SilverStar’s Reviews > Ship of Destiny > Status Update

so detailingly, I DO believe that incident actually had a purpose for the book, and that is in the unraveling of Kennit and Etta’s relationship, Wintrow and Kennit’s relationship and everything he ever built. I hate no one believing her. BUT in a way, that is a very close edged and sharp cutting knife that mimics reality as well. Women WERENT believed when it would happen. And though I’m disgusted by the amount of it in these books, I will consent it shaped the story’s crashing ending. Even still, I think there was SOME way she could’ve done it better. Truthfully, that did not have to happen to Althea. It is not hard to find something else for everything to hinge on. His Mother could’ve been the plot point. But no. Ofc. 🙄
Anyway. What I really want to talk about it the utter beauty of the scene I stumbled on while speed reading through the end. Namely how Amber (the Fool) carves FITZ’S face!!!!!!!!!!!!! Into PARAGON!!!! OH MY GODDDD!!!!!! I almost started crying. I was genuinely almost in tears. The sweetness of it, the meaningfulness. Ugh.
With the battle axe and everything. Stop. Oh my GOD!!!!!!! Also I have this feeling he might see it one day (in the final series) and my heart will shatter. But anyway. And the passage after, when she’s speaking to Brashen was truly powerful. I do admit, despite all, Robin Hobb is such a powerful writer, and the emotion she can conjure up from the summation of all the little wholes she’s built within her world is truly astounding. But. Here it is:

“….He hints that he knows we have all plotted against him." Brashen shook his head bitterly. "You have heard his tale of how Wintrow seized the ship from him, only to give it to Kennit. Does any of that sound possible to you?”
Amber gave a tiny shrug. "I do not know Wintrow. But this I do know. When circumstances are right, unlikely people do extraordinary things. When the weight of the world is behind them, the push of events and time itself will align to make incredible things happen. Look around you, Brashen. You skirt the center of the vortex, so close you do not see how wondrous are the circumstances surrounding us. We are being swept toward a climax in time, a critical choice-point where
all the future must go one way, or another.
"Liveships are wakening to their true pasts. Serpents, reputed to be myths when you were a boy, are now accepted as natural. The serpents speak, Brashen, to Paragon, and Paragon speaks to us. When last did humanity concede intelligence to another race of creatures? What will it mean to your children and your grandchildren? You are caught up in a grand sweep of events, culminating in the changing of the course of the world." She lowered her voice and a smile touched her mouth.
"Yet all you can perceive is that you are separated from Althea. A man's loss of his mate may be the essential trigger that determines all events from henceforth. Do you not see how strange and wonderful that is? That all history balances on an affair of the human heart?"
He looked at the odd woman and shook his head. "That isn't how I see it, Amber. That isn't how I see it at all. It's just my life, and now that I have finally discovered what I must have to be happy, I'm willing to lay down my life for it. That's all."
She smiled. "That is all. You are right. And that is all that All ever is.”

Just beautiful. And one of the most memorable parts of the series for me.

Let’s HOPE and pray the rest doesn’t disappoint. Because I hardly DNF a book and I was really excited to read it in the first place. I think I might be more excited for it to be done. Haha. But still. I am glad I pushed through them. Some parts, like the one above, were incredibly rewarding.
(I’m also glad nothing happened to Malta. But still. That scene was absolutely unacceptable and unnecessary as well, imo. That was really the trigger point for me. I had to close the book after that).