The Robin Hobb Collection discussion
This topic is about
City of Dragons
Book 12 - City of Dragons
>
City of Dragons > Part 2: Chapters 6 to 10
date
newest »
newest »
CH 6 It was nice to catch up with Malta. I still can't get over that, because I used to despise her.I wonder if she'll give birth to a healthy Elderling baby.
Ch 9 - A pivotal moment in the book as Leftrin comes to collect from the Trader council in Cassarick. No pay - no Kelsingra information.It seems the compromised council members might be Trader Candral and Trader Sverdin.
And it looks like it's been some months since anyone's heard from Seldon - and even that letter was written by someone else - maybe by his captors
And Malta uses magic - or something - she is able to affect the floating Elderling Globes and does so to bring the meeting back into order
Ch 10 - I was cheering when Malta stuck that Chalcadean. I wonder what will happen to the baby?
Ch 7 not much happens, but it was fascinating exploring the city. Like Alise, I dread the coming of fortune seekers.The acrobats are interesting and I wonder if the bridge depicted in the model of the city still stands and will allow them easier access to the city.
If it did however, I would think Heeby would have seen it while flying.
It's interesting that Kim is a tattooed. He's using that and fake outrage to try to cover his misdeeds.
Ch 8 Wow. I'm disgusted by Rapskal. I equate what he did to trying to giving Thymara a roofie. Sintara finally flew and killed on her own. I'm confused how she could be drowning though. Maybe on her flight back?
Alex wrote: "So are we to believe that Malta and Reyn are further along the Elderling path than the Keepers?"I would think so - I think the keepers are still changing
I loved that Alise found Fitz's fire when she was up in the map room! Warmed me right up.
I'd forgotten about that. I wonder when they will run into the skill river. Or what will happen when they encounter one of those teleporting standing stones
Mod
Yes not much good will come from that.
ch7 - I had to laugh with Sintara's observation that her wings sounded like 'wet canvas sails slapping in a breeze?" i'm guessing Sintara is one of the serpents who ate a liveship?
Interesting that Alise sees a girl 'with a crown of feathers and rooster heads'. I was reading very closely to see whether we would see anyone familiar.
Also the fire she sees and thinks Rapskap starting, that's Fitz' fire right?
EDIT: just see Alex' note: so yes it is
(sorry, not reading everything yet to avoid spoilers, so if i say anything double, apologies!)
Hanne wrote: "Interesting that Alise sees a girl 'with a crown of feathers and rooster heads'. I was reading very closely to see whether we would see anyone familiar."This is the same memory Fitz and Fool have seen here I'm guessing
Hanne wrote: "ch7 - I had to laugh with Sintara's observation that her wings sounded like 'wet canvas sails slapping in a breeze?" i'm guessing Sintara is one of the serpents who ate a liveship?"
Ah good pickup!
Ch 9 Leftrin done good. He's enticed the council to pay him, and possibly flushed out some Chacelean collaborators.Interesting to see that Malta can maybe do some Elderling magic.
Ch 10 Poor Malta! This is the kind of meanness I expect Robin Hobb to inflict on her characters...
What are you referring to when you say "Fitz's fire"?Been too long since I've read those books
Wait, so Verity was making the memory dragons at Kelsingra? Or was that the place Fitz traveled to from the skill road?I didn't realize you were referring to Farseer stuff, god that is even more books ago and my memory sucks.
Did it actually name Kelsingra, or are we assuming that's where he ended up due to the damage Alise found lining up with events from that book?
I think the map room was the giveaway.
David Sven wrote: "I think the map room was the giveaway."Assuming one remembers the original story ^_^
Mod
Both Verity and Fitz have been in Kelsingra though. The descriptions of the city in the previous two books were already quite clear (if there isn't too much time between reading the two that is), but the map room and the fire now really confirms it.
Mod
I do find it completely within character for Sintara to fly out of a mixture of revenge and pride.
ch9 - I too wonder how many messages that Leftrin gave to the bird house will actually make it. They will all be read of course, but perhaps some might never be sent out?
gosh, i hated that trader council, i would expect some of them to be opportunistic and treacherous, but it seems like all of them are like that.
ch10 - poor malta (never thought i'd say that sentence!). that is no way to bring a baby into this world.
Mod
It was on the way back, we find out the chapter after Thymara is yelling that Sintara is drowning. She tried to land on the remains of the bridge and miscalculated due to her uneven wings.
She got out by herself though, even before thymara arrived.
Fantastic call-back to Fitz. I.e. a completely reasonable and sensible callback to a brief scene nine books earlier, published fifteen years prior...I liked giving Alice, presumably intentionally, the famous cry of unfortunates throughout the ages: "it'll all be better once the boat comes in."
Rapskal is seriously creepy - half serial killer, half racial supremacist.
Beginning of chapter ten: NO! Don't hurt Malta!
End of chapter ten:.... OK, that scene may have been the most brutal scene I've ever read.
Since she's writing about Kelsingra, and there are only those couple of scenes from Assassin's Quest previously set in Kelsingra, I'm guessing she went back and re-read them before writing the new books. [She also may have some sort of concordance, I don't know, but a lot of authors do]
Mod
Speaking of which, does anyone know of a clear timeline for how the different series are meant to fit together?
I know publication order is chronological order with Liveships happening between the Fitz and Fool novels. The Rainwilds happens mostly after Tawny man but maybe with some overlap at the beginning where we chew through a lot of years quickly.
I think the beginning of Rainwilds is definitely before the beginning of Tawny Man, because Rainwilds starts with a hatching and in Tawny Man Lord Golden is already talking about how the new dragons are crippled. But Rainwilds overtakes Tawny Man, clearly, due to Icefyre (and it's annoying me that these books call him IceFyre, which sounds stupid, like a caffeine drink).But how much time has passed now, I wonder, between the beginning of Blood of Dragons (i.e. where I am now) and the beginning of Assassin's Apprentice, or the beginning of Ship of Magic?
My understanding is that Tawney man is about 15 years after Farseer, and Liveship traders itakes place somewhere in between.
I haven't paid too much attention to how much time passes in each series - but I have read claims based on calculating seasons referred to in Liveships that Liveships can't start any later than 12 years after the end of the Farseer Trilogy. Tawny Man starts 15 years after the Farseer Trilogy as Rob said. I believe there is enough information to get an approximate range of times going by the dates this series because I believe from memory they introduce dates referring to the new state of affairs at the end of Liveships - I just haven't done the exercise. There are also some dates referring to the reign of the satrap but I'm not entirely sure now if they occurr in both Liveships and Rainwilds or if I'm remembering the dating system from a story in The Inheritance
It looks like Detozi and Erek will be living in Bingtown. There's an infestation of red lice. I wonder if that came from Kim's "alternative" supplier of birds where she told Trader Finbok to get birds trained to go to an alternate "home"
Ch7
Sintara practising to fly in secret was funny
I hadn't realised that bird keeper Kim was tattoed.
Ch8 - Looks like Kelsingra has all the memories needed for the new Elderlings to get the magic of the place happening - whatever that means.
Sintara finally makes her first flight and first kill. But maybe she shouldn't have tried to fly back across the river with a full belly - at least that's what I assumed she's done as the chapter ends with Thymara sensing her dragon is drowning.