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Fantasy. Fiction. HTML:�??Fantasy as it ought to be written . . . Robin Hobb�??s books are diamonds in a sea of zircons.�?��??George R. R. Martin Prince Dutiful has been rescued from his Piebald kidnappers and the court has resumed its normal rhythms. There FitzChivalry Farseer, gutted by the loss of his wolf bondmate, must take up residence at Buckkeep as a journeyman assassin. Posing as a bodyguard, Fitz becomes the eyes and ears behind the walls, guiding a kingdom straying closer to civil strife each day. Amid a multitude of problems, Fitz must ensure that no one betrays the Prince�??s secret�??one that could topple the throne: that he, like Fitz, possesses the dread �??beast magic.�?� Only Fitz�??s friendship with the Fool brings him solace. But even that is shattered when devastating revelations from the Fool�??s past are exposed. Bereft of support and adrift in intrigue, Fitz finds that his biggest challenge may be simply to survive. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Robin Hobb's Fool's Fate. Praise for Robin Hobb and Golden Fool �??[Robin Hobb] ranks near the top of the high fantasy field. . . . [She] juggles all the balls with aplomb, besides providing spot-on characterizations.�?��??Publishers Weekly �??Solid storytelling with warmth and heart.�?�… (more)
User reviews
Golden Fool is the second in Robin Hobb's Tawny Man trilogy. The story picks up from the exact same scene where the first book leaves off. Fitz has more or less resigned himself to life again at Buckkeep, posing as a bodyguard/servant for Lord Golden while resuming his old duties under Chade. Chade, realizing that Fitz has progressed far beyond a mere apprentice, names Fitz as his journeyman and first in line to inherit the old spymaster's job. Fitz is having a hard time of it.
Both character and plot development move at a glacial pace. Pages fly by with little progress but there in lies the secret to Hobb's style. She takes her time, allowing the tensions to mount until events erupt in a dramatic manner. While it did not bother me in the first book, the second book felt more drawn out. Characters lamented over their pasts and I found it somewhat frustrating after it was repeated several times. Yet it was never boring. It is exactly what real people do, belabor in our minds over some error and beat ourselves up over if only we could go back in time and do things differently then maybe... This is just one of the things that help make Hobb's characters so believable.
Poor, poor Fitz. Just when he seems to have things in his personal life going well, he manages to screw it up pretty badly. There were so many times I wanted to shake him to make him think before speaking or acting in the heat of the moment. He screws up his relationships with pretty much everyone in this book and only begins to repair some of them towards the end of the novel. The Fool, I'm sad to say, is more of a secondary character in this book. He disappears from the story almost entirely for a while. I missed his presence as much as Fitz did. Introduced in this book is Thick, a dull-witted servant of Chade's that also happens to be extremely strong in the Skill. I loved how Fitz's relationship with Thick progressed. Fitz had to think outside the box to gain Thick's trust.
Many plots are set into motion with little resolution. Instead we have most of the players on the board ready to to move on to the finale. I have no idea how Hobb will wrap this all up in just one more book.
In many ways, this is very much the middle volume of a trilogy. It begins mere hours after Fool's Errand ends, and relies heavily on things that were established in the last book and in the two previous series'. (The
There were many times when I realized that I probably ought to have been bored, and yet I never was. Hobb's plots are rarely fast-paced, but her character development and interaction are so engrossing that I was hard pressed to put this book down. It was intense, and it ripped my heart out more than once. Hobb may write epic fantasy, but her stories are deeply, profoundly personal. I found it impossible not to get swept up in the flow of things. She's created a set of characters that I've really come to care for.
In short, this was a fantastic book, but definitely not a stand-alone. I recommend reading the previous seven volumes first for maximum impact, and make sure you have the final volume on hand before you finish. If you react to this story the same way I did, you'll want to launch right in.
Background (Big Spoilers for the Farseer Series - Skip to Evaluation for NO Spoilers)
Fitz was born out of wedlock to Chivalry Farseer, the King-in-Waiting of the Six Duchies. At age six, Fitz was taken away from his mother by his grandfather and handed over to Verity, Chivalry’s brother, at Buckkeep Fortress.
With Fitz's existence known, Chivalry was forced as a point of honor to abdicate his right to the throne and to leave Buckkeep. Fitz’s care was given by Verity in part to Burrich, the Stablemaster of Buckkeep and Chivalry’s right-hand man. A third brother, Regal, was jealous of Chivalry and Verity, and when Fitz came, Regal began to hate Fitz the most of all of them. Regal resolved to get rid of all three of them so he could rule after the death of their father, King Shrewd.
The others ignored Regal, because the Six Duchies had bigger (or so they thought) problems. They were being besieged by pirates from the Outislands, who traveled in distinctive red ships, raiding the shores and stealing the wealth of the Six Duchies. Then the Outislanders began kidnapping villagers and by some unknown process returning them as zombie-like monsters. Because this practice began with the village of Forge, such people, no matter their origin, were ever after known as “Forged.”
People who were Forged could not even be detected by the Skill. This was magic common to those in the Farseer line enabling a person to reach out to another’s mind, no matter how distant, and know that person’s thoughts. If the other person were Skilled also, the two could even communicate through mind-speak, and if one had evil intent, he or she could control or even kill the other person via the Skill.
Some people also had a magic called the Wit. This was the ability to form a special, and mutual, bond with an animal. Fitz was witted, and had such a bond with the wolf, Nighteyes.
As The Farseer Series ends, the Outislanders have been defeated, and Chivalry, Verity, and Shrewd are gone. Verity’s Queen Kettricken now rules Buckkeep and has a son who is heir to Verity, Prince Dutiful. Chade has come out of hiding to be the Queen’s counselor. Burrich and Molly, thinking Fitz dead, have married. Fitz lives as a hermit in an isolated cottage outside Buck with his wolf Nighteyes and with the young boy Hap brought to him by the minstrel Starling. During the day, Fitz still wrestles with being drawn to the Skill, and at night, he dreams of dragons.
Specifics for Golden Fool (Spoilers for Book One or skip to Non-Spoilery Overall Evaluation)
As Book Two begins, Fitz and Dutiful are both reeling from the loss of their wit-bonded partners. As Fitz mused, grief was not a matter of waiting for the hurt to pass, but rather of becoming accustomed to it. He feels gutted. And yet he finds, as he was taught by a witted mentor in Book One, “…what a bonded one leaves behind for his partner is deeper and richer than memories. It’s a presence. Not living on in the other’s mind, not sharing thoughts, decisions, and experiences. But just - being there. Standing by.” Still, as the minstrel Starling observes of Fitz, “You’ve the saddest song of any man I’ve ever known.”
Meanwhile, Fitz has a new assignment from the queen. He is to be an instructor to Swift, Burrich’s ten-year-old son, who has come to Buckkeep asking asylum as one with the Wit. Swift is hostile and suspicious, and it will not be an easy task. Fitz is also having difficulties with his foster son, Hap, who is unhappy with his apprentice work, and spends all his time chasing after a girl whose father does not approve of Hap. Fitz’s daughter Nettle reaches out to Fitz at night through skilling and wants to know who he is. Prince Dutiful still resents Fitz for what Dutiful experienced during his rescue. Chade’s serving man, Thick, seems to have an irrational hatred for Fitz, and expresses it through a surprising and remarkably strong ability to Skill. The Outislander delegation is at the Court, and something not right is up with the princess, Narcheska Elliania, who has been promised to Dutiful. To top it all off, the Piebalds are looking for revenge, especially against “Tom Badgerlock.” As usual, nothing is ever easy for Fitz.
Elliania tells Dutiful at their first public encounter that she will not marry him unless he proves his worth by going to the forbidding island of Aslevjal, slaying the dragon Icefyre that lives under the ice, and bringing back his head. To the dismay of his family and advisors, Dutiful accepts the challenge. Fitz agrees to help him, in part, by creating the Skilled Coterie for which Chade has always lobbied.
The Fool, meanwhile, insists to Fitz that the dragon must live, that saving the dragon is necessary to saving the world. He knows he asks something huge of Fitz: “Do you keep your vowed loyalty to the Farseers or do you save the world for me?”
Overall Evaluaton - No Spoilers This is a wonderful series, which really should be read as part of a six-book saga rather than a trilogy, with The Farseer Series preceding this one. (In fact, one of the mysteries of The Farseer Series - about Forging - is not uncovered until the third book of this series.) The characters are unforgettable, and their lives in this story full of fantasy are nevertheless richly exemplary of "the human condition." This is a tale made up of a lot of pages, and perhaps there is a bit of repetition. But I didn’t regret reading any of it, except for the matter of all the kleenex I went through, and for the reluctant necessity of leaving the world of the Farseers when the saga was over.
I am now moving on to the final book and I don't remember much of that other than bawling my eyes out at the end because of the unexpected
Meanwhile, even as Queen Kettricken seeks to attain peace and stability for the Six Duchies, the Bingtown Traders seek to lure her into their war against Chalced with rich gifts and bizarre tales of dragons.
Hobb, in this book, does an excellent job of portraying a sympathetic character who yet has flaws, through that character's own perspective.
(I would highly recommend reading the Liveship Traders trilogy before this book - it's not 100% necessary - but there are some bits that gain much more significance if you've read those first....)
Well I suppose only if it's your cup of tea and it is mine. I want the next book NOW to finish up the series and also don't want it because it would be
A long book, not an easy read but it hauls you in and makes you want to return to the story and find out what's going to happen next. My only problem was finding the proper amount of time to dedicate to this book so I could properly immerse myself in it.
Also, you don't need to use the main character's full name every time a character talks to him. Seriously, "Tom Badgerlock" is