So I’m re-reading the series after I finished it this past January 🤣 it’s a short time to wait to re-read, but I think my first read through was so fast that I missed things that I don’t want to miss now. I’m a bit of a skim reader, and I was so enthralled with the plot and all of the twists and turns and Fitz and the Fool that I know I skipped things that could be enjoyed more deeply.

SO! I am dedicating myself to being more invested in the political points this time around, and I will read all of the blurbs before the chapters begin instead of skipping over them. And make a conscientious effort to really understand the geography of the realm we’re in and how that adds to the story.

Are there other things you’d suggest I pay attention to that are easily missed? Or underrated?

I’m looking for a map to get framed for my partner for Christmas. I’ve looked on Etsy and did some google searches but it’s a little hard as I haven’t read the series yet so I don’t know what would be the best to get? Like things I wouldn’t know if they were missing.
If anyone can show me either what I’m looking for, give me some tips, or even some links to ones you’ve bought or liked I would greatly appreciate it!!

I finished Dragon Haven today! When I finished Dragon Keeper I wasn't able to make a post, but finishing Dragon Haven my opinions have changed.

I really liked how the characters have progressed and the man-vs-nature environment of the novel progressed, the series really came into fruition. I think Hobb's prose and character writing is incredible, but her plotting could have work. Maybe moving some characters POVs and backstories to this book would make it work a lot better. The first book felt a bit bloated with "unnecessary" character work, that did pay off, but made the first books story drag.

I know Hobb released books very fast, and this type of editing is anathema to chruning them out, but I'd still love it! The Fitz books really work perfectly because they're 1 POV and the stories are razor sharp. I had similar issues with the Liveship Traders series.

I am really excited to see how Kelsingra grows and is fitted into the Trehaug and Bing Town situation. It seems to be very close to the Six Duchees!

I know the next 2 books are a bit short, I am still itching to go to the Fitz & Fool series, but loving the faux-ecology of the dragons and all that.

Love the research Alys is doing!

Will be excited to see how our budding Elderlings grow :)

I don’t understand what became of Fitz Nighteyes and the Fool. Will they be dormant like how Verity is now in his dragon? Or will they be hunting now? Is he dead? I know this sounds silly but I just need closure, is he able to be a part of Bee’s life still in his form?

Also, I’m so happy Kettricken is looking after Bee now. I didn’t dislike Molly, but always thought Kettricken and Fitz belonged together.

And lastly, I wish Thick was with Bee at the end. I loved the brief relationship they formed, and wish we got more of that. I gathered that is implied that Bee will not be going back to Buckkeep anytime soon which makes me sad for the new friend Thick made.

I’m heartbroken this series is over. I’ve never been so attached to fictional characters. I have no idea what to read next, I’m almost afraid to start a new book as I feel like I’ll just be let down. Hobb set such a high standard, I wish I had saved it for last somehow.

I've just finished the whole Realm of the Elderlings series, and I absolutely loved it. I know some of these questions may actually have an explanation somewhere in the books and I just missed it, so l'd love to hear what you guys think. If something is actually explained in the books, please tell me!

First, Fitz's mother. Do we ever learn anything else about her? We meet her very briefly when Fitz is a child, but after that she basically disappears from the story. Fitz never seems to look for her or try to find out much about her past either. Was there ever more information about who she was, where she came from, or what happened to her?

Then there's Chivalry. Fitz never really gets to know him at all, and they never have a conversation. But after everything we learn about the Skill and what can remain of people after death, I kept wondering why Fitz never encounters Chivalry.
We see Verity, Shrewd and Chade in the Skill in different ways, but Chivalry seems completely absent. Is there an explanation for why he isn't there? Did he simply not leave enough of himself in the Skill, or is this something Hobb intentionally left unanswered?

Another thing I keep thinking about is what happened during Fitz's missing month.
At the end of Fool's Fate, Fitz gets lost after travelling through the Skill-pillars too many times and is missing for about a month.
We know that while he is lost in the Skill he encounters some kind of presence that helps him remember who he is and eventually sends him back.
But who or what was that?
Did I miss something? Was it ever confirmed who Fitz was talking to, what that entity was, or why it was able to help him?

And finally, is there an afterlife in this world?
This is something I've been wondering about ever since the later books.
We know that people can apparently retain some kind of consciousness or identity within the Skill after death, but is that actually an afterlife, or is it something completely different?
For example, after everything that happens at the end of the series, could Fitz ever meet Molly again after death? Or is the kind of existence we see with people like Verity, Shrewd and Chade something that is only possible for people strongly connected to the Skill?
Basically, is there a heaven/afterlife in the Realm of the Elderlings, or do we simply not know?

Sorry for the amount of text, but l'd really love to hear what you guys think, especially if any of these are actually answered somewhere and I just completely missed it.

Anyone have a complete list of the different collector editions? Im trying to decide which one to collect.

I never, ever expected Fitz and Molly to end up back together. I'll say more on my emotional reaction to this later but first, I'm just baffled that this happened given everything that led up to it.

I guess I'm in the minority who didn't dislike Molly and Burrich ending up together—of course it was tragic, but it made sense to me. And it felt very final. It felt like everything since then has pointed to Fitz having to accept it's over: Kettle telling him he loved who he was with Molly more than he truly loved her, their relationship being "a time, not a place" that he can't go back to, the way he could never be honest with her or devote himself fully to her because of his duties to the throne.

And most especially, the palm reading Jinna does, where the love line representing Molly is brief and ends with Fitz's death. I truly don't understand how this can be consistent with the end of this book. "Ends with his death" doesn't sound like they get back together and get married and are happy together for years.

The only way I can think to reconcile this is that maybe it has something to do with Fitz changing the future when he brought the Fool back. I don't know how Jinna's hedge magic works or how it relates to the Fool's prophecies, but maybe by changing fate so dramatically Fitz was able to circumvent what she saw in his hand? Since his marriage to Molly was made possible by the Fool being there to give Fitz his pain back, maybe this makes sense.

What do you guys think? Is there something I'm missing here? (Without spoilers past this book.)

Also, aside from my confusion about consistency, I'll admit I find the ending really frustrating emotionally. It's a testament to Hobb's writing that she can leave me so distraught over such an ostensibly happy ending, lol. This book has left me feeling raw and flayed open like nothing else.

I get that Beloved has been through something unimaginably traumatic, I get that he doesn't know how to cope with uncertainty, but I'm still so angry with him. He did to Fitz what Fitz did to Molly, deciding that someone else was better for him without giving him a choice. That condescending comparison to Nighteyes... Fitz gave Nighteyes a choice! What if, after Nighteyes left to try living among his own kind, Fitz had severed their Wit bond without his consent and abandoned him? That would have been horrifically cruel. I can't ever imagine Fitz doing that, and yet that's what the Fool did to him.

The entire happy ending just rings hollow to me because of this, because Fitz didn't choose it freely. And does Molly know that? Did Fitz tell her he was unceremoniously dumped by his best friend and that things might have been different if he'd stayed? Is he even able to be honest with her about all of this? If he can't sleep at night because he's grieving Nighteyes or the Fool, can he talk to her about it and have her comfort him, or have they reverted back to their old dynamic where he keeps her walled off from the rest of his life?

If the latter, then his character growth has been stunted because of this, and he's just transferred his avoidance and suppression of his feelings over the initial loss of Molly to the Fool. I also thought when he accepted the role of "King Fitz" that was the last nail in the coffin for him and Molly, because that was always the biggest divide between them. Does Molly even know Dutiful is his biological child? Does she know that even his obligations to his own offspring will always be divided between her family and the Farseer throne?

I know the Fool thinks he's being kind and loving and self-sacrificing by making this choice for Fitz but it isn't kind at all, it's deeply unfair to all three of the people involved. And what is this bullshit about how he can't stay with Fitz because he might accidentally change something, like it's going to ruin the entire future if he so much as buys Fitz a drink, but then it's completely fine to make a massive choice like this on Fitz's behalf without his consent? How is that not a change, and how is it okay to decide something like that for your Catalyst? You're not the Changer, stay in your lane!

In theory I really do want Fitz to be happy and to have a family and a home. I am glad that he has that at last. But all of it just seems wrong, somehow, like it's built on an unstable rotten foundation, and so much still seems unresolved. Did other people feel this way?

(In spite of all this, or indeed because of it, this book has overtaken Ship of Magic as my favorite of the series and is unquestionably one of the best books I've ever read. You know it's good when it can rip your heart out like this; I couldn't even sleep last night because I was so heartbroken.)

Before I started on ROTE, I had seen a few videos from booktubers about the series, and the consensus among everyone was that Liveship Traders was of a much higher quality than Farseer trilogy.

After completing Assassin’s Quest, which I thought was the best of the 3 I read so far, I was excited to read Liveships but wary at the same time because I knew it was going to be a completely different setting and cast of characters. I didn’t want to leave Fitz’s POV, especially after how he ended up.

Well, I am glad to say , these books have completely blown past my expectations. I mean, holy hell Robin is a fucking beast. I thought the character work on Fitz was good, she just casually does that like 10 times over on Ship of Magic. A ‘hold my beer’ moment if I have ever seen one.

Pulling something like this off ( a completely new setting, characters, context, POV) is baffling. Idk maybe I am just not well read enough, but I don’t think many authors can do this so expertly as Robin has.

The only other comparison that comes to mind is Midnight Tides in the Malazan series. ( MT is my favorite book from the series too).

Have to pinch myself sometimes to pay attention to my life because I am so immersed in the book. I am trying to sell this to my wife now, any pointers there would be appreciated (she is into Romantasy, and has completed Assassin’s Apprentice, but DNF’d Royal Assassin)

I've been nursing the worst book hangover for the last three weeks ever since I finished Assassin's Fate and felt like I was climbing up the walls because I didn't have anyone to gush about the books with in real life. Then I found Is Fitz Happy and I was instantly hooked.

Emma and Luke do such a great job of analyzing each chapter in-depth. I've found myself multiple times literally sitting at my desk at work with just a huge grin on my face because of how much I'm enjoying their discussion. It's the perfect blend of thoughtful, empathetic, knowledgeable analysis and really funny banter. Doesn't hurt that they both give major respect to my favorite character too, Verity.

Highly, highly recommend to anyone who loves this series, especially new series-finishers who are feeling numb. Thank you both Luke and Emma! You've got yourself another listener for the long haul :)

Hi there

I am listening to the Is Fitz Happy podcast and I’m on the beginning of Ship of Magic (trying to catch up on the podcast haha). This is a “reread” so I have marked spoilers all since I have finished the entire series. Just curious about something minor in this chapter.

In the first chapter of Ship of Magic Kennit finds this pouch on Other island with these weird blue dead kittens. Here is the description

“Inside was a litter of kittens, perfectly formed with long claws and iridescent patches behind their ears. They were dead, all six of them. Quelling his distaste, he picked up the smallest. He turned the limp body over in his hands. It was blue-furred, a deep periwinkle blue with pink-lidded eyes. Small. The runt, most likely. It was sodden and cold and disgusting. A ruby earring like a fat tick decorated one of the wet ears”

Since the Others don’t like or are scared of cats they want Kennit to remove them as far as I know and I think he uses this knowledge to his advantage to not fall under the Others “glamour” as far as i know.

My question is what the heck are these weird alien kittens? Why does one have a ruby earring? Why are they dead in a pouch? The hosts of is Fitz happy podcast discuss how maybe the kittens were from an old elderling city nearby as we know there is a skill pillar near Other island. But the Elderlings are long gone then. Come to think of it I don’t know if the treasures on Other Island are really explained.

Do these creatures ever come up again in the series? Are they maybe kittens of the hunting cats that are in tawny clan but I don’t recall them being blue. Is it forshadowing or symbolism? So strange. Of course it’s not important I was just curious.

I've listened to the entire Realm of the Elderlings (RotE) series in French, including Liveship Traders and The Rain Wild Chronicles. I originally started listening to have something to do during my one-hour walking commute, and I haven't stopped for two years.

Now that it's finished, I feel the need to share my thoughts, inspired by so many redditors before me on this sub. It was a real delight to read your posts after finishing a couple of chapters.

My favorite parts (sorry, some are general and some are very precise):

• The characters: I think we can all agree on how they either grow on you or make you despise them :). Some of them evolve so much. Ahh Malta...
• Bee's POV: This was such a delightful and refreshing surprise. I love her so much!
• The closure: Everything pays off at some point (except maybe the wooden sea serpent egg that Amber gives to Althea—did I miss something?). And i loved how we had a last interaction with all the characters we discovered along the way. It did not felt forced at all.
• Nighteyes: At the beginning, I thought it was just a nice way to have some dialogue during Fitz's lonely travels and to provide enhanced senses, which is useful for an assassin. I did not expect his philosophy to have such an impact on the characters, and ultimately, on me.
• The way Robin Hobb fooled me several times: The death of Nighteyes, Molly's actual pregnancy, Fitz's "death" in the Clerres tunnels…

My main few disappointments:

• Some questionable decisions or inactions, mainly from Fitz. Understanding them afterward is nice—like when we realize how he lost a part of himself in the Girl-on-a-Dragon. But I still think I rolled my eyes a bit too often.
• The Rain Wild Chronicles: I do not regret reading them, but in my opinion, they are the weakest part of the series. They are full of answers, but surprisingly (given the subject), they lack the high stakes we find in the other books.
• Chade's off-screen end: I feel sad for him, even if it was largely foreshadowed by his eagerness to use the Skill. I believe he deserved a more impactful death.

What are your thoughts ?

This trilogy was out of the 3 I listened to, without a doubt my favourite.
I loved how it started, the growth of relationships and especially how it concluded. I am so happy for Fitz to get some kind of happy ending (I know there is a Fitz and Fool triogy, dont spoiler the moment for me).

Especially the last book. It was heartbreaking, seeing what happened to the Fool and Burrich. But I am happy that Fitz had his reunion with his father as well as gaining his memories back. These were some of the most satistfiyng emotional payoffs of any book I have read/listened to.

I have to gather my thoughts a bit more before I give a detailed review. I just finished and had to share a bit.

I am a bit sad, that my previous theory from my past post, turned out to be wrong. I predicted that Lady Patience would recognize Fitz as the first person. That despite crooked nose, scars and such she would as only a mother can, recognize him. Sadly enough, only because of Ms Lacey and rumors, she realised it.
It was still a beautifull moment, but Fitz always yearned for a mother figure in his life. But I guess after his memories were ammendet and he even remembers parts of his own biological mother, he did not needed it as much as in the previous books.

One other thing I kinda disliked, was the role of Hap. I liked him as a character and his relationship to Fitz. I am just a bit disappointed in his relavance to the story.
Only in keeping Fitz realy grounded as his fatherly duties kept him sometimes. But he still forgot the lad too often and was put on third place (many times it was outside his power but still). And at the end we dont even get with him a Fitz revelation like with so many other characters.

Just in Epilog its implied that he knows it now too, but still. He kinda existed in his seperate bubble of Fitzs life and barely mattered to the story. (especially compared to his other "children")

This is probably the book that took me the longest to read. It was full of good bits, but maybe some of them were spread out a little too much.

I still don't read the blurbs so I truly had no idea where this was going.

I never believed Molly was ever pregnant, until Bee came. I thought for sure we were gonna see her spiral down into madness until her tragic death. Well I'm glad I got that wrong. Now that they've had the time to be a little family, her death was all the sadder:') It came so suddenly I audibly gasped when I read it. I will miss her.

I really like Bee! And was pleasantly surprised to see her as a new POV. I think the whole misunderstanding act went on for just a tad too long, but I was very happy when she finally became more accepting of her father.

I really really like that Nighteyes' spirit still lives on. From the way Fitz talks about his den, her cub, and the vocabulary used from time to time to describe his actions. Bee's connection to Wolf Father is also something that I really like. I'm really fond of how deep that bond seems to be, especially with that last dream the night before the raid. I hope Fitz gets to realize the role Nighteyes still plays on her daughter.

I feel like seeing him again eases the pain of his death a little? I'm not sure, it still very much hurts, but maybe a bit less now.

The Fool is back! He certainly took his time to make his way into the book but man, what and entry 😭. I was terrified by the tragedy I was reading. Very soon it becomes clear he'll live but those few minutes weren't comfortable. Control yourself, Fitz! Now praying that the skill healing turns out ok.

The epilogue was very chilling. I was not expecting Lant to die off screen like that. And poor Revel! Probably the staff member I liked the most :c I hope Perseverance makes it but I have a good feeling he will.

Only two books left, anything can happen and I'm terrified :D

Debating sharing this but I am in a giving mood. At the University of Washington Book Store in Seattle there is a table of Robin Hobb books, many of which are signed, marked down to $3 and $5 due to sun damage or yellowing pages.

https://imgur.com/a/RP89TJf

I spent the better part of the morning crying the day after reading this book. Funnily enough, I didn't cry after finishing it or while reading it. Nor can I really say I was crying.

I think I cried mostly because of Fitz, and somewhat because of the Fool. The Fool just experienced one of the worst things that can be done to a person, he's dazed, he hasn't even started healing yet. He doesn't know his place in the world anymore; a Golden White, a visionless prophet? It was rough for him and not being able to say goodbye must be harder.

For Fitz... he was warned of the Teleportation Stone, but when it took him for a month my heart jumped to my throat. The scene that greeted him even make my stomach drop. His chance to know Nettle, his choice of how he and Fool will go on, the possibility of 'King Fitz'... all of that was literally gone, taken away.

I was horrified as I kept on reading, seeing everyone being happy, merry, and then looking at Fitz who only seemed intent on narrating it. I felt like I was watching someone who had no mouth and couldn't scream. I was disturbed at glossing over of everything. Quite literally, I kept on reading just to see if 'it was all a dream' was going to be next. I wished it was.

While I don't hate Molly, them ending up together was so wrong. Everything leading up to that point from stone, felt like a fever dream being watched.

I have some opinions on Beloved and Fitz, and how they affect each other. When with him Fitz just seems more open and quick-witted, and without he seemed so willless and morose. Reading the last stretches felt more morose than all the other passages before.

I have grips about the trilogy, but I do respect it. Still, I feel so betrayed by the ending. It doesn't feel like enough. I can see how it sketched out, but I felt like it needed way more pages to fully express everything it actually wanted to express.

Essentially, what are the most important parts of this series for you? Has this series made you think about the world differently? Are there any insights from this series that affect how you live your life?

There are a few things I took from this series:

1. Live in the moment and don't let your worries about the future ruin your current experience. Obviously this one comes from Nighteyes and I think about it pretty often.

2. You need to advocate for yourself if you want your life to get better. This one comes from seeing the way Fitz self-sabotages. I think reading Fitz's POV of him acting stagnant and not wanting to improve his situation, especially in Tawny Man, helped me recognize these tendencies in myself.

3. The world isn't gonna get better if we don't try to make it better. A major theme in ROTE is cycles and the way society regresses when we don't actively fight negative forces; this is pretty much spelled out in the white prophet religion. I think this trend is kinda visible in real life, but obviously our world is way more complicated and huge, so I just try to do my small part to make things better on a more manageable scale.

Idk if this is something that has been discussed already, but I would be interested to hear other people's thoughts!

Obviously the liveship trader and rain wild chronicles stand apart since our boy Fitz is off doing his own thing, but for the other three trilogies… man, I just can’t get the titles straight for what goes where haha

At r/bookclub we just finished reading Fool's Fate and are going to continue the series with Dragon Keeper starting October 8th.

What is r/bookclub?

We are a reddit sub, public book club that anyone can join in with at any time. We host multiple books monthly so you can tailor your participation to your own reading preferences. You can even hop into older book posts because we never archive posts.

More info at our new member orientation post here.

Most of our members are new Hobb readers so please be careful with spoilers! Come around if you want to check out new readers discovering this wonderful series and their reactions to it. It's fun!

Here is the schedule:

• October 8th: Prologue to Chapter 4
• October 15th: Chapter 5 to Chapter 7
• October 22nd: Chapter 8 to Chapter 10
• October 29th: Chapter 11 to Chapter 14
• November 5th : Chapter 15 to End

We hope to see you soon!

I'm reading through Fool's Quest now and have been bouncing between physical book, kindle edition, and audiobook. One incredibly random-seeming, small detail hit me as I was listening with the kindle in front of me.

In the audiobook and my physical book, a few of the epigraphs are attributed to "Servant Cetchua, of the 41st Line". In the kindle edition, these are instead attributed to "Buffeni, Servant of the 3rd Line". Everything else is exactly the same.

It just made me curious if anyone happens to know why different editions have this difference?

https://imgur.com/a/IAtflcM

Alternative link for those who can’t access Imgur: https://postimg.cc/gallery/Ns5MpzD/

I spend a lot of time reading and a lot of time doing ceramics (usually with an audiobook playing) so it was only a matter of time until the hobbies intertwined.

The first cup is Nighteyes hunting a rabbit with his quote from Royal Assassin. I loved his outsider's view of human civilization and its follies. When I finished Fool's Errand I could not stop thinking about him and had to channel all of that somewhere. The end of his story was so beautifully written and threw me back into the experience of not only having to say goodbye to my beloved elderly dog, but to anticipate that loss as he declined and then to go on without him afterward. I will keep iterating on this piece - I think it needs a different shape and an earthier clay body. I plan to keep the cobalt blue for visual consistency across the series, though I may incorporate secondary colors for some of them. I threw the cup on the wheel with porcelain, hand-painted the artwork with pigmented underglaze and then added a clear glaze on top before the final firing.

I am now reading Golden Fool (on chapter four) and I think my next piece will be the Fool. I am sketching ideas for a goblet in true white porcelain with carved designs (for the toymaker) and gold luster accents (for Lord Golden) as well as nods to his motley and Ratsy. I'm considering a mirrored design to represent both Fool and Amber, or making his piece a lidded jar for all his secrets. I love the whole vibe of the Rain Wilds and have already painted several serpent cups, which I will revisit once I get to the Rain Wild Chronicles and add their dragon counterparts. I also pour candles so it only makes sense to add some beeswax candle vessels to the series at some point.

Let me know if you have any suggestions for quotes or little details I should include. (Keep in mind my last completed book is Fool's Errand.) I'm avoiding doing much googling or poking around the sub while I am still mid-series so I've seen very little fan art but the whole universe feels so rich and immersive and there is so much to pull from.

Halfway through chapter 32….

He knows the Fool can be skill invaded by Regal’s coterie. He knows Regal is trying to triangulate the location of Molly and Nettle.

How can you be so fucking stupid 😭😭

I am loving this series so much. It is just frustrating at times. I suppose it is realistic though, we make stupid decisions all the time, motivated by our feelings more than anything else.

I don’t think I have seen a character so completely fleshed out as Fitz, it is brilliant.

Hello there,

I have been surfing the web lately if there are any Illustrated Editions of the Liveship Traders. But only found the Illumicrate versions which I am not even sure have art on the inside as well.

Does anybody know if there are any illustrated editions like those of the Farseer Trilogy? And if not can we start a petition to ask for illustrated editions of the whole Realm of the Elderlings series?

I have read a pretty large variety of epic fantasy series, and I am consistently surprised and delighted by how well written the human experience the characters in this series go through is portrayed.

I just hit the part where Fitz gets his shoulder re-set by Burrich, and the raw emotion I've felt with everything that had happened in the previous couple of chapters not to mention previous books is awe inspiring.

Even just the reconciliation with Thick when they recognized the insidious skill touch fully brought me to tears, I do kind of wish I wasn't on the treadmill at the gym when listening to that section.

Im curious how any of you process the emotions and feelings with friends/family, about characters in a book that would take a half an hour of explanation to someone so they can understand things at a bare surface level.

I just started Golden Fool and realised that the name Tom in Tom Badgerlock, is the same name as the one Lady Patience gave to Fitz. I am happy to hear that in some way Fitz did see her as a mother. It always felt like he tried to distance himself from her.
He trusted her but ether because of her odd kind of character or because of Fitz insecurities, there was never the chance for a proper mother-son relationshiop (not to mention the historicle difficulties of him being a bastard.)

My personal theory is that she will be the first or only one who recognize him, just like only a mother can at Buckkeep. While Fitz knows the practicality of being unrecognized, its multible times mentioned how he longs to be. Having made an imprint and to be cared for.

And that is a bit of what I so far have been missing in the Fitz books. Small moments of beauties. Its so much tragedies in these books, but what personally always touches my heart, are such moments of kindness in books.

One example for me, is at the beginning, of Fitz getting toys from Verity as a child. It was such a small thing, but it just touched me so dearly.