Blood of Dragons

Rain Wild Chronicles #4

by Robin Hobb

The dragons' survival hangs in the balance in the thrilling final volume in the acclaimed River Wilds Chronicles fantasy series

The dragons and their dedicated band of keepers have at last found the lost city of Kelsingra. The magical creatures have learned to use their wings and are growing into their regal inheritance. Their humans, too, are changing. As the mystical bonds with their dragons deepen, Thymara, Tats, Rapskal, and even Sedric, the unlikeliest of keepers, have begun transforming into beautiful Elderlings raked with exquisite features that complement and reflect the dragons they serve.

But while the humans have scoured the empty streets and enormous buildings of Kelsingra, they cannot find the mythical silver wells the dragons need to stay health and survive. With enemies encroaching, the keepers must risk "memory walking"- immersing themselves in the dangerously addictive memories of long-deceased Elderlings - to uncover clues necessary to their survival.

And time is of the essence, for the legendary Tintaglia, long feared dead, has returned, wounded in a battle with humans hunting dragon blood and scales. She is weakening and only the hidden silver can revive her. If Tintaglia dies, so, too, will the ancient memories she carries - a devastating loss that will ensure the dragons' extinction.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Dragons, High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Audiobook, Adult

Audiobook

First published March 1, 2013

About the author

** I am shocked to find that some people think a 2 star 'I liked it' rating is a bad rating. What? I liked it. I LIKED it! That means I read the whole thing, to the last page, in spite of my life raining comets on me. It's a good book that survives the reading process with me. If a book is so-so, it ends up under the bed somewhere, or maybe under a stinky judo bag in the back of the van. So a 2 star from me means,yes, I liked the book, and I'd loan it to a friend and it went everywhere in my jacket pocket or purse until I finished it. A 3 star means that I've ignored friends to finish it and my sink is full of dirty dishes. A 4 star means I'm probably in trouble with my editor for missing a deadline because I was reading this book. But I want you to know . . . I don't finish books I don't like. There's too many good ones out there waiting to be found.


Robin Hobb is the author of three well-received fantasy trilogies: The Farseer Trilogy (Assassin’s Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassin’s Quest), The Liveship Traders Trilogy (Ship of Magic, Mad Ship and Ship of Destiny) and the Tawny Man Trilogy (Fool’s Errand, Golden Fool, and Fool’s Fate) Her current work in progress is entitled Shaman’s Crossing. Robin Hobb lives and works in Tacoma, Washington, and has been a professional writer for over 30 years.

In addition to writing, her interests include gardening, mushrooming, and beachcombing. She and her husband Fred have three grown children and one teenager, and three grand-children.

She also writes as Megan Lindholm, and works under that name have been finalists for the Hugo award, the Nebula Award, and the Endeavor award. She has twice won an Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Readers’ Award.

Reviews

[Matt's Fantasy Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Check out my YouTube channel where I show my instant reactions to reading fantasy books as soon as I finish the book.

An absolutely wonderful read. By far the best book in the Rain Wild Chronicles sub-series, and one of the best books in the entire Realm of the Elderlings series

As I went into this book, I had some major trepidation. This sub-series of the Rain Wild Chronicles has been my least favorite in the Realm of the Elderlings series, and has repeatedly been criticized by fans of the series. I thought the 3rd book in this series was good, but the 2nd book was one of the worst books I have ever read - and when I read the top reviews on goodreads for this 4th book I had to scroll down to find any 5 star reviews. But what I read pleasantly shocked me, as this book was an absolutely amazing conclusion to this story arc and on it's own was a tremendously enjoyable read.

The problem with the previous books for me has been that their pace has been too slow, and there was too much of a focus on teenage romance. And while the teenage romance did exist in this book, it was toned down to an acceptable degree, and the pace was greatly expanded - at times being blisteringly fast and difficult to put down.

Without spoiling anything, the Rain Wild Chronicles has been about the epic journey of newborn dragons who are extremely malformed and appear to be destined to die early deaths. There is a King of a rival country who is dying and needs dragon parts in order to get healthy again, so he is chasing these dragons as they go on a quest to find a new home. And the journey of the dragons has involved outcast humans who are helping the dragons to both find this new home, and to find their own place in a world that despises them. All of these storylines come to extremely pleasant conclusions in this series and make the journey, while a rough road at times, well worth it.

At one point I suggested that people may want to skip these books and simply read a synopsis of them to move onto the other books that are so highly rated, but you would be doing yourself a tremendous dis-service by doing that.

[Petrik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Highly recommended for anyone who loved reading love triangle relationship. The question is: who does?

I don’t want to spend any more of my time on this series, I’ve spent way too many precious times on this mediocre series already so I’ll try to keep it short. The plot line has become super predictable, heck Big Hero 6 has more twist than this series. Not only that, most of the plot sits in the background while the two dimensional new characters focusing on love, sex, and who cheated on who. I’m looking at you, Thymarra, Rapskal, and Tats. I hope there will be a payoff for reading this quartet in The Fitz and the Fool trilogy because believe me, if anyone asks me whether to read this quartet or not I will immediately tell them to stay away. This is one of the lowest ratings I’ve ever rated for a series. I mean it, it’s not often that I found a series with each installment rating 3 stars and below; I certainly didn’t expect it to be coming from Robin Hobb.

There are actually a lot of important things happening for the world of the Elderlings that Hobb has created here, especially regarding the dragons and Elderlings. However, they were once again heavily overshadowed by forgettable new characters and love triangles. In fact, I think of this series overall as a chick flick with Adam Sandler as the main character. Don’t even get me started on the one dimensional Chalcedean villains. Disney animation villains have more characterizations and tension than them. The buildup towards the last battle in the series was long and then boom, it happened off-screen. Robin Hobb is not a great action scenes writer, she never was and I'm fine with that. However, it’s still not advisable to build towards something and then telling it happened off the screen without the readers being able to see it.

Finally, I did some research and as it turns out, this quartet was actually two books divided by four because it was too long. Look, instead of dividing it into four books that made the quality of each book diminish, maybe you know? Edit it properly into a more efficient two books.

I’m just glad I’m finally done with this quartet. Not only it's easily Hobb’s worst series, it's also one of the worst series I’ve ever read in my life. Regardless of what I feel on the last trilogy and the previous series, I will never reread this quartet again. I will recommend this quartet only for anyone who loved reading poorly written love triangles with the plot, world-building, and pretty much everything else sits in the background. In the end, the only redeeming factors of this quartet are the pretty covers.

Picture: My copies of Rainwild Chronicles quartet



Series review:

Dragon Keeper: 3.5/5 stars

Dragon Haven: 1/5 stars

City of Dragons: 3/5 stars

Blood of Dragons: 2/5 stars

Rainwild Chronicles quartet: 9.5/20 stars

You can find this and the rest of my Adult Epic/High Fantasy & Sci-Fi reviews at BookNest

[Becca & The Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely not my favourite series in the Realm of The Elderlings but Blood of Dragons was my favourite book in the Rain Wild Chronicles overall.
This series ultimately just didn't have as many characters that I loved as I'm accustomed to from Robin Hobb and the latter books in the series felt disjointed, cutting away from the bulk of the action in most cases.
I did enjoy the reappearance of some of the characters from Liveship Traders but it then felt like the book was taking on too much, making it feel further disjointed.
I did still have a good time with this one, just in comparison to the rest of Robin Hobb's books, it fell short for me.

[Em Lost In Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's over and that's what matters the most for me. Can't wait to meet Fitz and Fool.

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

[Sally · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh God it pains me -- deeply -- to be awarding a 1 star rating to a book written by my favourite author, but I have to be honest, I just couldn't be getting along with this book at all. Characters that had previously seemed so fleshed out and three-dimensional (Sedric, Relpda and Malta for example) suddenly became flat and boring, mere shadows of their former selves; the threads of storylines that had been building up in City Of Dragons felt either abandoned (the traitors amongst the Traders Council in Cassarick), unresolved (Rapskal and Tellator) or completely rushed (pretty much everything that happens in Chalced and everything to do with Selden); some passages were so badly written that they actually made me cringe; some of the messages that Hobb tries to convey, a weird combination of slut-shaming and prude-shaming all at once really rubbed me up the wrong way even as she continues to defy convention with the inclusion of several prominent gay characters (none of them female, mind); and I generally was not gripped by anything that happened in this book.

Also Hest's death was ridiculous. Why did Kalo do it? Why did no one notice that he had done it, particularly Davvie? It was all way too tidy, and if you ask me, rather Disney villain-esque. Hest as a character himself also became rather ridiculous to the point it became hard to take him seriously. He was truly terrifying in Dragon Keeper/Dragon Haven. What happened? It really bothered me.

My least favourite book by Robin Hobb, sadly. I still look forward to her next one though because I love her.

[Mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars- My favorite final book in a Hobb series. I officially am not here for RWC hate

[Anna [Bran. San. Stan] · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book confirmed what I already knew after reading the first trilogy in the Realm of the Elderlings 16-book series: Robin Hobb will become one of my favorite authors of all time. Given the fact that of all the previous books the first three books of this series (Rain Wild Chronicles) were the weakest (earning “only” a 4-star rating from me), I find it especially remarkable that this finale was that amazing. Blood of Dragons was definitely the best of this tetralogy: it was both immensely satisfying and beautifully executed.

Probably the most satisfying character arcs – that Hobb is so great at generally – were those of the assholes. They always get their comeuppance and after making my blood boil for seemingly interminably long stretches, my vindictive side whoops with glee at their deserved fate. In this book, I only wish that one character’s death had happened on-page. Boy, did I need to see them suffer but, alas, I was denied that type of pay-off.

I also wish the ending had shown us a bit more of life in Kelsingra and where our characters ended up. Don’t get me wrong, the ending was absolutely satisfying and we do know what happens to all the characters – I just wanted to immerse myself in their lives a little more and was reluctant to part with them.

Now on to the final series in the Realm of the Elderlings and back to my man Fitz! I’m already dreading leaving Hobb’s world and enduring another massive book hangover.

Onward!

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Reading recommendation

So, in case you have already jumped into Hobb’s world but have been on the fence about reading this series, this fast-paced final book makes everything so worth it. Believe me, the pay-off is amazing. And dragons are awesome. Just throwing that out there.

But if you haven’t read Hobb yet and you like character-driven fantasy, you should definitely make time for her books! There is a reading order though: you can either start with the Farseer Trilogy or, if that sounds more appealing to you, with the Liveship Traders trilogy. In order to read the Rain Wild Chronicles, you need to have read the latter at least.
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Reading order

1. Farseer Trilogy (1 Assassin's Apprentice, 2 Royal Assassin, 2 Assassin's Quest)
2. Liveship Traders (1 Ship of Magic, 2 The Mad Ship, 3 Ship of Destiny)
3. The Tawny Man (1 Fool's Errand, 2 Golden Fool, 3 Fool's Fate)
4. Rain Wild Chronicles (1 Dragon Keeper, 2 Dragon Haven, 3 City of Dragons, 4 Blood of Dragons)
5. The Fitz and the Fool (1 Fool's Assassin, 2 Fool's Quest, 3 Assassin's Fate)

[Mili · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another beautiful series by Robin Hobb! The dragons their fight to become 'real' dragons again. A combination of new and old characters. All very alive and quickly to love throughout the series. Its an adventurous tale of growth and finding a home. Lots of emotional struggle and the hardships of traveling to new grounds. When it comes to my slow reading I read through these 4 books quickly, and now Im so sad!

[Kitty G Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the conclusion to the Rain Wild books which means I have almost caught up to the current series, crazy! I really loved both this and the previous book because they were so action-packed and made me just want to read, read, read. I couldn't stop myself from being lost in their world of Dragons and Elderlings, magic and wonder, it was just too enticing.

I think that this was a pretty satisfactory (if rushed) ending. Overall I liked the character threads and there were some great endings of certain character's plotlines, some I laughed at, some I was saddened by and some made me smile and get all warm, fuzzy and emotional (always the end of Hobb's series seem to do this to me!) I didn't feel like any of the storylines were unresolved, and although I did think that there could have been (and might still be) more on the characters and world, I felt it all worked well as a complete story.

In terms of pacing and narrative this picks up straight after the ending of book #3 which is great for me (as I read them one after the other) and gets straight back to the problems of the day. We get to see that Hobb manages to juggle various threads, people and places nicely, and weaves together a complete story in the end. I found myself easily able to fly through the pages.

On the whole I would say that the second two books in this series are far superior to the first two, and although I liked the first these are more representative of the magic Hobb's writing can evoke. We learn a lot about the history and complexity of the Elderlings and the world with some long feuds being rattled and tested. I really enjoyed this, and was certainly invested in the characters and their world and passions, a worthy 4.5* rating indeed (although still not my favourite of the whole series or of Hobb's previous books). I would NOT recommend starting with this series as it will spoil a LOT of Hobb's other books, but if you've read her previous series (Farseer, Liveships and Tawny Man [in that order]) then definitely dive into this if you're ready for some depressing stuff!

[Aldi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accidental reread May '21:

Oh look, I fell sideways into my favourite magical queer-friendly dragon expat spa colony and I regret nothing.


*******************************************************

Let me begin this review with a few sentiments approximating the noises in my head upon finishing this:

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

ajskasuaiuwuioeuqw8euasIULXBaskmBNAKJSJHAKWEHAKJSHAklsjaKSHAkjsjaLKSHJklshA.

HHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNHHHHHHHHHHHHGRRAAAAAARGAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

AIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAIAI.

woooooooooooohoooooooooooooyeeeeeeeeeehiiiiiiiiiiiiiyyyyyaaaaaaaaaa.

Aaaaah, that’s better *flails* Obviously, this was masterful and I adored it. Thoughts in no particular order:

First of all, I still wish it had been possible to publish this series as a duology – it’s rather noticeable how the story was set up to be that way. The momentum didn’t really develop properly until Dragon Haven, as it would in the second half of a single novel, and most of City of Dragons was build-up for the events of this final volume. I’m really looking forward to rereading the series in one go sometime and seeing whether how affects the pacing.

Anyway, this is about Blood of Dragons! SO MANY FEELS. So much nail-biting! So much bouncing glee!

The dragons! THE DRAGONS ARE FLYING! FLYING AND HUNTING AND GROWING AND KILLING PEOPLE! It makes your heart swell. No, really, when this all started out and they were all stunted little miserable lizard things crawling about in the mud, I never thought they’d get to this point, and it’s been such a long and hard and magical journey. To see them finally flying and in charge of their own destiny – yeah, not gonna lie, there were sniffles involved.

It’s brilliant and entertaining how most of the dragons found keepers that have similar personality traits – Thymara and Sintara with their prickly natures, Sedric and Relpda with their craving for luxury (“NO MUD!!”), Mercor and Sylve with their level-headedness. All those relationships were so well developed, even the more perfunctory arrangements like Carson and Spit. (Tarman with his gentle nudge at Leftrin and his assertion of “I’m the best, obviously” totally melted my heart, btw. YES, YOU ARE!)

Thoroughly enjoyed all the news between the bird keepers – it was such an odd little sideplot to start with but it, too, has come such a long way, and it’s ridiculous how close Robin makes you feel to characters you never even meet in the flesh! Good to know that bastard Kim finally got exposed for the traitorous little shit he was. And and and the letters from the Vestrits, Wintrow in particular, were such a wonderful addition! It was like hearing from old friends.

Tintaglia broke my heart into tiny tiny pieces. I honestly wasn’t sure if she was going to make it and it was sheer torture. It feels funny now to remember her when she was still in her cocoon and glamouring Reyn – she seemed like such a sinister influence back then and at first I was so annoyed with her snooty dismissive ways, but now? Compared to some of the other dragons (ahem, Sintara), she is downright mature and mellow *cuddles her*

I love Malta and Reyn, and although I wasn’t huuuugely involved in their babyplot (she kinda lost me last book with that whole secretly giving birth under her skirts with the two assassins two feet away from her not noticing…), but I’m glad it all worked out for them, they’ve been through so much already. It all fell together so neatly with the discovery of the Silver, and then OH MY GOD, THE MENTION OF THE MARKS ON MALTA’S NECK! AMBER GAVE HER THOSE THE DAY THAT PARAGON LAUNCHED IN “THE MAD SHIP”!!! I went and looked it up because I only vaguely remembered it and god, it gave me shivers – Amber’s prophecy, and then Malta fainting and the unassuming little side mention of Amber having touched her neck with her bare (skill-covered) fingertips! It’s crazy how wonderfully plotted it all is, and I can’t express how much I love it when stories tie so beautifully into previously explored worlds/plots like this.

(Sidebar: It’s been bugging me that Malta has gold hair now – I *think* there was something in City of Dragons about that being a dragon-induced Elderling change? But she definitely was described as dark-haired all through the Liveship Trader books. Even if it was an Elderling change, it’s kind of odd.)

SELDEN OMG. His parts were the hardest to read :CCCCCCC What a horrid ordeal. (For the record, if no Vestrit family member ever gets raped again, that… would be good. It’s like they’re magnets for sexually violent creeps.) I felt a bit removed from him in the earlier parts of the series simply because there was so much of his story that wasn’t covered, but I was definitely deeply invested in him in this final instalment. I was so glad he made it out of there, although oh god, he’s going to be so broken. And his shared prison time with Chassim and the conversations they had were just devastating. When they made the pact that they’d both die on the same day… HEARTBREAK. I hope the Duke got acid-eaten sloooooowly.

As ever, Robin Hobb does the best despicable villains – not clichéd storybook villains, just people who are horrid for various reasons. And the best thing is when you meet a character who’s just a completely awful human being, you never know whether she’s going to somehow completely turn them around (hi Malta!) or reveal some horridly twisted back-story that makes you feel for them despite their awfulness (ack, Kennit), or whether they’re just going to pretty much stay repulsive and hopefully get their come-uppance someday (ugh, Kyle Haven; screw you, Duke of Chalced; DIE, PRINCE REGAL, DIE DIE). Hest Finbok falls into the latter category – no substantial change of heart/mind, he’s just your genuine douchebag article. He goes through some shit in this book, of course, and I was actually prepared to feel sorry for him at various points, but then he just goes and keeps on blaming everybody else and being horrid to people and yeah, there goes the sympathy.

I loved Alise and Sedric both putting Hest in his place – Sedric’s big denunciation speech in front of everyone (complete with public snoggage and applause) could have been cringily on the nose, but it worked because he did it for Alise and I love that they’ve managed to retain and strengthen their friendship and close ranks against Hest. (Could’ve done without Carson crying a Single Tear, though, to be honest!) And aaaaargh, then he goes and puts his rapey hands on Davvie! Grrrrrrr. I was so relieved Davvie didn’t go for it, and that he and Sedric both punched him. Wheeeeeee. AND THEN KALO GOES AND EATS HIM. KALO IS MY HERO. Well, again, I flinched a bit and was ready to almost feel sorry for the bloody arse again, because okay, that is a nasty way to die. But then his last thought – his LAST thought! – is how everyone will mock him if he’s a cripple, and uhm, wow. No, dude, you will be dead and everyone will forget you and your shitty boyfriend-abusing delusional little tiny insignificant life. Now I just hope Kalo puked out his memories somewhere, because Hest does not deserve to continue in any shape or form. It was a fitting touch for no one to figure out what had happened to him, and no one caring.

Bit peeved off at some characters, particularly Carson, at their continued dismissal of some relationships (Davvie and Lecter’s, mostly, but also Tats/Thymara/Rapskal) as immature, impermanent and therefore somehow not worthwhile. Carson, you are usually so lovely, don’t be a judgemental arse to your nephew/ward/son figure! :C I mean yeah, most teenage romances are usually considered impermanent, that’s fine – but that’s no reason to utterly dismiss the feelings of the teenagers involved as silly or not legitimate, or to rub the transient nature of most teen relationships into the teen’s face. I was pretty pissed at him last book when he basically told Tats that his feelings weren’t real (while flaunting his own perfect relationship with Sedric, no less), and he’s been rubbish at being supportive to Davvie, essentially dismissing him and his problems with Lecter just because they’re young. It’s not like Sedric is heaps older than the teens, I wonder how Carson would feel if someone told him, “pft, your boyfriend is only sticking around until someone better comes along.” Don’t get me wrong, it made for great, believable character-based conflict, it was a very authentic portrayal of how many adults do treat teenage relationships, and if Carson was the perfect father in addition to being the perfect partner and perfect leader/hunter/provider figure, it would probably have been too much ;) Just needed to get that off my chest. (Also HELLO, MALTA IS RIGHT THERE, HER RELATIONSHIP WITH HER HUSBAND STARTED WHEN SHE WAS, LIKE, THIRTEEN!) Again, it was neat to see the teens in question proving him wrong, with Davvie noticeably coming into his own, and Tats and Thymara working things out.

Speaking off, gaaaah, Rapskal’s disappearance into Tellator and Thymara trying to keep him from losing himself was heart-wrenching. She’s never been one of my favourite characters but I probably felt most strongly for her in this book. Again, the development was masterful.

What else – oh, Alise! It was wonderful to see her make her own place in the world and finding that she has things to offer even if she isn’t an Elderling. You go, girl. She’s come such a long way. (I want to read all her scrolls. Also, I want to live in Kelsingra, but that’s a no-brainer. Hot baths? Shiny clothes? Beds that mould to your shape? Rooms that always stay warm? An entire magical city to explore and bring back to life? I’m so there.)

It was so good to see Paragon again (he’s still my favourite liveship, although I adore Tarman as well), along with Althea and Brashen & Co. I whooped out loud when Paragon was handing out breeding advice to Alise and Leftrin. Tactless ship is tactless!

The ending was perfect – Tintaglia picking a mate who suits her better than IceFyre, everyone being pretty much agreed that the future will need to bring changes, fucking Chalced finally put in its place (go Chassim! She’s going to do great things with it!), and NEW DRAGON EGGS ABOUT TO BE LAID. There were tears. The good kind. I want to go straight back to the Farseer trilogy now and reread them all chronologically (ahahahahah, that would almost be the same number of books as the entirety of Wheel of Time!). Robin Hobb is still magic.

[Brandon Zarzyczny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book while I was reading it, but once it was done I just found it to be a bit underwhelming, which is something I'd never say about any of Robin Hobb's other trilogy endings. The writing is classic Hobb, where it is incredibly enjoyable to read and all of the characters are completely unique and entertaining. There's also a bit of character torture going on here, but it's really only one character, as all of the other good main characters have it pretty easy in Blood of Dragons (which is surprising considering Hobb's track record). The one thing I didn't love about the character development (everything else was great) was that Hobb had a strong tendency in this book to pair up all of the human and dragon characters together like a matchmaker. I'm sure that it's bound to happen when a group of young people (and dragons) go on an adventure and start a new settlement, but it felt a little forced at times.

The story for Blood of Dragons is pretty basic, where the dragons and new elderlings continue to grow/change and they have to deal with the threat to all dragonkind from Chalced. That's basically it beyond all of the different character interactions and development. I expected a bigger climax from the confrontation with Chalced, but because of the chosen viewpoints and the style of storytelling for this section, which mostly occurs with a character recollecting what happened at a later date, it was just a bit of a letdown. Still, the events in this book have really changed the world, and the future books by Robin Hobb could be very interesting.

If you've read the previous books in The Rain Wilds Series, you should definitely read The Blood of Dragons, as it does pretty nicely tie all of the different plotlines in a knot. However, I'd defintely advise a new reader to start with Hobb's Farseer or Liveship Trilogies.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

An expressive, fitting goodbye and satisfying ending to this 4-part series, four books that I’d spread out over a roughly ten-month reading span. This ending doesn't really feel like a goodbye though, and maybe that's because it has filled in so many gaps and occurrences from the Liveship Traders all the way to the finale of the Fitz and the Fool series, while touching on past reading memories that are just slightly out of reach (on the “tip of my tongue” as is said). Neither the Fitz nor the Fool were in here, but some of the places they “touched” played a big part. And that only serves as a push to return to the very beginning once again – to touch base with FitzChivilry Farseer as a child. In time I will do that.

[Deborah Obida · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this series is the least because to say worse is too harsh,written by Robin Hobb, I will actually miss the characters. The final book in the series was slightly underwhelming, even the huge dragon battle at the end.

‘It is hard for loneliness to gaze on happiness,’

The characters, including the dragons developed a lot, they all matured and were different from who they were in book one. Especially Sedric, Alise and Thymara, I say good riddance. I don't like how Hobb solve the love triangle situation, I guess it deserved better.

There is something about knowing that someone is taking pleasure in giving you incredible pain … with no remorse. It changes how you see yourself; it changes what you can believe of other people. It changes everything.’

Selden, Malta and Reyn were still here, their inclusion in the book improved it somewhat.

I love the writing style, the multiple POV gave the reader different perspectives, the Chalceaden portrayal as villains was a disappointment, I expected more.

The plot was actually great but the depiction not so much, this series would have been better if it stayed the duology Hobb planned. The infamous elderlings that all the series set in the Elderling world are about are back to this world, there is still much to learn about them and how they made all those magical jewels, clothing etc. I wish that was more explored instead of Chalceaden. A book mustn't have a villain.

[Henrique · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blood of Dragons


Blood of Dragons is the fourth and final book in Robin Hobb's The Rain Wild Chronicles series, and it provides a very good conclusion to one of the best things the author has ever written. Speaking of the series as a whole, I really enjoyed it because of its strong focus on dragons and their elders, and I found the character development very interesting to follow. The characters were super interesting, especially two in particular: Alise and Leftrin, who were my favorites. I really liked all the dragons presented in this series, especially Kalo and Tintaglia, who also return here. I think perhaps the only negative point for me was that books 2 and 3 dragged on unnecessarily. Perhaps if it had been a series of three books in total, it would have removed some things that took too long to unfold and made the series better. But I really liked this last book; I thought it finished the story well and concluded all the arcs that were developed. For those who like this universe and enjoyed the other three books in this series, I'm sure they will like this book because it's a very good book and satisfactorily concludes this series about the kingdom of the ancients.

[Abbie | ab_reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I rather enjoyed the finale to Hobb’s Rain Wild Chronicles, but I think it’s unanimously accepted that this series just does not reach the same standards as her other trilogies. But over the four books I’ve come to really enjoy reading about the clan of dragons, watching them grow and become sassy and powerful!
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Apart from the dragons and some recurring characters who shall remain nameless for fear of spoilers, I was a tiny bit disappointed in some of them. In Book 1 I LOVED Thymara and I looked forward to watching her progress, but for the whole series she’s just stuck in a love triangle. I think Hobb tried to show her as a young girl transforming into a young woman, while forgetting that’s there’s so much more to that than just deciding what guy you like better, which I felt it always came back to in endless, circular discussions that drove me crazy 🤦‍♀️
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BUT Hobb will never not write excellent villains! So many characters I just loved to hate in this one, but especially Hest and the Duke - two truly vile human beings! I was very happy with one of their fates but I felt the other could have been more developed - off-page ~events just didn’t feel good enough for this character!
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Overall though it was an action-packed finale with an ending that I was fairly happy with - onwards to the final trilogy!

[Jennifer (Insert Lit Pun)]

Happy to say that this last book in the quartet had that same epic "how can she possibly tie all this together but then she DOES and it's satisfying but not in a way that feels reductive or too neat" feel that I've come to expect from Robin Hobb. That being said, I'm relieved this part of the Realm of the Elderlings is behind me and that I can get back to Fitz. There was a romantic couple in here who were so incredibly dull. "My lady," "I've never given my body to another with this much love," "I feel manly protective urges" level of dull. Thankfully there were other relationships that were much more interesting, and as ever I appreciate that Hobb's books aren't heteronormative. Onwards and (hopefully) upwards.

[richa ⋆.˚★ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75/5 🌟

RoTE: 13/16 🏴‍☠️😎

After introducing a set of new characters and animals, we have ventured into the unique place where the past meets the present. Whatever we have uncovered furthers into a solid direction that lets Hobb weave a vast expanse of her world. I cannot even begin to summarise since I will unfortunately be wading into the spoiler zone. Sailing on the troubled waters, a group of ambitious people with dreams and memories stumble upon creatures that may save them or rule them.
On Hobb's writing I will always shower praises, the deep warmth and care that radiates as she writes about her characters. Inspite of them doing foolish deeds, one cannot help empathise. We also have the antagonists, often men, that are the worst bunch I've read. Couldn't have asked for a better series that rivals Liveship Traders trilogy. I feel extremely grateful that I'm reading her books, definitely one of my most cherished authors.

[Fadi Antwan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is it Robin Hobb’s weakest series within Realm of the Elderlings? Yes. Is it still awesome? Hell yes.

[Alex W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blood of Dragons was an enjoyable and satisfying conclusion to the Rain Wild Chronicles that capitalized on much of the groundwork laid out in first three books.

Hobb's strengths in character writing and worldbuilding remain strong as I thought a few of the characters' arcs in this series were fantastic and this book, specifically, played a major role in that. The worldbuilding was also great and probably stands as my favorite aspect of the Rain Wild Chronicles. A number of things occur in this book that seem extremely significant and I am looking forward to seeing how/if they will play a role in the final trilogy.

I do still feel as if this series was a little too long and would've benefitted from being a duology or a trilogy as I felt slightly burnt out by some of the character drama and other aspects of the plot as I moved closer to the end, but with that being said, the actual final act of this book was very strong.

I genuinely can't believe I only have 3 books left to go in the Realm of the Elderlings...

[Choco Con Churros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leído por primera vez el 26 de marzo del 2023. Releído el 2 de mayo del 2024

Qué finalazo!. Qué impresionante todo. Una tetralogía preciosa. La mejor del universo Vetulus. Empezamos este mes un maratón de dragones, pero no creo que nada se pueda aproximar a esto. Es como si no hubiera sido una lectura. Ha sido una experiencia. Tenía que parar cada poco a saborearlo, a rodar esas poderosísimas imágenes en mi cabeza. No podía meter imágenes nuevas. Tenía que parar a rumiar las anteriores.
Ha sido preciosa la evolución de estos dragones desde aquellas serpientes de la trilogía de las naves redivivas (que al principio yo imaginaba como culebras, pero no. Eran más grandes y gruesas que un barco) a esos seres nacidos como nacieron y el desencanto general, después de tanto luchar para acabar así. Pero no... su odisea de la selva, su viaje iniciático, sus trasformaciones físicas e internas junto a la de aquellos que los rodearon, tan impresionantes. Tan sobrecogedor todo. Y el final, con escenas tan deslumbrantes como el brillo enjoyado de sus escamas al sol y su batalla final (nada que ver con la de Tintaglia contra los atacantes al Mitonar) todos a una fue... de dejarme temblando. No volveré a leer algo como esto. Faltan estrellas aquí. Esta autora es única. GL (Libre. Robin Hobb)

Comentario a la primera lectura:
❤❤❤ Tan re-bueno que me dio un bajón terminar la tetralogía. Maaaas.Ni siquiera me consuela recordar que aún me queda la última de las trilogías de Traspié y el bufón, con las ganas que tenía de saber más de ellos. Pero no quiero irme de aquiiiiii. Creo que tengo encima el glamour ese que sueltan ellos y estoy toda hechizada.
Se mantiene la tendencia de este universo, de que cada trilogía sea mejor que la anterior.
No me quiero iiiiiiiiiir!!!!😢😭😭😭😭. Quiero maaaaaas
Los libros buenos deberían ser infinitos.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Executive Summary: A good but not perfect ending, to a good but not perfect series.

Full Review
I was only introduced to Robin Hobb in summer of 2012, but she's quickly become one of my favorite authors. While I think this is probably the weakest of her Elderling series books, I still greatly enjoyed it.

Ms. Hobb once again has a way with writing characters that feel real, especially in the way they can frustrate your and make you down right furious.

She has a way of making me just enjoy following her characters around as they go about their lives. I feel like not as much happened in these four books as have in her previous trilogies. Yet I don't mind.

I don't need her to have epic battles, with spell slinging mages or dragons engaged in combat. This book has no mages, and the dragons do very little fighting. What it does have is complex characters dealing with the complexity that is life: love, hate, greed, courage in a fantastical setting. Somehow that's enough for me. It may not be enough for everyone.

There are some complaints I could make, but not many and I won't really dwell on them. I would have liked to see some more time spent with characters from Liveship. Their cameos throughout the series, and in this book in particular were excellent though.

The series ends by tying up many but not all of the loose ends I'd have liked. It leaves me wanting more, yet not upset as though the book just stopped. I would be happy to read more about these characters, especially a few years down the road to see how they made out.

I think the best example of this might be the bird keepers. We only know a little of them from their correspondence in a few paragraphs between each chapter. Yet they feel just as real to me as the main characters of the book.

They feel like friends. People I know and care about. Or they feel like rivals. People I would never want to meet. That's hard in writing, and Ms. Hobb always seems to do an excellent job of that for me.

[Phee · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's finally done! Any of you that have been following my updates for this series will know that I struggled to read these four books. It took me a long time to readjust to the third person perspective story telling. It took a long time for me to become interested in the story. It took a long time for me to warm up to the characters. Do you see the reoccurring theme here?

By the end, the Hobb worked her magic when it came to the characters. I really came to care for some of the new characters that were introduced. Sedric, Carson, Alise and Leftrin to name them. I think Sedric changed the most and in the best ways. His plans at the beginning of the story (harvesting dragon parts for money) were brutal. I didn't think he would do it, I thought he'd have a change of heart. But he was made to feel an outcast, he didn't understand the dragons or the keepers, he was just a boy from Bingtown.
When he harvested the blood and scales, I hated him. But boy, did he redeem himself. That night changed him and although what he did was horrific, it put him on the right course in the end. He became a man.
When he realises that Hest didn't love him, that he'd been abused for all those years, been a victim both to Hest and his own ideals of what love is. My heart could have broke. Same for Alise. Abusive relationships take many forms, but they will always be wrong. I think Hobb did a terrific job in showing two seemly weak characters, get out of their abusive relationship. Also when Hest came to Kelsingra, both Alise and Sedric both stood up to him. Power to the people!
I hated what happened to Selden. We got quite a few chapters from him in this book and all of them were difficult to read. He went through so much.

In terms of story, I can see why this series is necessary. We needed to see the baby dragons grow and change. We needed to see the return of the Elderlings. Learn about them, how they are made and maintained. The Skill or as it is known in these books as Silver. Is a vital part of dragons. It's in their blood, it keeps them strong it keeps them alive. It keeps the Elderlings alive and able to build and provide for the Dragons. All very important stuff. Also I totally called it, I figured out the connection between Silver and Skill about 100 pages or so before it actually came to light. Go me.
I loved the connections to the Farseer books, subtle hints and references. It satisfies my inner geek.

This final book was a lot of fun. Why then, Phee are you giving it 3 stars? As I have said before 3 stars is in no way a bad rating. I read and enjoyed this book. But it did let me down, the conclusion was for me, anticlimactic. After all the dragons learning to fly, growing, becoming 'proper' dragons, saving Tintaglia. They went to get revenge on the Duke of Chalced. But we didn't even get to see the battle. We saw it start and Selden and Chassim got saved. Then we time hop to after all was finished. You cannot make me read a 4 book series about dragons and not let me see the epic fight at the end. Not happy at all at that. Sure the end was nice and things are wrapped up. But the climax was completely ruined and to be honest nonexistent.

I am so very glad to be done with this series. I definitely didn't think it was on the same level as her other trilogies. The writing and characters were. But the storytelling was off the mark in my opinion. It's my least favourite part of her Realm of the Elderlings series. I'd give the Rain Wild Chronicles a 3 star rating overall.

Onwards now back to Fitz and the Fool. I started reading this series over 2 years ago. I read the first trilogy and really enjoyed it. Then life happened and after I got through a rough time in my life I started to read this series again and fell utterly in love with it. I re-read the Farseer trilogy after I read the Liveship Traders as I wanted to reconnect with Fitz and the Fool before reading Tawny Man. Best decision I ever made. Now it all comes to a close, I'm excited and terrified but I'm ready for one last adventure with my two favourite characters.

[Franco Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things can be broken, or lost. All a man can keep for certain are the things in his mind and heart.

Apasionante final de serie. Tiene partes que me parecieron insustanciales, algunas que son bastante aburridas, no obstante, hay otras que son muy buenas. Afortunadamente, estas últimas son las que conforman la mayor parte del libro. Satisfactorio cierre para esta saga de transición. ¡Ahora a reencontrarme con Fitz!

[Sad Sunday (Books? Me?!? NEVER!!!) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's over!



Despite 3* rating, I liked it. It's more 3,5* and a quite satisfactory ending to Rain Wild Chronicles series. But... I still feel that the tension you could slice with a sword in #2 was something that would helped #4 if it existed. If felt like an additional book when Frodo already destroyed the ring, Mermaid got married or home life chronicles of Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. It's still interesting, but there is no "hook" when the main goal is already achieved.

Somehow I lost characters - they were changing into somebody else too fast and some turned to be so flat. Example - Malta. She was supposed to be this awesome queen but all I saw was a vain girl who cared only about her hair and clothes. Poor Rapskal was unrecognisable. What happened to him? Thymara went from being a heroine to being a bush in the background. Her choices and actions left me puzzled. The passion and charm of Captain Leftrin (*faints) and Alise vanished. And all that left my wondering why. And that often means I didn't get enough meaning and substantiation. I would have also loved to "meet" the dragons - to know more about them, about their characters, behaviour and etc.



Many authors had their takes on dragons, and I think R.Hobb written them in a quite unique way that wavered towards the end. But I also think that many things were left unfinished, "hanging" in the air. I heard that some of the stories continue in other books of R.Hobb, but I still left unsatisfied. I would have loved that some evil dudes would have got a more evil end, and some of the awesome good guys would have got more rewarding (and more well written) end.

All in all, it's a good series (and I sooo rarely read them).

[Samantha (ladybug.books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Another series in the Realm of the Elderlings complete! I enjoyed the rain wild journey so much more than I expected to.

[David Sven · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really nice finish to the Rain Wild Chronicles. I particularly like that the dragons see a lot of action this book as the Chalcadeans step up their efforts to try and get dragon blood and parts for consumption. We also get the dying Duke of Chalced's POV and Seldon is a fairly major POV this book as well. I liked the climax at the end of the book. A lot of the time Hobb does the climax early and then spends a lot of time winding down the story - and we do sort of get that as well with a lot of mini climaxes to close off a lot of the story arcs - but we also get a nice finisher at the end. Fantastic stuff.

I've really enjoyed reading the series as whole as part of a book club read. There's a lot of meat to the book and in typical Hobb style, most of the dramatic tension lies in the complexities of the relationships of the characters.

All Hobb's books are very much character driven which is good if you connect with the characters. If you don't connect with the characters you probably won't enjoy these as much. But I have found most of Hobb's characters to be multi dimensional and she really takes the time to make sure the reader gets to delve into the very depths of the character's inner motivations. When her characters suffer, she makes sure we experience that suffering with them - leading to the common charge that Hobb is really cruel to her protagonists. But really, she's torturing us readers more than anything. On the other end of the scale, when her characters triumph I for one want to stand up and cheer. Likewise when the bad guy gets what's coming to him.

One thing I do like is that Hobb spends a lot of time making sure that her ending aren't trite happily ever afters. The bad guy doesn't always get what he totally deserves - and the good guys still tend to walk with a limp if they make it out the other end. She writes good endings is what I'm trying to say.

I can highly recommend this series to lovers of character driven fantasy though I would also highly recommend first reading Hobb's Liveship Traders trilogy at the very least - and even better, why not get the full experience of this world and start with her Farseer Trilogy.

I still prefer the Fitz and Fool books with the Tawny Man Trilogy still my favourite so far. But this book and series get's a very solid...


4 stars

[Devran ikiz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finally finished. Thank god. There is no other story that I could be less interested. I was biting my nails at the last 10 pages for it to finish already. The main character of the book, Thymara, has nothing to do with the story. Almost the whole series she was in between two boys. She was almost exactly the same character from anothet shitty book Twilight. When Thymara's chapters were coming I was losing even the little interest that I had. Mating dragons and mating teenagers are the whole purpose of this book. I regret every second of my time. After the 3rd book I was expecting a good ebd story but failed to receive one. I think i am becoming too old to show tolerance to teenager stupidy. I read these series just for the sake of the wholeness of the entire universe of 16 books. Anyway now that it is over I can relax a bit. This is the 4th book of 2019 and I still haven't read a great story yet. This book doesn't seem to have a limit in creating unsympathetic characters or artifically created problems and their solutions. Even stupid and arrogant Malta from the previous The Liveship Trilogy is regarded as an Elderling Queen in these books because "she is very much" changed. I gave two points to this book because of the fact that I felt the peaceful atmosphere of the Elderling city Kelsingra. Now that all those moronic characters have settled there, no wonder that soon enough the city will lose its magical atmosphere. The idea of the book was to create a safe haven for socially unaccepted teenager and broken dragons but the process of the story fails so bad that it actually makes perfect sense to me that those characters are unaccepted. It is a huge talent to gather so many annoying and stupid characters together in a book. As if this is not enough, you make it a book of 500+ pages. No more, no more, no more..

[Benghis Kahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bit of a strange read for me, but on the whole it was a satisfying and engaging series finale. I was fairly invested in the characters and very invested in the plot arcs, and things played out pretty much as I had hoped they would (but maybe a bit too neatly and predictably?).

I do think this tetralogy could have easily been cut down into a trilogy though, and I found myself continually impatient in this one to just get to the next important moment or event that I felt was about to inevitably occur. Hobb always seemed to delay that inevitable progression through poorly (or, depending on your perspective, precisely) timed POV switches or long-winded character monologues or conversations that took their sweet time to get where they were going rather than giving me the downhill race I kind of was desiring out of this.

It was true to Hobb's slow-paced and nuanced style that's predominant throughout the Realm of the Elderlings, but it didn't work as well for me here as it did in the previous two trilogies. Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven both felt much faster paced to me in terms of moving the plot along, and I don't see why she didn't carry that pacing through with one jam-packed finale instead of stretching a fairly thin plot out over these last two books, weakening both for me for certain. Certain character beats also felt needlessly repetitive (with one unfortunate love triangle that was particularly uninteresting and interminable). I've seen most readers have the opposite opinion though in liking these final two Rain Wild books much more than Keeper/Haven, which makes sense since they're more similar to the rest of the series, so your mileage may definitely vary.

I also have to mention that an incredibly thrilling climactic sequence was for some reason just cut off right in the middle of the scene, and it's one of the strangest decisions by an author I've ever read. We learn how it played out right afterward through secondhand discussion, which was much less engaging and suspenseful than if we had just been allowed to live through the rest of the sequence in real time. Odd choice.

Overall though this was a memorable sub-series within RotE that I'm glad existed, with some emotional and heartfelt finding-yourself kind of character arcs that have left a mark with me, along with a few powerful romance arcs I was satisfied with as well. The dragons were easily the highlight for me, as I so enjoyed their various prickly and undeniably non-human personalities but also how they came to care for their keepers and form interesting give-and-take bonds with each other.

It's hard to believe the journey is nearing its end with the final sub-series ahead, which always seemed so far off in the distance before now.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

With Blood of Dragons completed, I am finished with the Rain Wild Chronicles, and I have mixed feelings on this 4 book series. I believe that the publisher's decision to split this series up into 4 different books wasn't the best decision. I could tell from reading this series that some sections were almost a "oh btw, this is what is happening here," section. In the previous Hobb books we really didn't get a whole lot of these moments of reminding the reader about other characters and I feel that because the books were split into 4 books instead of the 2, that this is much more prevalent. I much preferred the long, drawn out scenes, dealing with just a few characters, than chapters being split between multiple points of view.

I also think that while The Rain Wild Chronicles started off focusing on the characters that it became more about the world building near the end of the series. As much as I loved learning about the Elderlings and the Dragons, I never connected to a character as much as I connected to Fitz, Burrich, Malta, or Althea. Thymara had the possibility to become that type of character for me but once she got to Kelsingra, she kind of fell away, and got too involved with love drama.

I love that this 4 part tetralogy answered a lot of the big questions I've been having throughout this entire large series. Because of this, I think that the Rain Wild Chronicles is definitely required reading for the entire series. The answers really fill in the entire past of this world but if you aren't that interested in the origins of Elderings, Dragons, and more, and only want more Fitz, maybe you can skip this.

I was disappointed in how this story ended. The ending seemed abrupt and a bit anti-climatic. I did not like Seldan's storyline and I wasn't the biggest fan of Malta and Reyne's more passive role in these books. Thymara and Tats were great characters and what happened with Rapskal was interesting, albeit underutilized. Hest was a great evil character that I absolutely hated but I was looking for a big moral or thematic problem to be the central problem in this tetralogy.

Overall, I thought this 4 book interlude was good but probably my least favorite stories from The Realm of the Elderlings. I must admit that I am more excited about finishing this series to get back to Fitz and the Fool than I am excited that this series was amazing. I really like that I learned a ton about Elderlings in these books but the mystery was probably the best part of this series. I'm hoping there will be more amazing mysteries and reveals in the next series that made me as excited as I was when I first read the Farseer Trilogy.