Series Review: The Rain Wild Chronicles - Robin Hobb

RATING: THREE STARS

Once, dragons ruled the world. Their majesty was everywhere and humans lived in awe. Many chose to serve the dragons and were rewarded for their loyalty with long life and good health. Elderlings, as they were called, enjoyed the changes dragons wrought upon them and became more like lizards then men. They were powerful in magic and used their gifts to create Kelsingra - a city that was wondrous to behold and existed only to serve dragons and tend for their health.

But those days past. Dragons died away and the grand cities Elderlings built passed in legend, crumbling into ruin and disrepair. It is in the Rain Wilds - dangerous swamps that once boasted forests and vast swathes of fertile land - that these cities were found. The Traders that lived there excavated the ruined cities and, there, found a single dragon that still contained life: Tingalia, a dragon queen. When Tingalia hatched as a serpent, she swam to the ocean where she dwelt for many years until it was time to change into her adult, dragon form. It was then she found others of her race - eggs that she nurtured until they hatched and made their own journey to the ocean.

But the dragons that returned were not what she hoped when they emerged from their cocoons. They were weak, stunted and deformed. Such dragons were not meant to survive, but they were all that was left of the once noble race. Tingalia brokered a deal with the Traders of Trehaug and those who lived there agreed to care for the dragons so Tingalia could leave and seek others of her kind. The arrangement worked at first, but feeding growing dragons is expensive and the creatures are dangerous in the best of moods.

It was decided that the dragons had to leave and the Trader's Council assigned keepers to each one, sending them on a quest upriver to find Kelsingra so all could live in peace. The expedition would be far from easy and the Rain Wilds are an unforgiving place. Its very waters are acidic. Food and supplies are scare. Storms frequently barrage the swamp and the dragon's keepers are little more than children - those unlucky enough to be born so mutated that they are shunned by the Traders and condemned to a life of derogatory exile. Few think the expedition could be successful, but the riches it could bring to Trehaug merited the risk. The expedition set forth and, soon, the keepers and Captain Leftrin (who is employed as a guide and logistics) realise just what dire straights they are in . . . 

Book 1: The Dragon Keeper

Book 2: Dragon Haven

Book 3: City of Dragons

Book 4: Blood of Dragons

The Good

The Rain Wild Chronicles is well written and exciting. Robin Hobb does a superb job of bringing her characters to life and many of them feel like real people, having developed lives, emotions and motivations behind their actions as we do. She has managed to create a rich world for the series that is full of problems and it's extremely interesting to read about.

Robb also tweaked dragon lore slightly and the dragons in the book are slightly unconventional. They have very complex life cycles and actually begin their existence as aquatic serpents that live in the oceans. It's only when they reach adulthood that they spin cocoons from mud and their saliva and become fully-fledged dragons that spit acid and are able to influence humans through their 'glamour'. These changes do make her dragons less formidable than those of other authors, but they are enjoyable to read about and Hobb really links their life-cycle to the story, which is largely responsible for many of the problems the dragons have in the book.

The Bad

Although developed characters are a good thing in any book, Hobb did overdo it a bit and The Rain Wild Chronicles is essentially four books of one of the keepers - Thymara - whining about relationships and losing her virginity. This added a realism to her character at first, since these are issues we all worry about, but became extremely annoying by the end and ruined the book a bit, making it hard for me to like Thymara (who is actually one of the main PoV characters)!

My Thoughts

Overall though, The Rain Wild Chronicles is a pretty decent series and should make your 'to read' list. It's imaginative, well written and full of characters that can really touch your heart. It's a superb example of fantasy at its best and shows that the genre is far from stale!

The Dragon Keeper - Robin Hobb

RATING: FOUR STARS 

The dragons of old have all but disappeared, and only the mighty Tintaglia remains to save her race. As the last queen, it is her duty to ensure that dragons survive in the world and she knows that she must help the diminishing handful of serpents to reach their cocooning grounds before the last of them perishes into memory. But even with the help of the rain wilders—mutated humans that live in acidic swamplands—she knows that the serpents have little change of emerging as dragons. They are too old, having spent far too long in the oceans where their bodies have grown weak and their minds have become warped. 

And so, when the young dragons emerge from their cocoons with monstrous deformities, they are abandoned by Tintaglia and the rainwilders must devise their own plan to deal with them. They know that they cannot hunt to sate the appetites of a pack of hungry dragons for long, and soon reach the decision to chaperone them to their fabled city of Kelsingra. It is hoped that here, the dragons will be safe and more of the lost secrets of the fabled Elderlings will be found. 

The Good 

One of the main things that impressed me about The Dragon Keeper was how realistic its characters were. And, after reading the book, I would say that Robin Hobb has a remarkable talent for developing characters in a very short space of time. This meant that before long, the people I was reading about began to feel like old friends in my imagination and I was really able to identify with them. Obviously, this greatly added to my enjoyment of the book and Hobb has certainly avoided the trap that many authors fall into where they mar a perfectly good story by creating a cast of bland characters. 

Another thing that I thought was great about the book was Hobb’s novel take on dragons. Rather than conforming to the standardised mythology of fire-breathing lizards, Hobb has altered her dragons to effectively create a new animal. Hobb’s dragons actually spit acid instead of fire, and have a complex life-cycle that involves them being born in the ocean as serpents and then metamorphosing into dragons like caterpillars do into butterflies. In addition to this, Hobb has also given her dragons a complex culture and bold personalities that really helps to bring their species/characters to life. 

The Bad 

Although The Dragon Keeper is light-hearted and very well written, I was surprised by how little actually happened in it in terms of events. At 553 pages, the book is not unusually long for fantasy, but much of the prose is just scene-setting and discussions that develop Trader culture. Don’t get me wrong, this is interesting to a degree and Hobb does an excellent job of using it to create a diverse world, but it slows the pace of the book down and much of the first half of the novel is actually pretty unnecessary. In my opinion, The Dragon Keeper could have lived up to its potential in terms of excitement much more if Hobb had condensed the waffle—leaving a book that is still culturally rich, but is much more exciting too. 

Another problem with The Dragon Keeper, which I guess is linked to its rather unnecessary length, is that it does not make for light reading. In fact, I frequently had to make sure that I had plenty of free time ahead of me before I even dared to open its pages! This is largely due to how Hobb writes—using very long chapters with few line breaks. In fact, the 553 pages of the book are split into just 17 chapters! Though I understand that, in all fairness, this criticism might just be me being overly fussy, I like to stop reading a book in natural breaks rather than putting it down midway through a passage like I often had to do! 

My Thoughts 

Overall though, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Dragon Keeper and will certainly be continuing to read The Rain Wild Chronicles with Dragon Haven (its next instalment). The book is unarguably very imaginative and has a ‘fresh’ air about it that many works of fantasty lack. Due to this, I would certainly recommend it to any fan of the genre. (Although to be frank, I can see some ‘die hard’ dragon fans having an issue with Hobb’s interpretation of the animals that might put you off the book).