Robin Hobb, Dragon Haven (Eos, 2010)

Every time I read a Robin Hobb trilogy, it happens. Somewhere along the way, I get sucked into it, and I wind up forgoing such niceties as food and sleep in order to finish whatever book of hers I happen to be in the middle of. It took a little longer than usual with the Rain Wilds Chronicles, but about seventy-five pages into Dragon Haven, it clicked. I finished the rest of the book in a couple of marathon sessions and am now pacing my cage while I wait for the next volume to come out. (Because yes, I do think, despite promotional materials, there will be a third book here.)

When we last left our tangle of malformed dragons, outcast keepers, and taggers-along from Bingtown, they were out of Cassarick, but other than that, little had changed. Alise Finbok was still moping around after the captain and feeling there wasn't anything she could do about it, while the captain was busy worrying about who the mole in his crew was. Some of the dragons were getting along with their keepers, while others barely tolerated one another. And the keepers were little different amongst themselves. The hunters kept away from everyone else. And the keepers of the birds passed their notes in the chapter beginnings with no one the wiser. Well, all that changes. Most of it, anyway (the bird keepers keep passing notes). As the dragons get closer to Kelsingra, the humans continue to wonder whether the lost city even exists. But all that becomes secondary to survival when a flash flood tears through the party, scattering dragons, keepers, hunters, and ship's crew alike. The bulk of the latter half of the book involves everyone searching for everyone else, in fact, and it's this sort of chaos where Hobb truly excels.

It's tough to know what rating to give this book until we know for certain whether there will be a book three in this series. As a stand-alone, it's about as phenomenal as anything else Robin Hobb has written, and if you like her work, you'll like this one well enough; engaging characters, strong plot, great pacing (once she gets warmed up, which always seems to take a while). But if that's really the ending of this particular story arc, I'll end up coming back and docking the book half a star, maybe even a full star. It's a weak ending, and it doesn't really beg a sequel (in the sense that the story could reasonably end here); if the story ends up just petering out where it is rather than giving us more, then the ending drags the whole thing down. I can't believe that's the case, though; Hobb has a history of incredible series endings. I'm reserving judgment and keeping faith until we know for sure. ****