Review: Fool's Quest

Book two of the Fitz and the Fool trilogy
By Robin Hobb
Available now from Del Rey (Penguin Random House)
Review copy
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When Robin Hobb has a new trilogy coming out, I always get excited when it is time to buy the new book.  You can double that when it is a book about Fitz.  (This is the eighth book starring Fitz and the fifteenth set in this world.)  FOOL'S ASSASSIN, the first book in this new trilogy, made some choices I wasn't so sure about.  I'm still not sure about some of them - the new narrator speaks much less in FOOL'S QUEST and I'm not sure her separate point of view is actually needed.  Others are swiftly corrected, teaching me to trust again that Hobb has a plan.

FOOL'S QUEST ends with our heroes once more in peril, so I know I'll be on tenterhooks for the third and final book in the trilogy.  Those who were worried about the characters at the end of book one can look forward to long, soothing passages of recovery.  (Well, recovery for some characters anyway ...)  There's also some delicious, long-awaited vindication.  There were so many moments in FOOL'S QUEST that I've been waiting for as a fan of these characters.

And then Fitz does something else to prove he's too stubborn to learn easy.

As a fan, I continue to think that this trilogy is a delight.  I'm not sure it has much to offer newcomers, because it is more uneven than the previous two trilogies and generally expects the reader to be familiar with a large number of events and characters.  But seriously, it's worth starting at the beginning and working through these bricks.

Review: Fool's Assassin

Book one of the Fitz and the Fool trilogy
By Robin Hobb
Available now from Del Rey (Penguin Random House)
Review copy

I love the way Robin Hobb writes.  I dived right into FOOL'S ASSASSIN, devouring it in a single Saturday.  I was so happy to spend more time with Fitz, to see his continued happiness with Molly and contentment with life.  Returning to this character and setting was like a reunion with old friends, even though I knew bad things would have to happen in order to set a new trilogy in motion.  But once I finished FOOL'S ASSASSIN, I had to face the facts.  I might've enjoyed it, but it was a terrible book.

The pacing is super slow.  The opening tells of a messenger who is murdered before she can deliver her message, with Fitz ominously intoning that it would be years before he understood that it was the Fool trying to reach him.  The book then proceeds to detail the decade plus before Fitz gets the message, and then spend some more time detailing quotidian stuff while Fitz dithers.  I'm used to Hobb's books being filled with action and adventure followed by a long denouement, not this long build up.  Nothing really happens.  Even worse, nothing unpredictable happens.  I put together every twists approximately 500 pages before Fitz did.  Not good when Fitz is supposed to be clever.

FOOL'S ASSASSIN introduces several new characters, including a new narrator, Bee.  Her voice was distinct from Fitz's, and it was easy to tell their chapters apart even though they weren't labeled.  I liked several of the other new characters too, more fool me since something like 90% of them were dead by the end of the novel.  Before the ending, I at least hoped all of the elements being built up (including the new characters) were going somewhere.

If you are a fan of the Farseer and the Tawny Man trilogies, I do recommend FOOL'S ASSASSIN.  The Six Duchies world is as immersive as ever, and there is the promise of trouble on the horizon.  It seems that peacetime will end soon for Fitz and his country.  If you aren't familiar with the previous novels featuring Fitz and the Fool, then I don't recommend starting here.  FOOL'S ASSASSIN is too meandering to appeal to anyone but fans.

(And despite the title, you should be prepared for the Fool to take a very long time to show up.)