Robin Hobb

‘Fantasy as it ought to be written’ George R.R. Martin Return to the world of Fitz, the Fool and Nighteyes in the first book of The Tawny Man Trilogy by international bestselling author, Robin Hobb.

Fool’s Errand (The Tawny Man Trilogy, Book 1)

When Assassin's Quest closed, Fitz was living in self-imposed exile. Wracked with pain, he had chosen to discard the magical gifts that had seen him survive the wonders and torments of navigating the legendary city of the Elderlings, and of raising a dragon. Now, in this, the first of a new trilogy, we are returned to the world of the Six Duchies and the lives of those who managed to survive the events of the first Assassin trilogy.Fifteen years have passed and events are about to sweep Fitz out of his quiet backwater life and into the main political current again. Persecution of the Witted has become rampant throughout the Six Duchies despite Queen Kettricken's effort to dampen it. The Witted themselves have begun to strike back. So when 15 Year Old Prince Dutiful disappears, is it only because he is nervous about his betrothal ceremony to an Outislander princess, or has he been taken hostage by the Witted? Worse, is he perhaps another 'Piebald Prince', a Farseer tainted by Wit magic? As the desperate situation worsens, Kettricken has no choice but to summon Fitz to Buckkeep, for who better to track the young prince down than another gifted with the Wit, together with his bonded companion, the wolf Nighteyes?

Fool's Errand

aybüke

 Perhaps I sought to justify myself, not just all I had done, but who had become. For years, I wrote faithfully nearly every evening, carefully explaining my world and my life to myself. I put my scrolls on a shelf, trusting that I had captured the meaning of my days.

      But then returned one day, to find all my careful scribing gone to fragments of vellum lying in a trampled yard with wet set, snow blowing over them. I sat my horse, looking down on them, and knew that, as it always would, the past had broken free of my effort to define and understand it. History is no more fixed and dead than the future. The past is no further away than the last breath you took.

 The more I studied the accounts of others, both written and told, the more it seemed to me that we attempt such histories not to preserve knowledge, but to fix the past in a settled way. Like a flower pressed flat and dried, we try to hold it still and say, this is exactly how it was the day I first saw it. But like the flower, the past cannot be trapped that way. It loses its fragrance and its vitality, its fragility becomes brittleness and its colors fade. And when next you look on the flower, you know that it is not at all what you sought to capture, that that moment has fled forever.

"Regrets are useless," the Fool replied. "All you can do is start from where you are. [...]"

"I knew you the moment I saw you," I reminded him.

He smiled warmly. "Just as I knew you, and would know you when first I met you a dozen lives hence. [...]"

 "She believes all must end before it can begin anew."

I waited for him to balance his statement, but he fell silent. Finally I nudged him toward it. "And what do you believe?"

A slow smile spread over his face. "I believe in you. You are my new beginning."

 He sat before the fire and strummed it, plucking discordant notes that he smoothed with the words of a sad song in a language I had never heard. I set my fingers to my own wrist. In the darkness, I could feel him there. He did not turn to look at me, but awareness prickled between us. His voice seemed to grow truer in my ears, and I knew he sang the song of an exile longing for his homeland.

His touch on me had been heightening the Skill-bond between us. It made me feel vulnerable. He did not know how to reach across it and plunder my mind, but that did not lessen my fear. A knife to my throat was a threat, even if the hand that held it had only the best of intentions.

You should leave off sniffing the carcass of your old life, my brother. You may enjoy unending pain. I do not. There is no shame in walking away from bones, Changer. He finally swiveled his head to stare at me from his deep-set eyes. Nor is there any special wisdom in injuring oneself over and over. What is your loyalty to that pain? To abandon it will not lessen you.

 "When you cut pieces from the truth to avoid sounding like a fool, you end up sounding like a moron instead." I have discovered that to be true, from firsthand experience. Yet even without deliberately attempting to cut and discard pieces of a story, years after giving a full and just accounting of an event, a man may discover himself a liar. Such lies happen not by intent, but purely by virtue of the facts he was not privy to at the time he wrote, or by being ignorant of the significance of trivial events. No one is pleased to discover himself in such a strait, but any man who claims never to have experienced it is but stacking one lie on top of another.

"All down the years," he said, his voice going golden as his skin. "You have been with me, as close as the tips of my fingers, even when we were years and seas apart. Your being was like the hum of a plucked string at the edge of my hearing, or a scent carried on a breeze. Did not you feel it so?"

I could not approach and I could not leave. I was caught where I was, a leaf on the edge of their eddy. I suddenly understood all the legends of ghosts doomed to forever haunt some spot. No matter how far I roamed, some part of me would always be chained here.

"In the space of a sundown, you show me the wide world from a horse's back, and the soul of the world within my own walls."

 "Death is always less painful and easier than life! You speak true. And yet we do not, day to day, choose death. Because ultimately, death is not the opposite of life, but the opposite of choice. Death is what you get when there are no choices left to make. Am I right?"

This is the 7th of the Elderling books I have read. It might be my favorite so far. My expectations are already so high for Robin Hobb's storytelling, worldbuilding, and mostly characterizations. We are back in Fitz's head with a close first person perspective. (Liveship is multi-pov, third person. Which worked so well for that.) Now we are in the Six Duchees again after 15 years have passed. For me, it was like coming home and having a reunion. This starts the way most Hobb books start, slowly. But that is absolutely not a complaint. You need time to settle in and get reaquainted. Things have changed in the characters and things have changed in the Six Duchees. Unfortunately, Fitz is needed and The Fool convinces him to come out of his self-imposed exile in the rural cabin. Prince Dutiful has gone missing and he is needed urgently back at court. We learn a lot about the Wit magic and the lore of the Old Blood in this book. There are many easter eggs and connections with events, places, and people from the Liveship Traders. I also recommend reading the novella, The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince before starting this trilogy. It gives background and history about the Wit magic and how it became politicized and witted people were killed and outcast. It also deals with the early Farseer dynasty and bloodline. Very relevant to the events and politics in this book and likely the whole trilogy. If you are reading this, you probably are already enjoying the Realm of the Elderlings. If not, please start at the beginning and try out Assassin's Apprentice. If you don't enjoy it, that is fair. But there is a chance that you might start a wonderful journey through the masterful Realm of the Elderlings.

Cheryl Hedlund

James Winduss

** spoiler alert **
           I enjoyed this more than I expected too. Having just finished Liveship Traders I was apprehensive to return to the life of Fitz, but it honestly felt like seeing an old friend again. To say I loved the first half or so of this book would be an understatement. The reunion of Fitz and the Fool was so satisfying, like two halves brought together again. As I got further into this novel I just knew Nighteyes wasn’t going to survive and as much as I hate the fact that he’s gone, I love the way in which Robin Hobb wrote his good bye to Fitz. If he had died abruptly in battle I think I would have been furious, but going forth on a hunt ahead of his little brother was such a beautiful way for him to pass on. I don’t know how I feel about Prince Dutiful, but I am excited to see Fitz take on the role of tutor and friend in the second and third novels. 

All in all, if it weren’t for the fact that I loved the first part of this novel so much I probably would’ve rated it a little lower, but it gets a solid 4/5.

andrea

emotional pain and suffering and i loved every second of it. 
i was so excited to see fitz, fool, and nighteyes again after reading liveship traders. the moment i saw the 1st person narrator and knew i was inside fitz's mind, i felt at home. i have missed so much the oddly comforting aura these series have. i can understand why some people would still prefer liveship over farseer or even tawny man, as the first one is more action-packed. but there is something about the slow-paced and emotionally charged atmosphere in fitz's books that work for me just right.

i couldn't stop reading from the beginning, with fitz updating us on everything he has done for the 15 years that have passed since the ending of the farseer trilogy, and then with his search for dutiful. but i would say that the central part of this book is fitz and his relationship with both nighteyes and the fool, their bond, and just how beautiful and real their friendship is.
it goes without saying that i absolutely adore fitzchivalry farseer as a main character and i already consider him one of my all-time favourites, along with the fool and nighteyes. fitz feels like a real person, a real man who makes me root for him in every step of his journey. he is now much more mature, but he still feels like the little fitz we met in assassin's apprentice.

i can't explain with words how beautifully-written this book is, and how many emotions it made me feel. i'm becoming very repetitive with my robin hobb's books' reviews but it's true and she deserves the praise. i felt as if someone was giving me a hug the entire time because grief was slowly settling in my heart, having more presence, and i had to be ready for it. fool's errand made me cry several times not because something terrible suddenly happened and it surprised me, but because it felt just like life is. in a natural way, it deals with and presents themes such as death and the ups and downs we encounter in our lives in a way that makes your heart ache before soothing it. i don't know how the author gets me every time, but she has a way with words that leaves me absolutely heartbroken and, still, i want more of it. 

robin hobb just has everything you can ask for: gorgeous writing, complex characters that feel like real people, with great relationships between them; a slow-paced plot with political intrigue that still leaves room for a masterful character work and development. she has never disappointed me, the harsh reality she creates in her works has my complete admiration since farseer.

i think i'm finally starting to be very annoying with the realm of the elderlings because i love it so much and i think it's a very special series of books.

Marisa Petri

Lovely, still this specific intrigue was not as grand as usual. Enjoyed most of the book nonetheless!!

Kiandra Rodgers 

Robin Hobb has done it again… I am WRECKED

Mari-Anne Hughes

This made me laugh, and ugly cry

Best book in the series so far

dead line

Robin Hobb is just so good at writing.

No part of the story over stays its welcome. Things flow naturally.

I'm again struck by the boldness Hobb shows. I wonder if certain decisions were hard to make, even if they best served the story.

Fantastic.

Jade Flynn

Not sure if this can match the brilliance of The Liveship Traders but Hobb has clearly improved her writing since Assassin's Quest. Not much happens until page two hundred but I've come to expect that so it didn't irk me as much as it did in the Farseer Trilogy, I quite enjoyed simply being reunited with Fitz, The Fool and Nighteyes. Parts were soul-shattering.

Nickie Mohler

The Liveship Traders are still my favorite, but this is amazing as well. I loved being back with Fitz, the Fool, and Night Eyes. I love Robin Hobb's writing. She is a genius.

Melea Mullican

7.57 on CAWPILE

There was A LOT of exposition in the beginning of this book that brought it down a little for me. It was a lot even for Hobb as she tried to catch the reader up on Fitz's doings all up front rather than letting things naturally come out. Other than that, it was so nice to be back at Buckkeep and the Farseer world. The Fool is back!

Fool’s Errand (The Tawny Man Trilogy, Book 1)

Reviews

Highlights