Book Review: Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb

Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb

This is the fourth and final book of the Rain Wild Chronicles series, bringing a close to the story of the dragons and their keepers...for now. In the last book, we saw the characters arrive at the legendary Elderling city of Kelsingra, only to find it accessible only by flight. 

At the start of Blood of Dragons, many of the dragons have managed to learn to fly, with the rest well on their way to achieving it. The dragonkeepers have also been transformed, becoming beautiful Elderlings. Expeditions have been made into Kelsingra; every day more artifacts are discovered, and more memories are lifted magically from the city's stones. It'll all be for naught, however, if the one thing the dragons and their Elderlings need to stay healthy and survive cannot be found -- silver, a substance that has the power to heal and rejuvenate, among other mystical properties.

I think I've finally gotten into the flow of Robin Hobb's writing. I love her style, but what I've discovered is that her books are not so traditionally structured, which can sometimes make them feel lacking in direction. But unlike the three previous books in the series, this is the first one where I can distinctly identify a climax and a definite ending. Well, this being the last book and all, I would have certainly hoped so.

As a series conclusion, I was pretty satisfied. Still, maybe it's just me, but so much of it felt driven by pure relationship drama. Of course, there's a positive side to this; I was extremely looking forward to see how this book will end up dealing with Hest Finbok, for one. Despite being jilted by Alise, he's still a despicable human being and needed to get his due. There were also the usual conflicts, but the love triangle between Thymara, Tats, and Rapskal seemed to dominate a lot of it. Even the dragons were are getting into the action with their mating quarrels. 

And on the topic of the dragons, even after four books I have to say I still haven't managed to find much sympathy for the arrogant, belligerent creatures (with only a couple exceptions). Take the least flattering stereotypes about cats, and dragons are like that but about a hundred times worse. Is it horrible of me, that I actually wanted to see doom come to Tintaglia when she was caught in the trouble with the human hunters? I definitely wouldn't fault this against the book though; it's to Hobb's credit that she was able to give her dragons such severe qualities and evoke these reactions from me.

My main issue, however, was probably with the subject of the silver wells. I don't remember them being an important factor in this series at all until this book. All of a sudden, there's this need for silver, and why is this matter just coming up now? Wouldn't something like this have been helpful for everyone to know earlier in the expedition? Seems weird that it only came up once the characters are actually in Kelsingra. It's possible I'm missing something because I haven't read all the books in the Realm of the Elderlings, but the problem with the search for silver still feels like it came out of nowhere, thrown in as a conflict at the last minute.

Speaking of which, I probably should read the other books. I definitely have the interest and the desire to after reading this series, plus I should really try and finish off the Farseer Trilogy since the second book has been in my to-read list for almost two years. However, Liveship Traders probably interests me more at this point.

Final verdict:

  3.5 of 5 stars

Note: Previous books in the Rain Wild Chronicles:

Dragon Keeper - my review

Dragon Haven - my review

City of Dragons  - my review

Book Review: City of Dragons by Robin Hobb

City of Dragons by Robin Hobb

This is the third book of Robin Hobb's Rain Wild Chronicles series and unfortunately also my least favorite installment so far. That's not to say I didn't like it, but I'm also sensing a definite slowdown compared to the first couple of novels (see my review of Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven).

The book picks up from where we last left our group of dragons, their keepers and their crew. After overcoming the dangers of the Rain Wild River, the expedition has finally found the legendary Elderling city of Kelsingra. And yet, due to the eruptions and bad flooding, the city can only be reached by flying -- a problem, as despite growing bigger and stronger since the start of their journey, many of the dragons' wings are still stunted, deformed and non-functioning. So close and yet so far!

And so, we watch as the characters spend much of their time in the book doing...not much of anything. About a quarter of the book blows by before I felt the story picking up, like something interesting was actually happening. It was definitely a slow start, lots of setting up and reintroductions to characters and past events to get the reader up to speed. 

I'm notoriously forgetful of things that happened in previous books in a series (especially if it's been a while) so normally I would appreciate it when the author throws in the casual reminder here or there. But that left the remainder three-quarters of this book to blow me away, and honestly, it just didn't. I still enjoyed it, nonetheless...but the truth is I would have enjoyed it even more if it didn't feel so much like a "transition book", i.e. filler.

There were some high points, of course. I liked that we finally got to see more of Hest and his perspective, despite the fact that he's a scumbag of a human being, but it was a nice change from our constant focus on the river and the dragons. And let's face it, sometimes it's the scumbags' perspectives that are the most interesting to read about! There were also large sections featuring Reyn and Malta who are starting to get more attention in this series, though I think I would have been more excited about that if I'd read some of the previous books in Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings universe in which they also appear.

There continues to be interesting and dynamic developments in the relationships between the characters. Couples are pairing off, people are sleeping around, jealousy abounds, etc. etc. etc. More secrets are uncovered about Elderlings and Kelsingra. The dragons and their keepers are all growing and moving forward as characters go. All that's great, because it means there's still a point to this novel. But still, I can't help but feel that the book lacks a certain direction.

And the ending! I'm not sure what to make of that. Let me go on the record to say that I think Robin Hobb is a great writer and that I love her style, but there really doesn't seem to be much logic when it comes to where and how she ends her books. This one was abrupt, but not not exactly a cliffhanger. It makes me wonder if this book and the fourth and final book in the series were meant to be read as one, but then split into two for whatever reason. That could also explain its relatively short length. In any case, I did not expect the book to end this way, limply dangling in the breeze like that.

Regardless, I have one more book to go in this Rain Wild Chronicles series and I'm looking forward to see how it all ends.

Final verdict:

 3 of 5 stars

Mogsy's Book Haul

My books, audiobooks, and library loans that came in this week. Hmm, I'm sensing a particular theme?

Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik

It is a grim time for the dragon Temeraire. On the heels of his mission to Africa, seeking the cure for a deadly contagion, he has been removed from military service–and his captain, Will Laurence, has been condemned to death for treason.

For Britain, conditions are grimmer still: Napoleon’s resurgent forces have breached the Channel and successfully invaded English soil. Napoleon’s prime objective: the occupation of London.

Separated by their own government and threatened at every turn by Napoleon’ s forces, Laurence and Temeraire must struggle to find each other amid the turmoil of war and to aid the resistance against the invasion before Napoleon’s foothold on England’s shores can become a stranglehold.  

City of Dragons by Robin Hobb  

Once, dragons ruled the Rain Wilds, tended by privileged human servants known as Elderlings. But a series of cataclysmic eruptions nearly drove these magnificent creatures to extinction. Born weak and deformed, the last of their kind had one hope for survival: to return to their ancient city of Kelsingra. Accompanied by a disparate crew of untested young keepers, the dragons embarked on a harsh journey into the unknown along the toxic Rain Wild River. Battling starvation, a hostile climate, and treacherous enemies, dragons and humans began to forge magical connections, bonds that have wrought astonishing transformations for them all. And though Kelsingra is finally near, their odyssey has only begun.

Because of the swollen waters of the Rain Wild River, the lost city can be reached only by flight—a test of endurance and skill beyond the stunted dragons’ strength. Venturing across the swift-running river in tiny boats, the dragon scholar Alise and a handful of keepers discover a world far different from anything they have ever known or imagined. Immense, ornate structures of black stone veined with silver and lifelike stone statues line the silent, eerily empty streets. Yet what are the whispers they hear, the shadows of voices and bursts of light that flutter and are gone? And why do they feel as if eyes are watching them? 

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life. 

A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan  

All the world, from Scirland to the farthest reaches of Eriga, know Isabella, Lady Trent, to be the world’s preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth and misunderstanding into the clear light of modern science. But before she became the illustrious figure we know today, there was a bookish young woman whose passion for learning, natural history, and, yes, dragons defied the stifling conventions of her day.

Here at last, in her own words, is the true story of a pioneering spirit who risked her reputation, her prospects, and her fragile flesh and bone to satisfy her scientific curiosity; of how she sought true love and happiness despite her lamentable eccentricities; and of her thrilling expedition to the perilous mountains of Vystrana, where she made the first of many historic discoveries that would change the world forever.  
 

Book Review: Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb

Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb

The story of The Rain Wild Chronicles continues with this sequel to Dragon Keeper (review here). Maybe the plot's simply picking up, or perhaps it has to do with the characters finally starting to grow on me, but somewhere between the pages of this book, I realized I've actually become quite smitten with this series. 

As I recall, the end of the first book came rather abruptly, so it's not a surprise that this one picked right up from where it left off. The dragons and their group of keepers and supporters continue to travel along the river in the hopes of finding the legendary Elderling city of Kelsingra, and we return to familiar characters such as Thymara, Alise, Sedric, Leftrin and the blue dragon Sintara. The book follows the narrative of these characters, chronicling their incredible journey of adventure and peril -- complete with the inevitable pitfalls, unexpected romances and bitter betrayals. 

Since the background and all the introductions were covered in the first book, I feel like we're finally able to get into the meatier parts of the story. I also mentioned before that I wasn't too impressed with any of the characters when I first started this series, but while most of them were kind bland on their own, the dynamics are getting more interesting now that they're all starting to interact with each other. 

The dragon keepers, mostly made up of heavily marked Rain Wilders who were born disfigured with features like scales and claws, were considered outcasts back where they came from. A few of them have their own ideas of whether or not the status quo should change or remain the same once they reach Kelsingra and establish their own society, which not surprisingly leads to a fair bit of conflict. Also, separate a group of people from civilization and force them to eat, sleep, hunt and survive together for months at a time, and sooner or later you get the kind of relationship drama worthy of prime time reality TV.

I still have issues with some of the pacing, though. For the most part, I love Robin Hobbs' writing, but once in the while, I notice she'll have the tendency to fill the pages with swaths of lengthy exposition, going over events and plot developments that the reader is already fully aware of. This is occasionally the case with character speech and internal dialogue too. There was one particularly harrowing scene involving Sedric, Jess, a copper dragon and a killer flood where I had to wonder how anyone could waste so much time just standing around monologuing.

I also noticed the way a situation would be deliberately dragged out, by making certain characters like Alise and Sedric uncharacteristically clueless and obtuse. It was established in Dragon Keeper that Alise's husband, Hest, is actually secretly Sedric's lover. By the end of that book, it seemed like everyone has figured it out except for Alise, who would normally be such an astute, observant woman. Likewise, Sedric seems oblivious to the fact that his sexual orientation is known to one of the hunters in the crew, is also oblivious to the fact that the hunter prefers men and is attracted to him as well. It's the sort of plot device I would expect from a cornball romance novel, but I do have to give my kudos to Hobbs for her meaningful way of handling the topic of hidden homosexuality.

Definitely looking forward to the next book, as this series is turning out to be a rather exciting tale of adventure-fantasy.

Final verdict:

4 of 5 stars

The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb

The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb

The Dragon Keeper is the second book I've ever read by Robin Hobb, the first being Assassin's Apprentice, book one of the Farseer trilogy. My first thought after reading that one was that I liked it well enough; Robin Hobb is great storyteller, and Assassin's Apprentice was quite enjoyable. Still, while I was definitely on board to read the rest of the series, nothing about it excited me enough to make me want to drop everything and rush out for the sequel, if you know what I mean. In fact, it's been almost two years since I read the first book, and I still haven't gotten around to Royal Assassin. Shameful, I know. 

Now, I realize I should really make the effort to finish up young Fitz's story first, but then The Dragon Keeper landed on my lap. This first book of the Rain Wild Chronicles has gotten rave reviews from many of my fantasy-book-loving friends, so I admit I've always been curious about the series. That, and it's hard to resist the prospect of a good story about dragons. 

The book begins with a group of sea serpents journeying upriver to cocoon themselves so that they might hatch into dragons. They are overseen by Tintaglia, the last known dragon. It is her hope that their efforts would reintroduce their kind to the world, with the help of humans on the Rain Wild Council. We are then introduced to our key characters: Thymara, a young girl marked by a birth defect that gave her scales and clawed fingers; Leftrin, captain of the wizardwood liveship called Tarman; Alise Kincarrion, a woman who weds a successful local Trader named Hest Finbok in a marriage of convenience for both of them; and Sintara, a dragon who has hatched from one of the cocoons mentioned at the beginning of the book. Their stories all come together when a group of human keepers must set out on a quest to escort a party of dragons to find the legendary city of Kelsingra.

I have to be honest; I found the first half or so of this book really slow, and it took me a while to figure out why. In the end, I determined it was the characters. While they each come from fascinating backgrounds and unique circumstances, I failed to drum up much interest for their personalities. Thymara, for example, came across to me as rather bland. Normally, Rain Wild babies with birth defects like hers would have been left for dead immediately after they were born, but she was rescued from that fate by her softhearted father. As a result, most people look upon her as a mistake that never should have happened. Don't get me wrong; while these little details about Thymara gave me insight into her character and I certainly enjoyed reading about them, the issue was that I found little else to set her apart from most young outcast protagonists in a lot of the other fantasy books I've read.

I felt much the same about Alise. Her story, however, was much more interesting to me. Her relationship with Hest is pretty sad, with him being a cold and emotionally abusive ass. To Hest, their marriage is just another business contract; Alise is only useful to him for her ability to bear him an heir, and in exchange he has offered his considerable assets for her to fund her dragon research. As it turns out, there's more to the reasons why he is incapable of ever returning Alise's attempts at affection, which made my heart go out to her. And yet, her personality was so unexceptional that I found it hard to truly root for her.

I think some of this stems from the dialogue. For instance, in the book is a minor character named Greft, a young dragon keeper who very swiftly and efficiently sways the others around him to set himself up as the leader of their crew. Often in his manipulations, he says things along the lines of "Surely, you must see this is the way..." or "I am sure you can understand..." I mean, do people really fall for patronizing verbiage like that? It all just sounds so forced and over the top. I know it's a minor gripe, but I didn't like how instead of actually giving the character a charismatic personality, the writing often falls back on dialogue choices like that.

Now, the dragons, on the other hand. Not magnificent and noble creatures, these. Robin Hobb's dragons in the Rain Wild Chronicles are weak, malformed and unable to take care of themselves, relying on humans to hunt for them and clean them. From what I read of them, they also seemed petty and squabbly, and Sintara annoyed me to no end with her arrogance and posturing. But still, the dragons here felt fresh and different for me, and I liked them a lot for that.

While the beginning was slow to pick up, the positive news is that once the characters were all set up and the adventure got going, the book just got better and better. In fact, I was quite irked when it ended, just as things were at their most interesting. It was actually pretty abrupt.

I have to say that in general I don't mind cliffhangers, not if they're executed deftly and with panache. Unfortunately, I can't claim that this was one of those endings. There was no real conclusion, no cooldown, not even any real attempt to wrap things up nicely. Without warning at all, everything just comes to a screeching halt.

However, to the book's credit, the way it ended was still very effective. I already have the next book on hold at my library. And that, at least, is more than what I did for the Farseer trilogy.

Final Verdict:

4 of 5 stars

Mogsy's Book Haul

Posting my recent acquisitions for this week, audiobook edition.

As you know, Amazon has their Whispersync for Voice feature available for some of their Kindle books which allows seamless back and forth switching between the ebook and the Audible audiobook. In a lot of cases, Audible even offers a special price on Whispersync books you already own on Kindle, sometimes at pretty steep discounts.

The Mongoliad Book 3 by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, Nicole Galland, Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey, Cooper Moo, Mike Grell (Illustrator)

If you haven't heard about The Mongoliad, it's the authors' trans-media revisionist interpretation of the Mongol invasion of Europe set in the mid-1200s. Originally released as a community-driven project in serialized format to be read on the web or mobile apps, it's since been re-edited and republished in both print and for the Kindle.

I still don't know how I feel about this series, but I've been following it and picking up the books because they're always such a good price and entertaining for what I pay. Preordered the third book on Kindle for like a buck or two, picked up the audiobook version for the special price of $1.99. Pretty sweet deal if I say so myself. The first book I thought was okay, the second book kinda dragged and I had to almost force myself to finish, but I am feeling pretty positive about this one.

The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb

The first book of the Rain Wild Chronicles. This is another one I've owned for a while, bought when the Kindle version went on sale a long time ago. I think I just glimpsed the name Robin Hobb on my newsletter email and snatched it up without a second thought.

I might have even forgotten that I owned this, until I was browsing through my list of books the other day and I noticed Audible offering the audiobook of Dragon Keeper for $3.49 for those who already have the Kindle version.

Okay, again, another impulse buy for me, but who could resist a price like that? Plus I've read and enjoyed the first book of Hobb's Farseer trilogy, so at least I know she writes good stuff. Listening to it now as my current audiobook read.

 Beyond The Shadows by Brent Weeks

Bought it for the Whispersync price of $3.99 earlier this week, and I was so revved up to tear into it that I've already read/listened to it. This is the third book of Week's Night Angel series, and I was so happy I finally got around to finishing this trilogy.

Anyway, now that I'm done with it, I'm a little torn as to what to think. While I liked the trilogy as a whole, I have to say the second and third never really managed to capture me like the first one did, though I have to admit that happens to me a lot, where subsequent books in a series never seem to live up to the first in terms of stirring my emotions and excitement. Still, highly recommended for those who enjoy darker fantasy, especially for fans of magic and assassins.


The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

While I'm going nuts with audiobooks this week I might as well go all the way. Sometimes, having the audio version also motivates me to read a book, so while I looked through my Whispersync feature books, I also decided to pick up The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood's classic which I really want to -- and should -- read.