Product Description

The final book in the Soldier Son from the author of the Tawny Man and Farseer trilogies, following on from the bestselling Shaman's Crossing and Forest Mage. The people of Getty's town remember the death of their cemetery soldier vividly. They remember believing him guilty of unspeakable crimes, condemning him, and then watching as other men of his unit beat him until he no longer drew breath. But Nevare Burvelle didn't die that day, though everyone believes they saw it happen. He was cornered by a power far more intractable than an angry mob. When he was a boy, the magic of the Specks -- the dapple-skinned tribes of the frontier forests -- claimed Nevare as a saviour; severing his soul in two, naming his stolen half Soldier's Boy and shaping him into a weapon to halt the Gernian expansion into their lands and save their beloved ancestor trees. Until now Nevare has defied the magic, unable to accept his traitorous fate. But the magic has won: it has extinguished his once golden future, devastated his family and has now turned his own people against him. Faced with endangering the only loved-ones he has left, Nevare has no choice but to surrender to its will and enter the forest.But surrendering to his Speck destiny is only the beginning of his trials. Before he submits completely, Nevare makes one desperate last attempt to deter the Gernians from the Barrier Mountains without causing them harm. But the magic accepts no compromise. Exhausted, Nevare can no longer suppress his traitorous Speck self, Soldiers Boy. Losing control, he becomes a prisoner in his own body; able only to watch helplessly as his other half takes Soldier's Boy is determined to stop the Gernian expansion at all cost, and unlike Nevare, he has no love, nor sympathy for his spirit-twin's world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1416 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 768 pages

Review
'Hobb is one of the great modern fantasy writers! what makes her novels as addictive as morphine is not just their imaginative brilliance but the way her characters are compromised and manipulated by politics' The Times

The Times
'Hobb is one of the great modern fantasy writers... what makes her novels
as addictive as morphine is not just their imaginative brilliance but the
way her characters are compromised and manipulated by politics.'

From the Back Cover
The people of Getty's town remember the death of their cemetery soldier, Nevere Burve, vividly. Believing him guilty of unspeakable crimes, they recall beating him to death.

But Nevare didn't die that day. A power far more intractable than an angry mob seized control of his life and swept him away.

When he was a boy, the magic of the Speck people - the strange dappled-skin tribes of the frontier forests - claimed Nevare as their saviour, shaping him into a weapon to halt the Gernian expansion into Speck lands.

Until now Nevare has defied the magic, unable to accept his traitorous fate. But when the magic threatened the only loved-ones he had left, Nevare had no choice but to surrender to it.

When his efforts at seeking a peaceful solution fail, an exhausted Nevare can no longer suppress his ruthless Speck self, Soldier's Boy. He is determined to stop the Gernian expansion at all costs, and unlike Nevare, has no sympathy for his spirit-twin's world.

Customer Reviews

the best of the three
This book really worked for me...Robin Hobb's prose is beautiful and effortless to read. None of Hobb's characters, from any of her books are easy or pleasant and this trilogy deals with many uncomfortable aspects of humanity which I think is one of the reasons that people have found it harder to like but finally I grew to understand Nevarre and sympathise with him.
Read em all!!!

eco warriors
third and final volume in robin hobb's trilogy of fantasy novels called the soldier son trilogy. these are about nevare. a would be soldier in a world where red indian style indigenous people are being threatened by the expansion of humanity, his career and life have been ruined and forever changed by a native magic woman who is using him to fight back against humanity.

whilst the book does bring you up to speed in the first chapter you really need to have read the first two volumes in the series [shamans crossing and forest mage] to get the most out of this, so go and read those first if you havent.

if you have, then you are safe to read on.

those who read the first two books will recall the second ended with nevare giving himself over to the magic, and leaving all his human friends and enemies thinking he's dead. as a result of this, he ends up with the natives, and another personality takes over his body. this is called soldiers boy, and he's determined to destroy humanity.

can nevare get control of his body and life back? and what will happen to the world?

typically excellent prose from robin hobb but this is more a novel of character than plot and thus many will find it slow moving. but as a novel of character this is exceedingly well written. the conflict between nevare and his other half is well done, and the experiences he goes through and the settings are as well. things do happen, and changes occur to the characters and the world as a result.

after which one hundred pages are required to wrap the fate of everyone else up, and this they do.

4.5/5 from me, as whilst typically excellently written the story ultimately isn't quite as strong as it was in the first two volumes. but robin hobb remains a very good writer and this will not put me off trying her subsequent work.

Know what you're getting into...
I choose to write this review more generally about the whole soldier son trilogy. Most of the reviews so far have made unfavourable references to the frankly awe-inspiring assassin/liveship/fool trilogies. I, however, don't think a comparison can reasonably be made. Superficially there are similarities between the styles of writing from Fitz and Nevarre (respective narrators of the books) - both are highy emotionally compelling character explorations told from the point of view of a character who is both protagonist and unwilling recipient of many of the events driving both stories. The books are confessionals of the struggle in these characters to do 'the right thing.'

There however the similarity ends. The soldier son books are set in an entirely different world (still equally fantastical) and contemporary with colonial technology and values, though in fact the same story could probably be transplanted onto any number of time periods. While the setting is largely militaristic (book one takes place predominately in a military academy, book two in a military outpost and book three in the opposing camp) little of the text is concerned with warfare - indeed the descriptions of any actual warfare are few and far between. If that is what you seek in a similar temporal setting, then I'd suggest reading bernard cornwell's sharpe series.

Instead, this series focusses on polar tensions. There are actually three societies comprising the world in which the books take place. The Plainspeople, the Gernians and the Specks. the first of these seem largely incidental to the story and seem to exist mostly to flesh out the world. This is not necessarily a bad thing but one does get a sense of unfulfillment from them. The other two societies, conversely are fantastically realised. We have the colonial-esque Gernians and the more traditionally fantasy-based tree people (the Specks). Both societies, and their drastically conflicting values are deeply explored, and the tension between the beliefs of each society creates a deliciously tense setting. Even the idea that they are at war is fascinating as neither really understands the concept in the manner of the other. Indeed, the Gernians are unaware that the specks consider themselves at war with them., while the Speck make war on them by spreading disease and discontent. The setting seems to be designed to highlight the contrast between urban expansion and natural harmony, and the 'war' between the peoples seems just to be a realisation of the deeper tension that exists as a result of urban encroachment on the natural environment.

This polarization is further explored with the protagonist, Nevarre Burvelle. Hobb takes the unique step of separating Nevarre into two distinct entities: Nevarre and Soldier's Boy. Intriguingly our narrator is only one of these two personalities - thus we have a series narrated by half a person - a concept that is truly fascinating and endlessly intriguing. Our narrator is principally the Gernian half of Nevarre, though he certainly has much sympathy for the specks, while his opposing half, Soldier's Boy appears to be primarily Speck in outlook - though the few glimpses we get of Soldier's Boy's sympathy for the Gernians suggest at a character who is equally as troubled with his conscience as Nevarre.

Conscience as it turns out plays a major role in the narrative. It forces one to question whether Nevarre really is literally split in two, or simply exploring his own actions and atrocities against the two opposing peoples. His loyalty by default is Gernian, but only the specks treat him well because he's fat. Yup. Fat. Huge in fact.

So here's another theme of the novel. Prejudice. Nevarre becomes hugely fat during book two as a result of becoming a mage. Suddenly he is ostracised by his own society, even his own family, and revered by the Specks. The exploration of people's attitudes towards fat people are not something one would expect in this genre, but the book carries it off fantastically. Here we have a hero who is physically un-heroic, indeed for much of book three he is not even in control of his body, we see through his eyes what soldier's boy does as becomes the personification of soldier's boy's conscience. To read a book told from the perspective of someone's conscience is an experience I will not soon forget.

I have heard criticisms of the magic system in the book as being "clumsy" or "impenetrable." I actually like the latter, though I see it as a compliment rather than a criticism. The eponymous "Forest Mage" is not our narrator Nevarre, but rather Soldier's Boy. We are not privy to soldier's Boy's thoughts, and thus the magic remains just that - magic. Nevarre doesn't know how it works, and so it should be. We use the idea of magic to describe phenomena we cannot fully comprehend. Nevarre dabbles, but certainly doesn't know what he's doing or how he's doing it. Interestingly there seem to be two different uses of the term magic. One is in the more traditional sense - a power to achieve incredible things such as fast travel, or an influence on people's emotions. The second use seems more intangible. It seems to refer to magic, or more properly in this usage "the magic" as an entity. Perhaps it could be more easily imagined as fate. If "the magic" wants something to happen, it happens. I rather like the usage, especially as it appears to be a version of fate that has an active and opposable component.

Nevarre is a wonderful character to read, though he may not always be terribly likable, and as with all Hobbs characters, sometimes you want to bang his head against the wall and explain the thing he can't seem to comprehend. I suspect he was also a joy to write. His incarnation as half a personality, gives a fascinating perspective and is something few writers have attempted. David Gemmell's Dark Moon did something similar, but on a much smaller scale. Make no mistake, this series is on an epic scale. We have 2000 pages of extraordinary character realisation. I have just discussed Nevarre, but the fabulous three dimensional characters that Hobb builds up around him are a joy to behold. Epiny in particular is exquisitely drawn, albeit from Nevarre's perspective, as she strives towards an early concept of feminism.

This series is slow. Glacially slow, and yet contains very little filler. It's also horrendously addictive. I found myself blasting through the whole series in three days. If you want fast paced high fantasy this is not for you. Even avid Robin Hobb fans brought up on a diet of Fitz and the Fool may wish to pass this one by, but if you like your fantasy to challenge your expectations and make you think, then I can think of few finer series.

To end on a lighter note, one does get the distinct impression from time to time that the venerable Ms. Hobb may have been on a diet while writing this. Some of the descriptions of the food that the specks lavish on Nevarre are salivation-inducing. Do not, under any circumstances, read this series (or at least the latter two books) without access to a well stocked fridge...