`Hobb is a remarkable storyteller.'

'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 final book in the brand new trilogy 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.

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.

2008-07-30 Tries to be two different things and doesn't really work

Robin Hobb is an excellent author, there's little doubt of that. While the Soldier Son is far from her best work, I am sick of people complaining because they prefer the Farseer more, or because her latest output is not as good as her older material. Well sorry to break the bad news to you, but authors have good times and bad times like the rest of us. I don't want another Farseer. I have already read that book. You cannot take a negative view on a novel because it is different from another. What you can do is take a negative view because the book is not particularly well written.

The Soldier Son suffered from day one. It was a difficult read, and in my opinion there were many great concepts and stories which were never really sewed together properly which caused the whole trilogy to have a detached feeling. What I mean by this is that there are two main themes through this series - the colonial era Gettysburg setting - Old Thares, Widevale, the plains people - and that part of it is all excellently described (even the main town in the last book is called Gettys). The second is the forest magic setting - the Specks and their great people, and their way of life. Again, very well described and an excellent new concept of magic.

Where it all fell down was where Hobb tried to bring these two cultures together - ironically mirroring the problems seen in the story between the two peoples. I feel that this story tried to be a great colonial book and a great tree magic book, and instead of perfecting one, the thread split down the middle and the whole trilogy fell into the crack at the centre. The book is as split as like Nevare and Soldier's Boy.

Having read it, I feel I have come away confused an a little bit bombarded with too many things which were mentioned too briefly. I have no clue how the whole Lisana thing saving Nevare actually works having only just finished it. I couldn't tell you how the problem of Nevare and Soldier's Boy finally being unified was actually rectified, because I don't think it was really explained very well. I have a nasty feeling that some things were swept under the carpet, though I can't seem to pinpoint specifically what I mean. I criticised the first two books but I think they were both better than the third, only upon reading Renegade's Magic did I realise how well thought out the world was and how well it was described in the first two books. But the book is not entirely without merit, I found myself enjoying most of it.

Hobb is now writing a new novel about the Realm of the Elderlings, set in the same world as the Six Duchies, thank God. This should please different people for different reasons.