Dragon Keeper

Continuing my Realm of the Elderlings read into series I'm reading for the first time.

The dragon Tintaglia has guided the sea serpents into the Rain Wilds to hatch into dragons, but the hatching did not go according to plan and the new dragons are scrawny and malformed, unable to fly or provide for themselves. As the people of the Rain Wilds grow tired of supporting them, plans are made to escort the dragons upriver to try to find their ancient stomping grounds at the abandoned dragon/elderling city of Kelsingra. Coming along on this journey are Alise, a Bingtown woman married to a man she despises chasing her dream of being the foremost dragon expert; Leftrin, Rain Wild trader with a few secrets about the nature of his ship; and show more Thymara, a Rain Wilds girl whose physical attributes mean she should have been abandoned at birth. Will their journey be successful?

I'm always a little wary of leaving my beloved Fitz and the Fool behind, but Hobb drew me right into this new series with some fascinating new characters (and some cameos from old ones, too). So far my favorites are Alise and Leftrin. This is shorter than some of her other books, which maybe explains why this series got 4 books instead of 3, and I think all 4 are very closely linked -- more like one long book than 4 separate ones. So I'll be reading the next book quite quickly. 4.5 stars. show less

I grew up on a toxic waste dump. I realize that sounds melodramatic, but technically it's accurate. My childhood home was ringed by no fewer than five Superfund sites - and, as we like to say, those are just the spots they've cleaned.

When I was a kid people weren't so concerned about the pollution. Arsenic was in the dust we kicked up on the playgrounds, on the berries we picked in the woods, in the small ponds where nothing lived and no birds ever stopped. The waterways were lined with gray heaps of slag from the copper smelter, in some spots enlivened by oil-slick rainbow stains made by unknown chemicals seeping out from the rocks. We were told not to fish or swim in the bay, which seemed to us kids to be hilarious: looking down off show more the docks into the still, metallic depths, we couldn't picture fish living down there at all, let alone anything you'd think of eating. And that was just the water. I still don't know what the mills were belching into the air, or what they're still churning out - sometimes, when the wind is right, you can both smell and taste the air: a sulphuric grit which stings your eyes and irritates your throat.

Now it's been spruced up. They sealed off the slag heaps and built fancy condos on top of them, planted new grass along the edges, dug up people's lawns and replaced them with new, cleaner topsoil. The smelter company offered a cash settlement to the people living closest to the plant, and they took it, even though the surveys hadn't been completed. They worked hard to restore the bay, and now when you stroll through the new grass and out along the docks you can look down to see bright colonies of starfish and sea anemones clinging to the piers, and deeper down, the quick dark shapes of fish.

Later, of course, we learned that the pollution went farther and deeper than the smelter operators had admitted to. Too late for the people who had settled, and too late for all of us who grew up splashing in that water and breathing that air. Statistics are readily available about disease rates in my hometown, telling us that you're much more likely to die of obscure cancers or get heart or lung disease there. I haven't seen anything on autoimmune disease, except that it's a hotspot for diabetes. I'm curious mostly because everyone I know, just about, has something crazy and unlikely wrong with them. Lupus, MS, celiac disease, autism, Crohn's disease, asthma - you name it. We're a sickly bunch.

We're not alone. All over the planet, people grow up in the shadow of industrial toxins, watch their kids and their friends get sick and die, watch their own bodies with wary concern. What can you do? You go on. Sometimes your pain and your poison can be transmuted into something beautiful, into art, into action, into something meaningful. Sometimes you just have to learn to accept your limitations and endure the pain.

And so this is a story for us. Here is a world where profit has trumped issues of morality and health, where generations grow up living with the legacy of pollution. It's sort of a counterpoint to the sunny ending of the Liveship books, where dragons and men are reunited and the deformed people of the Rain Wilds are transformed into something better. In this new series, we meet the people who were left behind, still deformed, without the hope that some magical intervention will save them from themselves. How they go on, and how they learn to transform themselves, is nothing short of inspirational.

This is what fantasy is best at, and this is why it's necessary. show less

Though I've of course heard the name before, I'd never read a Robin Hobb book before this: before I picked this up, I didn't even know she was a woman. Well, I'll give most things with dragons a chance, and I'm glad I did. Despite taking forever for me to finish, I enjoyed this a lot, and when I finally did read it I had a hard time putting it down.

It switches between different characters, and while I'm not gonna say I liked all of them, they were interesting and there wasn't a single perspective that made me sigh or feel disinterested. Which is rare, for books with heavy multi-POV. But all these characters, different as they were, brought interesting insights and views when speaking.

Though I can't get over the name "Hest Finbok". That show more literally translates to "Horse Finebook" in Swedish, except horse is misspelled into our most ancient meme (similar to doge). I can't even begin to explain how much I couldn't take him seriously, and that's probably why I didn't hate the guy as much as he deserved. What an ass he was.

I was annoyed that a certain relationship took forever to be properly established, but since it actually was, I'm not holding it against the book. Had it continued to be "discreet" or whatever I would have maybe even retracted a star, but now I don't find that necessary.

The dragons were interesting too. At first I was a bit skeptical about them being serpents and "hatching", because it doesn't sound like something that isn't an insect would do but ... dragons aren't fucking real, so what's to say they don't? It was certainly refreshing.

Will definitely read the rest of this series, which I absolutely did not expect picking it up. Might even go on to read more by the author, dragons or no dragons. show less

It's always a pleasure to return to Robin Hobb's Bingtown and Rainwild settings, which are once more in the throes of change. This time, she presents us with the outcasts of human and dragon society, and the text is really a passionate argument for their worth and that society should allow them to become everything they can be, while at the same time never becoming sentimental about them and allowing them to be flawed and sometimes unworthy beings. True to form, things will never be easy for them; Hobb delights in putting obstacles in her characters' paths, and one of the things that I appreciate most in her writing is that the road to maturity and self-knowledge is frequently painful and uncomfortable (for both characters and readers). show more It was also a pleasure to see how life is treating characters from the Liveship books: we get to spend brief but significant time with some old favourites. Cunningly, they're also used to illuminate the choices our new main characters are making - in particularly, they present Alise with a new range of possibilities, outside of her sheltered experience.
The Dragon Keeper is not as epic in scope as Hobb's other works, and suffers a little from an overly-luxurious pace (although when the trade-off is extra time spent on characterisation, as it often is with Hobb, I seldom mind). As others have mentioned, the ending is somewhat abrupt, almost cliff-hangerish, and I'm keen to read the next book soon. One final caveat: here, Hobb is dealing more directly with male homosexuality (though not explicitly) than she ever has before. Unfortunately, both of the homosexual characters are quite unsympathetic. However, I do have faith in her ability to grow and change her characters (think of Malta in the Liveship books!), and even when they're being thoroughly unlikeable, she's always careful to present their motivations in such a way that the reader can understand them (e.g. Kennitt), and I don't consider this a real criticism (yet :-). show less

If there is one thing Robin Hobb does well, it is torture her characters. Nothing ever is easy, and few things work out perfectly, despite incredible efforts by dedicated people with the best of intentions. How... realistic is that.

Dragon Keeper picks up where her Assassin, Live Ships and Tawny Man series ended.

The one dragon who is alive, helps to usher sea serpents up the Rain Wilds River to cocoon and become more dragons. Only... Well, the sea serpents have been at sea for too long and the hatching doesn't go well, and the story is about what to do with 'failed' dragons.

It is a moving tale, as are all her books, difficult in that you want things to work, but somehow they never quite seem to work well. But at the same time, she can show more grow her characters like no one else can, letting them struggle against impossible odds which might defeat them, but never quite breaks them

Highly recommended, if you are NOT looking for light or happy fantasy. show less

Engaging story told with different perspectives by characters of diverse backgrounds, who are being brought together in one quest for varying and often selfish reasons. I enjoyed how each person is given depth, and not just assigned a stereotypical persona. The dragons surprised me, which I found refreshing, and just solidifies my admiration for the author's ability to tell a deep and complicated tale.

Be sure to have book two in hand, as this one ends in a bit of a cliff-hanger.

Dragon Keeper is the first in the Rain Wilds Chronicles by Robin Hobb and tenth in her greater Realm of the Elderlings series. While you can probably enjoy the story regardless, I recommend to have read the Liveship Traders prior to starting this book as this series is a direct follow up to those events and many things from those books are referenced with the idea that the reader is already in the know. So far there is no impact from the Farseer Trilogy at all and only one minor relation to the very end of the Tawny Man series which you can probably skip too and still understand the whole story no problem. Without further ado...

It has been many years since Tintaglia saved Bingtown and struck a deal with the Traders to protect the newly show more hatched dragons. Tintaglia has vanished and the Traders are having trouble with keeping up their end of the bargain. The new dragons were too old when they cocooned as serpents and born too early, hatching weak and deformed. Many did not survive their first year. Those who did are becoming a menace, hampering efforts to excavate a buried Elderling city and costing a fortune to upkeep. There is only one solution: the dragons must be relocated somewhere else. Anywhere else. A crew of keepers are hired to help herd the dragons upriver to the mythical city of Kelsingra. Legends say Kelsingra was the home of dragons and Elderlings in ages past. Does it still exist? Can dragons and keepers survive such a journey?

This book is all about setting the stage for remainder of the series. The first two thirds of the book are spent in character building and Robin Hobb is an expert at it. We are introduced to a large cast though the story is told primarily from four points of view. Alise Finbok is in a marriage of convenience with Trader Hest Finbok. Their relationship leaves a lot to be desired. She's a self proclaimed dragon expert and has dedicated herself to learning everything she can about the creatures. She negotiates a trip to visit the hatchlings to learn about dragons directly from the source. Sent with her as her secretary/guardian is Hest's right hand man, Sedrec Meldar. To say that Sedrec is unhappy about this arrangement is an understatement. While grudgingly accepting this horrible duty he decides to put the trip to good use and has a nefarious plan of his own to try and gather dragon parts as they're worth a fortune. Leftrin is captain of the oldest known liveship, Tarman. He and his crew are hired to assist with the dragon's relocation and will be loaded down with supplies for the keepers and hunters that have signed on for the journey. Sintara, also known as Skymaw, is one of the new dragons. She is frustrated by her and her kin's malformed bodies and taunted by ancestral memories of what a dragon is supposed to be. She is paired with Thymara as a keeper. Thymara is heavily touched by the Rain Wilds. Thymara grew up knowing she should not have existed, being born with claws instead of fingers and toes, and jumps at the chance to join the expedition to make her own way in the world. Great care is taken to flesh out everyone's perspectives, backgrounds, motivations and dark little secrets. In addition to the main points of view, there are around 16 dragons total, 14 keepers, the rest of Tarman's crew and a few hunters hired on to help provide food for the dragons on their trip. It seems like a lot but ended up not being that bad to keep up with.

Again, the feeling of setting the stage is greatly apparent. The pacing is very slow. Just as the plot really gets going, it ends on a small bombshell that I imagine will have great impact to the rest of the series. It was great learning more about the Rain Wilds, an area hinted at but not really encountered in depth before. My heart really went out to the dragons and their keepers. Both groups are the rejects of society. I hope this journey helps them to rise above their circumstances. But it's a Robin Hobb book so there will definitely be more hardships ahead. It's a good set up and an interesting read. On to book two! show less