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A strange tendency (Massive SPOILERS all books including CITY OF DRAGONS) - Albertosaurus Rex - Mar-06-2012
When reading City of Dragons, I had an odd realization: multiple times Robin Hobb has revealed that what we thought of as a happy ending in fact wasn't. Think about it: when the Farseer trilogy ended, we thought that Fitz had finally found peace and a life of his own. Yet Tawny Man gradually revealed, and eventually made explicit, that he had in fact cut himself off from life. Similarly, in Liveship Traders, a major strand of the story involved the serpent migration. They finally managed to get cocooned in the end... only for Tawny Man to almost casually reveal that the dragons had emerged as stunted weaklings. And then she wrote The Soldier Son before finally returning to the dragons.
After Dragon Haven, it looked like the Rain Wilds Chronicles were over, ending with the suggestion of Sintara taking flight at last... only to reveal in City of Dragons that no, she has mastered flight yet. I don't really know what to think of all this. Refreshing realism? Life goes on and isn't always perfect? Undermining the uplifting endings of previous stories?
On a related note, I wonder if Robin Hobb will ever write another story in the Gernian milieu and if she does, if the same will happen.
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I did have mixed feelings about the ending to that story...RE: A strange tendency (Massive SPOILERS all books including CITY OF DRAGONS) - 'thul - Mar-06-2012
That tendency is indeed true. But it is also common to long-standing fantasy series. The characters get peace and quiet for a while, but in the end, it turns out that there's more. each end is slightly better than the ones before, typically leading up to a single, final ending.
RE: A strange tendency (Massive SPOILERS all books including CITY OF DRAGONS) - Albertosaurus Rex - Mar-06-2012
I suppose that's correct, but I'm not just talking about the rise of new villains or life throwing one a new curveball. When Farseer ended, Fitz had finally, after all pain he had gone through, secured a place for himself in the world. It was a solid happy ending, even after having to let Molly go. Tawny Man doesn't just give him new problems to deal with, but reveals that the choice he made was wrong from the very beginning. And then he gets back together with Molly, even though I actually liked that he didn't get her in the first place: sometimes, you can't get everything you want. I thought that was a good message.
So what we thought was happy turned out not to be, and what he had learned to let go was suddenly thrown into his lap. Even though I liked Tawny Man, that did feel a bit like a betrayal.
RE: A strange tendency (Massive SPOILERS all books including CITY OF DRAGONS) - 'thul - Mar-06-2012
it is a trait we've seen in other split series. Series that share a world yet not name.
One example:
At the end of the Belgalariad, everything was happy, yet at the start of the Malloreon, it showed not all was good after all. Same pattern was in two of the other series by the Eddingses... (elenium/tamulii).
RE: A strange tendency (Massive SPOILERS all books including CITY OF DRAGONS) - Farseer - Apr-21-2012
I can't say that I have ever felt like the ends of any of the RotE books have ever been 'the ends' for me....each trilogy has always felt more like a pause and even more so the further and further it has stretched out.
The RotE books, as they continue to be written, don't end. Likewise, life, while you live it, doesn't end. Some periods feel calm, others stormy, others...
I can't believe that, even after everything, Fitz will get his 'happy ending', despite the fact that it appears as though he has achieved it already through his marriage to Molly. I hope he does but I always come back to the question that prompted Robin to write the story in the first place...what if magic were addictive? I think, with this in mind, that his ultimate ending msy well be due to a path he takes that Elderlings of old should have taken but did not...that maybe he chooses death over extended life. He may not though, as it will all depend, of course, on how Robin wants to write it....and I'll accept whatever fits Fitz.
Overall though, I am setting myself up for the latter stages of FitzChivalry Farseer's life as being similar to a couple of other characters in books whose finishes still affect me deeply!
Realism. That's what it is for me. All very true to life really. I think I said it somewhere here before (maybe the War with Chalced thread)...that the happily ever after or "ultimate ending" many expect may not be 'perfect' but more true-to-life, more balanced.