Golden Fool - Robin Hobb

Bantam Spectra, Copyright 2003, 709 pages.

ISBN: 0-553-58245-3

Read: June, 2011 (at age 33)

First time read.

If you haven’t read it:

This is the second book of The Tawny Man trilogy, following Fool’s Errand.  It isn't a good starting point.  Before reading this one, at least read the Farseer trilogy, beginning with Assassin’s Apprentice, and after reading this book, I felt like I should have brushed up on the Liveship Traders trilogy.  Fool’s Errand, the first in this trilogy is, of course, required reading.  These books are not in any way stand-alone.  The first two trilogies stand alone relatively well, but this trilogy really builds on a lot of back story from the first two.

From the back cover:

Prince Dutiful has been rescued from his Piebald kidnappers and the court has resumed its normal rhythms.  But FitzChivalry Farseer, gutted by the loss of his wolf bondmate, Nighteyes, must take up residence at Buckkeep as a journeyman assassin.  Posing as a bodyguard, Fitz becomes the eyes and ears behind the walls.  And soon he must guide a kingdom straying closer to civil strife each day.  For amid a multitude of problems, Fitz must ensure that no one betrays the Prince’s secret-one that could topple the throne: that he, like Fitz, possesses the dread “beast magic.”  Only Fitz’s friendship with the Fool brings him solace.  But even that is shattered when devastating secrets from the Fool’s past are revealed.  Bereft of support, and adrift in intrigue, Fitz’s biggest challenge may be simply to survive.

My Reactions (spoilers!)

Overall:

This book felt like a bit of a breather for our hero.  There are relatively few external threats, and the main character, Fitz, has never been one to really shake things up himself.  So the book relies mostly on the interplay between the characters, and Fitz is his old obtuse self.  It’s, quite frankly, starting to get a bit old.  The next book in the series was set up, and that seemed to be the main point of this book, in addition to tying up some relationship story lines that I wasn't really all that concerned about anyway.  I felt that this book was the weakest in the series.  Not that that means that it’s a bad book, just not as excellent as the ones previous.  It dragged in places.  I've finally reached a small disconnect between what’s important to our main character, and what I want to read about.  However, we seem to be lining up toward a very large payoff, so I’m excited about the next (hopefully last?) book to tie it all together.  However, I think I need to read the Liveship Traders trilogy in order to fully appreciate the ending, so it’ll be a while before I get there.

Rating: 3

Characters:

The characters remained strong, but I’m getting tired of Fitz’ sabotaging his own relationships, angsting over them, and then patching them up in a bit of inspired diplomacy, luck, and the fact that the arguments were so dumb in the first place.  Other than that, they are still well characterized.  I’m particularly intrigued by the foreign princess that was introduced as a major plot point, and driver of the premise for the next book.

Premise: 

Dealing with the fallout of Fool’s Errand.  It’s all right, I guess, and leads into the next big adventure.  Lots of talky-talky, though, not much for activity.  The activity seems like it’ll happen in the next book.

Setting: 

The world is FINALLY starting to feel a bit bigger – war with the neighbors, trading partners up and down the coast.  It’s more like a working world than in the earlier books.  The magic is interesting – still a bit hand-wavy, but it seems to work out all right.

Plot:

The plot was a weak part of the book – not much really happened.  There was a bunch of set up, and a lot of wrecking relationships and rebuilding them, but not much else.  The events described were of importance to the character, as it should be, but… some of those events didn’t need to happen.  The fight with the fool, for instance.  It seemed quite tiresome.  We have one of those each book, and Fitz never learns.  The other thing that got me a bit was the parallels drawn between homosexuality and Wit, coming-out-of-the-closet-type actions.  Not that I mind the sentiment – I just thought that it was a bit over-done.

Readability:

I think because of all the conferences, meeting and delegations, arguments with friends, lovers, children, and students, sections of the book dragged.  The first-person narration remains excellent, but overall, it was much weaker than the other books in the series.

Other opinions:

SF Site

Fantasy Book Review

Warpcore

All more positive than my feel for the book.