True to Robin Hobb's tradition.
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This is the second volume is the Soldier Son trilogy (after Shaman's Crossing and before Renegade's Magic).
Recovering from the plague, many surviving cadets can now only hope for a fragile health. Nevare convalesces remarkably well though, but as time goes by, he realizes the Specks' magic is taking a much crueller toll on his imbued body.
Looking forward to travelling back home to Widevale for his brother's wedding, his joy will be short lived. Nevare is far from welcome. Indeed, his father blames him for his condition, and will do everything to set things as they should be. To no avail. When the plague comes again and decimates the region, Nevare has no choice but to leave.
Cast out, he makes his way eastwards, and spends some time in Dead Town. There he meets Amzil and her children, who'll become as close to friends as he's ever had in the last months. But as he helps her, her neighbours' jealousies start to threaten her life. He'll leave when his duty commands him to take the wounded scout Buel Hitch to Gettys.
Gettys is a fortified town at the base of the Barrier Mountains, the last one on the King's Road which is being built to reach the sea beyond the mountains. But upon arrival, Nevare rapidly notices that the city is a pale shadow of what he expected, that the command is a shambles, and that roadworks has all but stopped at the edge of the forest. Not only are felled giant trees blocking the way, but a strange spell of fear and despair has fallen over the inhabitants, preventing any progression of the construction.
Despite his crippling condition, Nevare manages to gets a post at the graveyard. In the nearby forest, he'll meet a Specks woman named Olikea, and will start to learn about her People.
True to her tradition, Robin Hobb deals her main character unjust fate after unfair hand. And as poor Nevare is really at a lost about what he should do about the Magic, his social situation only gets worse, he becomes the victim of wrongful decisions, biased reactions and finally, false accusations. All this is interwoven with lavish forest scenes betraying the author's love of trees and Nature, and exquisite descriptions of food that you can savour with Nevare. The ending is beautiful and very moving and I'm very impatient to read the third and final book.
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Get it off my chest
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I have just finished this book and note it has mixed reviews. It's easy to see why - for an 800 page book little "happens", and certainly there is nothing to match the Farseer series or George Martin. Depressing? Sure, that too, but again Hobb has done grim before. But, as other reviewers have said, this is not Farseer, Hobb has moved way, way beyond even that groundbreaking series. In how many fantasy series can you honestly say the hero goes on a genuine emotional journey and is transformed? In this book the hero has lost everything he has been brought up to believe in and yet embraces his new role in the world. I think Hobb has nearly transcended traditional fantasy (you can read Liveship Traders and almost forget you're reading a fantasy novel)and a good thing too. Of mainstream fantasy writers, only George Martin comes close to her in progressing the genre.
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Dismayed
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As someone who really enjoyed the Farseer and Tawny man trilogies, I read Shaman's Crossing expecting the superior spinning of tales she is so justly known for, but was bitterly disappointed.
Now here I am buying the sequel with hope in my heart, unfortunately this warm glow of hope was crushed. I even had to forced myself to finish this, something I have rarely ever needed to do. All I felt was frustration and disgust towards the lead charachter, lets face it he made my fists itch and my stomach turn with all the self-righteous self-pity. If this was the desired intention of the author then all praise is due her.
Now for only the second time will I refuse to finish a series, especially at the price it will first published under. I sincerely hope that the books that follow from the well of her inspiration are of the previously HIGH standard.
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Slow moving, but well worth it
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When I read the first book in Robin Hobb's "Soldier Son Trilogy", Shaman's Crossing, I was of the opinion that anybody who wasn't a fan of Hobb's may find themselves bogged down the slow pace of the novel. With the second book, Forest Mage, I have to say that I feel the same way about the entire trilogy. Again, it doesn't move very fast, though it definitely is quicker than the first book. Shaman's Crossing had to set up the world and Navarre's childhood, leading up to his time at the military academy. Forest Mage spans only a year, but it is an exceedingly horrible year. If you don't mind the trials and tribulations being piled on to the protagonist until even you reach a breaking point, then this book is even better than the first one.
Any plot description of Forest Mage can't do it justice because there's just so much in this book. Hobb piles troubles onto Navarre until I don't know how he could bear it. It became a bit oppressive after a while as nothing went right for him, his father tries to literally starve him and everybody seems to hate him. Even the occasional happiness is quickly drowned out or destroyed by something. This can be a thoroughly depressing book. There is a reason for all this, however, and Hobb slowly reveals it as the book goes on. I plowed through the book, reading about 100 pages a day, and was rewarded as Hobb provides hints of what's going on even as we see Navarre's life in such specific detail.
The "fun" thing about this book is that I truly didn't know where Hobb was going to take the story. I figured out the basics, what the magic was doing to him, but I didn't know how it would be resolved. When I finally found out the truth, it was stunning, and well worth the trip. The plotting in this book is superb, with every step Navarre takes leading him to ruin despite his best efforts. Hobb gives us enough twists and turns that everything seems fresh. Her characterization is also stellar, giving us a wonderful Navarre and littering the book with other three-dimensional characters as well.
Hobb's prose is just as good as it's always been as well. Each scene is set beautifully and the dialogue is also good. It's a bit stilted, but that seems to be by choice, as these noble families seem to talk like that. When we have a more "earthy" character, it's not as bad, showing that it's a stylistic choice rather than a fault. The story is told in first person by Navarre, so everything is from his point of view. This lets Hobb reveal the world as Navarre travels in it, either because it's new to him as well or because he's been going through so many changes that even what he's familiar with has changed a great deal.
One of the faults with the book is the very slow pace, and even that might not be a problem depending on your temperament. Personally, I loved it as I immersed myself in this world. Also, the numerous arguments between Navarre and his father about his weight, and the number of tirades that Navarre has to sit through, went on just a bit too long. The time Navarre spends with his family before events happen to change everything seems to drag with every rant. Once he leaves there, however, things pick up again.
Overall, I highly recommend Forest Mage, but I would again suggest that you don't start with this series if you're new to Robin Hobb. You may enjoy the rich characterization and deep plotting, but you may also be turned off by the pace. Give one of her other series a try first, and then dive into this one. You should love it just as much as I do. I'm already counting the days to the finale.
David Roy
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Better than the Assassin trilogy
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Other reviewers' reactions to this trilogy have struck me as so weird that I find myself moved to write a review myself. I read the Assassin trilogy and quite liked it as a bit of fluff to while away long journeys with, but these books are another kettle of fish. In my opinion Robin Hobb has grown immeasurably as an author, and the Soldier son trilogy is gripping, absorbing, exciting, even provocative in a way that I never thought the author of such a highly conventional series as the Assassin books could be. I liked Fitz well enough but he was a bit of a cardboard cutout dungeons and dragons hero, with his overblown sense of duty and honour (to the point of masochism, if you ask me), and his static personality. Hobb's attempts to give him depth, to give him a dark side, are always jarring and often ridiculous, and he remains two dimensionally altruistic and conformist right up until his cosy happy ever after. Don't get me wrong, I like a happy ever after, but Fitz's is so square!
Nevare is different. He is internally divided, born and raised to be the good little soldier and to absorb his father's ideals unquestioningly, yet all the time unable to stop the niggling doubts inside him. He wonders if he is really cut out to be a soldier, resents his father despite himself, and he is drawn to the romantic wildness of the plainspeople which his own kind has defeated and oppressed. He feels the negative aspects of his society, so that even before the Speck magic really takes him he is never the true blue hero that Fitz is. And as the magic influences him more and more, the conflict inside him deepens, his two selves influencing each other as well as battling each other. He listens to and is changed by people and events around him, he questions himself, makes mistakes and learns from them, is basically honourable yet sometimes acts selfishly or in anger... in short, he's three dimensional. The world which Hobb has created around him is also more complex, and therefore more absorbing, than Fitz's. The politics and personalities are reasonably intricate and involved, and the ideas about the nature of the Specks and of the magic are interesting. Sometimes her writing lacks subtlety and can get a bit repetitive and clunky; but mostly it really draws you in and entertains you. It has addicted me in a page turning way and is interfering with me getting on with stuff! I can't wait for the last book.
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