Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb

Dragon Haven (Rain Wild Chronicles, #2)Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love Robin Hobbs' Rain Wilds setting, a rain forest steeped in ancient magic that spreads through the human population like a cancer. In this most recent trilogy, the wielders of said magic are back in the world. A clutch of malformed, undernourished dragons travel with their appointed keepers (people so touched by magic that they are misfits in their society) search for an ancient city that may not even exist anymore.

As with most of Hobbs' books, it's the rich detail of the setting that makes the book so enjoyable. I love the characters too, especially the women who are drawn as individual and strong. These traits make life more difficult for them in their respective societies, and Hobbs doesn't gloss that over.

There is some clumsy plotting, including a deus ex machina ending and some stagnation in character development - where a character struggles with an issue, has a transformative experience that ought to advance them through their struggle, but then continues on struggling as if that experience had never happened. That may be realistic, but it can get in the way of a good story. The other positive points in this book allowed me to ignore these flaws, though. All books have some flaws, this one was still a great read.

This trilogy starts with Dragon Keeper (Rain Wilds Chronicles, Vol. 1) , and the first books Hobb wrote about this world are the The Farseer Trilogy (Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin & Assassin's Quest) 3 vols. .

        

5 comments:

  1. I've been wondering for a while whether to give these books a try. I really loved the original Farseer trilogy and her Liveship Traders books, but her more recent ones (Golden Fool, etc.) seemed really, really slow. Did you read those? How do the Rain Wild books compare?

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  2. Hi Patrick - yeah, the Golden Fool series was slow, and the Shaman's Crossing series was downright painful. I'd say these books are about the quality of the Liveship Traders, so far. We'll see what book three holds.

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  3. I'll give them a go, then, I think. I really liked her earlier stuff.

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  4. I read the first book in this series and really liked it. I, too, think it's close to the quality of the Liveship Traders. In any case, I'd really like to read this second volume, and if my local library doesn't acquire it soon, I might just have to go out and buy it myself.

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  5. I love libraries, but they have this annoying habit of catering to people other than me. What's with that?

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