City of Dragons (Rain Wild Chronicles, #3)

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City of Dragons (Rain Wild Chronicles #3)

by Robin Hobb (Goodreads Author)

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 3,525 ratings · 357 reviews

Once, dragons ruled the Rain Wilds, tended by privileged human servants known as Elderlings. But a series of cataclysmic eruptions nearly drove these magnificent creatures to extinction. Born weak and deformed, the last of their kind had one hope for survival: to return to their ancient city of Kelsingra. Accompanied by a disparate crew of untested young keepers, the drago...more

Hardcover, 334 pages

Published February 7th 2012 by Harper Voyager

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Feb 14, 2012 Dawn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, read-in-2012

This is definitely (in my humble opinion of course) the best of the Rain Wild Chronicles series so far. It's still not quite at the Farseer/Liveship/Tawny Man level, but it's at least a solid four stars for me.

I'll say this though.. It's definitely only half of a story. Actually, it's more like half of the second half of a story. Each book so far in the RWC series has been significantly shorter than normal Hobb novels, really the series probably could have been a two book duology and done better...more

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May 18, 2013 Clay rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf-fantasy

Robin Hobb has set the bar very high in her long-running series set on an Earth-like pre-industrial planet, and “City of Dragons” (Harper/Voyager, $27, 334 pages) doesn’t disappoint.

It’s the third book (of four) in the Rain Wilds Chronicles, but the 12th book overall (it all began with “Assassin’s Apprentice” in 1995), and continues to develop both the characters and the consequences of re-introducing a top predator (in this case, dragons and their servants, the Elderlings) into an ecosystem and...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Rebecca Angel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Just finished this morning. I re-read the previous two books as well. All getting ready for Blood of Dragons! Can't wait to read it. This is one of my favorite fantasy authors. The only trilogy I couldn't get into was the Soldier's Son one. Not sure why. But The Liveship Traders is just fantastic.

Yes, there's excitement, danger, battles, and sex. But they are handled without the usual glorification of so many fantasy novels I read. The thoughts about relationships are more thought-provoking tha...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Andrea J rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Liveship books are up there in my top 10 most enjoyed books ever. I have enjoyed the Rain Wild Chronicles as well - not as much, but still intensely happy to revisit this world of complex characters, deeply defined societies, and political intrigue with Robin Hobb's usual blend of drama, mystery, and intrigue. That, and dragons that are NOT your typical 13 year old girl ride-on-the-shoulder-kindred spirit dragon fantasy.

When I finished Dragon Haven, volume two of the Rain Wilds Chronicles, i...more The Liveship books are up there in my top 10 most enjoyed books ever. I have enjoyed the Rain Wild Chronicles as well - not as much, but still intensely happy to revisit this world of complex characters, deeply defined societies, and political intrigue with Robin Hobb's usual blend of drama, mystery, and intrigue. That, and dragons that are NOT your typical 13 year old girl ride-on-the-shoulder-kindred spirit dragon fantasy.

When I finished Dragon Haven, volume two of the Rain Wilds Chronicles, it seemed so conclusive that I thought it was going to be volume 2 of only 2. It ended with the discovery of Kelsingra, the ancient city of the Elderlings and dragons, and Sintara, the dragon queen, attempting flight. I am ecstatic that there is not only a new book in the series, but also that City of Dragons clearly is NOT the end of the series!

This book gives some good insight into...

- What is in Kelsingra? Does it hold Elderling magic and / or Elderling items?
- What happens to Sintara and her attempts to become all that a dragon should be? What about the other dragons?
- How do the dragon keepers fare, after all of the changes they've gone through due to exposure to the dragons, and now that they have reached Kelsingra...(sort of, it's across the river, the dragons can't get to it and even Tarman can't easily get there)
- What happens to Thymara, Sintara's keeper, now that she and the others are free from the harsh societal rules (such as those who are "touched" (deformed) by the Rain Wilds magic not being allowed to have children or even be intimate)
- Where is the dragon Tintaglia and will she return?
- What of Selden, Malta, and Reyn, the first new Elderlings? What of Malta's pregnancy? (they are altered with dragon characteristics due to being involved in the release of Tintaglia)
- What of Alise, a lady of Bingtown, and Leftrin, her rough sailing man? What of her husband, Hest, and his lover Sedric? What of Leftrin's liveship, Tarman?
- How far will the Duke of Chalced go to get the dragon blood and organs he believes will heal him?
- Does the rest of the world find out about the discovery of Kelsingra?

The Liveship series introduced us to a fascinating world with distinct cultures, populated with a large cast of fully realized characters who are fascinatingly flawed. Bingtown is a port town with flourishing trade where artifacts salvaged from the Elderling ruins in the Rain Wilds are sold. The Rain Wilds are an inhospitable place - the river water is acidic and dangerous to humans and those who live there in the tree cities become gradually more deformed (scaling, disgusting growths). One of the items they salvage is 'wizardwood', which has magical qualities, and is used to make liveships (wizardwood is imbued with sentience). It's a fascinating series about the Vestrit family in Bingtown and the Khuprus family in the Rain Wilds which plunges unflinchingly into human cruelty from the achingly painful view of both victim and victimizer. The mystery and the tragedy behind wizardwood and liveships is what the series is about...not dragons. And wonderfully so.

The Rain Wild Chronicles is about the dragons, though more so about the humans whose lives revolve around them. The dragons emerged from their cocoons stunted and sickly, and depend on humans to live. It is also about complex human interaction, the dark side of humanity, the machinations of the wealthy and powerful and the impact it has on the lives of others. I have found the mystery of the Elderlings and the inglorious return of dragons to the world to be very interesting, and although I am endlessly grateful that Robin Hobb has returned to the Rain Wilds, I do wish she had packed more into this book. I wanted a feast and I got an appetizer...a damn good one, but I'm still ravenous! (less)

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Mar 05, 2013 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Waring - mixed feelings on this book. Why - its pretty racy - well just one chapter but too many inferences too.

With that being said - this plot is pretty addictive. If you like dragons and fantasy, you will most likely become addicted too. The plot centers around a group of characters who eventually get chosen or roped into escorting malformed dragons to their ancient homeland. The plot is quite detailed, the characters likeable and if you can get past the gay relationship (sorry but not all o...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Brigid Keely rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, fantasy, yay-girls

"City of Dragons," by Robin Hobb, is the 3rd book in The Rain Wild Chronicles and not, as I thought, the final book in a trilogy. Which, y'know, explained why 2/3s of the way through the book things kept ramping up with no resolution in sight. "How will this be resolved!?!" I interrobanged to myself. "How can she wrap this up? So much is happening!" Well, the obvious answer is, she won't. There'll be a whole other book ("Blood Of Dragons" released in the USA in April 2013, hopefully. Not that I...more "City of Dragons," by Robin Hobb, is the 3rd book in The Rain Wild Chronicles and not, as I thought, the final book in a trilogy. Which, y'know, explained why 2/3s of the way through the book things kept ramping up with no resolution in sight. "How will this be resolved!?!" I interrobanged to myself. "How can she wrap this up? So much is happening!" Well, the obvious answer is, she won't. There'll be a whole other book ("Blood Of Dragons" released in the USA in April 2013, hopefully. Not that I have any reason to doubt Hobb but lately I've been waiting on a lot of books that authors aren't delivering. Yes, yes, yes, I know, authors don't OWE ME books, but it's still frustrating. Authors, I love you, and I want to love your books.)

In "City Of Dragons" we touch lightly on Seldin Vestris and the Khupruses, familiar from the Liveship books, who promise to be major players again in the 4th book. Thymara grabs a lot of screen time and Sedric continues to grow and mature and redeem himself as well.

This book's exciting, tightly written, and pretty fast paced. There's not much extraneous stuff going on and flash backs and infodumps are managed really well. Three books in and this series is a strong one.

I will admit that my favorite part of the books is the messages between the bird keepers. They're an excellent framing device, showing passage of time and alluding to or revealing events happening elsewhere, including some foreshadowing. Hobb also manages to create some pretty fully realized characters out of nothing more than snippets of personal correspondence. It's great. I'm hoping to see more of them.

It's hard writing a review of a book in the middle of a series because so much of the book is dependent on what has come before, and also on what will come after. Previous books need to be well written for the current book to shine; the current books events and characters can cast spoilers on previous material; crappy later books can make a strong earlier book extra frustrating. So this review is a little scattered and shallow, I guess.

I own all the other Realm Of The Elderlings books in paperback but have been getting the Rain Wilds books from the library. Once we're settled someplace I can fully unpack-- or once I own an electronic reader-- I will be purchasing these books as well. They're worth owning.

And if you're leery of starting a series that has nine previous books set in the world... the previous books are worth reading. They really are. But you can absolutely pick up this series without referring to the previous ones. You'll get more out of the series if you DO, but you don't HAVE TO.(less)

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Sep 03, 2012 FantasyWereld rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: volwassenen

In Drakenziel bereikten de draken en hun hoeders eindelijk de mythische ouderlingenstad Kelsingra. Het verhaal leek afgerond, maar in Drakenstad pikt Robin Hobb de draad weer op. In dit verhaal lezen we welke gevolgen de gebeurtenissen uit de eerste twee delen hebben gehad op de thuisblijvers: het schandaal van Alise, die niet meer is teruggekeerd naar haar echtgenoot Hest en er volgens veel mensen vandoor is gegaan met zijn secretaris Sedric,de verrassing bij de Koopmansraden over de terugkomst...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Brandon Zarzyczny rated it 4 of 5 stars

So, I'm a little conflicted regarding this book, as I absolutely loved it while I was reading it, but when I finished the book I was just left shaking my head. Part of the problem is that previously, Robin Hobb has always written in trilogies, and the third book was always the best, with absolutely amazing endings. When I consider my top 5 favorite book endings of all time, at least 2 (Liveship Traders Trilogy and Solider Son Trilogy) are from Hobb and possibly 3 (Tawny Man Trilogy), but here al...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Věrka rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

There was nothing really surprising about this book, what with it being the third in the series. As usual, the writing is good, but unfortunately, long descriptions and thoughts of various creatures are just not that interesting to me, so I found myself skipping through certain parts. It doesn't seem like I really missed something. And that doesn't sound quite right to me.
To be completely honest, I just wish Hobb would write more Farseer stuff and ditch the dragons for a while. Seeing as she ap...more

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May 05, 2012 Cecily rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, farseer, nautical

I was disappointed in this book. When I first got it in the mail (being driven to buy a used copy of the hardcover because the paperback isn't out yet) I was rather surprised to see how squat and how THIN it is. It did not look like a Robin Hobb book to me! I knew that I'd be able to read it way too fast and I was bummed out.

However, reading it bummed me out even more. This book serves as a transition piece. Nothing really happens, but things are set up and set in a position to really get going...more

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Apr 26, 2012 Maurinejt rated it 3 of 5 stars

I will be honest, the three stars were mostly because it was a Robin Hobb book and I am definitely in favor of continuing the saga of the dragons, traders, Rain Wilders, and Elderlings. I would love to find out what happens, plus at some point we HAVE to meet up with beloved characters from previous books. This series though, has annoyed me. Robin Hobb's books of late have been plagued with lack of forward motion. You will read for hundreds of pages and realized that not much has actually happen...more

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Apr 10, 2012 gilmae rated it 2 of 5 stars

A middle book, and it felt like it. I think the most interesting thing happened off stage before the book even started, (view spoiler).

She can do this kind of thing really well. Fantasy doesn't have to be flashy wizards and sword fighting and macguffins, it can be just life. But with dragons, in this case obviously, but still, just basically normal people in fantasy tinged conflict and strife. Hobb can do that. Tawny Man, a couple of fights aside, was basical...more

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Apr 08, 2012 Stacy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Originally, the Rain Wild Chronicles were touted as a duology (at least according to the Sci Fi Book Club), which I considered odd based on Hobb's history of trilogies, but they were published so close together that I figured that particular story was complete. Now having read the third book in the Chronicles, it's obvious this series is going to have more coming--I'd guess at least another two, but maybe she'll round it out to six. I'm not complaining by any means--I just usually like to wait (...more

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Mar 08, 2012 Scott rated it 4 of 5 stars

City of Dragons is the third book in Robin Hobb's Rain Wild Chronicles. According to Hobb, the first two books (Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven) were actually intended to be one book, but were split due to length. And the third and (forthcoming) fourth books were the same. City of Dragons is not a standalone book—it has no climax, virtually no resolution to its myriad storylines, and in fact where you would expect things to be wrapping up it only spawns new plot threads. In a genre where Pat Roth...more City of Dragons is the third book in Robin Hobb's Rain Wild Chronicles. According to Hobb, the first two books (Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven) were actually intended to be one book, but were split due to length. And the third and (forthcoming) fourth books were the same. City of Dragons is not a standalone book—it has no climax, virtually no resolution to its myriad storylines, and in fact where you would expect things to be wrapping up it only spawns new plot threads. In a genre where Pat Rothfuss can publish The Wise Man's Fear and we get innumerable Wheel of Time doorstops I'd question whether splitting the story was really necessary, but, regardless, my rating and review are with the understanding that I'm only looking at part of a whole.

City of Dragons continues to follow the dragons and their keepers. They've found fabled Kelsingra. Some are beginning to explore the city and reawaken its magic, but most of the dragons are trapped across the river, unable to fly. Leftrin, captain of the liveship Tarman, returns to Cassarick to report on the expedition and purchase much-needed supplies. Meanwhile, the plot spiderwebs out through the Rain Wilds and beyond. New "impervious" ships that can withstand the caustic Rain Wild River compete with liveships for the valuable Rain Wild trade. The dying Duke of Chalced becomes more desperate to get his hands on dragon flesh which he believes will cure him.

And familiar characters from earlier books (and series) make an appearance too. We see Tintaglia and Icefyre, if only briefly. Hest Finbock, consumed by greed and revenge, gets caught up in the Chalcedean intrigues. We see a lot more of Malta and Reyn Khuprus, expecting their first child, and even Selden Vestrit, now imprisoned and shown off as a freak due to his Elderling transformations. The result is that City of Dragons isn't focused on the dragons and keepers like the earlier volumes. It is a much broader book, showing the rippling consequences of Kelsingra's discovery and setting into motion all the forces that will no doubt clash in the finale.

Hobb's trademarks are all there: an immersive setting, lush prose, and deep, sympathetic characters. But this book doesn't feel as dark or as desperate as Hobb's other writing. There are threats, such as the fear that with Kelsingra known it will be overrun by treasure seekers, and the mysterious Chalcedean conspiracy. And problems, like the shortage of food and supplies, or the fact the dragons can't fly and so are completely dependent on their keepers. But none of these things feels particularly urgent or unmanageable. Disaster is not imminent. There are a few exceptions, such as one very desperate scene on the dark branches of the tree city of Cassarick (you'll know it when you read it)—but even that scene feels brief and truncated.

But not every book needs to ratchet up suspense to unbearable levels. The book is a process of discovery, learning about the past and hoping for the possibilities of the future. Will the ancient society be restored, Elderlings and dragons living in symbiosis? And it is very much about relationships (romantic and otherwise). People are constantly forced to make choices about who to trust, who to be with, and then dealing with the consequences of those choices. Combine that with all the threads Hobb left in motion, and the final book promises to be an exciting conclusion to the series!(less)

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Mar 05, 2012 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think I'm just echoing much of what has already been said by other reviewers, but this is really just half a book.

Is it half of a good book? Yes.
Do I like where she is taking this story? Yes.
Am I happy to get to see a bit more of the Realm of the Elderlings? Yes.

I love the fact that arriving at Kelsingra wasn't the end of the journey. I look forward to seeing an altercation with the Chalcedeans that - to my mind - has been brewing since we learned the origins of Burrich's earring and almost c...more

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Feb 15, 2012 Merlindrea rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I am a big fan of Robin Hobb (and Megan Lindholm, her alter ego, too). She is one of the best in her metier, and therefor I hold her up to much higher standards than I would other authors.

So the following is "Meckern auf hohem Niveau" - complaining on a really high level.

First of all, the book is too short. You can drown yourself in Hobbs books, and never want to come up for air. With so many plotlines going on, why wasn't there more "meat"? For instance I would really have liked to read more a...more

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May 12, 2012 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: random-comments-review

...As you may have gathered, I enjoyed reading this novel a lot. Despite the fact that it is not a complete story, City of Dragons worked very well for me on several levels. It is Hobb like the fans will probably like to see her. It is not surprising in terms of settings of themes but very well told, with Hobb's characteristic attention to detail and character. Some readers will think Hobb is taking her time putting the pieces in place for the finale of the series. For me, that was one of the as...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Denise Eggleston rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read the first two volumes of what will be a four-part series. City of Dragons is the third of The Rain Wild Chronicles. It's a worthy addition to the series and moves the story on quite nicely. The Duke of Chalced is still evil, Hest is still a schemer, and Thymara is still exasperated with Sintara, the dragon she tends.

But, ultimately I was unsatisfied. My sense of incompleteness is not Robin Hobbs' fault. It stems from reading a series that is still being written. The story is not yet fini...more

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Feb 14, 2012 Impossible A rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads, scifi-fantasy

My only problem with this book was that it was over too quick. I know there is more to finish this section of the Chronicles...but now I have to wait!

I started reading RH's work with the Liveship series and then worked my way through the Farseer series, and the Tawny Man series. All of which I absolutely adore. I devoured all of them about the time she put out the first in the RWC set: Dragon Keeper.

It took a while to get used to this new set of characters as there weren't many overlap character...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, fantasy-adult, top-authors

City of Dragons, the third novel of the Rain Wild Chronicles welcomes back old characters from Robin Hobb's earlier trilogy The Liveship Traders including Malta, Reyn and Selden. I was delighted to read from their points of view once again, along with the other characters of the Rain Wild Chronicles that I have come to love - Alyce, Thymara, Leftrin and Rapskal, and of course the iron willed dragons.

The young dragon keepers continue their exploration of the lost Elderling city and the dragons g...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Miri rated it 4 of 5 stars

So both the dragons and their keepers are growing up. We are no longer dealing with young kids and feeble half-wit dragons here, but with young Elderlings and Real full-scale flying Dragons (well, at least some of them). And they are beautiful!

Kelsingra is all we've expected it to be and more. Rapskal's involvement with the city is different from Fitz's experience in the lost city back in Assassin's Quest. This city is alive and waiting for the Elderlings and Dragons to return.

Romance remains a...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Dennis rated it 4 of 5 stars

I started out reading part three of `the rain wild chronicles´, only finding out in the end... it is not the end - and there will probably come a part four.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading it. Starting at part three wasn't a big of a problem and might have well made things even more for the imagenative mind. In the end the books is a good fantasy world, scetching a scene were dragons and humans are on their way of reconnecting after an unknown past.

The scene twists about a group of newly born dra...more

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May 18, 2012 Aldi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Noooooo, how will I wait another year for the last one?? I think City of Dragons falls somewhere between Dragon Keeper (which only moderately hooked me) and Dragon Haven (which I adored) for me - a lot of it is set-up for the final showdown, and I thought too much of it was told in summary form - by skipping scenes that would have been interesting and then having a character summarise what happened (odd technique, really). And I didn't get to see enough of some of my favourite characters (Sedric...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Jake Ulasich rated it 3 of 5 stars

The third installment of the Rain Wild Chronicles is a mixed bag.

On the one hand, the characters are much more interesting and less annoying than the past two books. Hobb brings back in more outside politics and renews interest in old characters like Malta, Reyn and Selden. She explores the court of the Duke of Chalced, the frustrations of the hated Hest Finbok, and the interests of Tintaglia and Icefyre.

In the past two books, I felt stuck with the endless trudging of the motley company of drag...more

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Feb 23, 2012 Larou added it

Shelves: fantasy, 2012-02

I have been a fan of Robin Hobb’s work ever since first reading Assassin’s Apprentice. I loved the beauty of her writing, the depth of her characterisation and that she avoided the beaten paths of most Epic Fantasy novels and took the genre into new directions, where she did lots of exciting things with it. And I think she only got better with every work she published, up to her Soldier Son trilogy which I loved even though many of her fans did not, most likely because it blithely ignores pretty...more I have been a fan of Robin Hobb’s work ever since first reading Assassin’s Apprentice. I loved the beauty of her writing, the depth of her characterisation and that she avoided the beaten paths of most Epic Fantasy novels and took the genre into new directions, where she did lots of exciting things with it. And I think she only got better with every work she published, up to her Soldier Son trilogy which I loved even though many of her fans did not, most likely because it blithely ignores pretty much every Fantasy convention there is, and whittles down the exterior plot to the bare minimum while using the freed-up space for character exploration and breathtakingly beautiful nature descriptions – those, at least, are the reason why that trilogy is my favourite among her works.

Viewed in this light, I think that the work she embarked on next, The Rain Wilds Chronicles, marks a step backwards in her development as a writer – not because in it she returns to the world of her earlier novels (which I’m enough of a fan to rather welcome – I admit to some curiosity as to how the fate of that world, of Tintaglia and the other dragons as well as of the humans whose life was touched by them, continues) but because she returns to familar narrative territory, one of the most archetypal there is, i.e. the journey upriver that is also a journey of self-discovery for the people undertaking it.

Which is of course still a very far cry from “Peasant son discovers he has amazing powers and sets forth to save the day and win the kingdom”, and this is still very much Robin Hobb, so while I was a mite disappointed I still very much enjoyed the first two volumes of the Rain Wilds Chronicles. Back when their release was first announced, the news was that Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven were the two parts of a standalone novel that had to be cut in half due to its length, and while those concluded somewhat open-ended, they did not cry out for a direct sequel, and it was easy to imagine the loose threads being taken up from another tangent, as part of someone else’s story.

So I was a bit surprised to read that there was going to be a third volume, but being a Robin Hobb fan I of course immediately pre-ordered the hardcover, and even read it right away, making this my first new release in 2012. Unfortunately, I have to say that this is the first book by Robin Hobb I’m feeling rather ho-hum about. Apparently, it is again the first half of something that was cut in two, and seemingly cut in the wrong place, too – the last few chapters of City of Dragons not only almost completely lose sight of all the people the novel had been following so far, it not only introduces new point of view characters that get dropped again immediately due to the novel ending, but to top things off it has a lenghty recap of events in Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven about eighty pages before the end of this volume that would have been okay at the start of the second installment but is completely out of place coming at the end of the first one as it is. This is some really sloppy structuring/editing and definitely not what I’m used to from Robin Hobb.

While the general plot is brought slightly forward, it reads mostly like the positioning of pieces that has become so tediously familiar in much long-running fantasy series, and – more unusual for Robin Hobb – the characters do not seem to develop much over the course of this novel either. And a final niggle – as much as I admire Robin Hobb’s skills as a writer, she just can’t seem to do villains well. Prince Regal in the Farseer trilogy was of the worst melodramatic moustache-twirling kind, and was the only thing seriously marring what was otherwise a truly excellent work. Thankfully, she has avoided the “evil just for the sake of being evil, mwuahaha” kind of bad guy since then… up to City of Dragons, that is, where she presents us with not just one, but two members of the species in the book’s final quarter. The Duke of Chalced might maybe have a tiny bit more motivation than the merely evil-for-evil’s-sake Hest, but not by much and it’s all rather flimsy and conventional.

Having said all this, this is still a novel by Robin Hobb, and while I personally consider it her weakest yet, it still maintains a high level of artistry that not many writing in the Fantasy genre achieve even in their best moments. The writing is impeccably beautiful, bringing the fetid jungles of the Rain Wilds and the decayed grandeur of Kelsingra to vivid life in the reader’s imagination. Also, it is just nice to find out what happened to everyone, not just from the previous two novels, but we also meet again characters from as far back as The Liveship Traders. And, of course, it has dragons – nobody, really nobody writes dragons the way Robin Hobb does…(less)

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Feb 24, 2012 Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book, but, as others have said, it was too short and left too much incomplete. I had thought this would be the final book in the series because she usually writes trilogies. Now I wish that I had waited to read this book. I adore Robin Hobb. I love getting lost in her stories and characters. With the exception of The Rain Wild Chronicles, I have been able to read all of the other series from start to finish, so I never experienced the feeling of being left hanging that I di...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Tia Jones rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: good-books

For whatever reason, I thought this was the last book in a trilogy (maybe because it seems like everything is a trilogy here lately) but I was sadly mistaken. During every single page of the last 100 pages I kept thinking, "Oh it's going to be one of those endings where nothing is resolved! NOOOOO." But it wasn't, because there was no ending.

Then I get online to see what the hell the next book is only to find that it's not even published yet. OHHHHH the humanity!

This is a really good series, I'...more

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May 06, 2012 Danie Cutter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Don't believe the negative reviews, I can't believe they almost had me questioning it and I've been reading RH since way back!

No it's not a leap out, should be nominated for every award going as I usually feel about Hobb's books but it is still very good. There are no battles and bloody wars but this is a Hobb book and you shouldn't expect that if you've read any of the previous books.

It's a novel of exploration both the characters and the newly discovered city. Personally I didn't see it as a r...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Ruth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the first time I've felt let down by a Robin Hobb book. I found this book to be even slightly below the level of the decidedly lackluster Soldier Son trilogy. The reasons for this are three-fold: 1) this installment was much shorter and less complex than her other works, giving the reader less to sink into, 2) very little of the over-arcing story line actually develops in this book: it feels more like a placeholder for the next book than anything else, and 3) much of the tale follows my...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Data rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: series

Right up front,I admit that I haven't read any other books in this series. That said, a good story doesn't depend on what came before, or comes after ...

So this was a slow start for me. I kept finding myself drifting back to the book I had read just before this - a very different topic and contrasting style. So what's with that? I read everything, but love sci-fantasy the best. So why drifting back to post-war Mexico in the beginning of a dragon book? I finally got far enough into the book to g...more

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Other Editions (14)

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Fantasy

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Fantasy > Dragons

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Fantasy > Epic Fantasy

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Science Fiction Fantasy

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Fantasy > High Fantasy

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Fantasy > Magic

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Epic

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Adventure

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Adult

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About Robin Hobb

** I am shocked to find that some people think a 2 star 'I liked it' rating is a bad rating. What? I liked it. I LIKED it! That means I read the whole thing, to the last page, in spite of my life raining comets on me. It's a good book that survives the reading process with me. If a book is so-so, it ends up under the bed somewhere, or maybe under a stinky judo bag in the back of the van. So a 2 st...more

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11801463-city-of-dragons?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1322613975l/11801463.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11801463-city-of-dragons?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]City of Dragons by Robin Hobb[/url]

City of Dragons (Rain Wild Chronicles #3)

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