August 2021 Book Blog

This month’s reading was a fantasy trilogy, one that I’ve been saving for several months now. I started reading it at the beginning of the month and finished it minutes before midnight on the 31st August. How perfect is that?
So, a little background. The trilogy is the Tawny Man trilogy by Robin Hobb, and I’m feeling all sorts of emotions because I’ve now read all the Realm of the Elderlings novels. I’d been aware of Robin Hobb as a fantasy writer for years, but she doesn’t write much short fiction, and I usually ‘meet’ new authors in anthologies. Then a few years ago, I read a Megan Lindholm short story in an anthology, and I loved it so much that I headed online to find out more. That’s when I found out that Megan Lindholm and Robin Hobb were the same person. Just a few days later, my favourite charity shop had Books 1 – 3 of the Rain Wild Chronicles on the shelves. I bought them, and was half way through Book 3 before I realised I wasn’t reading a trilogy, and had to order Book 4. I got the gist that it was part of a wider cycle of stories, which I was reading out of order, but a few months later, when I saw Fitz and the Fool trilogy in stock at my local bookshop, I just couldn’t resist. They’re the last books in the cycle, and the second set that I read. By then I was committed to these books, but was determined not to rush them. I read the Farseer Trilogy next, which was a bit odd, to go from the end to the beginning, but Hobb is such a great writer that I actually enjoyed finding out more of the back story to Fitz and the Fool.
At this point, the sensible thing to do was to actually check what the other books were, and which order to read them in. With only two trilogies left, I did the sensible thing and read The Liveship Traders trilogy last year, and ordered The Tawny Man trilogy for this year. And now I’m done, and I know I’m going to miss Fitz and the Fool forever now, because they are wonderful characters and I will always want to know more about them.
Thank you to Robin Hobb for a wonderful August spent in the company of an amazing cast of characters. My last thought … the saga depicts many relationships between dragons and humans, but the one between Tintaglia and Nettle has to be the best.