Rak Buku Femmy

I just finished reading this and, as what usually happens with a good book, right now I am feeling a little bit lost, as if I just parted with my best friends. Sigh.

The Tawny Man (TTM) is the third trilogy by Robin Hobb, the first being The Farseer Trilogy (TFT), the second The Liveship Traders (TLT). It returns to the story of FitzChivalry Farseer, the bastard prince of the Six Duchies kingdom, picking it up fifteen years after the end of TFT, building on conflicts and themes hinted in the previous trilogy.

The first book, Fool’s Errand, deals mainly with the theme of Old Blood or the Witted, the people who can communicate and bond with animals, and have long been persecuted by other people who regard this ability as dirty magic. Fitz himself is Witted, bonded to the wolf Nighteyes, which is one of the reasons he went into fifteen years of self-imposed isolation. But now a faction of this people, who styled themselves as the Piebalds, are planning to fight back, and they are somehow involved with the disappearance of Prince Dutiful. So Fitz must come out of hiding and find the prince and bring him back to the Buckkeep Palace, in time for his betrothal to a princess from the Out Islands.

The Golden Fool revolves around the intrigues and mysteries brought about by this betrothal, between Prince Dutiful and Elianna of the Outlislanders (the hated enemy in TFT), whose marriage is arranged to bring peace between the two peoples. The characters and story line from TLT also make their appearance, proposing an alliance between the liveship traders of Bingtown and the Six Duchies, for the sake of the dragon Tintaglia. The story becomes more and more complicated as Fitz has to juggle his relationship with all the people that come and go in his life.

In Fool’s Fate, Fitz accompanies the Prince to the Out Islands to fulfill a challenge proposed by Elliana, before she would accept Dutiful as her husband–slay the dragon Icefyre. Behind the challenge, stands the mastermind of all attacks against Buckkeep–the Pale Woman. In the end, Fitz must choose between his friend and his duty.

The title of the trilogy itself refers to the enigmatic character known as the Fool. In TFT he was King Shrewd’s Fool, who always seemed to look out for Fitz and gave him cryptic prophecies and finally became one of his best friends. Now he appears again as the tawny-skinned Lord Golden. As the friendship between him and Fitz deepens, so does the mystery that surrounds him.

As with the first two trilogies, the reason I fell in love with this story is the characters and the relationships between them. Good novels always have good characters, but what amazes me about Robin Hobb’s books is how she can create such a different relationship between different pairs of people, each one formed by the unique experiences that they share. There are many people who love and are loved by Fitz, but the great thing is, you can always see the difference between, for instance, his friendship with Nighteyes and the Fool, or between his respect for his two mentors Chade and Burrich, for Kettricken and Verity, or between his relationship with his three children Nettle and Dutiful and Hap, or his fondness for Thick and Lady Patience. They are all completely different from one another. It is not just the characters are great and real and believable and all that, but they have histories together, and I hang on to every word to find out what their futures are.

Another good thing that comes out of this is that each character creates its own little subplots so you get a myriad of plot threads weaving in and out of the story, forming a wonderful tapestry of great storytelling. It is just brilliant.I hope I can soon find other books that are as good as these.

After reading a non-traditional fantasy in Among Thieves, I was ready for an old-fashioned one. The opening chapters of The Summoner showed some promise. A prince with undeveloped magical abilities was forced to flee from his home because his evil brother killed the rest of his family and seized the throne. I expected to read exciting adventures as the prince journeyed to a neighboring country and learned magic.

Well, he did experience some adventure with a ghost inn, a caravan, slavers, a haunted library, a warrior princess, but none of them was interesting.

He did learn about magic, but the description of how he learned was so vague that it didn’t give me anything to get excited about. In fact, everything related to magic in this novel was vague; I don’t understand why soldiers dislike and fear mages, why teleporting is limited to short distances, why certain things are forbidden in magic, other than because the author says so.

In addition, the characterization was very two dimensional. Such a pity. I was expecting great things, but now I don’t think I’ll continue reading the series.

After reading some fantasy series where the protagonists are thieves or characters other than farmboys or nobility and quite enjoying them, I turned next to Among Thieves. This time the main character Drothe is a Nose, which is some kind of an informant for crimelords in a community of thieves called the Kin.

The story starts with a missing artifact, with mysterious clues that include an enigmatic name, a cryptic script that may or may not be a code, and a puzzling rare pilgrim token. As Drothe investigates these clues, even stranger things happen, with a mystifying book, perplexing attempted murders, shadowy Grey Princes, an odd falsified letter, magical items. In between you also get fencing scenes where Drothe has to face life or death situations.

You notice that I use a lot of synonyms for “mysterious”. Well, the whole thing is quite baffling. Drothe couldn’t make heads or tails of it, and neither could I. Now I like to be kept guessing when reading a novel, but I don’t like to be completely in the dark. So the story that started as interesting unfortunately became annoying and then frustrating for me. It doesn’t help either that Drothe isn’t easy character to relate to. Sure he’s honorable and clever and his loyalty to the Kin is admirable, but I fail to see how the existence of a bunch of criminals is something worth fighting for.

A well-written story, but not my cup of tea. However, if you like mysteries, lots of action scenes, and the world of criminals, you’ll get your fill in this novel.

Do you know that old fantasy cliché, where the protagonist is a farm boy with hidden abilities, who is destined to defeat the great villain and save the whole world from destruction? Well, in this series Brandon Sanderson has taken that cliché and given it an imaginative twist, which results in this fantastic first installment of the Mistborn trilogy.

(But take my advice. If you ever decide to buy this book, do not read the blurb! Reading it will be more exciting if you don’t know what the twist is, with an added element of mystery about an unidentified writer of a diary that is excerpted in the beginning of each chapter.)

The story itself is set in a kingdom where ash falls instead of rain, the mist rules the night, and the Lord Ruler and the nobility enslave the skaa. It is in the skaa slums that our story really begins, as a thieving crew concocts a grand plan to steal the expensive, magical metal called atium from the palace of the Lord Ruler himself. Yup, unlike adventure or political intrigue stories that usually permeate the fantasy genre, this book has the feel of a heist movie. Think Ocean’s Eleven meets The Lord of the Rings. It’s very refreshing, and I enjoy reading as the crew execute their plans and troubleshoot as unexpected plot twists throw them some tricky problems.

At the heart of the thieving crew are Vin, a girl with an abusive past, and Kelsier, the mastermind who leads this crew. They are both Mistborns, people who can practice Allomancy, a way to manipulate metals to do magic. I just love it when an author takes time to create a unique magic system that has logical and consistent rules. It results in magical battles that are quite fun to read.

As an added bonus, there’s romance in the air!

So, this book has everything that I look for in a fantasy book. A unique world, a fresh twist on the genre, great plot, interesting characters, a cool magic system, and a little bit of romance. Can’t wait until the second book comes out in paperback!