Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars A fine end to the trilogy, but-- While in the first volume of Robin Hobb's Tawny Man Trilogy, Fools Errand (2002), Fitz returns to Buckkeep to risk his life and identity for the Farseer court, and in the second book, Golden Fool (2003), he develops his relationships with several key people in his life while witnessing crucial negotiations between Buckkeep and other cultures, in the third volume, Fool’s Fate (2004), he goes on a dangerous high stakes quest: to aid Prince Dutiful in winning the Outisland Narcheska Elliania’s hand by killing the legendary black dragon IceFyre. This will be no simple fairytale-like affair. For one thing, the dragon is rumored to be frozen deep in the ice of a glacier-covered island, and for another, the Fool has told Fitz that the Prince mustn’t kill it. As the self-proclaimed White Prophet out to push the world into a better future with the help of his Catalyst, Fitz, the Fool believes that their true mission is to free the last male dragon so he can mate with the last female dragon, Tintaglia, in order to return dragons to the world so as to temper human pride and domination. For that matter, why do the dodgy Elliania and her uncle Peottre want the Prince to perform the absurd or fatal quest for the head of IceFyre? When the climactic moment comes, will Fitz remain loyal to the Farseers and help Dutiful kill the dragon, or will he fulfill the desire of his best friend, the enigmatic Fool? As the novel begins, Fitz is trying to be the Skillmaster of a motley coterie comprised of the aged councilor/spymaster Chade, the super-Skill powered “half-wit” Thick, the Prince, and himself (Fitz is still learning about the Skill and how to teach it). He has also begun mentoring the ten-year-old Witted son of Burrich and Molly, Swift, while hiding his true identity as the royal bastard FitzChivalry. He is hoping to leave his foster son Hap in good condition with his apprenticeship and life. He is dreading the moment when the Fool will find out that he has arranged to go on the quest without him (because the Fool has told Fitz that he has foreseen his own death on the island of IceFyre). And Tintaglia, trying to learn about IceFyre, has been ominously appearing in the Skill dreams of Fitz’ unacknowledged daughter Nettle and himself (some of the best moments in the novel are Nettle and Fitz’ fraught and fantastic dream-Skill encounters). This third book will develop the compelling relationship between the Fool and Fitz, in an uncomfortable state since in the second book Fitz hurtfully told the Fool he’d never bed him, because he didn’t like rumors going round that they were lovers and didn’t understand the depth and nature of the Fool’s love for him. The third book will also explain why Fitz has been perversely playing dead so as to avoid both forging new relationships with people who should know the real him (like Nettle) and renewing old relationships with people who love him (like Molly, his first love, Burrich his foster father/friend and Molly’s husband, and Lady Patience, his stepmother). The book will also interestingly develop the relationships between Fitz and Chade, Dutiful, Thick, Nettle, and Swift. A flaw in this book is one I've noticed in the previous ones: the obtuseness of Fitz as to certain situations that a reader grasps before the highly experienced, observant, and intelligent assassin/spy does. We know from all sorts of hints dropped by Hobb from the first and second books in the trilogy and the start of this one, that Elliania and her people want Prince Dutiful to go on this quest because the nemesis of the Fool, the false White Prophet known as the Pale Woman in the Farseer trilogy and referred to in this trilogy as the Lady, is pulling the strings of the Outislanders so she can get rid of a dragon and a Farseer Prince at the same time and force the world into her own grim vision of it. Why Fitz cannot imagine this is beyond me. It smacks of plot contrivance. It’s irritating when Fitz Skill-speaks, “Chade, this does not make sense to me,” and Chade replies, “There is still too much that is not clear here, Fitz. I sense an unseen current in all this. Stay alert.” For that matter, the Pale Woman is a typical femme fatale wicked witch without any interesting back story or motivation. (view spoiler)[I was disappointed when, after a late chapter in which Hobb makes it seem as if Fitz will become King (regent) Fitz for Dutiful, finally fully and openly himself, she changes her mind and leaves him as Tom Badgerlock (absurd name!) with Molly and her family living on Withywoods estate away from Buckkeep and court politics. Sure, that’s partly what he’s been wanting, but to have him lose the Fool and gain a quiet life in the country after having Chade say to him, “After 15 years, do we finally have a true Farseer on the throne again? As you will, King Fitz” is disappointing. (hide spoiler)] Luckily, there are so many other great things in this climactic volume of the trilogy, like: --the message about embracing all of life, especially traumatic and devastating events and memories, without which one can never be whole and cannot fully engage with other people. --the relevant excerpts from documents about historical events, the Wit, the Skill, etc. to begin each chapter interestingly being sometimes accurate and sometimes inaccurate. --the climax followed by a long resolution full of mini climaxes and mini resolutions, all lasting for nearly 300 pages of the 914-page book. Also, there is lots of fine writing, about things like-- Wisdom: “Fitz, home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there anymore.” Perception: “I was like a man given back his sight. The edges of every leaf stood out when I glanced at it, and there, the veins, and a lacy heart where insects had fed.” Brutal honesty: “This was the measure of my cowardice. I could go off, sword in hand, hoping to kill the Pale Woman. But I could not face the daughter I had wronged.” Understated horror: “I knelt beside it like a man in prayer. Doubtless it had been a slow and careful skinning to take it off intact. Despite the way it had wrinkled as it fell, I knew it was one continuous flap of skin, his entire back. To take it off like that would not have been easy.” Poignant banter: “I dreamed I was you.” He spoke softly to the flames of the fire. “Did you?” “And you were me.” “How droll.” “Don't do that,” he warned me. “Don't do what?” I asked him innocently. “Don't be me.” Wow: The impact of that mutual touch blinded me for an instant, just as if I had stepped out of a dim stable into full direct sunlight. I twitched away from him, the snow bundle falling to the tent floor, and blinked, but the image of what I had seen was imprinted on the inside of my eyelids. I cannot say how I knew what it was I had glimpsed. Perhaps something in that closed circle of touching told me. I drew a shaky breath and reached recklessly toward his face with outstretched fingers. View all my reviews
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