Blood of Dragons (The Rain Wild Chronicles, Book 4)

Product Information

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. It was also interesting to see Rapskal taking on more and more of the characteristics of his long-ago counterpart Tellator as he spends more time immersing himself in Kelsingra’s memory stones.

And Alise’s estranged husband Hest struggles closer to Kelsingra, dreaming of claiming his part of the treasure-city’s profits and drawing both his wife and Sedric back into his shadow. In Blenheim Palace there is a huge, 15th century tapestry showing the then Duke of Marlborough looking extremely grandiose, sitting on a horse leading the British Army. My only complaints about Blood of Dragons are that certain elements of the plot feel under used, or that we didn't spend enough time with certain characters or situations to really derive the impact from them we should.The dragons have got to learn to fly and make their way over to Kelsingra, so they can reach the hot baths that will help them grow and fully develop into the dragons they always should have been. It’s precisely because Hobb decided not to do this, and gave her hero a less predictable and more painfully realistic path, that I find him and her stories about him so endlessly engaging. The whole business of the attack on Chalced felt slightly like an afterthought: I’d usually expect such a campaign, with its planning and description and aftermath, to take up a considerable part of the book, but it isn’t even mentioned until three quarters of the way through. Many setups from the earlier books are finally paid off beautifully, and the more annoying elements of the series get resolved as well. To access your ebook(s) after purchasing, you can download the free Glose app or read instantly on your browser by logging into Glose.

Of course it is possible I am reading gender biases into Hobb's writing she did not intend, though this was something I also wondered with her treatment of Kennet in Liveship. On a structural level, the Chalced plot and its resolution, which comes at the very end also felt definitely out, indeed I was rather feeling the book should have ended before t hen and things were becoming a little static. Her later titles under that name included Wizard of the Pigeons, Alien Earth, Luck of the Wheels, and Cloven Hooves. I’m never going to go the length of investing (in time, emotion and money) in all the volumes, but I think I may well finish the first set with Fitz and perhaps go on to the Fool series. While these young people struggle to understand the fabulous new world they’ve wandered into, danger comes ever closer.

Overall I think it's brilliant it's just a shame that the ending seems rushed and we don't get a final story for all the characters that play a major part in all the books. Seems like our overall assessment of this series is not all that different after all, then, even though I read the novels as they were released and you read them in one go. I do my best to locate the creators of all artwork used on this site, but sometimes the images have become divorced from their artist information by the time I find them. I finished this book sad at having to say goodbye to these characters, but even more eager to read Fool's Assassin, the first book in the next series in the Realm of the Elderlings, Fitz and the Fool. This question leads to both political intrigues’ with Leftrin and the Trahorg council, Malta's desperate voyage up river to Kelsingra to find help for her dying child, and the Chalcedian's attempt to attain dragon blood to appease the Duke of Chalced.

We have a couple of scenes of the Duke and his advisers discussing his "dragon man" and the duke's courageous daughter Chasim and her attempts to start a revolution among the women of Chalced. I've always been interested by your affection for the Soldier Son trilogy, which – considering that we seem to have very similar tastes – I would probably enjoy, if only I could get into it. Even thou Robin Hobb has a way of rounding things up in a summary that explains it all there are still things you would have liked to have read in detail. I can see why people have difficulties with the Soldier Son – it has hardly any plot at all, a protagonist who has almost no agency, and consists mainly of very long, very detailed descriptions.Personally, this was not how I felt, indeed I found myself wrapped up in the story right from the beginning, and I've loved seeing how a doomed expedition became the rediscovery of an ancient city as well as the discovery for both dragons, their keepers and the Crew of the Liveship Tarman, of who they really are and what they want. As the mystical bonds with their dragons deepen, Thymara, Tats, Rapskal, and even Sedric, the unlikeliest of keepers, have begun transforming into beautiful Elderlings raked with exquisite features that complement and reflect the dragons they serve.

With most of the company still stranded on the far side of the river and game growing scarce, it becomes increasingly important for the dragons to learn to fly before they become too large and heavy for their untried wings. For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password.

I haven’t read that series, but I started her Farseer novels years ago (have the unread ones on a shelf behind my back). In her Farseer series she took Fitz from an overlooked child to a grand mover of events, while Liveship saw her turning a family feud and the ambitions of pirates into a devastating war and the rediscovery of dragons. There’s plenty of action in this instalment and, as the characters grow towards their full potential, I felt they became correspondingly more engaging. After a short break while I read other books, I will be ready to embark on the final trilogy, which begins with Fool’s Assassin, and am very much looking forward to rejoining Fitz and the Fool at last. One reason I always count Liveship as my favourite of Hobb's series, (apart from the fact that pretty much anything with both pirates and dragons is bound to captivate me), is the use of multiple characters as perspectives and the fact we're not just following one person's story as we do in the books focused on FitzChivalry.