Robin Hobb is one of my favorite authors, for a few reasons:
- Like many of my favorite authors, I randomly picked one of her books in a bookstore. I think this is likely true for many people my age or older - I grew up
with the internet, but the social aspect wasn't there yet. So book recommendations were few and far between. I enjoy authors that I discovered on my own, especially
when, like Robin Hobb, aren't as mainstream as some of the bigger authors.
-
She wrote three really solid trilogies. I think things taper off after Fool's Fate (The Tawny Man, Book 3)
,
but I'm fine with that. Three really good trilogies set in the same universe is somewhat of a rarity among modern Fantasy authors.
-
Her books are original. Of course they're inspired from Fantasy authors before her, like everyone else, but these series don't read like Tolkein remixes.
I haven't re-read the series' in a couple years, and definitely haven't with a review mindset. But I am pretty sure they still hold their own. At the time they were a little more groundbreaking, because now with
George R. R. Martin's A Game of Throne (Song of Ice and Fire series)
we are all used to series that lean more towards the tragedy side. Yet there are still some great original concepts here, and the books are well written, which is important to me.
On 5/19/14 the Kindle edition of
Assassin's Apprentice was only a buck, which inspired me to link to it. Even if it's not on sale I wholly recommend reading The Farseer Trilogy and seeing if you agree with me.