I broke my foot last week and had to sit on the couch with my foot up and iced for a long time. On the one hand, having a broken foot sucks, but on the other hand, I had two full days to do literally nothing but read Fool’s Fate.
You have to read Golden Fool to get to Fool’s Fate, so let’s start there: Prince Dutiful’s betrothed, the Narcheska, arrives as planned for their politically strategic nuptials, but is acting real suspicious. She has challeged Dutiful to find/kill their dragon Icefyre, who may or may not exist, and is currently embalmed in ice on a very distant island. Sounds impossible and also dangerous! Throughout the Six Duchies, there is increasing persecution of the Witted, and everyone’s super worried that word will get out that Dutiful (and Fitz, who remember, is supposed to be dead) possesses the “beast magic.” Meanwhile, Fitz is tasked with training Dutiful and a new character, Thick, the Skill (the allegedly hereditary and definitely addictive psychic-ish magic of the Farseer line) even though Fitz himself is not great at harnessing those powers reliably. Fitz, as usual, does his duty but is feeling FEELINGS about it, about which he does very little. Then, much to my delight, unexpected visitors from Bingtown arrive and SECRETS are revealed! The Fool is acting weird and opaque and is convinced that he’s going to die on the trip to kill Icefyre. Fitz makes some bad choices! Relationships are strained! Everyone is very unhappy/nervous/angry. The end.
Golden Fool was good, mostly because by this point I am 100% invested in these characters. The plot is not as substantial as Fool’s Errand, mostly it’s royal chess pieces moving around and Fitz digging deeper into some questionable life choices. I got frustrated with Fitz’s unrelenting stubbornness and refusal to humble himself and face the repercussions of his own actions.
BUT THEN!!!!! Fool’s Fate starts off with a bang, grabs your heart, and does not let up for like 900 pages. It has it all! Action! Dragons! Secrets! Magics! Resurrections! Reunions! Reconciliation! Ice castles! Mysterious creatures! Love! Betrayal! I was brought to tears MORE THAN ONCE!
The payoff in Fool’s Fate for some of the more sloggy parts of The Farseer Trilogy and the very slow intro to Fool’s Errand is enormous. Hobb brings so many tendrils of stories together in such a complete way – the political and personal implications of being Witted (*ahem LGBTQ+ ahem*) and how different people choose to live with their magic; the life long repercussions of unhealthy coping mechanisms you learned in your youth; the deep redemption of truly opening yourself up to someone; the lengths that a parent will go to protect their child; the unintended results of taking matters into your own hands (positive and negative); the frustration and humor of seeing your kids make the same mistakes that you made as you try to parent them while battling your own demons…the list goes on.
This was absolutely my favorite reading experience of the year.