are pretty strong so having them continue is fine, and the new additions to the world - a subplot involving the Satrap of Jamaillia and one of his Consorts, and a new story set in an Elderling city in the Rain River Wilds - are well-judged and engrossing.
> 
> ...


----------



## Werthead (Jan 8, 2017)

*The Liveship Traders #3: Ship of Destiny*



> The liveship Vivacia is in the hands of the pirate king Kennit, who has won the living ship's heart with his kindness and rejection of slavery. But Althea Vestrit is not prepared to let her family ship be taken into piracy. Having refloated the liveship Paragon and assembled a crew, she now plans to retake her vessel. Meanwhile, the forces of Jamaillia and Chalced have sacked Bingtown. The surviving Traders have to rebuild and reassert themselves in times of great adversity. But, far to the north, the first dragon seen in the world for centuries has taken wing...
> 
> Ship of Destiny concludes the Livship Traders trilogy, the second major movement (of five, so far) in Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings mega-series. The conclusion to her first series in this world, The Farseer Trilogy, was sabotaged by the book being incredibly overlong, with poor pacing and structural issues that made ploughing through it a chore. Ship of Destiny is certainly a far superior ending, juggling a much larger number of stories and interesting characters far more effectively, although some similar issues remain. It does feel like events continue to unfold more slowly and laboriously than they really should, and the book has more endings than the film version of The Return of the King.
> 
> ...


----------



## Werthead (Aug 30, 2018)

*The Tawny Man #1: Fool's Errand*



> Fifteen years have passed since the end of the Red Ship War. FitzChivalry Farseer is believed dead, with only a few knowing the truth that he survived and helped end the war and the threat of the cruel King Regal. Living a comfortable life as a smallholder with his wolf Nighteyes and an adopted son, Hap, Fitz occasionally has strange dreams. He dismisses these, until his old friend the Fool visits with news: Prince Dutiful, the son of Queen Kettricken and the late King Verity, has vanished in a very strange manner. Reluctantly, Fitz returns to Buckkeep and a life he thought he'd left behind.
> 
> _Fool's Errand_ is the fourth novel featuring the adventures of FitzChivalry Farseer, picking up after the events of the original *Farseer Trilogy*. It's also the seventh novel overall in the* Realm of the Elderlings *setting, which now extends across sixteen books. It's a bit of a fresh start in the series, as although it follows up on events in the *Farseer* books (and a brief mention is made of the *Liveship Traders* trilogy), it also introduces new characters and new storylines.
> 
> ...


----------



## Werthead (Sep 9, 2018)

*The Tawny Man #2: The Golden Fool*



> Fitz has returned to Buckkeep, but it's far from the hero's welcome that might have been imagined. He serves the Queen and spymaster Chade incognito, posing as Tom Badgerlock, bodyguard and servant to the visiting "Lord Golden" (in reality, the Fool, likewise in disguise). He now has to train Prince Dutiful in the ways of both the Skill and the Wit, whilst also investigating the threat the Piebald (militant Witted rebels) pose to the crown. But delegations from overseas arrive, one from the Outislands to the north and another from the Liveship Traders of Bingtown, both emissaries bringing opportunity...and great danger.
> 
> The Golden Fool is the middle volume of the Tawny Man trilogy, as well as the eighth book in the wider Realm of the Elderlings series, bringing the overall series to its halfway point. Its predecessor, Fool's Errand, was one of the stronger single novels in the series, with a very good, mostly self-contained storyline. The Golden Fool, alas, isn't quite as strong at standing on its own two feet, but it is very much what readers have come to expect from a Robin Hobb novel: introspective, brooding but also a deeply human work of fantasy fiction.
> 
> ...


----------



## picklematrix (Sep 10, 2018)

These books sure take their time, but the emotional build up pays off in the end, especially in the Tawny Man trilogy.


----------



## Werthead (Oct 17, 2018)

*The Tawny Man #3: Fool's Fate*




> FitzChivalry Farseer has, reluctantly, re-entered the corridors of power in the Six Duchies. Posing as guardsman Tom Badgerlock, he has been assigned to journey with Prince Dutiful to the Outislands, where the Prince seeks to win the hand in marriage of the Outislander Narcheska, ending all enmity between the two nations. But there are other agendas at work. To win a lasting peace, Fitz must help his prince slay a dragon…and take a stand against his greatest and best friend.
> 
> The concluding novel in Robin Hobb’s Tawny Many Trilogy is something I was bracing myself for. Previously, Hobb’s form has been to write an exciting, busy opening volume in a trilogy and then have a slow middle volume which leaves the final book with a lot of heavy lifting to do to end the story, usually resulting in a third book which wraps up the story but with serious issues with structure and pacing. Ship of Destiny deal with the problem somewhat well, but Assassins' Quest really suffered from it. The relatively slow pace of The Golden Fool was also not a good sign.
> 
> ...


----------

