First volume of the Rain Wild Chronicles

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Product Description

Return to the world of the Liveships Traders and journey along the Rain Wild River in the first instalment of high adventure from the author of the internationally acclaimed Farseer trilogy. Guided by the great blue dragon Tintaglia, they came from the sea: a Tangle of serpents fighting their way up the Rain Wilds River, the first to make the perilous journey to the cocooning grounds in generations. Many have died along the way. With its acid waters and impenetrable forest, it is a hard place for any to survive. People are changed by the Rain Wilds, subtly or otherwise. One such is Thymara. Born with black claws and other aberrations, she should have been exposed at birth. But her father saved her and her mother has never forgiven him. Like everyone else, Thymara is fascinated by the return of dragons: it is as if they symbolise the return of hope to their war-torn world. Leftrin, captain of the liveship Tarman, also has an interest in the hatching; as does Bingtown newlywed, Alise Finbok, who has made it her life's work to study all there is to know of dragons. But the creatures which emerge from the cocoons are a travesty of the powerful, shining dragons of old. Stunted and deformed, they cannot fly; some seem witless and bestial. Soon, they become a danger and a burden to the Rain Wilders: something must be done. The dragons claim an ancestral memory of a fabled Elderling city far upriver: perhaps there the dragons will find their true home. But Kelsingra appears on no maps and they cannot get there on their own: a band of dragon keepers, hunters and chroniclers must attend them. To be a dragon keeper is a dangerous job: their charges are vicious and unpredictable, and there are many unknown perils on the journey to a city which may not even exist...

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2930 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 560 pages

Review
Praise for Robin Hobb: '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 'Hobb is a remarkable storyteller.' Guardian 'Robin Hobb writes achingly well' SFX Praise for The Liveship Traders series: 'Even better than the Assassin books. I didn't think that was possible' George R R Martin

From the Publisher
This is the full book, read by the amazing Saskia Butler. Why not try listening whilst you commute, go to the gym or do the washing up?

About the Author
Robin Hobb was born in California in 1952 and majored in Communications at Denver University, Colorado. Assassin's Apprentice was her first novel, and was followed by the equally successful Royal Assassin and Assassin's Quest. She lives outside Seattle, Washington

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Customer Reviews

Return to form? Almost...
I would have to say that Robin Hobb's Assassins, Liveships and Tawny Man trilogies are among the finest examples of contemporary sci-fi fantasy that I have been fortunate enough to encounter. That being said, I was utterly dissapointed with the Soldier's Son series which, while not being bad exactly, was simply not on the same par.

As excited as I was to hearof this new series returning to the world of the orginal trilogies I must admit that I approached it with a certain level of trepidation because of my dissapointment in the soldiers son series. Furthermore, when I did actually pick this book up, the typing error on the second line of the first page on my copy made me worry a little about the quality of the editing.

However, I literally read the book from cover to cover within the space of a night and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it- although, as already noted, some of the time period jumps were not as fluid as they could have been and occasionally disrupted the flow somewhat.

The reason I gave it 3 rather than 4 or 5 stars is simply that this book reads very much like an introduction or set up to the series rather than being a true novel in its own right. 400 or so pages in and the dragons had only just started their journey and, character development aside (and very good character development at that) very little actually happens.

I can't wait for the second book to really get my teeth into this story and to be honest, if you haven't already picked up this book I would actually recommend waiting on at the least the second installments release before you do.

This book is just the beginning...
Given that this book is part one of two, it is exceptionally good. Without that understanding though, you may wonder why it only really starts to get exciting right at the end with the rest of the book being gentle set-up.

Robin Hobb's writing style is beautiful. Slightly flowery but never too ornate for clarity, it soothes and calms me. The writing in this book flows particularly well with characters and places coming alive through careful descriptions.

Her world is, in my opinion, her strongest selling point. The realm of the Elderlings has been carefully constructed in other books (it is probably helpful though by no means necessary to have read at least the Liveships before this one) and is continued here. The life cycle of the dragons is given a strong focus and there are delightful peaks at Elderling relics, magical objects from a lost time. It feels unique in the world of fantasy as it does not draw on medieval times but a more prosperous era of trading and travel with a Puritanical society.

The characters themselves aren't as fresh as those in her other books (for example, the Liveships series with the pirate Kennit) but they are presented with the potential to be magnificent after a bit of growing up. A strength of this book is the multiple point of view storytelling which allows for the same character to be seen from different perspectives. The cast is quite small though and it takes very little time for them to become embroiled in the same plot making it easier to follow than many other sprawling multi-pov fantasy books. Plus her depiction of how dragons think is fantastic.

The book covers themes of marriage, sexuality, deformity, appearance, society, emancipation... and I daresay I have missed many. The plot is simply the formation of a ragtag band, including dragons, travelling to find a better place.

Overall I highly recommend this book and other books by Robin Hobb. Her writing is lyrical and her worlds original.

Touched by the Rain Wilds
Before I began `Dragon Keeper' I was aware that the story was originally intended to be a single volume and was only split into two parts when the author's page-count exceeded what was considered appropriate for a stand-alone novel. This latest novel from Hobb is extremely enjoyable and engrossing in its own right (no surprise at all to anyone who's had the pleasure of reading any of her previous works). But if it does seem to move a little slower and offer less immediately thrilling plot developments along the way, I would suggest this is due to the story being paced as the first 500 pages of a novel intended to be 1,000 pages+. So I imagine the second half of the story will offer a substantial increase in thrills & revelations. So I find myself in limbo longing for the two halves of the `Dragon Keeper' tale to be reunited, so that I can learn of all that befalls this eclectic group of characters in such a distinctive, fantastical & compelling story as is debuted here.

As this story takes place in the same world as that of Hobb's other trilogies (`The Farseer', `Liveship Traders' and `Tawny Man' trilogies), focusing in particular on an area called the Rain Wilds that was the setting for many scenes in the books in the `Liveship Traders' trilogy, I felt I had an advantage in having previously read and reveled in the three books of that trilogy. But in the same way that the `Soldier Son' trilogy could be read independently of Hobb's other works, similarly `Dragon Keeper' felt very much to me like a novel that might be enjoyed by newcomers with no prior knowledge of the setting or writing style. With this book Hobb is writing with a clean slate; introducing a new set of characters and exploring fresh material. In the rare instances when some events from previous trilogies do need to be mentioned, Hobb's gift for exposition means these passages integrate perfectly and are made enjoyable in their own right.

Alise, Thymara, Leftrin, Sedric, Sintara, Mercor and Tarman...these are all characters introduced to me for the first time in this story and in just 553 pages I've already fallen under their spell. More please.