Hobb-A-Long Read-A-Long discussion

What a great book! I'm so happy, first of all, that the Fool and Fitz made up! Also it's incredibly ironic to see Hap making the same mistakes as Fitz and to see from his older perspective.

The next book should be very interesting

I enjoyed this book so much. i still think that the book didn't really have it's "own" plot but was more a setup for the last book.
I am a bit disappointed that Nettle hasn't come to Buckkeep, since I was so sure that she would. At least we now have Fitz teaching Swift, which I hope we will see some of in the next book.
I don't really have any complaints about the story except maybe that the could have spent a little less time on the politics with the Outislanders, the Bingtowners and the Old Blood, as well as all the skill lessons and instead maybe already leave for the Quest. I am always a bit weary of a book that has the whole of a quest in one book since most of the time the plot either seems hurried or the book is a bit to long. But I am still looking forward to reading the next book.

I am not sure whether or not I like this trilogy mor than the Liveship Traders. I guess I will see once it ends.

Sarah wrote: "I enjoyed this book so much. i still think that the book didn't really have it's "own" plot but was more a setup for the last book.
I am a bit disappointed that Nettle hasn't come to Buckkeep, sin..."

I would expect even more civics lessons about the Outislanders coming in the next book because they have a lot of odd customs to further explicate that, based on what we know of them currently, make this betrothal look pretty suspect in going forward!

The part about the Bingtowner's diplomatic mission seemed like just a premise to bring Jek in to disrupt Fitz and the Fool's situation and to give an update on the Liveship's characters.

I hope that the Old Blood storyline is mostly over with, because while it has been interesting, it has already been a major preoccupation of the first two books in the trilogy, and it seems like most of what you could say about the matter( except seeing how the Witted and Unwitted get along in an urban setting, particularly with a number of Wit-bond animals being integrated to the Buckkeep community at the same time) has been exhaustively covered.

I had thought when Dutiful accepted the Narcheska's challenge to behead Icefyre, that the book would straightaway turn it's attention to that and accomplish that in this volume, sort of like the direct, linear path the plot of Fool's Errand took, but it's apparently going to get a booklength treatment to itself.

I hope there aren't too many other Old Bloods still out there like Silvereye! If there is anything that could jeopardize the fragile peace they have forged here, it's someone with a bottomless pit of bitterness in their memory, and an endless list of enemies she wants to seek revenge on for past atrocities committed against her people and family. There is no way to appease someone like that; you have to hope that Web and Kettricken can provide enough leadership with their actions to satisfy the concerns of those Old Bloods that are willing to forgive, and let time heal the rest.

Now that Civil has come out and declared himself an Old Blood to the public, we will see how the various dukes and those not Wltted react to seeing the Prince's closest friend remain a member of the court and be accepted as one no differently treated than anyone else. It is still too soon for the Prince himself to declare his own Wittedness, as the prejudice still runs very deep in the duchies, and it would probably cause an uprising against the Farseers if it became known (probably also too soon for the Prince to go to the animal shelter and pick out a new cat either!).

" Swift Witted", really?! That is a horrible pun (Haha, still have to laugh), and Witted is still a derogatory term for Old Blood, so Burrich's son might want to reconsider his choice of names!

I'm glad that Fitz and the Fool have made up for the time being, but Fitz still harbors the secret that he and Chade will conspire to leave him behind when they go on the Icefyre expedition, so hopefully the Fool can find a way to stowaway on board ( I wonder if Amber can get a job doing woodwork repairs?).

Golden Fool is my new number one favorite Robin Hobb book that we have covered so far in the Hobb-a-Long! I think it solves what has been an issue for me in previous books, that when Hobb has emphasized character development (particular in the 1st person Fitz related books) it tends to do so at the expense of plot development, and the story sometimes moves too slowly( and the reverse has often been true in the 3rd person Liveships books, where the higher paced plotting sometimes comes with some compromising of the character development). Here, she has figured out a way for Fitz to cover a lot of ground with different strands of the plot, and just move from one plotline to another fairly quickly as need be to keep the story from getting stale.

The introduction of the spy corridor has been particularly a clever device for Fitz to see what is going on in other areas of the castle, and with people like the Narcheska and her entourage, that he would ordinarily not be privy to in his daily comings and goings. This, in addition to his frequent trips to town to see Jinna and check up on Hap's situation, has kept a good running flow of plot developments, and kept the reader abreast of changing thoughts and behaviors of many more characters than, say Royal Assassin did (which occasionally would get stuck in a rut, and we would encounter some characters too often, like the bedridden Shrewd and his servant Wallace, who were just doing the same things as the last time we had checked on them).

Now lets see what happens on the Icefyre journey ( I can't remember how to spell that island's name!) in Fool's Fate!

As the negotiations went on we see how the Farseers are always in control of *everything*, they have instant communication with Dutiful and they are spying on their guests, I know it's for the greater good, but they are always operating 2 steps ahead of their "enemy", which is disappointing that they couldn't uncover the Narcheska's true intentions and seems kinda odd since Fitz had the opportunity to spy on them and only noticed her tattoos and the "maid" that was acting odd (forgot her name).

Kinda cool that Fitz now has to take care of swift and be his teacher. Nettle is strong af and as always dragons are assholes. I'm looking forward to Fitz and Tintaglia's meeting, which is probably in the next trilogy if we know Hobb at all.

My complaint's: I know the next book is gonna be the climax of this story, hence my problem with this trilogy (always with the first 2 books), they always feel like a setup for the final book, there's no thick substance here, only to uncover plots and some development of the magics which is my favorite part, but no real climax in terms of the story,
Book one: Dutiful is lost, ensemble a rescue party asking help for a lost forgotten legend, complete mission.
Book two: Uncover plots, regain your strength, get new abilities and prepare for what's to come.
Book three: Find the dragon return him to live or maybe or kill it, the Fool will play a role here that involves the Rooster Crown, he will be bordering of death but will be saved by a dragon or Dutiful's coterie then he will move forward his plan to save the world. Hopefully action packed.

What I'm trying to say is that preventing Civil's assassination is not a strong climax, it felt weak, and we suspected he was being blackmailed from book 1, it wasn't surprising nor exciting.

Abner wrote: "As the negotiations went on we see how the Farseers are always in control of *everything*, they have instant communication with Dutiful and they are spying on their guests, I know it's for the grea..."

The big climax for this book really happens 150 pages before the end, with the defeat of Laudwine( does it count as two defeats if Fitz also killed Laudwine in horse form? LOL). So I think what it's going for is a relatively low-key reconciliation between Fitz and the Fool, that won't compete with the big, dramatic scenes in the next book. They do that with middle books in series sometimes, to set up a big finale. Also, everybody would have been upset if they had still been feuding at the end of the book!