I'm on Fool's Fate...and....

[kauldron26]

how could the ending have been about only him and the fool when molly has been the center of fitz life for so long be it in her absence and presence. also i think the information regarding all the other characters were necessary because their very existence had much to do with the choices fitz made.

 

[Overread]

I would agree that Fools Fate did need to be a long ending to pull together all the lose strings - a shorter ending would have been rather a disapointment. Granted the main story by this point has ended, but it is nice to get a well thought out ending that goes on to detail part of how the characters end up after the main events - many books do gloss over or even ignor this stage

 

[the_faery_queen]

because the book wasn't about molly. it wasn't really about fitz either, it was about the fool. he gave his name to it after all. there didn't need to be huge detail to reveal that fitz ended up with molly. it should have been, the fool left, he got together, he was ok, the end. there was no reason for the rest of it, the marriages and so on. hell, i couldn't even remember who half those people were, and i certainly didn't care about them.

and i have to disagree, the other characters had no real bearing on what fitz did. nettle and hap and dutiful, perhaps, but not the rest, the mass crowd of random hippy named children that popped up to do things. and the fact that starling came back just to announce she was pregnant (befor ethe end granted) and that we also found out dutifiul had a child, and the rest of it, just makes me feel that it was more about robin hobb cramming in her personal love of marriage and babies than anything realistic or neccessary. same happened when we learnt about althea having kids when jek visited. that had NOTHING to do with the tawny man plot, hell anyone who didn't read liveships wouldn't even have known who althea was, yet there it was. she was mentioned, and that she was pregnant, just so that the reader could know that yet another character in robin's world was squeezing out babies.

i loved farseer triliogy because of it's ending. it was short, it was sudden, and it didn't whitter on. i didn't dislike the ending of liveships because it was also short and direct and cliff hangery. but tawny man ending went on, it was just so sacarin, it was pointless. just ruined the whole series for me. can't read it again because4 i can't read through that endless boring pointless bla about marriage and abbies. i prefer an ending that stops. perhaps one wedding (as with the end of the tamir triliogy) and a brief epilogue that explains what happened. i don't need 100 pages or so of detail

 

[Overread]

I think the ending for fools was done longer delibraty. It was meant to be the final book in the whole realm - at least for a considerble time to come. Thus I think Robin made an effort to end the book and series fully. Also, do you remember the tiny error between the last assassin book and the liveship traders? In the assassin books, fitz details the he sailed down the rainwald river - yet made no mention of the acid or the rainwalders - thus a longer ending makes for a more complete picture.
Further, as the Fool and Fitz parted company and the books are written from Fitz's point of view, it would be hard to document the full ending for the Fool.

 

[kauldron26]

exactly. everything is from Fitz's POV. and since when was the fool a main character? he really didnt become "important" until AQ and even then this is still Fitz story. he is the changer. he is the catalyst ofcourse he is the center point of all the characters. they wouldnt even exist or be where they were without him or his choices. Molly was and is the most important person to fitz that is why she is so important to the story. if u take away molly there is no fitz because he wouldnt have any motivation or reason to do anything. why did he end up motivated to become a full assassin and go to the mountains in AA? because he thought molly was cheating on him. why was he trying to please shrewd in RA? to protect molly and to marry her. why did he want to kill regal in AQ? to protect molly. why did he want to find the elderlings by choice and not verity? to protect his and mollys daughter. why was he in hiding for 15 years? to protect molly. why did he come back to buckeep? to protect his son and his and molly's daughter. why did he improvise a half assed coterie? to prevent his and molly's daughter from coming to court. thus molly is important as hell. ofcourse the ending to a 9 book series has to be fulfilling. we have spent close to 35 years with Fitz. from when he was 6 till he was 40. as much as the story was autobiographical he also has to let us know who the important people in his life were and how they fared. if not it would have been conceited. the fool was not the most important person to him, he was one of them. for fitz to say he was finally content, we have to know what made him content and what brought him to that point. that is why the ending was perfect for me. the story wasnt just about the catalyst and the prophet, but also about the people he affected, how they affected each other, and how in turn they affected the world.

but to each his own.

 

[the_faery_queen]

totally disagree. it was more about robin hobb's personal desire to marry it off than anything neccessary for the plot or the reader. and the fact that everyone married and had kids was really pretty ridiculous. there was no realism. there was no need for it. it was 100 pages of bla. we may have been with fitz from any early age, but his life and what he thought to tell us was never bla. it was neccessary. this wasn't. the way it was written, the series, was of a man telling us his life. but when you tell someone your life you don't go into details about the things that don't matter to anyone but yourself or are unneccessary. he didn't go into huge details about all of his life, just main bits of it until he was about 15 and everything started to happen. so there's really no reason for him to suddenly go into huge detail about things that were unimportant. he didn't tell us huge chunks about other people's lives, when he was a kid, so why is he suddenly doing it now he's an adult? because that's what robin hobb wanted, that's all. she wanted everuone married off and happy, as can be seen by the way she went on about althea which had nothing to do with anything. it was her preferenced to force this sacrin ending on us. it had nothing to do with the plot and it was fairly out of character for fitz because he was never someone who went on and on about family and love and stuff like that early on. even tho molly meant everything to him, he never whittled on about her to great lengths throughout the books, so the fact he is suddenly going on about her AND everyone else, even people that don't matter, is just out of character. it just doesn't work

*shrug* should have ended with the fool leaving and had a little epligoe, i ddi this, they did that, that sort of thing. there was no reason or excuse for the rest of it.

that's it. that's my thought. not arguing anymore about it. cos it's done and it's done its damaged, it ruined the last series for me. burrich's death onwards was jsut rubbish in my opinion

 

[janna]

Hey!
I am in quite same shoes like you, Kauldron. I have just finished The fool's fate and I am just not find myself till that. I lived through so many emotions also. I am mourning that I am not in that world anymore

*spoiler*But I am not quite content with the end because my favourite character is Burrich. I understand that he must have died "to clear the path" but...
My second favourite is the Fool so I couldn't catch breath during the ice palace and rooster crown scene. And I become sad from their departing.
I would have liked to know more about Swift and Nettle, and the Old Blood-Piebald conflict wasn't solved...

I have more thought and emotion to share so I am very happy finding this forum. In Hungary there are not many who red these novels (altough the assassins are available in hungarian but... I have to say another experience to read with Robin Hobb's original, so impressive words). I am looking forward to read the threads here. I am also apologizing because my english but i am not native speaker you know.

Janna

when i finished assassins quest i was just so depressed. so depressed that it actually bothered me that a book could affect me so.
there is so much i can say about the farseer trilogy yet so little. all i can say is that it is truly phenomenal. one of the greatest pieces of fiction ever. i cant find words to describe its greatness. i am filled with so many different emotions right now. all i can say is that its hands down bar none the most depressing thing i have ever read in my entire life... i wept and wept and wept. but life is depressing isnt it... will i ever reread it? i dont know... im not sure i want to experience the myriad of emotions that i have this past 2 weeks. ~sigh~ the book is so powerful... and the characters... my God the characters... the characters will stay with me forever.

so now i just finished a fools fate (spoilers)

im so full of joy. fitz found happiness atlast in the ending. most of all with molly. i really loved molly, and i loved even more their relationship. im just so happy, because the ending of assassins quest was just too depressing. he got to be with his soul mate in the end. like fitz i am also content.

 

[Aniri]

Well I've finally finished it. I was OK with the ending. I could have done without the everyone marrying and having children part, but all in all it was a decent closure...for me
My husband, SO not a reader *gasp*, was laughing at me when I was sobbing reading the part when Fitz went back for the Fool in the ice palace and found him...dead *choke*.

 

[Shingetsu]

I thought Fitz meeting his birth mother would be interesting. All he has to do is put word that he wants to find the mother of "Keppet" and stuff. But Patience is a good mother to him, she cares for him.

 

[Storm Centurion]

Spoiler

I wasn't happy with the ending (Fool's Fate) either. BUT, I will say, it had one of the best comeback scenes ever. When Burrich reappears. That was just awesome. He was always my favorite.

 

[althea]

I have read,loved,absorbed and thoroughly digested all of the Robin Hobb books.
I don't think there is one book I ever wanted to end.
When Nighteyes died,I cried for an hour.
I read Fool's Quest when it came out and tried to ration myself and make it last.
Needless to say,I read it in no time flat and will read it and savour it again soon.
I have reread the Farseer Trilogy every few years since it was published,same with the Liveship Traders and The Tawny Man trilogy.
I am about to start the Rainwild Chronicles again.The only series I haven't reread is the Soldier Son trilogy.
That story disturbed me a bit.