Fool’s Errand (The Tawny Man Trilogy, Book 1) - Softcover

Hobb, Robin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006486010 ISBN 13: 9780006486015

Publisher: Harper Voyager, 2008

Synopsis

Return to the world of the Farseers...

Robin Hobb’s best loved characters, Fitz , The Fool and Nighteyes the wolf, face new adventures and trials in the first book of The Tawny Man trilogy.

When Assassin’s Quest closed, Fitz was living in self-imposed exile. Wracked with pain, he had chosen to discard the magical gifts that had seen him survive the wonders and torments of navigating the legendary city of the Elderlings, and of raising a dragon.

Now, in this the first of a new trilogy, we are returned to the world of the Six Duchies and the lives of those who managed to survive the events of the first Assassin trilogy.

Fifteen years have passed and events are about to sweep Fitz out of his quiet backwater life and into the main political current again. Persecution of the Witted has become rampant throughout the Six Duchies despite Queen Kettricken’s effort to damp it. The Witted themselves have begun to strike back. So when 15 year old Prince Dutiful disappears, is it only because he is nervous about his betrothal ceremony to an Outislander princess, or has he been taken hostage by the Witted? Worse, is he perhaps another ‘Piebald Prince’, a Farseer tainted by Wit magic? As the desperate situation worsens, Kettricken has no choice but to summon Fitz to Buckkeep, for who better to track the young prince down than another gifted with the Wit, together with his bonded companion, the wolf Nighteyes?

About this title

Review:

In Fool's Errand, first of the "Tawny Man" trilogy, Robin Hobb brings back Fitz, hero of her emotionally powerful and intrigue-filled Assassin trilogy, from 15 years of self-imposed exile from his royal relations and from the world of power. Hobb is particularly good at the passage of time and the things it does not change; Fitz plausibly thinks of himself as older and more settled than he actually is. She is also good on the actual changes--Fitz's mentor Chade is teetering on the brink of old age and his androgynous ally the Fool has returned to court as the fop Lord Gallant; these are characters we cared about before and she makes it matter that they have aged or altered. Fitz is bonded by Wit to a wolf; the heir, Prince Dutiful, the son he never saw, is adrift with his own Wit in a world where people get lynched for it. Hobb's leisurely story-telling never lacks urgency and menace; this is a humane book which includes nightmarish touches along the way. Her sense of the world of magic and the world of political power is acute--she makes us see more than her flawed hero, even though we share his eyes.--Roz Kaveney

Review:

'Hobb is one of the great modern fantasy writers... what makes her novels as addictive as morphine is not just their imaginative brilliance but the way her characters are compromised and manipulated by politics.'
The Times

Assassin's Apprentice:
'A gleaming debut'
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Assassin's Quest:
'Assassin's Quest achieves a bittersweet, powerful complexity rare in fantasy' LOCUS

'Robin Hobb writes achingly well'
SFX

Praise for The Liveship Traders series:
'Even better than the Assassin books. I didn't think that was possible'
George R R Martin

'Hobb is a remarkable storyteller.'
Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Voyager
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0006486010
• ISBN 13: 9780006486015
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 672