A strange tendency (Massive SPOILERS all books including CITY OF DRAGONS)

[Albertosaurus Rex]

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.

I did have mixed feelings about the ending to that story...

Nevare's soul is split again and the plainspeople got screwed over. I would love a sequel about a plainsman uprising.