Blood of Dragons Author: Robin Hobb | Language: English | ISBN:
B0089LOD6Y | Format: EPUB
Blood of Dragons Description
The final volume in Robin Hobb's popular Rain Wilds fantasy series, Blood of Dragons completes the story of the dragons, their keepers, and their quest to find the lost city of Kelsingra—and the mythical silver wells that the dragons need to survive.
Can Tintaglia and the Elderlings unlock the secrets of the ancient city? Or are they doomed to extinction?
The world of Robin Hobb’s Rain Wilds series has been praised by Booklist as "one of the most gripping settings in modern fantasy," and Publishers Weekly called the Rain Wilds books "a meticulously realized fantasy tale" and "a welcome addition to contemporary dragon lore."
- File Size: 845 KB
- Print Length: 545 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0007444133
- Publisher: Harper Voyager (April 9, 2013)
- Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
- Language: English
- ASIN: B0089LOD6Y
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,151 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #54
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction > Fantasy - #69
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mythology & Folk Tales - #73
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Fairy Tales
- #54
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary Fiction > Fantasy - #69
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mythology & Folk Tales - #73
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Fairy Tales
Way back in a review of the second book (Dragon Haven) in Robin Hobb's RAIN WILDS series, I wrote "I've begun to wonder over the course of Hobb's recent books if she is exploring just how much plot she needs in her novels to actually have a `story.' It's almost as if she's feeling her way to as quiet and minimalist a style (in terms of action, not language) as possible." Now, two books later, with Blood of Dragons, the tetralogy has come to a close and I'd say the question still pertains. While normally a fan of Hobb's character-driven and slower-paced style, I have to confess that this series was a little uneven for me, and its finale a bit too slow with characters who didn't quite hold my interest enough.
Blood of Dragons picks up where its predecessors ends, with the Elderlings and dragons just outside the rediscovered city of Kelsingera, where the two once lived ages ago amidst wonders of magic. We left this group (made up of Alise, Tats, Thymara, and others) when only a few dragons had learned to fly, and in Blood, the rest quickly pick up the knack and soon everyone has moved into the city, raising a host of issues: the humans must deal with the effects of "memory stone"--the way one can become one with the past lives of the city's inhabitants, the dragons and their keepers have to readjust to more self-sufficient dragons, the city must be made livable for the long-term, and a search must be made for "Silver," the mysterious substance that was the lifeblood (literally) of the city and its human/dragon inhabitants. Meanwhile, the city is quickly losing its isolation, as Alise's vindictive husband Hest, a Chalcedean assassin seeking dragons for his Duke to feed off on, and a gravely wounded Tintaglia, Queen of Dragons, all slowly approach.
I've been following the Rain Wilds Chronicles since the beginning. Well, actually I've been glued to the entire world that Robin Hobb created, which began in the Farseer Trilogy. Hobb is a superlative storyteller, with the ability to keep me turning pages well after my bedtime. As with the very best SF/F, the _world_ becomes a major player in the story, as we readers try to understand its physics (such as how magic works, or the life cycles of dragons). And, as with Pern and other such worlds-as-characters, in my heart of hearts I emotionally believe that Hobb's world really exists.
This is the fourth book in the fourth series set in this universe. You could conceivably start with the Liveship Traders series before embarking on the Rain Wilds Chronicles, though I love Assassin's Apprentice (from the original Farseer trilogy) so much that I think it would be a damned shame to miss out. In any case, you really DO have to start with Dragon Keeper here; there's no way to pick up this fourth book in the Rain Wilds series in this final volume. Don't even think of it. So I shall assume that you have read the earlier novels, or at least you have considered the first book in the series and (wisely) snuck ahead to see if Hobb can keep the energy going through all four books.
Don't worry. She can and does.
I know several reviewers who felt that this series got off to a slow start, and I can acknowledge the reasons they felt that way.
Blood of Dragons Preview
Link
Please Wait...