Even if it leaves a couple of threads hanging slightly, there's no denying it makes a beautiful tapestry out of the Rainwild Chronicles and one which should grace the wall of any fantasy reader. The magic of the city and the final secret it conceals present their only chance of survival, not just for the queen dragon Tintaglia but for Malta and Reyn's infant Elderling son as well. That makes it a completely solid, readable and enjoyable fantasy series, which is still head-and-shoulders above many other novels in the genre; but it doesn’t have the magnetic blend of grit, power and raw characterisation that has made Hobb’s other books such enduring favourites. We finally understand what we first discovered in The Farseer Trilogy, with Verity creating his Elderling dragon with liquid Skill - the Silver that the dragons need to much are is what flows in what we know as the Skill river from Assassin's Quest. But while the humans have scoured the empty streets and enormous buildings of Kelsingra, they cannot find the mythical silver wells the dragons need to stay health and survive.

I loved the first nine books (The Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies) and intend to read the last three, so didn’t feel that I could leave out these four in case I missed out on any details or plot points that turned out to be important later. I finished this book sad at having to say goodbye to these characters, but even more eager to read Fool's Assassin, the first book in the next series in the Realm of the Elderlings, Fitz and the Fool. One reason I always count Liveship as my favourite of Hobb's series, (apart from the fact that pretty much anything with both pirates and dragons is bound to captivate me), is the use of multiple characters as perspectives and the fact we're not just following one person's story as we do in the books focused on FitzChivalry. The dragons have got to learn to fly and make their way over to Kelsingra, so they can reach the hot baths that will help them grow and fully develop into the dragons they always should have been. The climax of the novel felt particularly rushed and I was disappointed that things wrapped up quite quickly.I don’t know whether I might have felt differently about the books if I’d read them with more time between them, because barrelling through them all in one go means that I’m particularly sensitive to repetition or excessive exposition. She raised her family, ran a smallholding, delivered post to her remote community, all at the same time as writing stories and novels. There’s plenty of action in this instalment and, as the characters grow towards their full potential, I felt they became correspondingly more engaging. Her short stories have been finalists for both the Hugo and the Nebula awards, as well as winning the Asimov's Readers Award. Che dire, tutte le avventure finiscono e anche le più belle lasciano sempre un po' di amaro in bocca.

Other works as Robin Hobb include The Soldier Son trilogy and short stories published in various anthologies.The city’s memory stones offer a wealth of detail about Kelsingra’s history and significance, along with glimpses of the lives of those who once lived there.

I read the complete Liveship Traders Trilogy and really enjoyed this and decided to read the Rain Wild Chronicles, when I started to read this I was a little disappointed at first because the characters I had grown to know and love in the Liveship Trilogy were no longer the central point of the books but I persevered and was pleased that I did. On a structural level, the Chalced plot and its resolution, which comes at the very end also felt definitely out, indeed I was rather feeling the book should have ended before t hen and things were becoming a little static. Even the rather fun side plot about the Pigeon keepers, whose messages marked each chapter comes to a pleasant resolution, though I was a little sorry we never got to meet Eric or any of the other keepers in person in the text itself. Despite enjoying the magical elements of the story, however, I again struggled to really engage with any of the characters, something which has been a problem for me in all four novels.I'll certainly miss not having a fifth book to follow their development further, and look forward to Hobb revisiting the world again in the future. I've always been interested by your affection for the Soldier Son trilogy, which – considering that we seem to have very similar tastes – I would probably enjoy, if only I could get into it. If she perishes, her ancestral memories will die with her and the dragons in the ancient city of Kelsingra will lose the secret knowledge they need to survive.

Any images belonging to the author should be regarded in the same way as the previously mentioned written content and should not be used without permission.Her husband Fred continued to fish Alaskan waters and was home only about 3 months out of every year. Ebooks fulfilled through Glose cannot be printed, downloaded as PDF, or read in other digital readers (like Kindle or Nook).