Bantam Spectra, Copyright 2004, 914 pages
ISBN 0-553-58246-1
Read November 2011, at age 33
First time read
The conclusion to the trilogy started with Fool’s Errand – and ties up a lot of loose ends from both The Farseer and the Liveship Traders trilogies.
Of course, there are some loose ends, and apparently The Rain Wilds Chronicles add some dimension
to the story, as well. It’s a satisfying
ending. If you’ve made it this far in
the series, there’s no stopping now.
From the back cover:
Assassin, spy, and Skillmaster, FitzChivalry Farseer has become firmly ensconced
in the queen's court at Buckkeep. With
Prince Dutiful, his mentor Chade, and the simpleminded yet strongly-skilled
Thick, Fitz strives to aid the prince on a quest that could secure peace
between the Six Duchies and the Outislands-and win Dutiful the hand of the
Narcheska Elliania. For the Narcheska
has set the prince an unfathomable task: to behead a dragon trapped in ice on
the island of Aslevjal. Yet not all of
the clans of the Outislands support the effort to behead their celebrated
defender. Are there darker forces at
work behind the Narcheska's demand? And
can Fitz unravel the mysteries in time to save an alliance-and a world?
And yet again, the back cover fails any mention of the whole `endangered
dragons` storyline, which is a HUGE part of the book. This has happened in every book where the
dragons play even a small part.
My Reactions (there may be spoilers):
Characters:
The cast of characters was basically unchanged from the previous
books. They continue to be
well-constructed, generally sympathetic characters, even the bad guys. That’s a wonderful thing. The characters continued to develop, changing
while remaining true to themselves, which was also pretty good. Fitz was much less whiny than the last while,
which made the book more readable. A
bunch of the character growth was instant, and magical, and it rang hollow to
me. It was necessary for the happy
ending, I guess, but I thought that was the weakest part of the whole story so
far.
Setting:
We now travel to the Viking Outisles.
The setting continues to be interesting, well described, and feels
real. There’s still a bit of a niggling
feeling like the world is small – there aren’t too many different cultures, and
the ones that exist are more monolithic than I’d like. The quality of the characters more makes up
for this lack, however.
Plot:
There’s a lot to this book – all kinds of plot threads to gather up and tie
together. For the most part, it happens,
things conclude, and we all go home happy.
But then the book continues for another couple of hundred pages, and
explicitly ties up a lot of things that might have been better left assumed. After…nine books of horrible suffering and Pyrrhic
victories, everything everywhere comes up roses. It didn’t fit, and actually undermined what I
thought was a useful lesson – things DON’T always work out for the best. You muddle along, do what you can, and live
with all the consequences. I thought
that was a pretty decent theme to come out of the books, and the happy ending
seriously undercut it all.
Readability:
The book really dragged on for me at the end. There were about two hundred pages after the
climax, and I think that the story would have been stronger if there had been
much less – maybe a forty page epilogue?
Slip into past tense for a bit, tie up the flapping strings, but don’t
do it in such detail? As written, the
end of the story was so watered down that my last feelings from the series were
those of annoyance.
Overall:
This was a good book. I didn’t think
it lived up to the build-up from the previous 8 books, but it was certainly
adequate. It was a decent end to a long,
excellent series of books. Of course,
there are more, so we’ll see how much this end is actually the end.
Rating: 4
Other Opinions:
There are lots. Here are a few I enjoyed reading:
Pretty negative review. I can see most of her points, but didn't think it was as bad as she did.
Overly positive review. While I thought it was a good book, it did have its flaws.
Basically the same thoughts as mine.
Lots of good thoughts about the whole trilogy.
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