steel_for_humans comments on What book(s) are you currently reading or listening to? June 16

[–] steel_for_humans@piefed.social 10 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Finishing Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb, I think I only have the last chapter left. Liveship Traders is among my favorite fantasy series, I'm liking Rain Wild Chronicles so far, but I'd say I enjoyed Liveship Traders more. But it's only the first book of four, so that may change. It's a slow read for sure...

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[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (4 children)

So are you doing the whole Realm of the Elderlings, start to finish? Definitely my favorite series, even beat out WoT. The jumping between storylines (first person and third person, not to give away much) were such huge changes in tone. I want to continue talking but I'll hold my tongue. I'm just jealous, if you are reading it for the first time, that you get to experience it all new.

I read WoT a few years back, and got a friend interested and so I've been doing a listen of that with him, and we are at the penultimate sequence of events there. I intend to eventually convince him to join me for a listen to RotE.

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[–] steel_for_humans@piefed.social 4 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I don't particularly like the Fitz books, except the very first one, sorry. I read the first Fitz trilogy, then Liveship Traders, then listened to audiobooks of the second Fitz trilogy and now here I am, reading Rain Wilds. I am in the minority, since people love Fitz and some even ask if they can skip LT :) It's the opposite with me.

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[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Totally understandable, the tone shift is very substantial. Glad you trudge through them, the thought of skipping a piece of a series is nuts to me. I think it'll end up being a rewarding read regardless.

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[–] steel_for_humans@piefed.social 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

I think my problem is the 1st person POV in books featuring Fitz. Liveship Traders is more like all the other fantasy series with a rich cast of characters and shifting perspectives. Meanwhile, we can only see through Fitz' eyes and learn of his interpretation of who did what and what HE felt about it. We don't really KNOW why THEY did something, including the villains. What I loved about Liveship Traders was how deep Hobb went into psychology of her characters. Especially

spoiler

Malta, whom I hated and then loved, it was such a natural progression, so human, I can only applaud the author.

I'm getting a feeling that something similar may happen with Sedric in Rain Wilds. Currently I really dislike the guy.

Back to Fitz - I was expecting something else from books with "Assassin" in their title ;) I thought he was the worst assassin in the world, haha. Eh, I wish I loved those books like you do. But there's something to Hobb's writing, I have to admit she makes beautiful prose, her books give me pleasure from reading the words and sentences, apart from the story (I am not a native English speaker, but I read her books mostly in English).

Re WoT -- did you mean Wheel of Time? It used to be my favorite series when I was a teenager. I am actually re-reading it after 20+ years, I'm somewhere in the middle. I learned it's very difficult for me to read such a long series, though, because I keep forgetting everything between the books, it just takes too long for me.

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[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Yep, WoT. I won't read a series unless it's complete (that's probably not true but I try to stick to that because I've made the mistake before), so that I can just burn through. I thought RJ, and later Branderson, did a good enough job of reminding you of things later on. I also think my memory is good at books and stuff, bad at car keys and work.

And yeah, I found all the non-Fitz books to have a much happier feel to them. You're on the boat, you're in the wilds, you're following these stories. It's definitely more tradition fantasy. From the Fitz books though, I feel like we get this limited perspective of a character you literally watch grow up, and it's got a much more serious tone to it. And it's imperfect, and it's meant to be I feel.

I don't wanna talk a ton about it, but the series and it's conclusion are great, love it all. Fitz's growth just feels a lot more slow than the other books in the series, but him and his relationships all feel very intimate in a way that the other half of the series can't capture.

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