4 out of 5 stars
Free Range Reading 2024
Robin Hobb has done it to me again. Using her writing, she has squeezed my heart until tears leaked out of my eyes. Hobb is unsparing of her characters. They face big challenges and they don't emerge unscathed. Fitz really takes the brunt of it in this outing.
Every pet owner can sympathize with the losses experienced. Animals, however beloved, have shorter life spans than we do, and their care for us influences their behaviour. I had a little old bunny who waited for me to return from a trip and get to cuddle her one more time before she gave up her struggle. It was heart breaking and I'm just lucky that I got to and from the vet's office, crying as hard as I was.
Fitz is Witted, capable of bonding with animals (or should I say an animal) in a way that makes the non-Witted wary and hostile. Unfortunately for all of them, Prince Dutiful is also Witted, as well as desperately lonely and easily influenced. Has he been kidnapped or lured away by those who would use him? Either way, Fitz and the Fool are sent to retrieve the wayward Prince, disguised as servant Tom Badgerlock and Lord Golden.
I can only say that Hobb makes the emotional distress worthwhile. I was able to pick up where I left off in 2020 when I read Assassin's Quest, and sink right back into the Realm of the Elderlings easily. There is no question that I'll be completing this Tawny Man trilogy.
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