Robin Hobb's books are the type that I can't put down. After becomming disillusioned at all the repetitive rubbish there is in fantasy reading today these were a real treat. The characters are amazingly real - so much so that there are moments when you just want to shake them! Well worth a read!

I'm organising a bookray for this and the following two books, which can be found here;

Royal Assassin
Assassin's Quest

Members:

tho (Portugal)
billhookbabe (UK)
gypsyrose02 (Australia)
RonOren (Netherlands)

Received today - thanks Deerskin for the lovely postcard and for organising these great bookrays :-) Will be reading this very soon ...

Finished yesterday - took me a while to get into the story, but it was definitely worth it :-) A great fantasy plot, and the only reason I'm rating it with 9 is because I read George RR Martin's "Song of ice and Fire" series recently and that's still the best for me. But I'm really enjoying this as well, and can't wait to see what happens next with Fitz and the rest of the characters ...

Will be sending this to billhookbabe as soon as I get the address.

It's here. I am looking forward to reading it. Two books to go before hand though.

Finally read this, and it only took a few days. Robin Hobbs definitley writes as if you are there, not too much description. I had a lot of sympathy for Fitz but he really did need a kick to get him into action here and there. I suppose he is only a teenager.

The one thing that spoilt the book for me was the name of the characters, it took me the whole book to get used to them, otherwise a good read and I am now looking forward to the next one which is already in my possession.

Thanks Deerskin

Ready to send on to gypsyrose02 as Sandanz is busy at the moment, just waiting for address.

received today as part of a ring. thankyou! will get to it asap. thanks for including me.

update for you:

im nearly half way thru and like everyone else, im totally enjoying it. shouldnt take long to finish as its hard to put down.

this was an amazing book. i loved it. i especially loved the bond between fitz and the animals. i would love to communicate with animals on that level. imagine how much easier it would be to find out when the are sick or where they hurt. Attention: Spoiler alert for those yet to read it: i bawled my eyes out when smithy was killed and i was relieved when i found out that nosy wa still alive.
thanks for including me. will pm next in line.

on its way to ronoren.

It arrived yesterday, just in time to go skiing with me :-). It's going to get me through those horrible hours in the bus...

Thanks, Deerskin for sharing, and gypsyrose02 for sending it!

It did get me through those hours in the bus. It even managed to win my attention from Kill Bill on small screen :-) (although I have to admit, Shrek was too much...)

So, I quite liked it. It's the very first Robin Hobb I've read, and I'm anxious to try a few more; partly, obviously, since the story is nowhere near finished, but partly because I like her style.

There's two things I want to mention about the book, apart from the fact that I liked it and it kept me pretty much spell-bound. First, is it just me, or has she been influenced by Robert Jordan? The Skill seems pretty familiar to the One Source (what with the opening up, the struggle not to get overpowered by it; even the budding flower metaphore was somewhere in it). And isn't Fitz, when he manages to Skill only when he's in mortal danger, like Ninaeve when she finally breaks her block? Down to the drowning... Not that I really mind this, I just noticed it and I'm wondering if other people saw the same.
What I liked less is that the whole book is written in the first person. It takes a lot of the edge off from all the dangers Fitz is in. After all, he can't die, can he?, if he's writing the whole thing afterwards!
For a while, I didn't like the italic parts, at the beginning of the chapters, either; they seeme to give away too much. But I have to hand it to her: those parts that do run ahead of the story show only a glimpse of the future, and usually a wrong one at that. Or maybe it's my assumptions that make it a wrong glimpse ;-).

Well, all said, I really liked the book and am looking for the next two. Again, thanks Deerskin for sharing them, and exposing me to this author! I'm not sure what to do with the book just yet; but I'll wait for the next two before deciding anyway.

Ha..got this book in Dutch..but the complete series was on the table..so how could I resist!

Thank you, Galadriel, for giving these books to me! On the mount tbr!

Loved it! And Fitz does act like a teenager, moody and selfcentered...

RELEASE NOTES:

Via SylS, via Moem, will these books find a new owner!

RELEASE NOTES:

Via SylS, via Moem, will these books find a new owner!

wonderful book and quite intriquing.

I found this book difficult to put down. because of that I almost forgot to get out of the train.

I received this one from Ingootje. Thank you for that! My vacation starts tomorrow so I hope to be able to read lots of books.

RELEASE NOTES:

I liked this and the following books very much when I read the books a dozen of years ago. Which I remembered when I started anew in this book. I gave the books to a friend of mine. Hopefully he will write something about them.