Fool's Fate

The ending felt a bit messy and almost rushed, but overall I felt it was fitting for this series and these characters. I am not perfectly happy with how certain events played out, but that also fits because a theme I always got from the Duchie books is that life can be cruel just do your best to focus on the good when it is granted. In one hand, pain and struggle, in the other hand, joy and peace.

That said, I cannot begin to explain how angry many of the characters made me. Mostly Chade. Fuck Chade. The constant insistence that this is how things are because that is how it has always been was pushed by two characters in Fitz's life that shaped him to also see things that way and to start pushing that on other characters in his life just show more pissed me off. I yelled at my book a lot and I actually don't do that very often. show less

The Narcheska’s challenge to Prince Dutiful: Lay the head of the dragon Icefyre, whom legends say is buried deep beneath the ice of the island Aslevjal, upon her hearth. Only then can they be married and there be peace between the Six Duchies and the Outislands. An impossible task, assuming there even is a dragon somewhere in the ice. Not all the Outisland Clans agree with this effort to kill their country's mythic defender. There also appears to be something strange, a darker force, behind the Narcheska's demand. Can Fitz and his strongly-Skilled but untested coterie get to the bottom of the mystery and save the alliance? And what about the Fool, the White Prophet, who was left behind on the docks?

Fool's Fate is the final book of The show more Tawny Man trilogy. The story picks up right where the second book leaves off, with our band of unlikely heroes setting off on the Prince's quest. The book is aptly titled. For the first third of the book we are left to wonder about the Fool's fate, how he has been left behind. How will his vision of the future come true if he is separated from his Catalyst? Can Fitz, as the Changer, prevent a part of those visions and still save the world? Then, as the story progresses, the title takes on a whole new meaning as events unfold and still we wonder, what will be the Fool's fate?

While dragging in places, overall plot moves at a better pace. As always the story is heavily focused on the characters. This time it is the Skill coterie: Fitz, Chade, Dutiful and Thick. Prince Dutiful is growing from boy to man, from prince to king. He is in a difficult situation and makes the best of it as he can. Chade is his scheming self, highly intelligent and stubborn, with fuller understanding of the political element that is involved. It was interesting to watch his power plays and maneuvering, and even more fun when he's thwarted. Fitz is Fitz, always thinking he knows what's best for everyone else and proven wrong at inconvenient times. Thick is the true surprise of the series. It has been great to watch his character grow within the confines of his limitations. While he may be a half-wit, he ends up the strongest of the Skill users with some truly astonishing powers.

At it's heart the story centers around the Fool and Fitz's relationship. The White Prophet and his Catalyst. The Fool, who has been much in the background, is finally approaching his moment. Driven by his visions to save the future of the world, he is prepared to face his destiny even if Fitz doesn't agree. Theirs is a different kind of love story. While not the typical romantic love that most epic fantasy series have, it is a love story just as moving and heartbreaking. It is a reminder that there are many types of love and each is powerful in its own way.

It is a bittersweet ending to the series. I think both Fitz and the Fool were short changed. I don't feel nearly as happy for Fitz/Molly as I thought I would. After living a whole other life for 15 years, believing your first love dead, Molly would've moved on. She had married, had 7 children and then shortly after her husband's death she can take Fitz back? It was too easy how Fitz returned to her life and just wasn't believable for me. On the flip side, the fact that Fitz still doesn't get what it cost the Fool to give him up is absolutely in line with Fitz's character. He really is that dense. It's not that Fitz and the Fool went their separate ways. I find it believable that the Fool needs time to heal just like Fitz did at the end of Assassin's Quest. Just that Fitz/Molly feels so superficial. Things were tied up a little too neatly and felt rushed. The last couple chapters, after all the hardships the characters went through, seemed too easy, too perfect. I am glad that Hobb is writing another series as the story doesn't feel complete. show less

Spoilers ahead!

Fitz, Dutiful, Thick, and Chade are off to complete the Narcheska's challenge to go to the island of Aslevjal, slay the dragon Icefyre, and lay his head at the Narcheska's hearth. And they are off without the Fool -- who Fitz has purposefully left behind in an attempt to save his life. But what is a catalyst without his white prophet? Does Icefyre truly even exist? And what is the Narcheska's true purpose in sending her intended on -- ahem -- such a fool's errand?

This book is looong, and the first ~300 pages are not the most enjoyable, though they are important for the build-up. But once the party gets to Aslevjal, I couldn't put this final volume in the trilogy down. Hobb again shows her mastery at winding together show more intricate threads. I last read this in 2008, and had mostly forgotten all the twists and honestly most of the plot, so it was just as exciting this time. Docking half a star for the first third of the book, but Hobb is still the GOAT. Excited to continue with the books in the series I haven't read yet. 4.5 stars. show less

I tried to write a review yesterday when I finished but I was too busy bawling, and I'm tearing up now just thinking about it. Suffice it to say, this book is...affecting. Fitz and the Fool's relationship pulls my heartstrings like nobody's business. If I didn't already know there was a follow up trilogy I don't know how I'd survive.

This book is peak Hobb in so many ways. It deftly pulls together the previous books in a culmination of Fitz's personal and interpersonal development, and the underlying mythology of the world. It manages to be epically thrilling while radically down to earth---attentive to the mundanities of day to day and the world-changing drama in equal measure.

It's going to take some serious discipline on my part to show more take the time to wipe my heart off the floor and get back to my life after this weekend binge instead of diving right into the next series. show less

Fool’s Fate, the final book in Robin Hobb’s Tawny Man Trilogy, ends by being kinder to its protagonist than I expected.

The preceding Farseer Trilogy battered Fitz in body and spirit, scarring him with everything from a grievous arrow wound to losing his first love. Fool’s Errand, the first book in the Tawny Man Trilogy, wasn’t much easier on him when it deprived him of a beloved companion. And The Golden Fool saw him take another nearly fatal injury.

But in the same book, fellow magic users restored Fitz physically. “Abuse I had suffered at Galen’s hands in the course of his teaching me the Skill,” he notes afterwards, “injuries I had taken as a warrior, and the deep scars from my torture in Regal’s dungeons had been show more erased.” And in Fool’s Fate, he finally confronts the psychic pain he’s borne since the end of the first trilogy and accepts that the only way to truly mend a damaged soul isn’t to run from life, but to reengage with it.

Hobb gets there by structuring the story unconventionally. The seeming climax comes early, at around the two-thirds mark, when Fitz helps resolve the dragon-related quest that carried over from the previous book. There’s no true antagonist from that point on (except perhaps for Fitz’s stubborn determination to be unhappy). The stakes seemed a bit low in the first chunk of the book as well. In the preceding trilogy, Red Ship Raiders were ravaging the Six Duchies, making the consequences of failing to stop them clear and terrible. But in the Tawny Man Trilogy, the overriding conflict is between two dueling prophecies: those of the Fool and the Pale Woman. We’re told the ramifications of either vision becoming true will be profound, but since these are uncertain futures, the danger feels less immediate. I also thought the Piebald thread from the first book was done away with awkwardly.

Even so, I loved this book, as I have all the entries I’ve read in this series. The worldbuilding is superb: Hobb does the “We’re living in the ruins of a lost civilization” motif better than about anyone else. And low stakes aren’t a deal-breaker when you’re as invested in the characters as I’ve become. After everything I’ve seen Fitz go through, it was satisfying to hear him end by saying, “I am content.”

Of course, there’s another Fitz trilogy after this one. I’m almost afraid to see what Hobb does to spoil that contentment. But I’m definitely going to find out.

(For more reviews like this one, see www.nickwisseman.com) show less

Fool's Fate finishes the Tawny Man trilogy. Although there is now another trilogy with Fitz and the Fool, this book really feels like a capstone to the books in this universe that Hobb had written at the time. Even so, it doesn't just feel like a wrap-up. This book has plenty of plot of its own.

Also, I love how Robin Hobb can make life on a ship sound wonderful in one context (the Liveship Traders) and terrible in this book. It really emphasizes her skill at writing as her characters rather than just writing about her characters. This also shows in the many subtle ways in which the book reminds us that these characters are flawed and don't make the best decisions while still keeping the perspective of a character who generally thinks he show more is making the right decisions. show less

I disliked the ending because to me Molly and Fitz’s relationship absolutely does not hold up since they are so fundamentally different but also it pales in comparison to Fitz and the Fool’s relationship.

That said I absolutely loved this book because of Fitz and the Fool’s relationship. The transcendental depth of their bond and love for each other is so heart wrenchingly moving. They are one of my most beloved pairings in fiction and I cannot wait for their reunion.