The Farseer books are greatly strengthened by the Rainwild ones. I recommend reading all of her books and in the order of publication but that's a hell of a lot of reading for some people. If you want to experience Hobb without a massive commitment I'd go for LiveShips awesome on it's own and then Rain Wilds If you get hooked Jan 19, Sad Sunday If I say it's bad, it's bad rated it liked it. It's over! I still feel that the tension you could slice with a sword in 2 was something that would helped 4 if it existed.
If felt like an additional book when Frodo already destroyed the ring, Mermaid got married or home life chronicles of Jane Eyre and Mr. It's still interesting, but there is no "hook" when the main goal is already achieved. Somehow I lost character It's over! Somehow I lost characters - they were changing into somebody else too fast and some turned to be so flat.
Example - Malta. She was supposed to be this awesome queen but all I saw was a vain girl who cared only about her hair and clothes. Poor Rapskal was unrecognisable. What happened to him? Thymara went from being a heroine to being a bush in the background. Her choices and actions left me puzzled. And all that left my wondering why. And that often means I didn't get enough meaning and substantiation.
I would have also loved to "meet" the dragons - to know more about them, about their characters, behaviour and etc. Many authors had their takes on dragons, and I think R.
Hobb written them in a quite unique way that wavered towards the end. But I also think that many things were left unfinished, "hanging" in the air. I heard that some of the stories continue in other books of R. Hobb, but I still left unsatisfied. I would have loved that some evil dudes would have got a more evil end, and some of the awesome good guys would have got more rewarding and more well written end.
All in all, it's a good series and I sooo rarely read them. A really nice finish to the Rain Wild Chronicles. I particularly like that the dragons see a lot of action this book as the Chalcadeans step up their efforts to try and get dragon blood and parts for consumption. I liked the climax at the end of the book.
A lot of the time Hobb does the climax early and then spends a lot of time winding down the story - and we do sort of get that as well with a lot of A really nice finish to the Rain Wild Chronicles.
A lot of the time Hobb does the climax early and then spends a lot of time winding down the story - and we do sort of get that as well with a lot of mini climaxes to close off a lot of the story arcs - but we also get a nice finisher at the end.
Fantastic stuff. I've really enjoyed reading the series as whole as part of a book club read. There's a lot of meat to the book and in typical Hobb style, most of the dramatic tension lies in the complexities of the relationships of the characters.
All Hobb's books are very much character driven which is good if you connect with the characters. If you don't connect with the characters you probably won't enjoy these as much. But I have found most of Hobb's characters to be multi dimensional and she really takes the time to make sure the reader gets to delve into the very depths of the character's inner motivations. When her characters suffer, she makes sure we experience that suffering with them - leading to the common charge that Hobb is really cruel to her protagonists.
But really, she's torturing us readers more than anything. On the other end of the scale, when her characters triumph I for one want to stand up and cheer.
Likewise when the bad guy gets what's coming to him. One thing I do like is that Hobb spends a lot of time making sure that her ending aren't trite happily ever afters. The bad guy doesn't always get what he totally deserves - and the good guys still tend to walk with a limp if they make it out the other end. She writes good endings is what I'm trying to say. I can highly recommend this series to lovers of character driven fantasy though I would also highly recommend first reading Hobb's Liveship Traders trilogy at the very least - and even better, why not get the full experience of this world and start with her Farseer Trilogy.
But this book and series get's a very solid View all 4 comments. Executive Summary: A good but not perfect ending, to a good but not perfect series. Full Review I was only introduced to Robin Hobb in summer of , but she's quickly become one of my favorite authors.
While I think this is probably the weakest of her Elderling series books, I still greatly enjoyed it. Hobb once again has a way with writing characters that feel real, especially in the way they can frustrate your and make you down right furious.
She has a way of making me just enjoy followi Executive Summary: A good but not perfect ending, to a good but not perfect series. She has a way of making me just enjoy following her characters around as they go about their lives.
I feel like not as much happened in these four books as have in her previous trilogies. Yet I don't mind. I don't need her to have epic battles, with spell slinging mages or dragons engaged in combat.
This book has no mages, and the dragons do very little fighting. What it does have is complex characters dealing with the complexity that is life: love, hate, greed, courage in a fantastical setting. Somehow that's enough for me. It may not be enough for everyone. There are some complaints I could make, but not many and I won't really dwell on them. I would have liked to see some more time spent with characters from Liveship.
Their cameos throughout the series, and in this book in particular were excellent though. The series ends by tying up many but not all of the loose ends I'd have liked. It leaves me wanting more, yet not upset as though the book just stopped. I would be happy to read more about these characters, especially a few years down the road to see how they made out. I think the best example of this might be the bird keepers. We only know a little of them from their correspondence in a few paragraphs between each chapter.
Yet they feel just as real to me as the main characters of the book. They feel like friends. People I know and care about. Or they feel like rivals. People I would never want to meet. That's hard in writing, and Ms. Hobb always seems to do an excellent job of that for me. View all 3 comments. It's finally done! Any of you that have been following my updates for this series will know that I struggled to read these four books. It took me a long time to readjust to the third person perspective story telling.
It took a long time for me to become interested in the story. It took a long time for me to warm up to the characters. Do you see the reoccurring theme here? By the end, the Hobb worked her magic when it came to the characters.
I really came to care for some of the new characters th It's finally done! I really came to care for some of the new characters that were introduced. Sedric, Carson, Alise and Leftrin to name them. I think Sedric changed the most and in the best ways. His plans at the beginning of the story harvesting dragon parts for money were brutal. I didn't think he would do it, I thought he'd have a change of heart. But he was made to feel an outcast, he didn't understand the dragons or the keepers, he was just a boy from Bingtown.
When he harvested the blood and scales, I hated him. But boy, did he redeem himself. That night changed him and although what he did was horrific, it put him on the right course in the end.
He became a man. When he realises that Hest didn't love him, that he'd been abused for all those years, been a victim both to Hest and his own ideals of what love is. My heart could have broke. Same for Alise.
Abusive relationships take many forms, but they will always be wrong. I think Hobb did a terrific job in showing two seemly weak characters, get out of their abusive relationship. Also when Hest came to Kelsingra, both Alise and Sedric both stood up to him. Power to the people! I hated what happened to Selden.
We got quite a few chapters from him in this book and all of them were difficult to read. He went through so much. In terms of story, I can see why this series is necessary.
We needed to see the baby dragons grow and change. We needed to see the return of the Elderlings. Learn about them, how they are made and maintained. The Skill or as it is known in these books as Silver.
Is a vital part of dragons. It's in their blood, it keeps them strong it keeps them alive. It keeps the Elderlings alive and able to build and provide for the Dragons.
All very important stuff. Also I totally called it, I figured out the connection between Silver and Skill about pages or so before it actually came to light. Go me. I loved the connections to the Farseer books, subtle hints and references. It satisfies my inner geek. This final book was a lot of fun. Why then, Phee are you giving it 3 stars? As I have said before 3 stars is in no way a bad rating. I read and enjoyed this book.
But it did let me down, the conclusion was for me, anticlimactic. After all the dragons learning to fly, growing, becoming 'proper' dragons, saving Tintaglia. They went to get revenge on the Duke of Chalced. But we didn't even get to see the battle. We saw it start and Selden and Chassim got saved. Then we time hop to after all was finished. You cannot make me read a 4 book series about dragons and not let me see the epic fight at the end.
Not happy at all at that. Sure the end was nice and things are wrapped up. But the climax was completely ruined and to be honest nonexistent.
I am so very glad to be done with this series. I definitely didn't think it was on the same level as her other trilogies. The writing and characters were. But the storytelling was off the mark in my opinion. It's my least favourite part of her Realm of the Elderlings series.
I'd give the Rain Wild Chronicles a 3 star rating overall. Onwards now back to Fitz and the Fool. I started reading this series over 2 years ago. I read the first trilogy and really enjoyed it.
Then life happened and after I got through a rough time in my life I started to read this series again and fell utterly in love with it. Best decision I ever made. Now it all comes to a close, I'm excited and terrified but I'm ready for one last adventure with my two favourite characters. I believe that the publisher's decision to split this series up into 4 different books wasn't the best decision.
I could tell from reading this series that some sections were almost a "oh btw, this is what is happening here," section. In the previous Hobb books we really didn't get a whole lot of these moments of reminding the reader about other characters and I feel tha With Blood of Dragons completed, I am finished with the Rain Wild Chronicles, and I have mixed feelings on this 4 book series.
In the previous Hobb books we really didn't get a whole lot of these moments of reminding the reader about other characters and I feel that because the books were split into 4 books instead of the 2, that this is much more prevalent.
I much preferred the long, drawn out scenes, dealing with just a few characters, than chapters being split between multiple points of view.
I also think that while The Rain Wild Chronicles started off focusing on the characters that it became more about the world building near the end of the series. Thymara had the possibility to become that type of character for me but once she got to Kelsingra, she kind of fell away, and got too involved with love drama. I love that this 4 part tetralogy answered a lot of the big questions I've been having throughout this entire large series. Because of this, I think that the Rain Wild Chronicles is definitely required reading for the entire series.
The answers really fill in the entire past of this world but if you aren't that interested in the origins of Elderings, Dragons, and more, and only want more Fitz, maybe you can skip this. I was disappointed in how this story ended. The ending seemed abrupt and a bit anti-climatic. I did not like Seldan's storyline and I wasn't the biggest fan of Malta and Reyne's more passive role in these books. Thymara and Tats were great characters and what happened with Rapskal was interesting, albeit underutilized.
Hest was a great evil character that I absolutely hated but I was looking for a big moral or thematic problem to be the central problem in this tetralogy. Overall, I thought this 4 book interlude was good but probably my least favorite stories from The Realm of the Elderlings. I must admit that I am more excited about finishing this series to get back to Fitz and the Fool than I am excited that this series was amazing. I really like that I learned a ton about Elderlings in these books but the mystery was probably the best part of this series.
I'm hoping there will be more amazing mysteries and reveals in the next series that made me as excited as I was when I first read the Farseer Trilogy. Throughout this series, Robin Hobb took a slightly different approach. Without differing much from her well-known style, which relies more on the description and development of the characters than on the plot itself, she preferred to write more concisely and thus give the books a somewhat faster pace.
In this way, he gave us a story with emotional depth but at the same time very fascinating. As always, she created multidimensional and true characters that in her own magical way come to life in fr Throughout this series, Robin Hobb took a slightly different approach. As always, she created multidimensional and true characters that in her own magical way come to life in front of us and make us love or hate them.
In this, I especially like the role that dragons play in the story. I feel as if they were used to explain in a symbolic way the motives and actions of humans. And by themselves of course they give another tone to the whole series with the very interesting interaction they have with each other.
To say something special about the last part, I think it ideally closes all the issues that arose and makes us close the book feeling satisfied. An excellent ending of a very beautiful tetralogy that kept my interest undiminished from the beginning to the end. Finally finished. Thank god.
There is no other story that I could be less interested. I was biting my nails at the last 10 pages for it to finish already. The main character of the book, Thymara, has nothing to do with the story. Almost the whole series she was in between two boys.
She was almost exactly the same character from anothet shitty book Twilight. When Thymara's chapters were coming I was losing even the little interest that I had. Mating dragons and mating teenagers are the whole purp Finally finished. Mating dragons and mating teenagers are the whole purpose of this book. I regret every second of my time. After the 3rd book I was expecting a good ebd story but failed to receive one.
I think i am becoming too old to show tolerance to teenager stupidy. I read these series just for the sake of the wholeness of the entire universe of 16 books. Anyway now that it is over I can relax a bit. This is the 4th book of and I still haven't read a great story yet.
This book doesn't seem to have a limit in creating unsympathetic characters or artifically created problems and their solutions. Even stupid and arrogant Malta from the previous The Liveship Trilogy is regarded as an Elderling Queen in these books because "she is very much" changed. I gave two points to this book because of the fact that I felt the peaceful atmosphere of the Elderling city Kelsingra. Now that all those moronic characters have settled there, no wonder that soon enough the city will lose its magical atmosphere.
The idea of the book was to create a safe haven for socially unaccepted teenager and broken dragons but the process of the story fails so bad that it actually makes perfect sense to me that those characters are unaccepted. It is a huge talent to gather so many annoying and stupid characters together in a book.
No more, no more, no more.. I might have been a touch disappointed with the first three novels in this quartet - I found the characters less engaging than Hobb's usual fare, the plot was extremely slow moving, there was a love triangle of all things which just did not interest me, and there just generally didn't seem to be much going on. Luckily, I reckon this final installment was far more Hobb-y. Finally, there were lots of things happening, with a sense of drama and jeopardy which had been sorely lacking in the previous I might have been a touch disappointed with the first three novels in this quartet - I found the characters less engaging than Hobb's usual fare, the plot was extremely slow moving, there was a love triangle of all things which just did not interest me, and there just generally didn't seem to be much going on.
Finally, there were lots of things happening, with a sense of drama and jeopardy which had been sorely lacking in the previous books. For the first time in this series, I genuinely cared about what would happen to some of the characters.
While I still don't feel close to this series' protagonists, like Thymaria or Alise, some of the secondary and returning characters Selden and Chassim! The ending is good - a nice classic Robin Hobb ending which I'm very happy about because I can't wait to see how the huge dramas that happened at the end of this novel will affect the last Hobb trilogy.
Overall, Hobb saved the best for last with this series and while it not's quite on the same level as her previous works, it's still enjoyable and I love how the world is expanding and growing. All I can think now is that being an Elderling and living in Kelsingra among dragons is the perfect life anyone could have. Damn, I think Robin Hobb is a dragon herself, for she possesses the glamour which makes the reader bind to her words without escape.
What more can I say about it? Marvelous, sweet, exquisite. RH is a master storyteller. This was a great conclusion to a grand series about dragons and humans. Especially in this book, I became closely attached to the characters, and I felt like I knew them very well. The book was entertaining like the other books in the series, but most of all I think this series is more about the characters including the dragons than it is about the plot.
The plot is interesting, but it's Alise, Sedric, Hest etc. While I've rated all of this series 3 stars th This was a great conclusion to a grand series about dragons and humans. While I've rated all of this series 3 stars throughout, I'm still very interested to pick up some of the other series by Robin Hobb.
I hear they are phenomenal, and I long to read more of Robin Hobb's excellent story telling. In three words: tense, exhilarating, neat. All a man can keep for certain are the things in his mind and heart. It's been such a treat to go on this journey with them, and Hobb mostly ends this series in a satisfying way.
As with all Hobb books I've read, her characters are what kept me reading. Whether i In three words: tense, exhilarating, neat. Whether it was those I've grown to love, or those I continue to hate, Hobb just has a way of making me feel deeply about them. I do think these characters aren't quite at the same level as those in her previous series, and this was evidenced by the fact that one of my favourite parts of Blood of Dragons was when some characters I loved from the Liveship Traders trilogy popped up at the end.
Plot-wise, things were certainly more exciting, given that the dragons had a lot more independence and freedom of movement compared with earlier books, and things were building up to a big battle.
I was kind of disappointed though, as when the big event finally arrived, it felt like it was over a bit too quickly. Also, certain characters either met their end too neatly or were saved without too much drama.
In my review for Dragon Haven , I mentioned that I wasn't a big fan of the romance and this is something that Hobb has continued with this series.
Although there are some couples that I absolutely adore, other matches just felt a bit forced. Even though I guess hormones would be running rampant in a bunch of young people who are stuck for want of a better word on a journey together, I found it difficult to believe that pretty much everyone was pairing off. Despite all this, Hobb is still a solid fantasy writer, and one that I highly, highly recommend.
I'm looking forward to starting the Fitz and the Fool trilogy soon! Recommended for: people who want to read a pretty satisfying conclusion to the Rain Wild Chronicles. I think this is Hobb's weakest series that I've read so far having read Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man previously , but it's still great because Hobb is such an amazing author!
Apr 16, Jeanette Heidenberg rated it it was amazing. Robin Hobb is one of my favourite fantasy authors and I was delighted to finally get the concluding book of the Rain Wilds series. While all the other series set in the realm of the Elderlings are trilogies, the Rain Wilds series consists, as I found to my great surprise when finishing the third book, of four books.
The Blood of Dragons has the challenging task of not only closing the series to which it belongs, but it also ties up all the loose ends of the previous series in this realm. For tho Robin Hobb is one of my favourite fantasy authors and I was delighted to finally get the concluding book of the Rain Wilds series.
For those of us who have followed the characters of this world ever since the Farseer trilogy, expectations were high and Hobb does not disappoint. We finally find out who the Elderlings were and what secrets the mysterious abandoned city that Fitz and The Fool visited hides.
Character development is one of the strongest reasons why I have virtually devoured all books by Robin Hobb. The characters become friends who, just like real friends, have both lovable and irritating sides to them, but they are never shallow nor trivial. Whenever I find myself attached to a fictional character, I start to dread the ending.
The final page of the final book is an irrevocable goodbye, which can leave me with a sense of disappointment. Hobb has a wonderfully graceful way of letting us say goodbye to the characters we've grown to love. I felt it in the previous series, just as I felt it here. Even though there is a sweet nostalgia to leaving the realm of the Elderlings, I am left with a feeling of closure, not disappointment. I can't say enough good things about Robin Hobb. If she's not my favorite author, she's at least in my top three.
Blood of Dragons concludes her Rain Wild Chronicles, a series which takes place on the periphery of her FitzChivalry books. My favorite thing about these "spinoffs" is the expansion of the world I love and the most excellent portrayal of dragons.
Many authors write dragons with human personalities, desires, and motives. Hobb's dragons are bestial and almost alien in their behaviors a I can't say enough good things about Robin Hobb. Hobb's dragons are bestial and almost alien in their behaviors and thoughts; in my opinion, every bit as authentic as good dragons should be. Online stores:. Copy in the library:.
Reviews see all shehanthan. Other books by Fantasy. Debate with a Vampire. Chantel's Quest for the Golden Sword. Bright Horizons. Zachary Pill Dragon Magic: Book 1. Other books by Rain Wild Chronicles. City of Dragons. Other books by Robin Hobb.
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