The Robin Hobb Collection discussion

It took me a long time to read my first Robin Hobb book and it was mostly due to the deluge of negative reviews here on goodreads. Once I read my first Hobb book I was immediately hooked and couldn't even comprehend a reader having a negative experience.

As an avid Hobbie™ (a term I've coined for Hobb fans), I still just can't understand why everyone doesn't enjoy and love everything Ms. Hobb has written. Any ideas?

Well, firstly I'd say that I've not been away of the 'deluge' of negative reviews myself - my experience is more split between people who love her and people who haven't read her.

As to why people might not like her... well, it probably depends on the person. People might dislike her for entirely opposite reasons.

That said, among fantasy fans I think the two biggest reasons for not liking Hobb are:
a) she's longwinded and takes too long to get anywhere;
b) Fitz is "whiny", and hence detestable, and every page he's on is a chore to read.

The first reason I think is very understandable for those used to other styles. And I've noticed a pattern whereby even those who normally like slower styles, people who might rate Assassin's Apprentice and Royal Assassin highly, often get seriously pissed off with the glacial pace in the second half of Assassin's Quest (and the fact that the fast half, while fast-paced, is all essentially filler, if judged in terms of plot progression). That goes double for anyone who has a problem with Fitz, because he really collapses into introspection in that book, to an extent that was even difficult for me (and normally I think the 'whiny' complaint is silly).

Other reasons for dislike include:
- there are very few actual (violent) 'action' scenes in the series
- there aren't very many 'cool' villains
- there's a lot of talking about relationships and feelings
- there's relatively little magic, and what there is isn't flashy; there's not a pedantically-described "magic system"
- the world isn't particularly imaginative (being pretty close to reality) or sexy (being pretty close to reality)
- there aren't any conventional (sword-wielding, sexy-flirting supermodel) fantasy heroines - the women are presented just as people. [To be fair, there aren't any conventional fantasy heroes either]


In many ways it appeals more to more literary readers rather than to conventional fantasy readers; but literary readers are likely to be turned off by the fact that it's a sprawling sequence of epic fantasy novels written in an affected fauxdieval narrative voice (which is particularly bumpy at times in the first book).

Well maybe deluge was an overstatement. I think what turned me off was what the negative reviews said and not their quantity. Even the positive reviews about these books admit that they are slow, long winded, magic-less and that Fitz was a whiner.

I agree with all of that, strangely enough but I see them as strengths not weakness.

Most of the hate on her writing is as Wastrel said: slow, and Fitz is whiny.

Otherwise, she has garnered a lot of hate for her rant on fan fiction.

I think that I finally got around to Assassin's Apprentice because I had run out of 600+ page epic fantasies to read. I prefer my books to have a high page count and I seemed to be running out of options.

When I did read it I cursed myself for not reading it earlier.

On Fitz: I never really thought of him as whiney. But throughout the first trilogy he was a child and then barely a man. I've never met a person under 18 years who didn't whine or complain at least a little. Compounding the fact that he was an adolescent was definitely some mental problems brought on by his traumatic childhood. I always assumed he has PTSD out some sort of personality disorder.

Alfred wrote: "What made you finally read the first Hobb book?"

Well, I was browsing in the library, came across Tawny Man in the "New Books" section, looked at the cover, read the blurb on the back cover, then proceeded to the fiction section to check out the other books in the series. Really, it was just that simple. I find many good books that way (not all who wander in libraries are lost, I say): Tamora Pierce, Susan Cooper, L.A. Meyer and Hobbs, just to name a few.

I don't read reviews before I read a book. After is another story. If I don't like a book, I want to find out what other readers (both lay and professional) thought.

I immediately liked the book. Characters, setting, everything. The fact that she writes strong female characters (yes, I even consider Molly to be strong) makes it even better.

I don't find Fitz whiny. Even though kids are resilient (and he does make the best of things) sometimes the scars are long-lasting and take a long time to heal. Being introspective myself (and rather quiet until I need to turn it on) I relate to him a lot!

A friend of mine recommended them to me as a gateway drug to fantasy. I wasn't very interested in the genre, but she was adamant.

I remember thinking the first book was a boring chore to get through and didn't intend to read more. But the friend who recommended them to me wouldn't let me off the hook. So, I started Royal Assassin. And Kettricken totally blew my mind by how strong of a character she blossomed into.

I've been hooked since.

What's interesting is I still don't consider myself a fan of the genre. They take so long to get going, and it's such a commitment to orientate yourself in a new world with every series. I usually lose interest while the set up is still taking place.

But Hobb. I trust that woman. She can take me anywhere.

Some people reading her books said they expect more action scenes.

I am actually fine with the wordy writings so far. My concerns after reading all Hobb's books are more about the plots, not the style.

I can understand why people expected more action scenes. To be honest, I am quite suprised myself that it turned out to be an emotional rollercoaster. When I started to read the series, I expected some assassin action with the hopes of some intrigues like in 'A song of Ice and Fire'.

A lot of critique I read about her is not only about Fitz being whiny, which I honestly do not understand - he has been through some serious problems... Many people have two kind of problems here:
1.) Fitz does not do the right decisions. His actions bring him into a lot of problems. Personally I am absolutely fine with it. It is a lot easiert to judge everything from an outside perspective. But doing the right decision while being the actor or in high emotional stress is kinda hard.
2.) Fitz going to a lot of terrible events. His whole life is a torture and a major mess. Some do not like to read about that.

I can also understand that people do not like the books getting very emotional. I consider myself as nearly dead on my emotional side (I am studying mathematics, obviously interested into sciece and try to set rationality above everything), thus I don't get wheepy on a lot of moments. But as a contrast to my rational reality, I started to love reading Hobb's books because of the emotional aspect. For me it was absolutely awesome to go through (Fool's Assassin and Fool's Quest Spoiler)
(view spoiler)[the interactions with Bee, Molly's Death and the incredible introduction of Fitz into the court (hide spoiler)].

So far I've introduced two people into Robin Hobb (and there is another one of my goodreads friends taking a crack at her books, but I don't know if their interest in them came from me)... and they like the fact that it seems to be very prose-y and emotionally driven.

The people I tend to think that don't enjoy her writing don't like prose and they are after more faster and intense books.

Mark wrote: "It took me a long time to read my first Robin Hobb book and it was mostly due to the deluge of negative reviews here on goodreads. Once I read my first Hobb book I was immediately hooked and couldn..."

Her books are generally slow burn and very character focused, usually very angsty characters. Her prose style can also be quite meandering and thoughtful. All are things I really enjoy, but a good chunk of people who read fantasy/sci-fi read it for the quippy characters going on fast paced action adventures. Hobb's books are not that.

Kevin wrote: "Mark wrote: "It took me a long time to read my first Robin Hobb book and it was mostly due to the deluge of negative reviews here on goodreads. Once I read my first Hobb book I was immediately hook..."

Alfred wrote: "Andi wrote: "So far I've introduced two people into Robin Hobb (and there is another one of my goodreads friends taking a crack at her books..."

Yay, Andi! For your good efforts. In my teens, I wa..."

I agree with Kevin on the angsty and thoughtful points... even the fast paced part makes sense now that I think of it, and I didn't expect to enjoy this work because of my predilections for such works...

As a first-comer after a long hiatus and now a born-again fantasy reader, I started the series off with an admittedly lukewarm reaction to how slowly the plot progressed from Fitz's childhood into adolescence when the real action started happening.

After the unsurprising love story started to develop with Molly, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, a classic Romeo-Juliet kind of tension set up just to wrench at the heartstrings. But I was pleasantly surprised with a feminist-y stance coming from Molly on several counts, and I started liking the story even more when Kettricken became a strikingly poetic, haunting warrior fighting for her people.

Honestly though I would have to say that Fitz's character development keeps bringing me back into the fold, and the suspense is rather steep on the Fool for me for now as I'm still going through Assassin's Quest.

Fitz's coming of age has been slow - and clearly Hobb enjoys stringing the years out and delving into emotional pitfalls and stresses. But I believe its part of the charm that other fantasy books like Melanie Rawn's did not find the time to develop further with Sionell and Prince Pol for example... character development with Robern Jordan for Rand was also strung out but not age-wise, more talent and experience.

I can only say that Burrich has been a pleasant surprise thus far, with his rough, surly ways, especially when he revealed the depth of his commitment to Chivalry.

Only thing is at times I feel that the plot is somewhat predictable at times (the wolf midwife/soul carrier) and she uses foreshadowing with a somewhat heavy hand.

Otherwise her books are a ponderous coming of age story that so far keep high interest alive - what on earth is happening with the Elderlings and verity?? I keep wanting to read spoilers but hope she lives up to the promise..

Also I have a feeling that forged ones are ones who have the latent ability to skill and this is what allows the raiders to forge them but I'm not sure as of yet :)