RotE4: Rain Wild Chronicles (BR)

[Anna]

Let's find out what's happening in the Rain Wilds!


June 2019: The Dragon Keeper
July 2019: Dragon Haven
August 2019: City of Dragons
September 2019: Blood of Dragons

For full schedule and details of Realms of the Elderlings buddy reads, go here!

Remember to use spoiler tags, and mark all spoilers with both book name and chapter number!

[Bobby]

I might or might not start The Dragon Keeper in June, but I wanted to post here to make sure I can see what other people are thinking about the books.

[Travis]

This thread, have mercy. So many different feelings about these books.

[Anna]

Haha, I'm already worried!

[Mareike]

Travis wrote: "This thread, have mercy. So many different feelings about these books."

Agreed.
I really, really, really want to re-read them, but I'm not sure I have the time. Those were the first books of Hobb I read and I wonder how they'd read now that I know the others.

[Helena]

Bobby wrote: "I might or might not start The Dragon Keeper in June, but I wanted to post here to make sure I can see what other people are thinking about the books."

Mareike wrote: "I really, really, really want to re-read them, but I'm not sure I have the time."

Me too Bobby and Mareike! I'm not sure I will get to them as a reread, but I have read them all before a few years ago. I''m so keen to see what others thought.

I read this series after reading the Fitz and Golden Fool series, and also after reading the Live Ship Traders. There were many things in the Rain Wild series that linked to the others, and I was so very glad I had read them. I wasn't sure I would have understood some references otherwise.

I am very interested in what others think.

[Anna]

RainWild1, Chapter 3.

(view spoiler)[ I was so hoping I would find this less aggravating than LiveShip, but did I hear correctly that Hest is gay and already made out to be a villain? (hide spoiler)] And in the start of chapter four (view spoiler)[ Alise is actually hoping to make this a real marriage? We've barely started and I'm already mad. (hide spoiler)]

[Anna]

RW1, Ch5

(view spoiler)[ So Hest turned out to be as icky as I suspected, and Alise, who was supposed to be an intelligent woman, is an idiot. Even the dragons are rapists. I really, really do not like Bingtown and the Rain Wilds. (hide spoiler)]

[Travis]

Anna wrote: "RW1, Ch5

[spoilers removed]"

Oh, yeah and yep. Fwiw, I do think there's some improvement to look forward to as you get into the next volumes.

[Anna]

That's good to know! So far (view spoiler)[ Althea's son flying through the air (hide spoiler)] has been the highlight of the book. I just started chapter 9, I think that was in the last chapter.

[Anna]

I finished RW1

(view spoiler)[ What is up with Hobb making all her characters so unlikable or downright horrible? I wanted to not hate Sedric in the beginning, but of course he turned into a raving lunatic in no time. It's impossible for me to like these (Liveship and Rain Wilds) characters, they're all disgusting people in some way. Fitz may be a little slow to figure things out, but at least he doesn't make me want to feed him to dragons.

And is there a single relationship, besides Fitz&Fool, that isn't a complete dumpster fire? Why did I have to read all that crap about Hest and Sedric?

Right now I'm mostly interested in getting to know the copper dragon. And maybe reading a bit more about feeding peas to pigeons. (hide spoiler)]

[Anna]

RW2, finished

(view spoiler)[ I love Detozi and Erek, and hoped this would happen. But how will we hear about their further adventures now that they're in the same place? I will be sad if there is no more Detozi/Erek action.

I wonder if it's the audio making Relpda sound like a lisping baby, which is kind of cute, but also weird since she's a dragon. I know she's supposed to be childlike, but some of her comments sound very baby-ish. I'm sad she's with Sedric, and I feel like there was no need to make Sedric so horrible. He could've been only a little bit horrible, and I'd be happy with this match.

I'm a bit uncomfortable with how Hobb treats all the human relationships. Everything just rubs me the wrong way. There is so much interesting material in the dragons, and the elderlings, and the relationships between the humans and the dragons, we don't need all this sex drama.

I'm looking forward to learning more about Kelsingra, and seeing the dragons thrive. (hide spoiler)]

[Travis]

Anna wrote: "RW2, finished
."

(view spoiler)["We don't need all this sex drama" basically summarizes my feelings about these four books. But, yes, all the stuff with the dragons and the elderlings and the city: all that I really loved. (hide spoiler)]

[Anna]

(view spoiler)[ It's like two very different books mashed together, and I only want to read one of them. But it's going very quickly, I'll soon be back with my Beloved/Fool. (hide spoiler)]

[Mareike]

Travis wrote: "Anna wrote: "RW2, finished
."

[spoilers removed]"

I agree with both of you on this.

[Bonnie]

RW2 Dragon Haven Chapter 14, 69%

(view spoiler)[

...You are not the only one pestered by family to take a mate and settle down. One would think my mother had a nesting box awaiting me, to hear her nag that I need to find a husband soon! Detozi

Whoa! I thought Erek and Detozi the birdkeepers were like our positive gay relationship.
Detozi must be a woman but I had assumed both the bird keepers were men.

Their messages are cute and a cool way to give us more information from outside the main story, am a little sad tho
(hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

RW4 Blood of Dragons Chapter 18 "Seductions" at 80%

Am I the only one who laughs when (view spoiler)[a dragon chomps down a person?

“That’s better, Blue Glory. The sooner we understand each other, the easier this will be.”
Just as his fingertips brushed the animal’s scaling, the dragon swung his head aside, lifting his head high and looking down on Hest. “I understand you, human. And I think I will give you a special name, too.” The words rode a low rumble of sound from the beast. Extraordinary. But an excellent sign of how swiftly they were bonding. Hest smiled at his dragon.
“Shall I help you, Blue Glory? You could call me Glory’s Master. Or Silver Rider.”
The dragon still looked down on him, considering each name carefully. His eyes spun faster and faster. “No. I think not,” he said, and amusement shimmered in the rumbling voice. “I think I will name you ‘Meat.’ ”

I also chortled when the copper dragon (later Relpda) ate Jess the hunter during the flood.
Is it wrong? ;->
(hide spoiler)]

[Travis]

LOL to both comments! I had the same assumption as your message 16 and the same reaction as your message 17.

[Bonnie]

Helena wrote: "I'm so keen to see what others thought..."

I admit I am very much enjoying Hobb's "Realm of the Elderlings" world (we don't have a name for the entire planet, do we? just the nations) -- inventive and rich. When I am not reading I think about the story and look forward to "going back in." I like discovering more about the world and its magic as the sequence goes on, and coming across the little connections linking the series together.

As for Rain Wilds, could probably have gotten books 3 and 4 into one. Rain Wilds seemed a little shorter and lighter than the previous series, although I can't put my finger on why exactly, if one cared about the stakes for the dragons. Which I did.

The villainous...(view spoiler)[ Hest Finrok was a little overwritten at times, e.g. this last sentence:

[Hest] looked forward to humiliating Sedric as he had been humbled, to threatening him as he had been threatened. Whenever he thought of it, his heart beat faster and the muscles in his belly tightened. There was, he decided, only one way to purge himself of the terror and humiliation the Chalcedean trader forced on him. He would pass them on to Sedric.

(hide spoiler)]

[Bonnie]

Anna wrote: "RW1, Ch5

Even the dragons... (view spoiler)[are rapists." (hide spoiler)]
(view spoiler)[I disagree: they have rough foreplay & sex when mating but it's consensual!

I want to add an emoji here but none seem appropriate
(hide spoiler)]

[YouKneeK]

Travis wrote: "LOL to both comments! I had the same assumption as your message 16 and the same reaction as your message 17."

Me too to both. :)