Am I reading Hobb wrong?

I enjoyed the first more than the others, as Hobb's was a very new 'voice' in fantasy to me at the time. However, I became progressively more depressed as I read the series - very little in the way of good things happen to her heroes. I prefer my fantasies to be a little less doom and gloom.

I admire the complexity of her plotting and the depth of her settings, but I'm afraid that I stopped reading her work after the second in the Liveship Traders series, as I felt her work was just too tragic for my taste.
 
liveships was really different (and poor) in my opinion. i totally skipped that series out the first time, i found it so hard to get into and the characters so unappealing!

i don't prefer any book in a specific series, but i do prefer the farseer series to the other two. mostly, i guess, because the end of tawny man was awful, it was contrived and vomity sweet. liveships i loathed all the way through for the selfish self indulgant whiney characters. so farseer remains my fav as the one most untainted! also, i like the tragic, sudden ending to it.(not going to spoiler it) but i much prefer endings like that, that stop, without them being tied up in huge elebarotate pointless ways as i felt the tawny man was.

can't even get into shaman's crossing. it's so boooring.
 
I have read the first of the Farseer Trilogy, have started the second and im finding it considerably better than the first already and I have only read about 100 pages! It grabbed from the start unlike the first book which became good about 3/4 through!
 
Forest Mage is next on my to read pile.Shaman's Crossing was a little slow, a lot of information and not a lot of action.I really enjoyed it, Nevare was well written.A lot of people say they hate him,but then I don't think Nevare liked himself.
 
nevare's a little strange, but i think he's ok, he's getting better but am only 330 pages through so something might happen to change my mind yet.
 
well.... I'm pleased to say i did persevere, and now I'm on the third one, and I really like it! Royal Assassin was really good in comparison with Assassins Apprentice, but taking into account it was the first in the trilogy, and that the other two books are really great, i dont mind.
Thanks :) im kind of new here!
 
I think you'll find her books improve with each series too :D I really liked the latest 3 books that follow on from the Farseers Series, they were much better.
 
it's weird, i think i prefer the farseer triliogy to the tawny man, even tho i prefered that for having more foooool. i guess its cos the ending really ruined the series for me, i just didn't like it. but it is better written and more does happen and more fool is good. if only it had had a nice melancholy stop of an ending like the farseer, then i'd have been a happy faerie :)
 
I read Hobb before i read martin and i was immediatley hooked, i got too say that i enjoyed all her books so far except the Newones, Nevare sucks
 
I really do enjoy Hobbs, but I'll admit it did take me a bit of time to get into Assassins Apprentice. I liked the Live Ship Books the best..makes me want to shout "Avast" and be coordinated enough to run up the Rigging! Yo Ho Ho!
;) I just can't decide which character I'm the most infatuated with, Althea, or Brashen...:rolleyes:
 
Mark Robson said:
I enjoyed the first more than the others, as Hobb's was a very new 'voice' in fantasy to me at the time. However, I became progressively more depressed as I read the series - very little in the way of good things happen to her heroes. I prefer my fantasies to be a little less doom and gloom.

I admire the complexity of her plotting and the depth of her settings, but I'm afraid that I stopped reading her work after the second in the Liveship Traders series, as I felt her work was just too tragic for my taste.
Click to expand...

I can relate to that feeling...although I think Farseer affected me more that way than Live Ships....

Having read the first thee trilogies sets, I would say she sure weaves a DENSE book series between the nine of em! An incestuous little group for sure! The Fool is all over like yellow on Amber! ;)
 
Have to admit, I absolutely loved Assassin's Apprentice -- it seemed to introduce some wonderfully intricate characters and slowly unveil a fascinating world, but as the series progressed, I became increasingly disappointed, because I didn't much enjoy what subsequently happened to the characters I had become fond of.

Just as an aside, has anyone read Wizard of the Pigeons? Written under the author's real name of Megan Lindholm... now there's a piece of truly wonderful fantasy writing, albeit very different from anything she's written as Robin Hobb.
 
That is why i love the series so much it is much more real than most others, i mean in eddings an all the rest the good guys always get away reasonably unscathed and win bassically easily by outsmarting or outpowering the other.
In the end of the series (the tottal 9 books-that world), the eding is also a good one, but a much more plausible one that in most fantasy books.
Its like real life wich means that it ain roses all the time and in RL wich isnt so in hobb at the end the bad guys (or badder for everyone is grey) can win.

I like the fact that even though they are victorious, it aint al peaches, the dragons arent entirely noble and good, they dont only bring good to the world, but also much bad, they are arrogant to say the least.
 
I didn't really like Hobb, either. I only read the Assassin books, though. I think I just found Fitz to be a whiny brat most of the time- he was very hard for me to like! But I'm glad I read them to find out what all the fuss was about :)
 
i didnt actually read the first one but the next two are amazing. major emphasis on the word.....amazing.
 
I love Hobb's books! I was disapointed by the end of the Tawny Man trilogy but it's still some of the best books I've ever read. I think my favorite of the three trilogies is the Liveship Traders although Tawny Man had amazing bits that were SO TENSE! Gods! I wish I could write like Hobb (in which case I would write something with a better ending IMO ;D )

I'd say to keep reading. The beginning of the first book is a bit slow and difficult to get into but then it gets very engaging. It's one of those few series or books that actually managed to make me cry. Especially a certain scene in "Fool's Fate" involving a fire and "name calling" if you catch my drift.

I didn't much like Fitz myself, whiny brat definitely. And I despised Molly! Ugh! Nighteyes was ok, liked him better as a cub ("Yes, that is pack" X-D) and my favorite character, no contest, is Fool. I LOVE THE FOOL! I think he's my favorite character in all of literature.
 
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