The Sword and Laser discussion

So in the intro show Veronica mentions that it doesn't matter if you read The Tawny Man Trilogy before the Liveship Trilogy. I disagree with this to an extent.

You most certainly can read Tawny Man before Liveship, in fact that's how I did it and I know it's how a lot of people will want to do it because Tawny Man is a continuation of Fitz's story while Liveship deals with a new group of characters.

That being said Tawny Man takes place after the events of the Liveship Triology and, while for the most part it's very subtle, is litter with spoilers. Many of these are just little things that you probably won't notice until after you've read everything and actually sit back and think about it, but there are two major ones that take away a lot of the mystery in Liveship.

So yeah, that's just my two cents. By no means will reading Tawny Man first ruin Liveship and you'll be able to understand everything just fine, but it will take a lot of the surprises out of Liveship and one major character reveal in Tawny Man.

For those who have read all nine books, what do you think?

If you want to skip the Liveship Trilogy altogether you can skip it and you'll be able to pick up the important stuff in the Tawny Man, but if you want to go back and read the Liveship Traders after Tawny you'll have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen at the end.

I'm not personally bothered much by spoliers (in explaining to my why I should read Assassins Apprentice many many years ago my best friend pretty much sketched out the plot of the first two books, didn't stop it becoming my favourite series ever).
But I agree, there are pretty huge spoilers if you go straight to Tawny Man.

Yes if you don't want to read the Liveship you can go straight to Tawny Man. But if you like Farseer then there is no reason for you not to read Liveship, since it's absolutely fantastic!

I do feel that there is one thing you really do miss out on by not reading Liveship though. (view spoiler)[ And that's finding out the Fool's involvement in those events and how deep his characters can go (hide spoiler)]

I completely agree with you Kristi. Like you I have read the Tawny man series immediately after the Farseer trilogy because I wanted to get on with Fitz' story. I read the Liveship books a while after that. I kinda regret that now, because I believe it would've made for a more satisfying experience if I had read the trilogies in order.

As you say it's mostly in the details, but there are lots of minor references, and some larger, in the Tawny man series (and a couple of cameos by characters) that only really made sense after I had read the Liveship trilogy.

I disagree. there may have been a few things as you have said but I found that I didn't enjoy Liveship as much as Tawny Man. I found Tawny Man better written and with more solid characters (i remember jumping entire sections in Liveship, something I didn't do in Tawny Man).
I honestly think that the two are segregated enough that it really isn't all that bad to read all of Fitz and then go into the Liveship.

Thanks for the heads up! I am hoping to read all the trilogies and it's nice to have someone explain the ups and downs of reading them in or out of order. This will be really helpful for me!

For me, the Tawny Man series attempts to tie together the Assassin series and the Liveship Trader series, but honestly, the latter is more in the background.

I read it in order, and I can see the spoilers, but these are probably details that you'll miss or forget unless you're familiar with The Liveship Trader series (except, perhaps, the existence of a certain mythical creature).

I thought The Liveship Trader series was better written than the Assassin series, and The Tawny Man series was an evolution of Hobb's writing (it's certainly more engaging than the Assassin series).

It's funny the way the Liveship books are so polarising - I LOVED them. They were my favourite 'trilogy within the trilogy'. My sister in law agrees and loved them best of all too. My brother on the other hand couldn't even finish them even though he loved the Farseer books.

I would recommend at least giving the Liveship books a go before moving on to Tawny Man. I think you get a better idea of how the whole world works and some important information relevant to the Tawny Man series.

They are slower to start and frustrating at times because unlike the Fitz books, they are not written in the 1st person and switch between characters. They take a little bit longer to get into. But they are SO WORTH IT.

I love the way the characters evolve in that series which doesn't happen quite as dramatically in the Fitz books.

If you give them a go and find them not your cup of tea, then you're not going to lose a whole lot by moving on to Tawny Man, but I think reading them all in order would be better.

Until finding out here, I never realized that there was more than the Farseer trilogy. Once I got into the rhythm of book 1, I loved it and flew through it and book 2. I didn't enjoy the third one as much, it was a bit plodding at times. I'll have to remember the other trilogies and add them to my queue. Sounds like they would be up my alley.

Also there is a fourth trilogy set in the same world and it is a quadrilogy.

The Dragon Keeper is the first book, it takes place after the events of the tawny man trilogy.
And like the Liveship books it switchs between characters.

I don't find it as good as the liveship books, but I still enjoy it enough that I can't wait for the last book.