Soldier Son Trilogy....

[Hilarious Joke]

Hobbs is one of my very favourite writers. I loved Shaman's Crossing, I think it works well as a stand-alone as well as the first in a trilogy. Forest Mage was an excellent second book, I found it quite moving. Renegade's Magic I found disappointing, but I know some who liked it.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

not the life long commitment that most fantasy authors ask of us now days .

Terry Brooks' Shannara books coming to mind there, Quokka?

Well, just a few pages into the first one of this trilogy, and I have to say....I REALLY hope Nevare's not as naive throughout the entire series as he seems to be as a boy here....

 

[Overread]

I also really liked that it was just a 3 book series and not the life long commitment that most fantasy authors ask of us now days .

I often get the feeling (esp with writers like Fiest and McCaffrey) that they don't write those long, never ending series out of choice, but more because they prove popular and the publishers want more of them.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

And having invested so much time and effort into their world and their characters, they are loathe to abandon them.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Not so much so with characters, HJ-why do you think I quit reading Pern? I saw a volume that listed someone other than Robinton as Master Harper and thought, 'That's it. I can't pick this up.'


But worlds....eh, you're right. (No offense, Mr. Jacob, but your Xanth series comes to mind. Perhaps should have learned terminology before writing them?)

 

[Overread]

And having invested so much time and effort into their world and their characters, they are loathe to abandon them.

Certainly I think that comes into it - but reading some of their books one gets the impression that the same heart and soul that was in the early books starts to become lost in the later volumes (even to the possible points where they start to make large errors in the content and history of their worlds, I belive this has been seen in Fiests work). That is not the writing of someone keen to keep that world alive but more (to my thinking) that of someone writing but not writing what they wish to really be writing (For whatever pressures - though publishers is the normal one)

 

[Hilarious Joke]

That makes me sad.

I actually was thinking about Hobb herself when I wrote that - I think she really missed parts of that Six Duchies/Bingtown/Rain Wilds world and that's why she's gone back there with Dragon Keeper.

I will say that Feist's works definitely have lost their original appeal for me.

 

[Overread]

To me Feist lost his power right after his first book. I just didn't get the feeling that the following books were approaching that same level of quality - they started to felt a little like DnD stories. I think it was a mistake for him to abandon the more epic fantasy line that he has in his first book and adopt the shorter, more party based fantasy

 

[Hilarious Joke]

I think it was a mistake for him to abandon the more epic fantasy line that he has in his first book and adopt the shorter, more party based fantasy

This is true in Silverthorn and in the books after the initial Riftwar trilogy, but I think Darkness in Sethanon is actually his most epic in scope.

 

[ratsy]

This is true in Silverthorn and in the books after the initial Riftwar trilogy, but I think Darkness in Sethanon is actually his most epic in scope.

I still enjoy Feist. I am actually trying to re-read them all right now (of course only between new books that I havent read)...I have read the first 5 so far and enjoyed all of them with the execption of The Prince of the Blood , just Feist trying to do something he wasnt good at... I still find that when characters die there is no emotion behind it...probably one of the worst authors for that.

 

[Primitius]

I recently finished reading shamans crossing, having never read anything of Hobb's before, and I must say it was a joy to read and I can't wait to dive into the second. I hope its as good as this one has been.

 

[Heather Myst]

I'm really in the minority here but I thought the Soldier Son trilogy was terrible. I thought Shaman's Crossing was by far the best book in the series but I found it to be very slow going and lacking of any real action. The last two books were so bad that I was not even sure that Robin Hobb had written them. Don't get me wrong I am a Hobb fan. I loved the first nine books by Hobb and I did order her new book. Did anyone else feel this way?

 

[MeriPie]

Hundred percent with you there. I thought they were rubbish, and I absolutely LOVE the Fitz books to squishy little bits. I read Shaman's Crossing, thinking that it would get better from there but it just got worse, and I couldn't make it as far as Renegade's Magic. Pages and pages of Nevare sitting around feeling fat and sorry for himself cos Daddy doesn't love him blah blah. I also really, really enjoyed NOT being preached at in the Fitz books. The only moral message there apart from generally being a good person is that change is healthy and natural. However having plagues killing people because they're not looking after the forest and blah blah just made me really irritated with Soldier Son, and I'm really glad she's gone back to the good, solid world that she had such a brilliant grasp on with Dragon Keeper. I thought that was really good quality classic Hobb, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

 

[Triffids]

Just finished Shaman's Crossing and sort of enjoyed it, not as bad as i thought it would be to be honest.

I do agree with Heather Myst about the lack of action and the slow pacing of the story.

 

[Grimbear]

I would echo that the second book is a kind of a slog. Everything's so damn desperate and gloomy! But it seriously is worth it - the third book made me glad I'd persevered.

Grim

 

[Primitius]

I finished the series a while back, and must say Shaman's crossing is definitely the best of the three imo. The last book seems to be building up to some sort of amazing penultimate ending, only to wrap all the loose ends up + create a nice happy ending with a highly convoluted letter!? Very dissapointing. Has actually put me off reading any of her other stuff.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Oh no! Her Assassin, Liveship and Tawny Man trilogies (to be read in that order) are as good as Shaman's Crossing Primitus! Don't give up on Hobb!

 

[Elstor]

Yeah I did enjoy the trilogy although I praise the first book more than the other two. I feel Hobb missed some interesting story plots which I would have liked to see fleshed out. Still I give her credit for trying something slightly different from the norm.

 

[Arkose]

I just finished the 1st book and thought it was terrible. No character growth at all, the main character from page one is the same at the end of the book. Only his older female cousin, uncle and father are characters that I truly enjoyed. I also disliked how many times "Soldier Son" is said. I get the point half way through the book. I thought the setting was set up nicely and there is alot of politics involved, which kept me moving, but the action in the book was lacking and sometimes I wanted to hit "the soldier son" over the head and end it all. I don't think I can go on if everyone says this is the best book. I won't judge Hobb off this one book but I was disappointed.


Note (semi spoiler): I was really upset after learning the truth about his troupe and where they would end up in the end, felt that the prior chapters where a huge waste of time.

Disclaimer: I purposely listened (had alot of driving for job) to critique the writing, specifically in terms of what Stephan King has in his book "On Writing." I might have been more picky about the book.

 

[Overread]

Wanting to hit Robin Hobbs characters over the head for making mistakes is a theme of her characters Though more because they make mistakes or take the "wrong" option in light of the evidence rather than just wanting to end the book.

I think I read the echoes of a really good story in her Solider Son series and I think she also played a big gamble in creating a lead character of a single perspective narration who was a seriously depressed character - not an easy thing since it means the lead in himself is a weak chink rather than the strong one (which is something we somewhat "expect" from fantasy).
I just feel that it was a case of writing where I feel that she might have lost that "spark" of the idea and got bogged down with the writing of the story in itself. Her earlier works (as Hobb) in the Fareseer's, Liveships and Tawny Man Trillogies are far more inspired and really have that spark of quality. Though I do notice that her second book in a series can get somewhat heavy as a read - this seems to be a pattern - a fast start 1st book - a slow 2nd and then a 3rd big finish.

In the end with Solidier's Son I liked the way she took the ending for the idea in itself, but I got the feeling that it was a bit rushed in feeling - a got the feeling that she'd wanted to do a slow ending LotR style, but felt that page numbers and the overall pace of the story in itself wouldn't stand for a slow ending - so it got wrapped up faster than was, maybe, ideal.