Name: Blood of Dragons (The Rain Wild Chronicles, Book 4)
ISBN: 9780007444151

Robin Hobb

'Fantasy as it ought to be written' George R.R. Martin The final instalment of Robin Hobb’s Sunday Times best-selling series The Rain Wild Chronicles.

Blood of Dragons (The Rain Wild Chronicles, Book 4)

Dragons will fly over Kelsingra once more. The Tarman expedition has at last found Kelsingra, a city filled with ancient treasures. Here, the dragons and their Elderling keepers may discover their full potential, but only if the magic of Kelsingra can be unlocked. Already rumours of the city have floated down the Rain Wild River. Adventurers, pirates and fortune hunters will soon be coming to pillage what they can. Meanwhile, Selden Vestrit finds himself a prisoner of the ailing Duke of Chalced, who believes him to be a dragon-man whose flesh and blood may work miracle cures.

Blood of Dragons

James Winduss

Honestly, I loved this book, and quadrilogy as a whole, and it still surprises me that so many people seem to dislike it as much as they do. I admit it isn't Hobb's strongest instalment in her Realm of the Elderlings series, but I expected it to be hot garbage based on a lot of the reviews I read and it wasn't that at all.

***Minor Spoilers Ahead***

I was quite happy that we didn't see the 'One Day War' in full detail. I, personally, am not a massive fan of battle scenes so I like that Hobb gave us a taste, without getting into the nitty gritty of the entire thing. I also loved that we got to see Paragon again because he's my favourite of all the liveships.

I do think the love triangle narrative went on for a little longer than it needed to, but I didn't hate it. I also wished we had gotten maybe one or two more chapters at the end after the war itself, but it wasn't like I felt that things weren't wrapped up with what we got.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the Realm of the Elderlings series and I am so, so excited to be able to move on to the final trilogy!

I’d  like to forget about this series and the shadow it has cast on my enjoyment of Hobb. I now, sadly, know I don’t love 

 she writes. Unfortunately it’s too integral to the Elderling world I love to completely forget. 

Brianna

I’d  like to forget about this series and the shadow it has cast on my enjoyment of Hobb. I now, sadly, know I don’t love everything she writes. Unfortunately it’s too integral to the Elderling world I love to completely forget. 

andrea

satisfactory finale for the rain wild chronicles, and rewarding as well. this series was a really good mixture of petty drama and meaningful, real, complex development of characters, relationships, and plot.

of course this is my favouritism speaking because, well, every opinion is subjective! but in terms of enjoyment, i loved this. even if it was slow-paced like all hobb's books are, it was addicting and easy to read. i love the characters so much, and this includes the dragons. they grow, they become better people (not hest, fuck hest) and learn from their mistakes. there are beautiful friendships and romantic relationships. the core of these books are the main cast of characters, they carry them effortlessly. and hobb's knows this, because she doesn't hesitate to drop the action to give us precious moments with them. would i complain about that if a different author did that? maybe. but robin hobb makes it work. when you read rote, you don't precisely want action. you want character development, complex psychology, and rewarding moments after conflicts are over.

now, i just want to point out some things concerning them because, again, they are what have the most weight in the story (even if the 2 final books are very important when it comes to overall rote lore):

- thymara. i'm a bit disappointed in her role as a main character. i like thymara, but i expected... more. i expected her to be crucial in the series' ending, or to be of great significance. but she wasn't? i feel like the most important plot line this character had was the love triangle. which i hated, by the way, it got really annoying because it's going on in all 4 books. (view spoiler)[through an elderling memory stone, thymara acquires the memories of a woman called amarinda. this woman was able to work silver, that is, the magic that made elderlings' goods so special and was able to heal dragons and extend their lives. so i really thought that thymara would use this knowledge for something, that she would have to learn to work silver to do something important because she is the ONLY one that knows this. turns out, nothing happened? again, thymara was reduced as the central part of a love triangle and nothing else, and i don't know why. it was disappointing in that sense, she was so promising in book 1. (hide spoiler)]

- rapskal is one of the greatest surprises in these books. he starts as one part of the love triangle as the funny comedic relief, the bubbly side character that everyone likes or, on the contrary, finds really annoying. in my case, i love him. his storyline is one of the most unique and interesting in all rainwilds. however, i feel that he, as a character, didn't get the ending or closure he deserved.

this was an overall lovely experience. i'm very happy to have read this, and i will encourage everyone who likes rote to give it a chance.

The Tarman expedition has at last found Kelsingra, a city filled with ancient treasures. Here, the dragons and their Elderling keepers may discover their full potential, but only if the magic of Kelsingra can be unlocked. Already rumours of the city have floated down the Rain Wild River. Adventurers, pirates and fortune hunters will soon be coming to pillage what they can. Among them, Hest Finbok, determined to claim back his errant wife, Alise. Meanwhile, Selden Vestrit finds himself a prisoner of the ailing Duke of Chalced, who believes him to be some sort of dragon-man whose flesh and blood may work miracle cures. Soon Tintaglia's singer will be sacrificed to keep this vile old tyrant alive. Where is Tintaglia, the greatest of all dragons, when there is such need of her? Attacked, dying of a poisoned wound, can she survive? She holds the memories that will unlock the mysteries of Kelsingra, and the power to defend it, and her own. Without her, all may be lost.

Blood of dragons

Janice Hopper

Jade Flynn

A solid conclusion to The Rain Wild Chronicles. If you would've told me a year ago that I would be thirteen books deep into a sixteen book fantasy series I wouldn't have believed you. Prior to reading through Hobb's The Realm of the Eldering's the only fantasy series I had read in my life are Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and Mistborn so it's safe to say I love this world. I'm going to save the last trilogy until next year because I'm not ready to be finished just yet.

Ben Cardy

Joe Woods

aurelia

Tobias Løfgren

Rachel Kanyid

Scordatura

Magnus Dahl

Dragon blood and scales, dragon liver and eyes and teeth. All required ingredients for medicines with near-miraculous healing powers. The legendary blue dragon Tintaglia is dying of wounds inflicted by hunters sent by the Duke of Chalced, who meanwhile preserves his dwindling life by consuming the blood of the dragon's poet Selden Vestrit. If Tintaglia perishes, her ancestral memories will die with her. And the dragons in the ancient city of Kelsingra will lose the secret knowledge they need to survive. Their keepers immerse themselves in the dangerously addictive memory-stone records of the city in the hope of recovering the Elderling magic that once allowed humans and dragons to co-exist. In doing so they risk losing their own identities, even their lives. And danger threatens from beyond the city, too. For war is coming: war between dragonkind and those who would destroy them.

Blood of Dragons (The Rain Wild Chronicles, Book 4)

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