The Robin Hobb Collection discussion

Ch16 - I suppose it was too much to hope Fitz would go through at least one book without taking a beating.

And there's some other mind talking to Fitz again. This one seems a little more sinister that the others.

And I really wanted Burrich to find out Fitz was still alive.

Ch17 - major major revelation about Thick. I didn't see that coming at all.

ch16 - i kind of like all these untrained skill minds unknowningly talking to one another all the time. a song that shouldn't be heard but they all know it, they don't know nettle is sad, but they know she is.
and then there are these two mysterious strangers listening one, one presumably tintaglia. who is the other one, the ice dragon?

ch17 - looks like thick is literally in the thick of it! felt a bit sad reading his back story and why he insists on 'not being seen'. on the other hand, learning that from his mother might have saved him a lot of trouble already, and as fitz remarks: it might come in handy one day.

thick being used as spy for a penny to buy candies is of course even sadder. but it's a good find by mrs hobb, probably the most innocent way to have a spy.

civil hiding his cat... what to think of that? only to protect himself from too many people thinking he is witted? or is there more going on?

i'm glad ginny caught that rat though.
bah, who wants to be witted to a rat?
(even though it does come in handy for snooping around)

ch18 - first a few linguistic things that struck me.
one, fitz no longer calls it "Chade's tower", but "my tower". he really has replaced chade to a large extent now, especially as he is quitting to involve chade any longer in his decisions.
two, he very consciously splits the Fool from Lord Golden: "nor the Fool nor Lord Golden were there". this is more than a disguise for him, but never has that been so clear than at this part of the book.

i'm curious how much laudwine has been able to put together. they know about Nettle - but how much? do they just know she's a girl the Thick can hear crying and discard it, or do they realize the interest of fitz in her?

ch19 - o boy! here we go again.
chade might have called fitz to conservative and careful, but i think our dear friend is still as impulsive as ever. even though i wouldn't know what other choice he might have had.

so how is going to bail him out now? will the fool in his hour of need finally put his distance aside, or is it dutiful himself that will arrange something?

interesting to see that serving lady in bucktown. it was suspected of course since that letter chade got from one of his spies on the outislander ship, and since fitz recognized a female voice in thick's skill messages, but still, good to have it confirmed.
what the heck is her plan though?

ch20 - i'm running out of "ooh"'s here.
mrs hobb sure does like to put her characters through the ringer. i'm sure that if we were to map out the fantasy characters most beaten up and getting life-threateningly wounded, fitz would make the top 5. he might even win the top spot.

i wonder whether dutiful will put it together now that chade dropped the name. he once thought 'tom' was chade's son, so he isn't too far off. i guess it also depends whether or not kettricken can keep it a secret from her son that she visits fitz.

I do like the way that Fitz's chief weapon in defeating all manner of bad guys is just stubbornly not dying. It's usually the villain who keeps coming back from the dead.

I assumed ch.16's odd-fonted voice was Tintaglia. It's alien like her, and seems about as contemptuous.

Wastrel wrote: "I assumed ch.16's odd-fonted voice was Tintaglia. It's alien like her, and seems about as contemptuous. "

The audio narration has this as a very male sounding voice. Probably an example of where audio narration imposes the narrator's interpretation - and in this case, the narrator probably knows which voice is who.

Hanne wrote: "ch18 - first a few linguistic things that struck me.
one, fitz no longer calls it "Chade's tower", but "my tower"."

I missed that. Yes the apprentice has outgrown his master

Hanne wrote: "i'm curious how much laudwine has been able to put together. they know about Nettle - but how much?"

I'm thinking Thick may also be able to know where Nettle is

And again, the audio narration for Thick is really good. I was really sharing Fitz' frustration as he's trying to prise information out of him.

wastrel, the voice in ch16 didn't strike me as tintaglia. it didn't sound superior enough, she thinks of humans as 'little bugs' after all.
plus tintaglia has now 'seen' fitz through Selden, so she would sound less distant?


rob, yes, i think thick could locate nettle, but that's pointless if they have no clue who she is. she might "just be another skiller". only if thick somehow communicated fitz and chade's reaction of nettle, would the latter become of interest to the piebads, i would think.

But I didn't say anything..

Rob wrote: "But I didn't say anything.."

Well for not saying anything you have some good theories

Eh they aren't that good really o.O

damnit! i got a note that "rob commented on this thread" so i didn't look at the name anymore... goodreads messing up my brain again

sorry, it was david! :)

Maybe you confused it with my comment on the Locke Lamora thread..

Rob wrote: "Eh they aren't that good really o.O"

Touche!

The audio narration has this as a very male sounding voice.
Perhaps - but the text say: "There was nothing human to the way her thoughts moved as she observed with bitter amusement..."

Maybe you're just confusing the sound of the thoughts of a female dragon with the sound of the thoughts of a male human? Easy mistake to make...

Hanne: well, 'little man' isn't that far from little bugs.

Any way, worth noting that Fitz is overwhelmed her by how alien she is (and some very dragony choices of metaphor - breathing oil and drinking flame - even though the dragons in this world don't actually breathe fire so far as we know). He wasn't similarly overwhelmed by the being who helped in on the other's island (instead, he was overwhelmed by love). Plus, different fonts (with this one being the only thing that doesn't Skill in italics, reinforcing that it's not human, and perhaps not 'Skilling' in the same way as humans do). So there are at least two beings.

that's true. i think i'm not so good at recognizing the voices. (i didn't even notice there were two different ones until you pointed it out)

Wastrel wrote: "
The audio narration has this as a very male sounding voice.
Perhaps - but the text say: "There was nothing human to the way her thoughts moved as she observed with bitter amusement..."

Doh! I missed that

Hanne wrote: "ch19 - o boy! here we go again.
chade might have called fitz to conservative and careful, but i think our dear friend is still as impulsive as ever. even though i wouldn't know what other choice he..."

Fitz goes Ninja. Lol. That was actually quite a good action sequence. Of course a ninja would fair a little better I think. But at least her fights are messy and awkward and bloody rather than perfectly choreographed. Don't know what the consequences this is going to have on the other witted at the upcoming meeting.
I already suspected Henja because the audio has her with a weird accent and it came through when Fitz was skilling with Thick to tell him who he was working for.

Ch20 - So Chade has some skilling ability. What a mish mash of a Coterie.

So Thick will be the Tank or the powerhouse. Dutiful will be the Ranger. Chade will be the Assassin or maybe Loremaster. The Fool will be the Fool. Fitz will be the soldier/party leader as Skill Master.

I would imagine Dutiful will put FitzChivalry together. He already suspects he is a Farseer.