After devouring all the books related to The Elderlings universe, I eagerly anticipated reading through my newly acquired book: The Dragon Keeper; part one of The Rain Wild Chronicles. Unfortunately it’s the first book in the entire series that I have been disappointed with. Considering I’ve already read nine this met with mixed feelings. One part of my conscience felt disappointed and another part told me I should be grateful that I’ve had read nine other superb books!

The Dragon Keeper picks up the story of Bingtown and the Rain Wilds again. In The Tawny Man there were plenty of hints about the stunted little dragons that had been hatched and this book starts with the hatching of the scrawny, stunted, little dragons and continues telling their tale. After having finished the book, I am left with a feeling of disappointment. I haven’t really formed a bond with any of the main characters. For me personally, Hobb didn’t succeed in creating a new character that could take the role of the hero, such as Fitz.

And yet, the last few pages of The Dragon Keeper made me a little more excited about the story. Did Sedric’s actions cause the death of one of the dragons? Will the other dragons suspect? What will their keepers do when they find out? How will things go for Sedric? Will he be able to gather the fortune he so desires, or will he meet a more dreadful fate? All questions that sparked in me when I turned the last page. At the same time I also felt the disappointment of having my excitement sparked into life on the last few pages out of the near six hundred.

Oh well, let’s hope Dragon Haven will continue where The Dragon Keeper has deserted me!

Not too long ago I posted about The Tawny Man trilogy. I mused a little about Amber, The Fool and Fitz.

I wrote about my suspicions that the Fool is Amber from The Liveship Traders and that she had carved Fitz’s likeness on the liveship Paragon. I’m about halfway through the sequel to Fool’s Errand, Golden Fool, and Jek has just arrived at Buckkeep. Fitz overheard the conversation, well I say overheard, but in fact he was spying on them. Of course he got rather upset by discovering the depth of the Fool’s hidden secrets.

In only a few pages all of my suspicions were confirmed, so I’ll have to take back what I said about not having seen it confirmed anywhere. I can’t wait to find out how the rest of the story will develop and how Bingtown and Tintaglia will fit into the story!

I have had very little to write about in the last few weeks, but today has sparked me in making a new journal entry. A couple of weeks ago, I started reading a new book, Ship of Magic. It’s the first book in The Liveship Traders trilogy. I picked up the book because I had read The Farseer trilogy and had simply loved it. I figured another three books of the same writer must be good as well!

At first, when I started reading Ship of Magic, I was surprised to find the book vastly different from any of the books about Fitz Farseer. I was a little disappointed when I realized the vast difference between the life of an Assassin in the previous trilogy and the life aboard a ship in this new book. I had no solid grounds for my disappointment and so I kept on reading. After all, I found the beginning of Assassin’s Apprentice a little dubious as well!

I’m about three quarters of the way though the book now and still I have no clear idea where the story is going. There are many different story-lines following different characters that are somehow related to each other. It tells about their lives and the adventures and hardships they are having.

So where do the Serpents and Dragons come in then?

Serpents are playing a large part in the story so far. They are mostly seen through the character’s eyes as dreadful sea monsters who attack their ships and devour their crews. However, occasionally there are (dreadfully short) paragraphs where the story shifts to the view of a group of Serpents. They appear to be chasing a memory that most of the Serpents have forgotten, but some of them still remember.

I’m guessing the storyline of the Serpents is the underlying part that will make all the other story-lines come together. Also a paragraph clearly hints that the memory of the Serpents is of times long past, when they were soaring through the sky on wings, instead of slithering through the oceans. I wish I could find the passage to quote it, but the reference of the Serpent remembering a time where the Lack was the Plenty and the Plenty was the Lack is clearly another way of saying that once they were creature of the Lack (air) while now they are living in the Plenty (ocean).

I can’t wait to find out at which point the Dragons will come into the story and whether my assumption about the Serpents is correct. I just hope I don’t need to wait until the last book of the trilogy, as was the case with The Farseer books. For now, I will conclude that I can agree to George R.R. Martin’s acclaim to Ship of Magic: “Even better than the Assassin books. I didn’t think that was possible.”