At the end of volume one of the series, there was a slight upbeat note as Nevare and some of his friends survive the plague caused by the Specks, the forest people that his own folk are in conflict with as they drive a road through the Specks' territory. He now seems free of the magic of Tree Woman, one of the Speck Great Ones, and the Academy is under new management which begins to smooth over the bitter rivalries between the sons of Old Nobles and the New Noble soldier sons, such as himself. Yet, remembering the ex-Cavalla man he met at the freak show where the plague started, I noted one throwaway comment by the doctor that, contrary to the skin and bone state of his fellow survivors, Nevare had recovered so well he had a layer of fat.

Therefore I wasn't suprised when, in this book, the same fate begins to befall Nevare - though, in his case, it is connected with the forest magic now filling him after his reunification with that part of his spirit which was split off when he first encountered Tree Woman. As the process develops, he is ridiculed, villified and blamed for self-indulgence even when it should be obvious to anyone that it is not caused by gluttony such as when his father locks him into his room, firstly on a restricted diet and then just leaves him there during an outbreak of the plague.

Nevare's life soon starts to unravel following a visit home for his brother's wedding. His youngest sister Yaril is alienated by his new state and he has a sad eyeopener about the character of his erstwhile fiance. But things go from bad to worse and soon all his dreams are destroyed as he is set on a new path by the magic which has its own plans for him.

I found this volume rather a slog. There are large chunks which are just made up of his ruminations about what he should do and not knowing what to do, and also his denial about his state which goes on for rather a long time. (The negative views about weight in this story, with constant villification of fat and fatness, even by the character himself, would also be unpleasant reading for anyone who has issues with weight in real life.) At every stage, Nevare is passive and acted upon; any 'action' he takes is always negative as in his constant refusal to be helped by friends. Eventually he is driven down as low as it is possible to be and only then does he finally give in to the demands of the magic.

The book is rather depressing - unavoidable to some extent as a great deal of it takes part at Gettys, the town at the end of the King's road where the Speck delaying tactics involve directing either depression or terror at the community to try to halt the tree felling. But the piling on of one misery after another onto the character in the end becomes so extreme as to be almost risible: such as when the community decide hanging on its own is too mild a punishment for Nevare's supposed crimes, and he should receive one thousand lashes first, which no one could be expected to survive of course. It was just so over the top that I couldn't take it seriously any more.

The story is character based rather than action - I do understand that - but the character is such a negative person and I could only root for minor characters such as his old mentor, Sergeant Duril, his friend Spink and his cousin Epiny. So given the dragging boredom of some stretches and the endless descriptions of food - yes, I do 'get' that he is highly attuned to food because of the magic, but it wasn't necessary to reiterate quite so often - and the plodding nature of a lot of the story, I can only rate this as an OK 2 stars. ( )

I know these books aren't for everyone. They're a bit darker than a lot of the fantasy folks tend to slide nostalgically into - but I love how unique this world, these characters and this magic system is. If you're looking for a breath of fresh air - look no further than the Soldier's Son Trilogy. Just make sure you have a fresh box of Kleenex. ( )

This book seems to polarise readers and I can understand why. It’s long and slow paced, and Nevare is a difficult hero to love. Throughout the book he’s variously selfish, chauvinistic, hypocritical, and lacking a good moral compass. Even allowing for the influence of the magic it was hard to keep patience with him. I’ve noticed some reviewers complain of fat shaming. I’ve been bothered by this in other books but I don’t agree that it applies here. I don’t think that Hobb herself humiliated Nevare, or intended his weight to be a punchline, and her framing made all the difference to my mind. The use of prostitutes throughout the series by many of the male characters was a more uncomfortable aspect for me, and a further hindrance to how much I could sympathise with Nevare. On the other hand, I was glad that the main female characters came more into their own than in the first book, and I hope there will be more of this in book three. In the end, despite understanding, and even agreeing to a certain extent, with many of the negative reviews, I did enjoy this book, perhaps even more than book one. ( )

Love this series. Really well done. ( )

Reviewing the whole Soldier Son trilogy in one review, since it's one ongoing story.
(Shaman's Crossing, Forest Mage, and Renegade's Magic)
I consider myself to be a fan of Robin Hobb. I've read everything published under her name, with the exception of the two most recent 'Dragon' novels. I've given every single on of those books 4 or 5 stars. I've also read about half of what she's published as Megan Lindholm, and loved most of that as well.
Unfortunately, I feel that the Soldier Son trilogy is her least successful work to date.
It's not terrible, but it didn't hold up to my high expectations.

I think that part of this is that while her previous epics have shown the reader a rich tapestry of a world, with multiple important characters and settings, this story follows one person, Navare (the Soldier Son) for over 2000 pages. And, to be honest, he's rather a tiresome person. I don't demand that characters be likable, but I just didn't find him interesting. He's a bit of an annoying prig. I wished that some of the more minor characters in the book had been fleshed out more, and that we had a chance to see things from their point of view. (Epiny! And her magic! It just gets dropped...) The third book is largely concerned with the conflicts of Navare's suddenly-split-personality. It's him arguing with himself for hundreds of pages. (Tiresome vs. annoying!) I feel like it's partly because other characters weren't developed enough.

The story also moves very slowly. I felt like Navare's journey could have been condensed into one book, one-third of the length, and it would have been improved. I love long books, but this story seemed to have two main themes: the problems of cultural imperialism, and the importance of not judging people based on their physical appearance. Now, these are two very valid and important themes, but part of the reason that I do really like long books is that they have room in them for lots and lots of different ideas and themes. Not just two, repeated frequently. I also felt that these two themes weren't dealt with very satisfactorily: OK, it's bad and wrong to disrespect another culture, regard them as primitive when they aren't, and to destroy their native lands. I'm with that. It's also inevitable that, due to economic and other factors, peoples move, expand, and come into conflict with each other, bringing about cultural change. I also agree that is true. So the solution? Cause an economic distraction somewhere else causing everyone to run off elsewhere. Eh, well, maybe. Not terrible, but not really a full analysis of the problem, either.
However, I had a bigger problem with the other issue. After a million or so pages of Navare being prejudiced against because of his magically-induced obesity, and having it pointed out ad infinitum that what one culture may consider reprehensible and disgusting, another culture may respect, etc, the story ends up with Navare (again magically) being restored to his former thin, handsome appearance. It really undercuts the whole message of the book.

However, like I said before, it wasn't terrible. Hobb is still an excellent writer, and I did like that each of the cultures in the book was portrayed as having both positive and negative qualities. It was interesting and thoughtful enough to get me through all three very long volumes. It just wasn't as good as I'd expected. ( )