This was my beach vacation read and I have to say I’m on the fence about it. That’s not to say that I did not stay up way past bedtime to finish this (I did) or that I’m disenchanted with Hobb (not in the least). I just felt that it wasn’t quite as strong as the second book and not as enchanting and well-paced as the Liveship Trilogy. A high bar, to be sure, but there we are.
I have some notes! I will try to not make these too spoiler-y. Here are the things that made me go hmmmm:
- The first maybe 20% of the book was A LOT of Fitz feeling sorry for himself and coming to terms with how he escaped death in the last book. I get it but honestly was over it by the time the narrative picked up steam at about 20%.
- I appreciated Molly’s arc (I agreed 100% with Kettle’s late-in-the-book assessment of their youthful relationship) but it did feel a little twist-the-knife for poor Fitz.
- Was and am on the fence about how Fitz, who struggled with controlling the Skill for like 3,000 pages, all of a sudden at the end is able to use the Skill to do what he does to Regal. I liked it a lot (love a solid nonviolent comeuppance!), but I wanted a little more groundwork.
- The early falling-out with Chade and Burrich – like, Fitz is so young and has already had decades’ worth of trauma, and you older, wiser, more experienced dudes just…leave him there? Like, of course Fitz is upset? He’s also like 19. Maybe just let him vent?
- There were a lot of women throwing themselves at Fitz and I got a little tired of it.
That said, here are the things that kept it going for me:
- Nighteyes: the best animal sidekick.
- Loved the mechanism of Fitz’s reunion with the Fool, and the whole is-it-or-is-it-not-prophecy thread. Loved how their relationship grew and deepened.
- Liked how consistently throughout the series Fitz has to come to terms with his lot in life: it wasn’t fair, and in fact was mostly infuriating, but he really was at the mercy of greater forces and had to make the most of it.
- Liked how Hobb introduces alternate paths (ie, meeting the other Witted characters) that are viable options for Fitz, but he makes realistic decisions consistent with what we know of his character.
- The whole Verity mystery was so well written.
So this is a solid 4 stars. Onward!