I finally finished the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb! I covered the first two in this post and this one. This was definitely a mixed bag of an experience, for a lot of the book I was a little bored and wondering where we were going with this, but the conclusion was definitely satisfying in a way that not many series are for me these days. So while I wouldn't jump to recommend it, I did have a good time with this book.
It starts where the previous book left off, Fitz induced his own death to escape a dungeon by bonding his soul with his wolf's. His surrogate father Burrich and mentor Chade then brought him back into his body after he was buried and essentially brought him back to life. However he still has to learn to be a man again, which Burrich bullies into him. Eventually though he does regain his memories, painful as they are, and he chews out the both of them. This triggers both of them into leaving. Fitz and his wolf, Nighteyes, start traveling to find King Regal and kill him as revenge.
This is tragically a lot of the book, them traveling on their own. They get there and he fails to kill the king but word is now out that he's still alive. Verity, the true king, realizes what Fitz is doing and Skill commands Fitz to join him. (The Skill is like telepathy essentially.) So Fitz starts traveling to him. On the way he realizes through his Skill dreams that his partner before he died, Molly, has given birth to his daughter with Burrich there to help. He tries to go to them, they both think he's dead, but is physically unable to due to Verity's Skill command. So he keeps going. He meets a minstrel, Starling, who figures out who he is. He is briefly captured and escapes, then the two of them start heading up to the mountain kingdom. They meet up with Kettle, an old lady heading the same way. Of course they are ambushed on the way but narrowly escape again.
Fitz had to separate from the other two and is nearly dead when he gets there. The Fool, now the White Prophet, finds him and starts to care for Fitz. Chade, Kettricken, Kettle, and Starling all stop by. Eventually Regal finds out though and most of them (all but Chade) start heading up the mountains to try and find Verity. They eventually find him at the top of the mountain in a quarry. He is carving a dragon. Kettle reveals that she was a member of a queen's Skill users and starts to help him. Fitz wants to but is rebuffed, and Kettricken is aghast to find her husband half out of his wits as he focuses so single-mindedly on the dragon. It becomes clear that Verity is putting himself into the dragon to eventually become it, and Kettle will join him. Verity refuses to put Fitz in, and that reveals that it isn't enough to wake the dragon. Fitz makes a deal where he can put some of himself in but only if they do not take his daughter to become the new heir to the throne. They Skill to Burrich and Molly and Fitz sees them sleeping together as they both think him dead. He's devastated, but Verity keeps his end of the bargain and gives Kettricken an heir. Verity is able to wake the dragon, and there's a final battle where Fitz wakes the other dragons, and the Fool leads them all to fight off the Red Ships. Peace is restored.
We leave Fitz as an old man writing up his memories. Starling still comes to visit, but he never reveals that he is still alive to anyone else.
For the vast majority of the book, it felt like a big slog. Fitz is constantly going through boring periods of him just traveling with the wolf, and once you think it cannot get any more monotonous he gets captured. He gets a few new scars, but manages to escape. And then it starts over again. Once he gets to the mountain kingdom it does get more interesting with the reappearance of Kettricken and the Fool. The Fool is one of my favorite characters, very funny and a gender neutral icon.
What stuck with me the most was the way Hobb dealt with Fitz's relationship with Molly. I think it had such a large impact on me since Fitz is constantly thinking about her. He so desperately wants to get back to her and the child but cannot. He does so much to try and ensure their safety, but it is simply not enough in the end. She thought he was dead for too long and he wasn't there to help. Usually storytellers would have a couple like that reunite, but not Hobb. And that really broke my heart, I truly felt for Fitz with that. Plus then the rest of the characters are dealing with it pretty flippantly and that made me indignant on his behalf. I am glad he never started up a strong relationship with anyone else. He had to actually feel that pain and process through it and not seek them out ever again. Just brutal.
I also appreciated the ending with the dragons. They feed off of life, and the blood then wakes them up and reminds them that they're hungry. But in the process the people in them are consumed. Verity does not respond as a human after that, even though his purpose is to save his kingdom. And it is revealed that the shadow of a dragon causes you to lose your thoughts, revealing how the Forged ones that have been terrorizing the kingdom came about. The dragons flew over the kingdom's enemies so many times that they forgot everything and turned into shells of humans, so they did the same back. The book ends implying that this is a cycle, and I enjoyed that. The big bad of the trilogy is really King Regal, the Red Ships are never made clear who or what is behind them. But this detail at the end humanized them and made it more than barbaric fighting.
As a result I am not really sure how to leave this series. Again I do not think I would recommend it without caveats, but the world was fun to inhabit and the ending was so satisfying. It takes a bit to get there, but maybe it is worth it if you are looking for a new fantasy series.
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