Customer Reviews
Awsome
I thought this book was by far the best of the Tawny Man series, not that I did not love the other two. I have not read the other two series by Robin Hobb, but after reading Fool's Fate I was convinced that I wanted to read the other series also, starting at the beginning and then re-reading the Tawny Man series.
I thought that the character development was amazing and that you really know the characters... almost enough to guess their favorite color. I loved the developing relationships between the Prince and Elliania, Fitz and Nettle, even Thick and the other characters. The story was intriguing and I was always guessing the true reason for Elliania's challenge to Dutiful. Basically this book gets the position of my favorite book, at least until I stumble upon another great fantasy.
reads like life, and yet not quite like life
I find I shouldn't leave the Fitz books without saying goodbye in a review. The series as a whole is perhaps my favorite story to come out in the last decade. Fitz is a splendid protagonist, the Fool perhaps the greatest fantasy character of all time. The Assassin trilogy in particular renewed my faith in the emotional power of story, after I thought I'd been pretty well jaded by adulthood. I could hardly put those down; I could hardly put Fool's Fate down, but read most of it off in one compulsive and completely irresponsible afternoon.
Hobb makes you read. I think it's because she drives the story with major secrets, but keeps feeding you partial resolutions throughout, so that you can hope the end of the next chapter is a good stopping place (you tell yourself you hope this, but of course, you don't), yet when you reach that resolution, another tension has begun. She interlocks her plot-tensions brilliantly--a wonderful writer.
Fool's Fate reads less like a novel than like an autobiography. Fitz, Dutiful, Chade travel oversea to slay the dragon Icefyre (or to prevent the slaying, as the case may be) and win for Dutiful the lovely, cool, and politically-advantageous hand of Narcheska Elliania. The dragon element of the plot--indeed, the novel's ostensible driving force--is resolved with 200 pages to go, however (as opposed to Assassin's Quest, the final book of that trilogy, when Verity flies off with 20 pages to go); the remainder of the book finds Hobb clipping off, one by one, all the taut ropes of Fitz's life, so that we see Fitz, at the end, slack and content in a situation of his own deep liking.
When I was reading the book, I liked this, because I've been with Fitz from the beginning, and am frankly more interested in him than I am in the quest for the dragon. I want him to find answers for his life, for my sake and for his. But in the end, I have two complaints about the extended denouement: Hobb answers too many of his life's questions, and she does not answer them in sufficient depth. I give you, for example, the Old Blood/Piebald scenario, which we had been led to care about in the first two books of this series, but which resolves itself in this book thoroughly and with scarcely a mention. Fitz wasn't there to see it. As an autobiographical ploy, this makes sense (a lot of things which affect our lives we aren't around to see to completion), yet as a device in a novel, it leaves the reader unsatisfied. The ending is far too cursory; months, seasons, years go by in pages.
What this amounts to is a lack of integration between Fitz's personal life and the novel's plot, a notable difference from the Assassin trilogy, where Fitz's life and identity were the plot. Perhaps because of this, Hobb's justly-lauded emotional machinery begins to clank (especially apart from the excellent character Thick). Sometimes I just didn't buy the character motivations, felt instead like "of course this had to happen for plot purposes," as if plot led character, not vice versa. Despair and the joy of discovery--the source of much tumult and plot-generation in the first four books--are gone. Perhaps Fitz is too old for either of those things. One hopes not.
Do these complaints mean that you shouldn't read the book? No, no. Hobb is still Hobb; there are lovely--even perfect--plot twists (e.g., the relationship the Fool wants with Fitz), delicate emotional moments (e.g., a reconciliation between Thick and Fitz), a richly-detailed fantasy world (welcome to the Outislands), and a lot of people you can't help but come to like.
Outstanding Series!
This is absolutely the best fantasy series out there, hands down. I have never been so emotionally wrapped up with a character in a book as I have been with Fitzchivalry. Martin and Jordan who? Give me a break. Not even close, trust me. Accolades to Robin Hobb. Excellent series as a whole, and this book was a great conclusion to it. I couldn't even pick up another book for a week after I finished this one, I knew I wouldn't find anything nearly as good to read!
Keep up the good work, Mrs. Hobb!!!
