Hobb-A-Long Read-A-Long discussion

While I really enjoyed the chapters of Fitz and the Fool reconnecting and it was a great way to tell us what had happened in Fitz' life in the past 15 years I think it could have been a bit shorter. 200 pages is a bit long for me to start a book unless it's a new high fantasy series with a lot of world building. While this book essentially is the start of a new trilogy we already know all of the characters and are comfortable in the world so any additional building can happen gradually during the story.
I still enjoyed Fitz' accounting of what happened a lot and had to smile when Fitz told about his time in Bingtown and how proud he was to have been there.

The Fool is back! At the beginning of the book I had some misgivings about going back to Fitz, but I think he's really matured and this will make for a much more enjoyable reading experience than the Farseers trilogy.

Finally after 15 years, the Fool shows up and he and Fitz get reacquainted; and obviously, the Prophet wants to hear a full accounting from Fitz about what he's been doing this whole time so he can make sense of what that may foretell for the destiny of the Fitz and the world . Among other things, they discuss Fitz and Nighteyes and their time spent training with the Old Bloods in the rural Buck area known as Crowsneck; specifically Rolf and Holly, and their bond-animals.

There is definitely good advice to be had from them, like the parity-based principle of a bond-partner never taking more than he gives, and making sure each partner maintains a sense of separate self-hood that ensures neither partner has superiority over the other; and to not greedily snatch at life, so that a dying partner won't try to co-opt his partner's life by taking over his body to selfishly save himself at the expense of his bond-partner. Also, Rolf is against bonding for children and young animals as they are too young to understand the heavy responsibility of undertaking a bonding-relationship at that age.

However, there are serious drawbacks with this teaching arrangement as well; Rolf has been in isolation, living almost like a hermit, and has developed many anti-social and peculiar traits that make him unsuited to instructing others, as he is bad tempered and impatient with Fitz and Nighteyes; and dogmatically insists on some ethical strictness that might be called into question.

He is always accusing Fitz of having "humanized" Nighteyes too much and of sharing too much of his lifestyle with him, like having him stay indoors at night instead of a more wolf-like environment like a den. But I think Fitz and Nighteyes are correct to object to this judgement because, in this instance, Nighteyes benefits from the warmth and safety of the indoors, and of course he often provides the spoils of his hunting excursions to Fitz, so the sharing is mutually beneficial and is not inconsistent with theirs being an equal partnership.

Also, Rolf's objections to avoiding the pitfalls of children bonding too soon seem to be overzealous ; he and Holly don't have children, and they don't seem to have an idea how an Old Blood child can learn to safely interact with pets and animals as a precursor to bonding. But Fitz did okay with Nosy, Smithy and Nighteyes, and maybe bonding relationships for children that are supervised by Old Blood parents, with the added precaution that the children be bonded with preferably adult animals( so that a human child doesn't naively take advantage of a baby animals immaturity and vulnerability), might be acceptable.

Fitz and the Fool discussed other things as well, but what Fitz learns at the end is that the Fool is going to have to buy him a new table! It's really not a good idea if you are Fitz and trying to maintain a low-profile identity as Tom Badgerlock, to have the Farseer's buck emblem carved into the middle of your kitchen table! That might be hard to explain to some people. LOL.

​I'm surprised that Hobb decided to tell us in the beginning of the book what was Fitz up to between those 15 years, I though we where going to see little by little as the trilogy progressed. Those chapters where he is telling the fool that he tried to visit Burrich and Molly, mannnnn, gut wrenching, but if my suspicions are correct, it may have been more gut wrenching for the Fool...I'm also excited that this trilogy is shorter than the liveship traders, Ship of destiny is about 300 pages longer than fools Errand, I know it's because there's no need for world building like excessive descriptions or long explanations of things, and I'm so glad that is this way because I think the major events are going to be more condensed thus a more exciting trilogy than the Farseer. I love that the Fool carved a charging buck in Fitz table just like he carved into Paragon, I think this is a clear sign that Paragon and Fitz will end up together some time this or next trilogy I love how we have the anti-white prophet and her own catalyst and they are the total opposite maybe this guy or the white prophet where in the white ship Fitz saw?

Also something that clicked now is that Nighteyes always refers to the fool as scentless one. Same as fitz couldn't detect the forged ones, as I remember they had no "soul", I think that makes the Fool not even close to a human except in shape.

Also I think Fitz is destined to be the new skill master, I'm so sure that he will learn of the skill abilities from Tintaglia, I wish this is the direction for the next trilogies, I would be so awesome now that dragon are returned to the world that Tintaglia could teach all the secret of the skill to Fitz and he could revive the coteries and redo the scrolls.