Customer Reviews

Fool's Errand (Book One of The Tawny Man)

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(44)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Robin Hobb (Megan Lindholm) has attracted quite a devoted audience with her last two sets of books, the Farseer 'Assassin' trilogy and the Live Ship Trader series, and with good reason, as these are fantasies of quite a different stripe from the normal and told with power, wit, and depth. While not absolutely necessary to enjoying this book, as there are enough explanatory sections here to catch the gist of the action of the prior books, I do recommend that you read the Assassin trilogy first, as it will not only provide the reader with all the past action, it will give you a fine benchmark of the how the characters were at the time of those books, allowing you to easily see the changes that time has wrought.

This book picks up 15 years after the ending of the Farseer set, with FitzChivalry Farseer and his Wit bond-mate wolf Nighteyes leading a quiet life as a farmer trying to raise his adopted son Hap, carefully avoiding any traffic with his former life of intrigue as a royal assassin. This early section of the book is remarkable for how strong the character development is, even though there is almost no action during this portion, showing a much more mature Fitz who has almost come to terms with the sacrifices he was required to make in the earlier books. Of course, this idyllic setting can't last, as first his former mentor Chade arrives for a visit to try and convince Fitz to return to service at Buckkeep Castle, followed by the very enigmatic Fool, now known as Lord Golden, and finally is convinced to return to Buckkeep by a summons from Chade to help find Prince Dutiful, Fitz's son by body, but not by himself as a person, who has either been kidnapped or run away.

Thus the action is enjoined, leading Fitz not just away from his farm, but into consideration of the whys and needs of both his Wit and Skill abilities. A set of considerations that have relevance for everyone, questions on should you lead if you can, can you let a social injustice continue when you have the means and ability to do something about it, about the importance of life and the time to properly allow death to reign, the strength of personal relationships and what is owed to friends, where the responsibilities of a parent begin and end. Throughout, Fitz, Nighteyes, and the Fool continue to grow as characters, till you feel that these are people you know, have lived, ached, lost and triumphed with.

Hobb's descriptive powers are well in evidence here, and her characters are neatly folded into her imagined universe, that includes not just the world of Wit and Skill of the Assassin works but also is explicitly tied to her Live Ship set, though that tie, so far, is only mentioned in passing, not fully developed. This book, unlike so many that are planned as part of a larger group of works, is very complete in itself, with an excellent resolution to all the problems and concerns it starts with. But I have a feeling the next book will make more of the tie to the Liveships and Bingtown traders, and I am looking forward to it.

Robin Hobb is a developing writer in the best sense of the word. In the original Farseer trilogy she gave us a story that was beautifully crafted and pushed the envelope on realism within fantasy. Liveship Traders was perhaps an experiment in the use of multiple viewpoints, with a dull and ponderous outcome to my mind. But in writing it, Hobb's skill has improved in bounds, to culminate finally in the utter perfection that is "Fool's Errand."

I say perfection even though the beginning might be slow for some readers. But once the story gets going, it takes off, plunging the reader into an ever-deepening plot and a world of characters who are among the most complex in the genre.

In particular, Fitz has only gotten better as a character ever since the original trilogy. Age has matured him and given him new dimensions; and yet at the same time, the scars from childhood still remain, surfacing in ways that are beyond his power and even beyond his awareness. It is possible to perceive how Burrich's upbringing and initial abuse have molded Fitz and how his upbringing, together with his subsequent experiences, shape his responses now. Yet through it all he is the same FitzChivalry we know, speaking with the voice of age and experience, but still familiar.

This uncanny gift for psychological depth is unparalleled in the genre, and comparatively rare outside the genre as well. Hobb's characters have a quality of mystery to them. There is more to them beyond the scope of the novel; somewhere they are having thoughts we cannot guess, saying things we shall never know about. Just as people in real life always have hidden depths that are beyond anyone's power to see, Fitz, the Fool, Chade, Nighteyes, Starling and the rest of the cast are not completely revealed to us. Some part of the soul remains backstage, hidden from view, because a depth is there that is so real, it must be infinite.

How the author conveys this I do not know, but it infuses the novel with movement and intoxicating power. Add this to a riveting and unpredictable plot, moral complexity and as skilled prose as you'll find anywhere, and one clearly has a masterpiece in the making.

I read the description for this book before it came out, and I couldn't think of any other story involving fitz or nighteyes that could eclipse their last adventures in the Farseer trilogy.

I was wrong.

This book picks up 15 years in the future when Fitz (or Tom Badgerlock as he is called in this story) is 35 years old and feeling every year of it. The book starts with Tom complacently tending his farm/cottage in the woods far apart from human civilization and still recovering from the hardships the farseer line (chade specifically) had placed on him in the last series.

A series of visits alters Tom's simple life and he is flung back into the thick of things in a very different buckeep where he is charged in finding the missing Price Dutiful and (again) saving the world from disaster.

Sounds pretty commmon from that explanation, but this book is anything but. Even though this land was thoroughly explored in the previous two trilogies Robin Hobb has managed to add yet more depth and breadth to her land while somewhat bridging the gap between the Farseer and the Liveship traders trilogies. The fool reappears and again plays a central role, but the most amazing character aspect of this novel is fitz himself.

One of the reasons I praised Robin for her last series was the believability and real world harsh situations her characters were forced into, as well as their subsequent growth and maturing throughout the series. I was very surprised with how well Hobb managed the aging of fitz, although in my mind I will probably always think of him as the brash and unrestrained 20 year old I first came to know, Hobb has handled his transition into the middle years in incredible style. You can almost see the age in Fitz's character, and while his old heart and stamina sometimes shine through, at no point through the story did I mistake this fitz for the old one.

The characters have assumed a more mature stance, and I think that this is probably Hobb's strongest writing ability: the skill to create believable and loveable characters, and have them grow and still have them be great characters in their maturity.

This book deserves 5 stars certainly, and I await any more books that Ms. Hobb will write far more than many other authors in the fantasy world.

Okay, here's the dish. This is one GOOD book.
I started out reading Robin Hobb's second trilogy, The live ship traders. After being thoroughly blown away, I read the Farseer trilogy. I found it to be completely unlike anything else I had ever read. She creates a world that isn't based on the great balance for good and evil, with the hero having no faults what so ever (He's an assasin for lord sake). Instead she brings upon a world where people are human. They make human mistakes and they feel human pains. I've cried far too many times reading these books yet I keep coming back for more with doubled enthusiasm.

The Tawny man opened a door I didn't think could be opened at this point. One can see Robin Hobb has only gained knowledge and expirience after writting the Farseer and Liveship trilogies. That knowledge is expressed through this book. It has all of the pain, love, sense of duty and realism as the original Fitz books, but it adds a greater sense of mystery and intrigue that we see with the liveship traders. All in all this is an awesome book that keeps you itching for more. It's beautifully written keeping all of it's secrets till the end, and some have still yet to be revealed. Bottom line: I can't wait for the next book.
I recomend this book for just about anyone, serious fantasy readers, and anyone else who wants to envelop themselves in another world for a time.

Robin Hobb (Megan Lindholm) is one of my favorite authors. I love reading the details in Hobb's works, but have gotten frustrated at some endings, or lack thereof. Previous mid-trilogy books were often cliffhangers, obliging me to wait 18 months for what was the next day in the story.

While I am eager to read the next book, apparently done (Hobb is already at work on the third), I am not left wondering if Fitz will live to see tomorrow. The groundwork has been laid for possible threads of future conflict, but the focal plot/action point of this volume, a search and rescue mission, has been concluded. A year could pass between books without [disrupting]the timeline.

We revisit Fitz, the youthful protagonist of the Farseer series, as a 30-something man, now a father-figure and mentor himself. He watches the younger generation make all the same mistakes he made, but without the passionate regret of a 20 year old looking back on his teens. He plays many of the roles he so resented in his youth, and appreciates that the world is shades of gray, not the black and white view of his charges.

Avid Hobb fans will quickly pick up that this new trilogy continues both previous trilogies, although the references continue to be oblique and could still just be coincidence.

Familiarity with the Liveship series is unnecessary to enjoying this volume of the new trilogy, although it does add a richness to the details of the story.

I feel I must preface this "review" by stating at the outset that it is not really a review at all; in truth, it is more like a personal journal entry. That said, for those of you still interested, or for those of you just curious as to how a Robin Hobb fan's Amazon.com "personal" journal entry might read, I invite you to read on.

Prior to my discovering Robin Hobb, my familiarity with the fantasy genre was casual at best. The genre-fiction I read most tends to be science fiction; indeed, the few works that I've read over the years apart from SF, the ones that might justly be described as "fantasy", were usually of the so-called "science-fantasy" variety. Stuff like Gene Wolfe's vast "Sun" series; Herbert's Dune; and more recently, David Zindell's satisfying (if formulaic) Tolkien-esque "Ea Cycle". As such, I consider Robin Hobb's Farseer saga my first serious foray into a true, through-and-through fantasy series. I suppose I just reached a point in my sci-fi reading where I could no longer abide the weak characterization that (all too often) one finds in the genre's lesser offerings. So I decided it was time for a change.

I then spent a week or so doing some research online to try and determine whether there is any sort of consensus out there about who's leading the pack of modern fantasy writers. As anyone who knows anything about the genre well knows, fantasy, like science-fiction, is fairly besieged with hackery. Searching through the dross for a safe-bet author to spend your time and money on can be a frustrating ordeal, and I'm sure has turned many a would-be SF or fantasy fan off the hunt for good. Thankfully, I persevered. In the course of my "research" I found that two names kept coming up: Robin Hobb and George R.R. Martin. I've yet to read Martin, though I plan to. I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but my eventual decision to take my first chance with Hobb was based in nothing other than the fact that a fairly worn copy of "Assassin's Apprentice" happened to be available at a nearby bookshop one day for a few dollars less than a better preserved copy of Martin's "A Game of Thrones".

I've never written a review for fellow Amazon customers before. I suppose this is because I've never felt absolutely compelled to. I do now. I just finished "Fool's Fate" last night, and I must say, I've never before been this emotionally moved by a work of fiction. I've attached this review (such as it is) to "Fool's Errand", book 1 of Hobb's "Tawny Man" series, because it was by far the volume that most completely enthralled (and destroyed) me. There are scenes in this book (one in particular) that literally had me sobbing. Now, I consider myself to be a fairly sensitive guy; I've squeezed the odd tear here and there at a sad movie. But I have never been reduced to full-on sobbing. I attribute this 100% to the mastery of Hobb's prose, and indeed, to the beautiful meditation on love, duty, and above all friendship that is her wondrous Farseer saga.

For anyone out there who might similarly be pondering taking that first chance on the fantasy genre I would urge you to let Hobb be your emissary; she will not disappoint you. And if I may offer two final pieces of advice: start at the beginning with "Assassin's Apprentice"; and don't read this series in a hurry. True, you can always go back and re-savour it a second time through; but the first time is special, and only happens once.

Robin Hobb returns to the first person in this novel, continuing the compelling narrative of FitzChivalry, farseer of the Six Duchies, whose coming of age was told in the Assasins Apprentice series. This book is extraordinary. It has been years since I read the the Assassin's Apprentice yet the intimate first person account of Fitz's journey plunged me back into the Six Duchies like I had never left. I was eager for more after recently finishing the Liveship Traders Series and could not have been more pleased with this personal story. This is a heart engrossing tale and a wonderfull display of character writing. Robin Hobb's writing is beautiful but no matter the mood of the reader is never laboured. Any retelling is not awkward but suits the introspection of the main character. I think I have a weakness for first person but I yearn for the next in this series and hope not to lose Fitz's narrative on the people I love in the Six Duchies. Robin Hobb keeps the often strampled realm of fantasy blooming for me. If you enjoy credibility in your fantasy don't miss this book.

I was so eager to get this book that I ordered it from Amazon.co.uk, since it came out there a few months in advance of the American release (also the cover art is nicer on my edition). I have been hoping for a new FitzChivalry book, and this lives up to my hopes and more.

This is a marvelous new journey with FitzChivalry Farseer and his wolf Nighteyes! The book takes place 15 years after Assassin's Quest, and begins at Fitz's (now known as Tom Badgerlock) cabin, which he shares with his adopted son, Hap. One by one, the people he loved best from his former life come to him, asking him to return to Buckkeep. First Chade, then Starling, and finally the Fool (YAY!) come to him, seeking to involve him once more in the politics of the Six Duchies. None of them are successful until Prince Dutiful disappears, and Fitz is called up to find him.

Knowing he can't return as FitzChivalry (since he was executed for having the Wit), he takes service to Lord Golden, who is none other than the beloved Fool. When the hunt leads them from Buckkeep to a small holding of minor nobility, things begin to get dangerous. There are new factions rising in the Six Duchies, and whether they intend good or ill for the prince, they can certainly cause chaos with the knowledge they possess. Fitz and the Fool must rescue Dutiful, even if it means sacrificing their own lives, or the lives of those they love best.

This book is a wonderful return to Fitz; Hobb has obviously kept in touch with him during the time she spent writing the Liveship Trilogy, because her characterization of him is as true as ever. He has gained a certain amount of wisdom, but he is still quite capable of foolishness and bullheaded blindness. The Fool is as mysterious as ever, though he certainly speaks with more frankness than he used to. With his new identity as Lord Golden, we (and Fitz) see a different side of him that adds even more dimensions to his character. The new characters of Lauren and Dutiful are strong additions to the cast, which is great since we'll at least be seeing more of Dutiful in the books to come.

Once again Hobb has given us a magical and breathtaking story. I am VERY grateful that she returned to Fitz and the Fool (the Fool being one of my favourite characters of all fantasy!) and has given us more excitement. I have to admit, I spent the last bit of the book in tears - but Hobb has always had that effect on me!

Fitz must rejoin the world of politics, and as before, sorrow awaits him.

I was up until 2 AM reading this book and cried through a good portion of it. That's a strong recommendation.

This is much tighter and faster-moving than the previous books in the series (and it is very much in the series; it wouldn't stand alone well), with a lot happening, definitely a page-turner. Like the others, it's character-driven, and Hobb has an excellent grasp of personality. I particularly like the Fool -- and 1/2 way through the NEXT book I STILL don't know the answer to the big question, and actually I'm getting a bit tired of the mystery, but in this volume the tension between the Fool and Fitz works wonderfully.

Whereas the Old Blood seemed a bit extraneous before, it's central here, and I was glad to find that characters who looked like simple villains at first become more complex. There are some holes in the plot, but nothing fatal.

I think this will really appeal to readers who like decidedly emotional, character-driven fantasy with decent sentence-level writing and an interesting but easily understood world. Hobb has the vital talent of putting her characters through hell down pat. It isn't a series for fans of "idea stories", I don't think -- I don't mean that it doesn't have ideas but that it's almost completely character-driven. It is good solid fantasy and at its best transcends that.

After fifteen years FitzChivalry has finally emerged out of his shell to once again serve his Crown. Hobb's first series, the Farseer Trilogy, told of Fitz's adolescence and his struggle to aid his king against both the Red-Ship Raiders and the traitorous Prince Regal. Fitz succeeds in this, but at an extremely valuable cost. Even Mrs. Hobb admits that Fitz suffered more than she originally intended. That series was good, but it left quite a bitter aftertaste. Her next series, The Liveship Traders, was in an entirely different vein and seemed more experimental. I thought it had a good start but in the end did not live up to expectations. Now, this series she is working on seems like it will have all the best elements of her fiction with all the bad elements culled out. It seems as if her first two trilogies have been preparing her for this one. I think the book description is right when it says that this trilogy promises to be her most spectacular yet.

The story starts with Fitz in his cottage, and I must admit doesn't move from there until page 220. But it didn't really seem to drag, not too much, anyway. This is because of her superb, perhaps even unmatched, characterization. In all my reading career I don't think I've ever come to know a character more than FitzChivalry. He is extremely well-crafted, with numerous flaws, as of course any person would have. But she doesn't stop with Fitz; all of her characters have such depth- the only difference between them and Fitz is that she reveals Fitz's depth while with the others it remains obscured, and this makes it all the richer. And so it was that throughout this whole book I did not get bored, action or no action. The first 220 pages were not only the story revving up, but also a rehash of the past fifteen years, and I think this is necessary. There is one part where Fitz is telling the Fool of the six years he spent traveling, and this takes up a good portion. I think this is where the book drags most.

Finally he leaves his cottage and goes to Buckkeep. Once there, Chade informs him that Prince Dutiful has gone missing and that Fitz is the only one to find him. So off he goes. By page 300 the action starts picking up, and doesn't stop unitl the climax. I liked the bit about a conspiracy. Hobb's never done anything like that before, and it comes out all right. As they follow the Prince and go deeper the plot becomes darker, though it doesn't get as dark as I would have liked. It's a good story. My four stars are because of the slow start and the fact that the climax seems a bit abrupt. I know I said that I was not bored because of the characterization, but I still could have enjoyed it better if the action was better managed. And if I can think of a way for a book to be better that's not nitpicking, I won't give five stars.

This is a good beginning to the series. It had a definate conclusion to it, not leaving many loose ends. I think this is because not only is it a beginning to a trilogy, but it also has to bridge that fifteen-year gap. I get the feeling that the next two books will be more tightly woven together. I also get the feeling that this series will end on a happier note than the previous series. This book, like all Hobb books, was not painless but it did end with a promise of better things to come. Hobb has done much foreshadowing concerning Dutiful, Nettle, and especially the Fool(though I won't say more for those of you who haven't figured it out yet.) I have becaome very attached to Fitz and very much want to see him receive the happiness he deserves.