It was so nice to return to the world of the Six Duchies. This one starts about 15 years after the events of The Farseer Trilogy, and I really like older, more settled Fitz. He seems more comfortable in his own skin, in a way, less likely to take crap from others, and more emotionally mature. He lives in a cabin with Nighteyes and his “boy” Hap and is relatively content. Or at least as much as it’s possible for him to be. Starling visits periodically with news of the outside world, but all of a sudden he starts getting visits from others, eventually heralding his return to Buckkeep when Prince Dutiful, heir to the throne, goes missing.
I am consistently astounded by Robin Hobb’s ability to keep me so engaged even when it seems like nothing is happening. Not much happens for at least the first 150 pages of this book. Starling visits. Chade visits. A hedge witch visits. Then, best of all, The Fool visits! And they talk. That’s about it. Fitz has conversations with all of them and with Hap and Nighteyes (who seems funnier than I remembered) and just lives his life. But I didn’t want to put the book down. There is so much interiority going on: Fitz is remembering, reflecting, questioning. And I also really enjoyed seeing his adult responses to these people, most of whom he met as an adolescent or young adult. We do see Fitz get pulled back into some similar patterns he had as an adolescent, but we get to see him respond to these patterns in a more mature way. There are still limits on his independence, but not quite as much as in Farseer.
There is a significant expansion on Witted lore and history in this one. It’s helpful to have read The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince, but it isn’t necessary. We see how Witted ones are treated, even when there are laws that are supposed to prevent ill treatment of people simply for having the Wit. Bigotry towards Witted people and how Witted ones are responding are a large part of the political backdrop of this novel, and it was both interesting and infuriating.
This was such an engaging novel. And also sad, in a different way than the Farseer books. I can’t wait to start the next book.
