Gernian Character Discussion (spoilers all SS books)

[Farseer]

Well I finished the SS series a few weeks ago. I didn’t feel the bereavement that the ending of the Farseer series brought about but having read several books since and started and left a couple of others, I’m still missing the depth and challenges RH’s tales bring.

Yes, I agree!

I didn’t enjoy SS as much as the other trilogies

I didn't either but I can say that of every other book series I have ever read that is not RotE-related!

and I don’t think I’ll revisit it as with the others but compared to a lot of other stuff out there it was still an excellent read.

While not anywhere near the extent that I have re-read the RotE books, I do plan to revisit SS one day. No doubt there are some important points that I missed during the first reading...we ARE talking about a Hobb book, after all!

Caulder didn’t develop much either as I thought he might but did redeem himself I felt.

I must begrudgingly agree that he did redeem himself somewhat, as much as I disliked Caulder!

A downside for me was that Nevare seemed clearly ‘torn’ between the Speck and Gernians, the cultures he was exposed to, but never seemed to extend empathy in the end towards the Plainspeople and their beliefs. As a child and young man he had seen the injustices and been upset by them but the adult Nevare didn’t waste too much time stressing about them losing their magic etc. I felt that the Plainspeople were the real losers here and, having realised the unwitting harm done to one culture I would have expected Nevare to have been more upset about the Plainspeople and the harm done to them.

Yes, the Plainspeople were the real losers and I, too, had expected/hoped more from Nevare on their behalf. While he 'became' a Speck, and therefore more sympathetic to their side of things, I still would have thought he would remain empathetic of the Plainspeople.

The end result may have been the same and, I guess, true to life (as this harming/near death of one culture to allow growth of another occurs in most, if not all, instances of colonialism) but I would have liked for Nevare to have done something in defence of them/their culture. It was definitely a lack in him that he didn't...even if he didn't know who he was half the time!