Golden Fool

Full review at SFF Book Review.

While I consider this the weakest instalment of Robin Hobb's trilogy of trilogies, I can't deny that anything the woman writes is beautiful. The language is precise, yet gorgeous, the characters don't need introduction at this point.

But as the plot goes, it was pretty weak, and most of the book is spent setting up events that are probably going to happen in the next - and final - volume in the Tawny Man trilogy. There were some action-filled moments and even though I've never needed a lot of fast-paced action to be happy with a book, the conversations, intrigue, and introductions of new characters became tedious very fast.

So all of that said, instead of a fantastically great book, this is merely a very good one.

Robin Hobb???s TAWNY MAN trilogy, and the FARSEER trilogy that precedes them, are some of the finest epic fantasies ever written. FitzChivarly Farseer is probably my favorite character in all of fantasy literature and he???s at his best in the TAWNY MAN books. Golden Fool, the middle book in the trilogy, is nearly a perfect novel, and so is its successor, Fool???s Fate. I re-read Golden Fool last week because it???s just been released in audio format by Brilliance Audio (superbly narrated by James Langton) and I wanted to re-visit the series before reading Hobb???s newest book, Fool???s Assassin. Though I???ve read over a thousand fantasy novels since I first read Golden Fool, the book was just as superior as I remembered. Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/golden-fool/