Dang, I thought I’d already reviewed this. Sorry I’m about to do a half-assed job because I had already scrubbed my critical thoughts from my brain upon my (imaginary) completion of this (nonexistent) review.
This was definitely not Robin Hobb’s best series, and definitely a let-down after The Liveship Traders and The Tawny Man trilogies. But it was still good! Just not great. And this last book brought things to a conclusion in probably the best way it could.
I actually think I was more enthusiastic about this book right after I finished it, but maybe I’m writing a more accurate review with two months lag time in that the big emotions that usually stick around after a Robin Hobb book (that I still feel now months and years after finishing Liveship and Tawny Man) just aren’t there for this series.
And yet, what this book sets up in regards to the world of the Realms of the Elderlings as a whole is interesting. It delivers on the promise of the ending of Fool’s Fate (in regards to dragons coming back to the world) and how unbelievably different the world going forward will be when they are enormous reptiles flying through the air with the ability to spit poison and lay siege to your city with very little effort. This is a world where humans will soon no longer be the only dominant sentient species, and I agree with the Fool that this will be good in the long run.
I’m scared to start the last trilogy. I think it might destroy me.
