Am I reading Hobb wrong?

[KiwiBird]

I read Hobb before i read martin and i was immediatley hooked, i got too say that i enjoyed all her books so far except the Newones, Nevare sucks

[Redhawk]

I really do enjoy Hobbs, but I'll admit it did take me a bit of time to get into Assassins Apprentice. I liked the Live Ship Books the best..makes me want to shout "Avast" and be coordinated enough to run up the Rigging! Yo Ho Ho!
I just can't decide which character I'm the most infatuated with, Althea, or Brashen...

[Redhawk]

Originally Posted by Mark Robson

I enjoyed the first more than the others, as Hobb's was a very new 'voice' in fantasy to me at the time. However, I became progressively more depressed as I read the series - very little in the way of good things happen to her heroes. I prefer my fantasies to be a little less doom and gloom.

I admire the complexity of her plotting and the depth of her settings, but I'm afraid that I stopped reading her work after the second in the Liveship Traders series, as I felt her work was just too tragic for my taste.

I can relate to that feeling...although I think Farseer affected me more that way than Live Ships....

Having read the first thee trilogies sets, I would say she sure weaves a DENSE book series between the nine of em! An incestuous little group for sure! The Fool is all over like yellow on Amber!

[Ian Whates]

Have to admit, I absolutely loved Assassin's Apprentice -- it seemed to introduce some wonderfully intricate characters and slowly unveil a fascinating world, but as the series progressed, I became increasingly disappointed, because I didn't much enjoy what subsequently happened to the characters I had become fond of.

Just as an aside, has anyone read Wizard of the Pigeons? Written under the author's real name of Megan Lindholm... now there's a piece of truly wonderful fantasy writing, albeit very different from anything she's written as Robin Hobb.

[KiwiBird]

That is why i love the series so much it is much more real than most others, i mean in eddings an all the rest the good guys always get away reasonably unscathed and win bassically easily by outsmarting or outpowering the other.
In the end of the series (the tottal 9 books-that world), the eding is also a good one, but a much more plausible one that in most fantasy books.
Its like real life wich means that it ain roses all the time and in RL wich isnt so in hobb at the end the bad guys (or badder for everyone is grey) can win.

I like the fact that even though they are victorious, it aint al peaches, the dragons arent entirely noble and good, they dont only bring good to the world, but also much bad, they are arrogant to say the least.

[idioteque04]

If you can make it to the 3rd book!! then ending is amazing!

[aarti]

I didn't really like Hobb, either. I only read the Assassin books, though. I think I just found Fitz to be a whiny brat most of the time- he was very hard for me to like! But I'm glad I read them to find out what all the fuss was about :-)

[-putawaythosepliers-]

yeah, im on the third one now, quite well through it, and i like it quite a lot actually. the reappearance of the fool was good, i always liked him. the second book is by far my favourite out of them all.

[spartan_pwns]

i didnt actually read the first one but the next two are amazing. major emphasis on the word.....amazing.

[Sketti]

I love Hobb's books! I was disapointed by the end of the Tawny Man trilogy but it's still some of the best books I've ever read. I think my favorite of the three trilogies is the Liveship Traders although Tawny Man had amazing bits that were SO TENSE! Gods! I wish I could write like Hobb (in which case I would write something with a better ending IMO ;D )

I'd say to keep reading. The beginning of the first book is a bit slow and difficult to get into but then it gets very engaging. It's one of those few series or books that actually managed to make me cry. Especially a certain scene in "Fool's Fate" involving a fire and "name calling" if you catch my drift.

I didn't much like Fitz myself, whiny brat definitely. And I despised Molly! Ugh! Nighteyes was ok, liked him better as a cub ("Yes, that is pack" X-D) and my favorite character, no contest, is Fool. I LOVE THE FOOL! I think he's my favorite character in all of literature.

[the_faery_queen]

i prefered the tawny man for teh fool, and i really did like the first book in that series, even with nighteyes dying. it was just full of stuff going on, and the whole, kitten going 'mine' against things always reminds me of my mogs. but after that, it went downhill. bringing in the liveship people annoyed me. i hated the ending with a passion. and though i liked the fool as lord golden, and indeed, as himself, and the scene with him and fitz arguing was just so CUTE! i prefered the original series just because the ending was better and it didn't have the annoying liveship crew in it

[aarti]

Originally Posted by Sketti

I didn't much like Fitz myself, whiny brat definitely. And I despised Molly! Ugh!

I know! I disliked Molly, too- I don't even know why Hobb put her in there at all :-P Unless maybe she redeems herself later on, after the Farseer trilogy. But she was so obnoxious.

However, I didn't like Fitz any better. My god- a major chip on his shoulder. I think that's why I didn't particularly enjoy the series. It was engaging, yes, but I had so much trouble keeping my patience with those two that it wasn't worth the effort to me, when all was said and done!

[papercut]

The series definitely gets better as it goes on, so it's best to stick it out, but Hobb's books are more about the characters than anything else, and not everyone likes that flavor of writing. She's also tragic, as someone else mentioned, and she writes with a lot of realism, so all the characters are not strong, fearless heroes. (I think that's smart on her part.)

[Connavar]

I am reading the first book of Farseer right now.


Its a two faced beast. Most of the time its so hard to get through,so slow and not really happens for many pages. I cant say i like the dairy style and how she use it. Fitz must tell us everything he see, alittle overkill.

But then sometimes things happen like when he learned the assassin stuff and did work for Chade and the King. Only the promise of him actually doing anything than feeling sorry for himself the bastard is what keeps me going. That he will do something with the Skill and his assassin skills to help his kingdom is onyl why i keep reading.

I really hope the second book is amazing, i have feeling the end will suck in this one surely it will be a cliffhanger. I have about a 100 pages left.




About Martin i read 20-50 pages of A Game of Thrones in the Library , i have no idea what his series is about but i can see clearly in his writing that he has so much better prose that isnt so slow and dry as Hobb. Its good to have something like that to look forward to.

If the second book is as the first one. I will forget that Hobb and this series even existed.

[daisybee]

I struggled at first, as her style is a little off putting for me, but it is worth the effort because for me something clicked and I loved the series. I also became a huge fan of her style, it's a grower. Although, it was darker than I expected.