Book Suggestion

[Farseer]

Oh, great, Farseer! I'm looking forward to hearing your opinion.

I'm not sure if my opinion is going to be worth much, especially in this case, because I don't know what to tell you except that I think Robin Hobb has ruined all fantasy for me for all time.

I am part-way through the second book of the Night Angel trilogy and have gone so far as to tell my sons that "I hate these books!" (more than a few times, while intending to put down the books and never pick them up again!).

I like some of the characters and even the storyline to some extent, but I don't enjoy the way the story is being told, though I understand the author is going for the 'action, action, action' approach to keep readers interested. It chops and changes, is hard to follow in some places and I also find it predictable.

There are so many sentences with words left out of them that it irritates me no end, and there is even a fleeting reference to a 'Kevin' within the actual text of the first book BUT there is no Kevin character in the plot at all. I found out after I read the first book that Kevin is the name of Brent's older brother. Possibly Brent told Kevin he'd throw a random sentence about him in the book and then challenged him to find it?!

The thing that bothers me most though, is that I consider it pretty much a re-run of Robin's work but just in a different setting with lots of twists and tweaks. Among many other similarities, the references to cats and wolves makes me groan and one of the characters is just a modern, cooler version of Chade, right down to his pockmarked face. And, yes, there's even a prophet and an assassin's apprentice but that's all I can say without spoilers!

Still, I may be being overly harsh, and I certainly can't make my sons see my point of view and they, too, have read the RotE books. They just agree that, yes, Robin has ruined me and I should get over it and enjoy the story for itself! This all having been said, I would recommend you read it (talk about a post full of contradiction !) and I will continue to read it as well, despite wanting to stop....here's hoping I will be proven wrong!