It still has everything Robin Hobb about it – a great story, realistic characters, magical settings and classic elements of fantasy. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the book, far from it. #Dragon keeper ebook free series#Perhaps once read it is easy to understand why this series will span beyond a trilogy. I think the key is to see this book as the definite beginning to the saga it has lined everything up to promise an epic tale to come. The problem is that when I reached the last few pages, the tension was just mounting up, the story was really beginning to come into its own and suddenly I felt desperate to know what would happen next. The characters and their individual situations are introduced in depth, and all elements to get them journeying to where their paths will meet up and collide is expertly handled everything put in motion at the same time and slotted together nicely. What is perhaps disappointing about this book compared to Hobb’s earlier works is that the story doesn’t quite get going and the conflict and constant tension that I so associate with the author isn’t as intense in The Dragon Keeper. This also adds a sub-plot that is humorous and more light-hearted in contrast to the serious action taking place elsewhere. At the start of chapters, Hobb uses letters to and from bird keepers in the main cities of Trehaug and Bingtown to illustrate the political and economic situation in The Cursed Shores without the need for laborious descriptive passages. I felt the story was quite heavy at some points, and as you would expect from the author some of the characters’ burdens were evident and pulled the reader in. Once again Hobb brings us an amazing study of human behaviour and emotions and allows us to really step inside the main characters and their dilemmas, which range from keeping up social appearances, political and economic crises to the classic struggle of good versus evil, made somewhat more vivid by the depth of her world and the multitude of activities ongoing with each character set. Together, dragon keepers, scholar and hunters alike set out on a quest to find the ancient city in the hope of restoring healthy dragons to the world. The dragons share ancestral memories of a great Elderling city, Kelsingra, which Alise also has some knowledge of. As events unfold, humans and dragons alike realise that their cohabitation is not going to work unless drastic changes are made. They are dangerous and expensive to feed, and worse still, the great dragon Tintaglia, who bargained her aid in the human’s war for the protection and care of her serpents, has disappeared. Unfortunately, the inadequate dragons become a burden. No matter the bargain, Alise soon sees that Hest can help to realise her dream, and The Rain Wilds are no longer and unreachable destination. That is until Hest, wealthy and handsome trader heir, asks for her hand in marriage. It is a far-fetched notion and she laments her position as a girl verging on spinster-hood, tied to her father’s purse strings. She longs to learn all she can of dragons and Elderlings, and her one true goal in life is to see them in the flesh. Now the arrogance of dragons is tested and they realise they may need to rely on human aid if they are to survive at all.Īlise, plain, unmarried daughter of a Bingtown Trader, dreams of dragons. Thymara watches the dragons emerge and when she discovers she can hear the dragons speak, she witnesses the depth of their confusion and self-pity. There are no Elderlings to greet her with fresh meat and devotion, and the dragon Tintaglia, her guide and protector, is gone. She seems to be missing some of her ancestral memories and her wings are not fully formed. Sintara the dragon emerges from her case but something is wrong. Only her father’s desperation saved her and now, ignoring the scorn her neighbours send her way, she waits and watches from high up in the trees to see the dragons hatch. Young Thymara, a girl heavily marked by The Rain Wilds that are her home, should never have lived. The serpents have waited and struggled long years to finally reach the cocooning grounds, and give the last of their strength and determination to spin the casing that will protect them until they hatch. Hobb’s Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies remain my favourite books of all time and The Dragon Keeper takes us back to the same world, back to the lands discovered in the Liveship Traders trilogy, to continue the tale of what will happen now dragons have returned to the world. In preparation for the release of the next book in the Rain Wild Chronicles this year, I decided to revisit the Cursed Shores and remind myself of the series so far.
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