I know.. I know your all wondering where I am at the moment. Life has been a little harsh recently b...
I know.. I know your all wondering where I am at the moment. Life has been a little harsh recently but harsh recently but will be getting sorted...
Member since:30.04.2002
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Fools Errand is a welcome return by Robin Hobb to the world of FitzChivalry Farseer and until I started reading it I did not realise how much I had missed the hero and cast of the Farseer Trilogy. Fitz is now believed dead by everyone bar a chosen few and answers to the name of Tom Badgerlock. His life, he believes before the events start, is content, he raises Hap and strives to create a history of the Six Duchies. Then Chade his former mentor reenters his life with disturbing news. That the heir to the throne Prince Dutiful has the Skill (the Farseer Magic) but he has also inherited the Wit, a magic that is believed to be inherently evil, as well and the only person who could possibly help him could be Fitz. For if the people of the Six Duchies discover Dutiful is Witted it could bring down the Farseer line and destroy the Six Duchies. The only person who can teach Dutiful to control the Skill and hide the Wit is Fitz and he does not want the job. He is free at last of his duty and doe not want to be drawn back into the intrigues of the Six Duchies Court.
However one day another visitor arrives with disturbing news for him. The Fool has travelled far and wide since the days of the Red Ship raids and now masquerades as the Jermilian noble Lord Golden. However
he has come to see Fitz with worrying news. The future has changed again and if Dutiful does not inherit the Six Duchies throne the world will be destroyed. Its only hope again is for the Catalyst (Fitz) and the White Prophet (The Fool) to ensure that Dutiful succeeds his mother to the throne. Although Fitz tries to ignore what the Fool has said he knows in his heart that one day soon he will have to return to his old way of life.
Then when Dutiful vanishes from Buckeep a few weeks before his betrothal to an Outislander noble Fitz rides out to Buckeep to begin the search for Dutiful and once again enter a world of intrigue and danger…..
Fools Errand the first part of a new trilogy by Robin Hobb takes up the story of FitzChivalry Farseer 15 years after the events of The Farseer Trilogy. As before the story focuses totally upon Fitz a man destined to never be a hero but the catalyst that causes people to become heroes. The events that destroyed his life so many years ago are apparently resolved but now when he least expects it small elements are beginning to evolve that could create a situation far worse than the Red Ship Raiders ever were. He will be forced by fate, whether he likes it or not, to make a choice that effects every man, woman and child now and ever after and if its anything like the last time he may die in the process. Everything he left behind has come back to haunt him and all he will have left, once again, is his duty.
As a character Fitz is quite horrendously flawed, even by the tragic hero standard, the bastard son of the heir to the Farseer throne. His life is literally one big tragedy he gave up everything to save the Six Duchies and virtually no one knows because officially FitzChivalry Farseer was killed 16 years ago for possession of the Wit magic. He lost the woman he loved, a daughter he has never known, his rank, his honour. His name is now a curse word throughout the Kingdom and yet this man still did everything in his power to save the Six Duchies from itself and its enemies. He has burned every single bridge between himself and his past. He is in no way a hero in the classic model. He is flawed and mortal. He is an ordinary man with extraordinary gifts attempting to survive in a world where everyone is out to get him if they discover who he is. He does not know what certain people believe they owe him and love him for what he has done. All he knows is that only one person loves him totally and that is Nighteyes the wolf his Wit-Bond partner and Nighteyes is getting old now.
Hobbs characterisation is wonderful even though we only see the other characters through Fitz’s eyes they all have that spark that makes them real to the reader. The world she has created through the two sets she has written so far has a depth to it I have not seen in a long time. It is rich in history and has hidden side that is only just beginning to be revealed now.
For the new reader of Hobbs novels I can say without a doubt that this book does not have the problem that most second trilogies have of being impossible to get into. She has made it incredibly easy for someone new to the story to just jump on the bandwagon and come along for the ride. The events of the previous story are touched upon with a subtle hand. Filling in the blank spots easily so that a new reader does not start the book and have to then go and find the original trilogy in order to understand what is happening. In any continuing story that is a hard thing to do and Hobb leaves a lot of more experienced authors miles behind.
In all an excellent start to her new trilogy and I for one cannot wait to see where she takes us next in her telling of the events of the Six Duchies and beyond.
Hardback Price: £17.99 (Bookstores) £13.99 (Amazon) ISBN 0 00 2247267
Large Paperback Price £ 9.99 ISBN (unknown)
Book 2 in the series is released in November 2002
www.voyager-books.com
This is Mort signing off…
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Advantages: Great Fantasy, depth of characters and storylines are amazing Disadvantages: a touch slow to start and not as much action as the Assasin books
Jun 27th, 2002
(Oct 25th, 2003)
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