A huge novel which draws together the threads of FitzChivalry Farseer’s life and loves, bringing everything to a satisfying – and sometimes sad – close, setting up things nicely for the next (and still being written) trilogy, The Fitz and The Fool.
Journeying to the remote Out Island of Aslevjal Prince Dutiful pursues his promise to obtain the dragon’s head and so to seal the betrothal with his Narcheska bride. But under the island’s great glacier the Out Islander and Six Duchies men find not only their entombed dragon but also the mysterious Black Man and Pale Woman, and faint echoes of the ancient Elderlings who inhabited the Farseer’s landscape in earlier times.
Robin Hobb’s Tawny Man Trilogy has been the perfect feast of Fitz-fantasy-fiction to devour over Christmas 2015 / New Year 2016. One of the things that makes her (her) world so enjoyable is the slow pace, which provides ample opportunity for introspection on the part of our protagonist: Fitz is not perfect and he’s all the more human and believable for that.
I’ve also realised that the first book in the new The Fitz and The Fool trilogy – Fool’s Assassin – is told from the dual perspectives of Fitz and his daughter, Bee, which makes for interesting reading (and plotting). And also, Bee is *so* obviously a White Prophet (just as the Fool was) I find it hard to believe that Fitz hasn’t spotted it – but then again, he’s become Tom Badgerlock again, by now an old(er) man enjoying his retirement at Withywoods. That said, it looks like he’s still trying to escape his own destiny, and if the prior two trilogies are anything to go by, that’s a vain task….
Author’s page: Fool’s Fate – Robin Hobb (The Tawny Man 3)