The Dragon Keeper (Rain Wilds Chronicles 1) - Robin Hobb

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⭐ 8.0/10

(Originally written by Tim)

The start of another series in The Realm of the Elderlings! This one takes us back up to the characters from the Liveship series, but a lot of time has passed and things have really progressed. I don't really want to say anything about plot, but I loved the unique situation the characters are put in here. I feel like it does a good job subverting a bunch of fantasy tropes, but also has a lot of familiar ideas. A woman forced into an unloving marriage flexes her independence and follows her dreams. A kid born with deformities that makes them an outcast makes them the perfect candidate for a task no one else wants to do.

I can't say I loved this book, since it felt like a bunch of setup for whats to come. Hobb's books are all a bit slow, which I never mind, but I felt like it was repeating things a bunch from different perspectives this time. I missed the multiple perspectives in the previous series, so its good to have that back, but I think this series could have been a bit more condensed already. It didn't have a very memorable finale either.

I love this world and I am always excited for the next one.

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