The Golden Fool (Tawny Man Trilogy, book 2)
By Robin Hobb
Blurb:
Prince Dutiful has been rescued from his Piebald kidnappers and the court has resumed its normal rhythms. But for FitzChivalry Farseer, a return to isolation is impossible. Though gutted by the loss of his wolf bondmate, Nighteyes, Fitz must take up residence at Buckkeep and resume his tasks as Chade’s apprentice assassin. Posing as Tom Badgerlock, bodyguard to Lord Golden, FitzChivalry becomes the eyes and ears behind the walls. And with his old mentor failing visibly, Fitz is forced to take on more burdens as he attempts to guide a kingdom straying closer to civil strife each day.
The problems are legion. Prince Dutiful’s betrothal to the Narcheska Elliania of the Out Islands is fraught with tension, and the Narcheska herself appears to be hiding an array of secrets. Then, amid Piebald threats and the increasing persecution of the Witted, FitzChivalry must ensure that no one betrays the Prince’s secret—a secret that could topple the Farseer throne: that he, like Fitz, possesses the dread “beast magic.”
Meanwhile, FitzChivalry must impart to the Prince his limited knowledge of the Skill: the hereditary and addictive magic of the Farseers. In the process, they discover within Buckkeep one who has a wild and powerful talent for it, and whose enmity for Fitz may have disastrous consequences for all.
Only Fitz’s enduring friendship with the Fool brings him any solace. But even that is shattered when unexpected visitors from Bingtown reveal devastating secrets from the Fool’s past. Now, bereft of support and adrift in intrigue, Fitz’s biggest challenge may be simply to survive the inescapable and violent path that fate has laid out for him.
Review:
I like how the book begins exactly where Fool’s Errand ended. There was no gap or skip of time that would cause mystery. It was just simply continuing. This was also good because the book was much faster paced than the last. It got straight into the drama, no catch up which I enjoyed.
Although this book lacked in major events compared to previous books and what I suspect the next book to be like; I can’t help but say that this book so far is my favourite of the series. It’s hard for me to put in words why this is the case, it’s more a gut feeling. When I think of reasons why, one that comes to mind is that this book compared to the others was very relationship heavy. It was about friendships more than anything in my opinion and I think that sort of content just hits my heart more than dragon chasing.
The Golden Fool reminds me a lot of Assassin's Apprentice. It has the similar vibes and story except rather than Fitz being the student he’s the Master as the tables turn. I think that the nostalgia the book brings to Assassin’s Apprentice might be another reason why I love the series so much.
One of things I think worth mentioning about all of the books in the Realm of Elderlings books is the writing style of lots of rhetorical questions. I think the reason I enjoy them is it reminds me of my own thinking style so it means I can relate to the character more and gives me an idea of what he’s thinking when it comes to the situation. To see how our thoughts differ.
Another writing style I really appreciate of Robin Hobb’s is her secret keeping. It’s almost impossible to guess where the plot will go because she throws secrets left right and centre. You don’t expect a secret will appear, it sneaks up on you. In a lot of cases the secrets are so late in the series that all the clues are missed because the secret is so spaced out. It’s very frustrating when reading as you just want to know everything but that’s why it’s so genius as that’s what keeps you reading. Hobb is a great writer, full of surprises despite every little detail having some importance. She’s created a brilliant very detailed world that I love.
*SPOILERS*
I want to move on to the characters and story of the book. The Fitz family-tree is mildly confusing. This is a diagram of the family tree (not including wives). Now the confusing part is Verity was in Fitz body to conceive Dutiful. So Verity is Dutiful’s spiritual father but technically Fitz is Dutiful’s biological father. However Fitz and Dutiful are cousins. In a way it’s incestual but also not, this still continues to confuse me.
Although this book lacked in major events compared to previous books and what I suspect the next book to be like; I can’t help but say that this book so far is my favourite of the series. It’s hard for me to put in words why this is the case, it’s more a gut feeling. When I think of reasons why, one that comes to mind is that this book compared to the others was very relationship heavy. It was about friendships more than anything in my opinion and I think that sort of content just hits my heart more than dragon chasing.
The Golden Fool reminds me a lot of Assassin's Apprentice. It has the similar vibes and story except rather than Fitz being the student he’s the Master as the tables turn. I think that the nostalgia the book brings to Assassin’s Apprentice might be another reason why I love the series so much.
One of things I think worth mentioning about all of the books in the Realm of Elderlings books is the writing style of lots of rhetorical questions. I think the reason I enjoy them is it reminds me of my own thinking style so it means I can relate to the character more and gives me an idea of what he’s thinking when it comes to the situation. To see how our thoughts differ.
Another writing style I really appreciate of Robin Hobb’s is her secret keeping. It’s almost impossible to guess where the plot will go because she throws secrets left right and centre. You don’t expect a secret will appear, it sneaks up on you. In a lot of cases the secrets are so late in the series that all the clues are missed because the secret is so spaced out. It’s very frustrating when reading as you just want to know everything but that’s why it’s so genius as that’s what keeps you reading. Hobb is a great writer, full of surprises despite every little detail having some importance. She’s created a brilliant very detailed world that I love.
*SPOILERS*
I want to move on to the characters and story of the book. The Fitz family-tree is mildly confusing. This is a diagram of the family tree (not including wives). Now the confusing part is Verity was in Fitz body to conceive Dutiful. So Verity is Dutiful’s spiritual father but technically Fitz is Dutiful’s biological father. However Fitz and Dutiful are cousins. In a way it’s incestual but also not, this still continues to confuse me.
In the book, Dutiful for the most part knows that Tom Badgerlock isn’t Fitz real identity and 76% through the book discovers he’s his thought to be dead uncle Fitz. However Fitz has not explained that technically he is father too, that my scar a child to be honest.
Fitz has two biological children: Dutiful and Nettle and one adopted child: Hap. In this book Hap takes a turn, he finally gets to start his apprenticeship but he falls in love with a girl named Svanja. This love is forbidden and starts to ruin his apprenticeship and his relationship with Fitz. Eventually she breaks Hap’s heart and allows him to see sense and turn his life back around luckily.
Nettle is coming more of a character now. She keeps contacting Fitz using the skill in her dreams. Nettle is very powerful in the skill and it would be great if she did come to buckeep eventually to be trained by Fitz. Sadly this can’t happen as then she’ll find out that Fitz is her dad. This divide makes me sad as I really want Fitz to be united with his little girl.
Fitz and Jinna’s relationship grows more in this book. They start sleeping together for a while but sadly no love seems to develop between them. I just want Fitz to fall in love again and forget about Molly as Jinna is a better character anyway. Hwever things got complicated for their relationship as Jinna isn’t as open-minded about the Wit as we believed her to be. I think this lack of acceptance is odd behaviour from a hedgewitch as surely she should understand what it’s like to live a life with magic. In the end it seems Jinna is a replacement for Starling rather than Molly.
A new character is Thick, Chades servant. At the beginning of the book I was suspicious of him, as I learnt my mistakes from the discovery of little Rosemary being a spy. Later these suspicions are correct as Thick turns out to be a poor spy for Laudrine. However unlike other characters, I don’t blame Thick for doing this. His name very easily explains his personality so it wasn’t his fault to be forced to spy. Eventually he turns into a lovely character that I hope never dies as I just love him. There’s one thing I don’t understand with him. His Skill is very strong and I feel for it to be as strong as it is surely he has Farseer blood, but who’s?
Finally in The Golden Fool we have a brief return of Burrich, as he chases his son from Buckeep. Fitz still doesn’t want to reveal he is alive even if it would help Burrich’s son Swift. Swift is witted and Burrich blames the wit for the loss of Fitz and tries to suppress the Wit in Swift. Eventually he disowns his son and sends him to Buckeep, without realising that Fitz will be his Wit tutor. I like this because Burrich raised Fitz and now Fitz can return the favor by raising Burrich’s son. Although it does hurt that Burrich could abandon his son like that. It’s further sad when Fitz realises Burrich is starting to lose his sight, this means he’s getting old and I don’t think he’ll be in the books much longer which is heartbreaking as a reader.
Despite Fitz losing Nighteyes at the end of the previous book, there’s not that much mention of his pain. I feel like he should be suffering more from it but he seems fine, maybe it’s just because he’s kept busy. I hope he finds a new beast in the next book… maybe a dragon.
Another new character in the series is the Outislander Narcheska Elliania Blackwater the potential bride for Dutiful to help keep an alliance. These two don’t get along too well and have a very childish attitude to each other despite the power they have. Elliania gave Dutiful the quest to a slay a dragon for her hand in marriage. She and her family are very suspicious, especially her uncle Peottre. Not much has been revealed yet except that she has mysterious tattoo’s that the Fool also shares and is involved with Dragons.
This leads me on to the Fool and how his secrets still linger. Each book we find out a little bit more but still not a satisfying amount. Something I suspect of him is that he is female. He’s been accused by various of characters of being female, such as Starling. A friend of the Fool knows him as Amber where he is known for using a woman's voice. It does make me wonder… Further still when he reveals his tattoo back to Fitz but keeps his chest cover as if he’s hiding it and then Fitz has to leave while he redresses which takes a while. There’s so many signs. It was also mean the love the Fool has for Fitz isn’t gay. We just have to wait and hope.
The next book is Fool’s Fate, this book will most likely be about the dragon quest and is even longer than this one. I believe the name of the book is to correspond with the Fool’s potential death. I don’t think he’ll reach his fate afterall the next series has his name in the book titles. I look forward to reading it.
Overall this book was brilliant and has really impressed me that I never expected. I think I’ll always remember this book and highly recommend people to read it.
Quote:
'One man armed with the right word may do what an army of swordsmen cannot.'
- Robin Hobb, Golden Fool
Rating: 5 runes out of 5
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