krill 's review for:

The Golden Fool by Robin Hobb
4.75
adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
"Beloved, I have missed your company."
"

I feel like my heart was being batted around by a cat in this one. While this one definitely had truly a tiny amount of plot, it made up for it it terms of character growth and tension building for the next one. It documents the life of Fitz in between the events of the rescue of Dutiful and said prince's dragon-slaying quest. You know, I was reading this book and was about ~45% of the way through when I glanced at the back. I thought it was hilarious that the back blurb (which I never read usually!) mentioned "an impossible quest" laid out by the Narsheska Elliania, because of course that hadn't even happened yet. This book is more of a bridge to get there, which some people may find a bit frustrating.

While not much happened, lots of things happened..... wait a minute. Yes the plot is a bit lacking, but Fitz really goes on a huge emotional journey in this one. This man ruins pretty much every positive relationship he had with the people around him and has to reflect and learn in order to set them all right. This really makes it hard to read at times, because Hobb will never rush anything, so we as readers have to sit in the same pain that Fitz does, which of course just draws us in more.
The fight he has with the Fool was so rough for me, especially after the highs of last book and even the beginning of this one. While Beloved clearly has more secrets to reveal, I was pretty much shaking Fitz in my head the whole time for being so dense!!!
While Fitz does make a lot of mistakes and that can be annoying, I really do empathize with him as he remind me of myself in a lot of ways. It's almost like spending
15 years away from everyone who loves you (bar Hap and the other half of your soul) will have consequences...
 

In between the strife, we get a lot of great moments. I loved the
formation of the coterie and even before then, how Fitz was teaching Thick and Dutiful the skill.
We finally get
Fitz's identity revealed to Dutiful, which led to some really great insight into Patience. Learning about those letters between Verity and Chivalry really made cry. Like, Fitz is so loved and has been for a long time.
Throughout the book and especially right after the "climax" of the story, we get some great time with
Kettricken. In the time that Fitz was gone, she had been learning how to be a wise ruler and we really see that in this one. It was cool to see her be a strong leader, but at the same time she really is a good friend to Fitz and their relationship is just wonderful to read. And her pin!!!


As a sidenote for things to come:
I am super wary of Web and Chade. Web seems too good to be true, and Chade's lust for power scares me also. The Fool surely will find a way to come on the quest, and I'm hoping there will indeed be a dragon to free to unite with Tintaglia. I'm really worried about the fallout from that though, as it seems that Fitz will have to betray his oath to the Farseers to do that. Of course, I'm also really scared for the Fool. I am really curious about his tattoos, that was something I really didn't see coming. Otherwise, I also think that Nettle coming to Buckkeep to learn the skill is inevitable, I don't know how Fitz is fooling himself otherwise.