There were several characters who intrigued me, though, and I’ll look forward to seeing how their storylines develop in the next book. Maybe because so many of the dragon keepers are children (they are seen as more dispensable, not having families who rely on them), it felt almost as though this book was aimed at younger readers than the others. I liked it enough to want to continue, but it is certainly my least favourite of Hobb’s books so far. There’s a sense that, with this first in the series, Hobb is setting things up for the three that will follow and the story is just beginning to get started when the book comes to an end. Thymara, born with claws and scales – a more extreme example of the mutations that affect many of the Rain Wild people – is chosen to be part of a team of dragon keepers who will escort the dragons to their legendary homeland.Īnd there’s not really much more to the plot than that. It seems that their only hope of survival is to make their way to Kelsingra, the ancient city of the Elderlings, but if they are to get there safely they will need some human help. These creatures are unlikely ever to fly like their ancestors and can barely even manage to feed themselves. The dragons that emerge from the cocoons, however, are weak and malformed due to the inappropriate conditions they had lived in as serpents and the difficult circumstances surrounding their cocooning process. When the day of the hatching finally arrives, the people of the Rain Wilds – among them eleven-year-old Thymara and her father – gather round to witness this historic moment: the moment that will mark the return of dragons to the world for the first time in generations. Guided by the dragon Tintaglia, a group of sea serpents have made the long journey up the Rain Wild River to the shores of Cassarick, where they have formed the cocoons where they will await their transformation into dragons.
#Dragon keeper series#
It was tempting to go straight to Hobb’s final and most recent trilogy, Fitz and the Fool, but I knew I should keep reading in order of publication as the books do all form part of one larger sequence and it’s possible that things could happen in the Rain Wild series that I need to know before returning to Fitz.Īnyway, Dragon Keeper picks up the story that was set into motion at the end of the Liveship Traders. Although I found the dragon storylines in the earlier trilogies quite enjoyable, I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to read a series in which the dragons would be the main focus – and also, after coming to the end of the Tawny Man books, I just wanted to continue Fitz’s story rather than have to get used to a whole new set of characters.
However, the Dragonkeeper adventures are a wonderful sequel, and like another reviewer I can just hope that Robin Hobb can continue produce volumes at a great pace.Over the last few years, I’ve read and loved Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders Trilogy and Tawny Man Trilogy, but I have to admit that I wasn’t particularly looking forward to reading Dragon Keeper, the first in her four-book Rain Wild Chronicles series. If you haven't read any other books of Hobb in this series, I'd recommend reading at least the original Liveship series first, or better yet start with the adventures of Fitz the Farseer (Assassin's Apprentice). Rediscovering the world of Liveships is a great pleasure. The story is pleasantly paced, with plenty of invention that doesn't hinder suspension of disbelief. The characters are fairly straightforward but the protagonists are likable (where needed). Eventually, they start a quest - accompanied by a ragtag group of humans with burdens of their own - for the legendary Elderling city of Kelsingra. Unfortunately, it doesn't go quite as hoped for, and the resulting creatures are relatively weak and powerless. The story starts with the metamorphosis of sea serpents into dragons. It's the same world that contains Fitz' Six Duchies (see "Assassin's Apprentice", "Golden Fool", etc.), but that side is barely touched upon in these volumes: The Rain Wilds and, to a lesser extent, Bingtown are the center of the action (making for a simpler storyline than the Liveship series). Robin Hobb's new story takes place shortly after the Liveship adventures of Althea and her family (see "Ship of Destiny" et al.).
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