Elizabeth W. reviewed on 9/25/2007 + 40 more book reviews

The second book in a second trilogy -- we return here to the life of FitzChivalry Farseer as he makes a new secret life for himself in the background of his old one. If you've read this far in the series, you're going to finish no matter what, but this installment is a dissapointment. Self-indulgent and rambling, Hobb is crippled here by her choice of first person narrative -- a choice that works well in the first three books here become hobbling as most of the interesting action takes place outside of her narrators awareness. Moments in this book that should have been dramatic and climatic are relegated to banal narrations as her characters distrust of others gets in the way of our understanding and appreciating their character arcs. In general, as with the other two books of the Fool trilogy, I always felt as though I missing the real action, unlike in the first books, where Hobb more deftly wove the point of view of her first person narrator, who was essentially a backstage character, throughout the exciting events that were taking place. Still, you have to read it to get any closure on the whole series.

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