Dragon Haven

The story of The Rain Wild Chronicles continues with this sequel to Dragon Keeper. Maybe the plot's simply picking up, or perhaps it has to do with the characters finally starting to grow on me, but somewhere between the pages of this book, I realized I've actually become quite smitten with this series.

As I recall, the end of the first book came rather abruptly, so it's not a surprise that this one picked right up from where it left off. The dragons and their group of keepers and supporters continue to travel along the river in the hopes of finding the legendary Elderling city of Kelsingra, and we return to familiar characters such as Thymara, Alise, Sedric, Leftrin and the blue dragon Sintara. The book follows the narrative of these show more characters, chronicling their incredible journey of adventure and peril -- complete with the inevitable pitfalls, unexpected romances and bitter betrayals.

Since the background and all the introductions were covered in the first book, I feel like we're finally able to get into the meatier parts of the story. I also mentioned before that I wasn't too impressed with any of the characters when I first started this series, but while most of them were kind bland on their own, the dynamics are getting more interesting now that they're all starting to interact with each other.

The dragon keepers, mostly made up of heavily marked Rain Wilders who were born disfigured with features like scales and claws, were considered outcasts back where they came from. A few of them have their own ideas of whether or not the status quo should change or remain the same once they reach Kelsingra and establish their own society, which not surprisingly leads to a fair bit of conflict. Also, separate a group of people from civilization and force them to eat, sleep, hunt and survive together for months at a time, and sooner or later you get the kind of relationship drama worthy of prime time reality TV.

I still have issues with some of the pacing, though. For the most part, I love Robin Hobbs' writing, but once in the while, I notice she'll have the tendency to fill the pages with swaths of lengthy exposition, going over events and plot developments that the reader is already fully aware of. This is occasionally the case with character speech and internal dialogue too. There was one particularly harrowing scene involving Sedric, Jess, a copper dragon and a killer flood where I had to wonder how anyone could waste so much time just standing around monologuing.

I also noticed the way a situation would be deliberately dragged out, by making certain characters like Alise and Sedric uncharacteristically clueless and obtuse. It was established in Dragon Keeper that Alise's husband, Hest, is actually secretly Sedric's lover. By the end of that book, it seemed like everyone has figured it out except for Alise, who would normally be such an astute, observant woman. Likewise, Sedric seems oblivious to the fact that his sexual orientation is known to one of the hunters in the crew, is also oblivious to the fact that the hunter prefers men and is attracted to him as well. It's the sort of plot device I would expect from a cornball romance novel, but I do have to give my kudos to Hobbs for her meaningful way of handling the topic of hidden homosexuality.

Definitely looking forward to the next book, as this series is turning out to be a rather exciting tale of adventure-fantasy. show less

In book 2 of the Rain Wilds chronicles, the dragons and their keepers continue on their journey to discover the lost city of Kelsingra.

In typical Robin Hobb fashion, this is full of excellent character development. It's less political than some of her other books, and more zoomed in on the smaller politics between a close-quartered group of people who must figure out how they plan to live going forward. I'm always impressed by how she can reinvent a character over the course of a single book -- how are you going to make me hate Sedric at the end of book 1 and sympathize with him by the end of book 2? Excellent as always and I'm enjoying this series. 4.5 stars.

Volume 2 continues the journey upriver begun in book 1. The various plot threads come together with some resolved, while others - the danger posed by the Chaldeans who want to get their hands on dragon parts - continue and are further developed. The tensions between the adolescent keepers are continued and in some cases resolved, quite a lot of that aspect of the book involving Thymara's attempts to refuse to 'choose' one of the boys as a mate. Meanwhile, the dragons develop and some fortuitous occurrences - such as finding a partly submerged dragon platform which would have been part of the riverside structures of a country villa of one of the lost Elderling race and is still able to provide heat - helps to mature the dragons show more physically. They are now eating better, despite the difficulties their keepers and the two hunters who accompany the expedition have in finding meat and fish for them, and they are being groomed and kept clean of parasites.

A quake upriver brings disaster at one point when the parties are separated and believe others to be dead. The traitor aboard who is working for the Chaldeans also shows his hand and tries further blackmail of Captain Leftrin who dreads Alise finding out about his illegal modifications to his liveship barge Tarman, and losing respect for him. Alise's old friend Sedrick undergoes a big character arc in this volume, as a direct result of his attempt to obtain dragon parts in volume one. And the dragons at last begin to make progress into proper development and being able to fly.
Plus, as the keepers become more 'Touched' it becomes clear that such changes are really due to the proximity of dragons and their relics, such as their plundered cocoons which were used to make liveships and other artefacts, in Rain Wild society. Dragons created the Elderlings, but if the changes are not guided by a dragon, the results can be dire and life-limiting as one character starts to find out.

Again, I enjoyed the interweaving of the various plotlines, and the fact that certain minor villains got their just deserts. Some of the secrets of the characters were revealed to others as part of the growth of those characters, such as Sedrick. There is possibly a little bit too much teenage angst between Thymara, Tats and another. But the book comes to a temporary but satisfying pause in the overall series, with one goal met and the bigger challenge of making their new community work facing the characters. Therefore a solid 4 star rating from me. show less

Like the River, the Plot is Going Nowhere FastSet in the same world as the Farseer and Liveship trilogies, Dragon Haven and the preceding Dragon Keeper, broadened Hobb's already rich universe. I do love returning to old, familiar worlds: there's something special about seeing places, people, and situations from different perspectives! Alas, though I happily devoured both "Rain Wilds Chronicles" books, I did not adore them.Picking up directly where book one left off, Dragon Haven continues the story of the former serpents/bad-tempered dragons and their misfit keepers as they battle up the strange and dangerous Rain Wild River in search of the lost city of Kelsingra. Following along, the unhappily-married scholar Alise and the show more liveship/barge captain Leftrin struggle with their personal temptations and honour, while the manipulative Sedric has to face the ramifications of his past poor judgement. Unfortunately, like the Rain Wilds River, the plot meanders slowly and muddily along: getting stuck, occasionally having sudden flash floods of inspiration/awesomeness, but ultimately not going anywhere much. It is a tale of personal growth and choices -- but both the growth and choice comes to late to engage me. Choices Have Consequences (a fact particularly stressed in one very dark scene), but in the end, we don't see more than a hint of what the final consequences might be. Which is a disappointment, especially as the (mostly unsympathetic) characters have angsted over their decisions for a 1000 pages. I find myself wondering: is this is really supposed to be the concluding volume of a duology? (At present, no third book has been announced. Congratulations, characters, your literal/figurative journey is over! The End.)Overall this is not Hobb's best work. That said, her world remains vivid, detailed & entertaining. The characters -- if not always very likeable -- are at least real and complex people. Also, the pigeon keeper interludes are a delight. In my own way, I liked this book. I even enjoyed it. But oh! beating a few characters with a Clue Stick in volume one would have sped things up considerably. show less

Dragon Haven is the second in the Rain Wilds Chronicles by Robin Hobb. Events pick up immediately where the first book leaves off. This makes a whole lot of since as apparently they were meant to be one larger novel and split in two due to size. This was definitely a step up for me as if feels like this is where the story really takes off.

With the liveship Tarman and its crew in tow, the dragons and their keepers continue the long journey upriver. Their destination: Kelsingra. If it even exists. Some of the dragons have ancestral memories of the place but these memories are incomplete and are in doubt. The journey treacherous and the dangers of the Rain Wilds are not to be taken lightly. And when the price for dragon parts is so high, show more there are those among them who will cave to temptation and do anything to make their fortune.

As anyone who is a Robin Hobb fan knows, one of her main strengths are her characters. She creates some of the most fully fleshed, believable characters around. Each point of view character goes on a fairly significant arc, as do some of the secondary characters, leaving them in completely different places than when they started this journey. Sedrec went on one of the best arcs for me. Hobb worked her magic taking this highly unlikable guy and turning him into a person of integrity through the various hardships he endures. I was proud of Alise for finding her courage and determination to make herself more than a useless, spoiled Bingtown lady. The Dragons change too, though differently as they work to patch together their missing memories and learn what it means to be true dragons. I am absolutely in love with little Relpda. Her simple view of the world is changing as her bond with her keeper grows. I will be heartbroken if anything happens to her before this series is done.

On the downside, this book almost has a YA feel to it with all the romance plots. It seems like there's someone for everyone. And many of the characters agonize internally about "should I or shouldn't I" with regards to sex. I liked how as part of Thymeria's arc she realizes that all the other keepers have been having sex, making the world not so innocent after all, kind of like that realization you get in high school. That did lend a nice coming of age slant to the story. But it just went on for too much of the book and I felt the point became belabored by the end.

I was quite surprised at all the reveals in this book. Everyone's dirty laundry is aired and worked through. The bad guys get their comeuppance. Answers are given for relationship between Dragons and Elderlings as well as why Rain Wilders are so heavily marked, both mysteries which were started in the Liveship books. Almost all the story threads started in book one reach a form of resolution. Normally these are things that I would expect to be gradually revealed through the whole series if they were going to be revealed at all. It makes me wonder what is set in store for the second half of the series. show less

I was gonna four-star this, but then the ending had me all iojGDEJsdggjkngs-dvlgjköfdgsdgklgjkl and like, if all you can do at the end of a book is keyboard smash because you loved it so much, well, then that's basically the highest regards you can have for it and that's worth five stars.

Just ommggggggg things go bad but then they get good again and it's all working out and I love it. All the OTPs are working out and the dragons are actually becoming dragons and it's just soo good all of it.

I especially like how the characters TALK to each other. Like yeah, they lie and fuck up, but then thank the gods they don't let a minor misunderstanding ruin everything for them forever, they clear it up and move on, when they can. The last books I show more read did this too, and it's just sooo refreshing from the old misunderstanding-not-talking tropes I've seen a million times already.

NO idea how the next two books are gonna go, but I am definitely excited to see what happens. There are quite a few things that I need to happen, but I'm sure we'll get there eventually. Like we did in this book. show less

Dragon Haven is the second book in the Rain Wilds series, which is the fourth subseries in the larger Realms of the Elderlings series. I really, really enjoyed this book. I liked the first book a lot, but this one was even better. It forcefully grabbed my attention and refused to let go. Work ate into my reading time more than usual this week, and I was very annoyed at that. Don’t these people understand that I have dragons to worry about? ;)

Whereas the first book felt like it ended right smack in the middle of the story, this book had a lot more closure. There is more story to be told, and I really look forward to reading that story, but I was also happy to see several plot lines wrapped up nicely. I realize now that both books were show more published in 2010, so maybe they were originally intended to be a single book.

The character list that I felt was spoilerish for the first book is repeated, but this time all the info it presents was already revealed in the story from the first book so it’s safe to read for the strongly spoiler-adverse.

A few more comments in the spoiler tags…
I think the part of this story that made me more anxious than anything else was Relpda, the copper dragon. I was so worried about her fate! I actually had to stop reading due to a work issue right at the point when Sedric was waffling about whether or not to help Jess kill her. Talk about torture.

On the other hand, I was never in much suspense as to the fate of Heeby and Rapskal. For some reason I saw that one coming from the moment they were lost, that Heeby would have learned to fly and that they went on to Kelsingra. My prediction was that everybody else would find them when they got thre. I was a little off there, but close.

I think it’s been clear from the first book that Mercor used to be the serpent Maulkin, even though it hasn’t been explicitly stated yet. What I’m wondering is whether Shreever and Sessurea survived to become dragons. We know they made it into cocoons, at least. My best guess is that Shreever is Heeby and Sessurea is Sestican.

Thymara is still my favorite POV character. She’s prickly, but at least she considers the consequences of her actions and doesn’t just heedlessly do things just because she wants to. That’s more than can be said for a lot of the other characters.

Sedric did get some redemption in this book, but I still don’t care for him. He’s made so many bad decisions, that I tend to see his better behavior as being the result of Relpda’s and Carson’s influence rather than a true change in himself. The book does imply that his recent attitude is more like what he used to be before Hest changed him, but I'm skeptical. Either way, he's too easily influenced by the people around him. I'm waiting to see how he behaves in the rest of the series before I make any final judgments.

I really look forward to finding out what happens next, now that they’ve found Kelsingra. show less