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A review by hardbackednooks
Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Torture