The Robin Hobb Collection discussion

Folks, the Renegade's Magic read starts tomorrow and runs through the end of April to complete our Soldier Son buddy read.

Please do chime in if you're planning to join/start reading!

I think there's only a few of us, so I'm just going to add my chapter by chapter thoughts to the existing threads. General impressions and chat can go in this thread with spoilers marked.

Hope you all enjoy!

Finished this morning!

I loved the POV experimentation, third-person through a first-person lense. The beginning was difficult to get back into, because everything has so abruptly changed and you're basically following a new character. Ultimately, it was one of the most well-executed climaxes and endings I've seen Hobb pull off, not to mention the HAPPIEST ending I've ever seen her write. Blows me away considering Forest Mage is some of the most depressing shit I've ever read!

That said, I did not love Renegade's Magic as much as I did the first time. It's interesting how this reread went. Knowing how it ends made the first two books exponentially better, seeing the groundwork laid out and catching all the things I'd missed before. That worked sort of opposite in the final book, since the greatest OOMPH moment was when everything's explained. Mind-blowing the first time, and just kind of impatient to get there the second.

The ending seemed kind of ending-within-an-ending ala Return of the King. It leads me to wonder if Hobb had intended to write more, but was forced to wrap everything up because of the cold reception? That makes me a little sad to think about. I do love this trilogy, and of anything she's done I'm most curious to see what happens next in this world than the others. Alas, I got the fabulous Fitz & the Fool trilogy out of it, so all's well.

4/5 stars, although rating a solid 5 on Goodreads to help the poor rating in what little capacity I can.

Hope the rest of you get to it eventually and enjoy the ride as much as I did!

Although it was very slow in parts, I really enjoyed it, especially the ending! Frankly, I didn't think she wrote happy endings.

I found the struggle between Nevare and Soldier's Boy very interesting. To be stuck inside another person's mind and body, unable to do anything, must be an awful feeling.

Lovedlovedloved the ending! He deserved it (and so did Amzil).

Jeremy & Parker: Happy to see your comments about the ending. Now you're dangling a carrot in from of me...

Alfred, it's definitely worth slogging (and it was quite a slog at times) through all three books for this ending.