Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Fool's Errand

With this book, Robin Hobb opens the second trilogy following the adventures of Fitz and the Fool. Several years have passed since the previous instalment, Assassin's Quest, and Fitz has chosen an early retirement in a cabin with his wolf and an orphan he's taken in. But the world is not ready to let Fitzchivalry Farseer enjoy the peace he's surrounded himself with, and it knocks on his door in the shape of a familiar figure.

The first chapters of this book are some of my favourite in all literature. Over the years, I've come back to them when in need of that peace and gentleness touched with a deep wistfulness. I can feel some lines in this book settling in my heart when I read them. They make me feel everything more acutely while wrapping me in so much tenderness it breaks my heart. I really can't describe what those pages do to me. It's one of those experiences that I can't put my finger on, but I'd love to make others feel with my own words, one day.

The rest of the book is really good as well, don't get me wrong. It's also immensely sad in a quiet way. In terms of action it very much paves the way for the next two volumes, but as character study goes, Fitz keeps evolving a lot as a character, which is a priviledge to witness.

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I liked the first trilogy in this universe well enough, but this is turning out even better.

EDIT 4/29/2022: Just finished my second read of this and this book was SO SLOW compared to the others, which also weren't very fast. The first portion of the book is slice-of-life storytelling with Fitz/Tom Badgerlock, Hap, and Nighteyes living their idyllic life on the farm, which was honestly super lovely. The majority of the book, however, is endless traveling, witnessed/experienced persecution, and "tell don't show" style worldbuilding. The last 1/3 or so ramps up the action, drama, and tension which has basically everything that was missing at the beginning. It's definitely slower-paced than the others, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing since we do have a fairly large time gap to address and fill in. Based on what I could tell, it's somewhere around 8-10 years between the end of the first trilogy and the beginning of this one. The Liveship Traders trilogy events occurred towards the end of that time period, but since they didn't have much from the Six Duchies, there are a lot of events to cover.

Overall, this started out feeling like a weaker book in the overall series, but Hobbs' writing has improved so much at this point and the plots and intrigue ramp up more than enough towards the end of the book that it basically evens itself out for me. It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the Tawny Man trilogy measures up.

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