*spoilers all books* Dragon Haven, Enjoy it? Hate it?

[Lady Laura]

Ah, I've had lots of spoilers so far, even though I'm trying to be careful I wont be able to read Farseer & Tawny til the summer though, i'm too busy with uni atm

Yes, the style of RW seemed to be less... complex (is that the right word to use?) than say Liveship trilogy. I cant compare RW to Farseer and TM, but I'm guessing those were similar to Liveship, in terms of the complexity of writing (although they are from the first person POV.) RWC did surprise me as being an easier read, and the writing style was different from Liveship. I'm not certain why Hobb did this, maybe she's experimenting with different styles or something I kind of agree with you, I'm looking forward to seeing the Fool turn up in a later book, but its hard for me to imagine him in the RWC books... going by the style of writing Hobb has used for DK and DH. I'm not sure it would do justice to his complex character...

['thul]

It is far too soon for the next book to be the last... too many unresolved events...

[Lady Laura]

Yes, I do agree, I can't see how Hobb could tie everything up in just one book! But I seem to have it in my head that she hadn't always intended to write more of the RotE books after she got past TM, but she decided to write RWC anyway. I'm not sure why I thought this So she may have several more RotE books then? (after "the Next Book" I mean). Has she said that herself? *hopes this can be confirmed*

[Farseer]

Sorry, time is short...but thought I'd just let you know that I'll add "all books" to the spoiler tag to begin the thread. Nightchade, here's how you create a spoiler tag but, I know what you mean...it's too easy to get carried away talking about "everything"...I do it all the time!

['thul]

tawny man was mean to end the fitz/fool story line, not RotE...

[Lady Laura]

Oh right, that makes sense Well, its just a part of me wondered if Hobb would bring Fitz & Fool back (I think I read something that she said that seemed to indicate this was possible, although that's not to say its gonna happen.) Anyway, I shouldn't really be speculating about this until I actually READ Farseer and TM

[Nuytsia]

Not really... apparently Assassin's Quest was meant to be an ending, but then some time later Robin decided to do the Tawny Man trilogy, and, if I understand correctly, at that time had NOT intended for that to be the end of the tale about Fitz. However, it now MAY be the end.

Robin's website has an interesting post about it:
http://robinhobb.com/2008/08/repeat-from-the-newsgroup/

This post WAS made quite some time ago, and things can change ........

tawny man was mean to end the fitz/fool story line, not RotE...

[Lady Laura]

Thanks for sharing that, I understand Hobb's mind a bit more now!

There's another topic I wanted to discuss, and I'm not sure which thread it fits in, but I thought I'd mention it here. In DH, Jerd miscarries with a child who had a serpant-like tale instead of legs. Now, this seemed really familiar to me, like something similar had happened in the Liveship books or something >< But its been a while since I read those books, and I'm not even certain of why the idea of a baby with a serpant tail was familiar to me.

Anyway, in Jerd's case, was it probably because of her close contact with the dragons that made the baby in her womb take on serpant qualities? The Abominations are the offspring of dragons who spend too much time with humans, so did any of the books discuss cases where human offspring were affected too?

['thul]

well, not too many of the books discussed it... only five books and at least one short story...

heard of rain wilders? they are all living proof of it... even bingtowners are affected, but not as greatly...

here's one mention of it from Ship of Magic:

For one horrific instant, Keffria's mind was carried back to the birth of her third child. Or rather, her third time to be brought to childbed, for no
child was born of that long pregnancy and painful labor. Only a creature her mother had neither allowed her to see nor to hold, something that had growled and snarled and thrashed wildly as her mother carried it from the room.

These beings believe that unborn children are like open wounds where the effect of dragons are concerned... very easily affected...

These beings also believe that anyone in the midst of a change (human to Elderling) is incapable of birthing children capable of survival... That such children will have bodies that are a mixture...

[Lady Laura]

I was referring directly to babies, and more so in relation to having a tail Perhaps the quote you gave there was what I had been thinking of! No idea why the tail thing seemed familar though *shakes head*

Yes, your idea of humans who are in the process of becoming Elderlings not being able to birth properly makes a lot fo sense! It explains why Jerd's miscarried child was "deformed" so heavily.