I just can’t seem to stop reading fantasy fiction. Robin Hobb is another one of those authors whose name comes up when people ask about fantasy that isn’t truely, terribly, unbearably awful, and I guess there’s a grain of truth in that. While I was really ready for this trilogy to end by the time it chose to do so, it wasn’t quite as bad as some stuff I’ve read.
In fact, there’s actually a fair amount to like here. I really dug the way that psionics and mental powers like mind control and telepathy were this world’s “magic.” It was kind of a nice change from the typical wizards and spells and other ground that’s been trampled flat by other authors working in the genre. Hobb is also to be heartily commended for creating a genuinely tragic character in the form of FitzChivalry, the reluctant hero of the trilogy. Fitz’s life sucks, and it’s genuinely moving to see him grow into such a noble man that so much is demanded of and taken from. His own virtues drive him into a world that he doesn’t want to be a part of, and he loses everything as a result. He’s kind of like the tree from that children’s book The Giving Tree, except he totally wishes that kid would leave him the hell alone and he has like the world’s most supersmart wolf as a pet. By the end of the series I was really feeling for the guy and had a genuine connection with him, and that’s no small feat for a writer to pull off.
On the other hand, for the love of God when was it decided that every fantasy series had to be huge and thick enough to build a garden retaining wall out of? Absolutely nothing of any consequence happens for great stretches of these books. While it’s nice that we get the nuanced character development and insights out of plodding chunks like this, it’s really aggrevating to move at such a glacial pace. The third book’s climax is also infuriating in its dragon ex mechanica way of wrapping up a thousand pages of conflict in a few measly pages tacked on as almost an afterthought. I understand that the war that threatens the people of this fictional world is just a backdrop and a plot device –this is a story about one man’s tragic life and sacrifice, not a story about battles and war. But come on. The way that things ended just screamed of some kind of “Well, I’ve hit my word count goal for the series. Time to wrap it up and ship it out!” mentality. Some of the books’ greatest mysteries (especially the nature of the Red Ship Raiders and why they were attacking the good folk of the Six Duchies) are solved in an off-hand fashion that just annoyed me and left me feeling bereft of some kind of satisfaction that I had been expecting since the beginning. Such a missed opportunity.
So, unless you don’t mind daunting page counts and are a particular fan of the fantasy genre, I’d only recommend these books with strong reservations. Be ready to devote some time to them and be at least annoyed at the end, if not outright angry. I may eventually pick up Hobb’s other series set in this same world, but I’ll have to take a break for a while.
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