Fitz and the Fool trilogy
Voyager (UK) | |
Published | 2014–2017 |
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Preceded by | Rain Wild Chronicles |
The Fitz and the Fool trilogy is the concluding subseries of the Realm of the Elderlings, a 16-book fantasy series by American author Robin Hobb. Published from 2014 to 2017, it features the protagonist FitzChivalry Farseer in his fifties, and follows his life with his wife Molly and daughter Bee Farseer. It was well-received by critics, with the Los Angeles Review of Books praising Hobb's characterization and portrayal of aging, and The Guardian positively viewing how the final book consolidated plot threads from across the series.
Background
The core idea for Hobb's 16-book Realm of the Elderlings series was "What if magic were addictive? And what if the addiction was destructive or degenerative?". Published over a span of 22 years, the series is divided into five parts: the
Fool's Assassin, the first book of Fitz and the Fool, was released simultaneously in the US and the UK on August 12, 2014.
Plot
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The trilogy follows Fitz in his fifties, and is told alternately from the point of view of Fitz and his daughter Bee Farseer.
Characters
Themes
Scholars see queer themes in Hobb's portrayal of the Fool, a character who alternately presents as masculine and feminine in different segments of the Elderlings series, and in Fitz's possession of the Wit, a form of magic seen by society as an unnatural inclination.[8][9] The dynamic between Fitz and the Fool, described in the series as "two halves of a whole, sundered and come together again" when they connect via the Skill, has romantic overtones,[10] and critic Amanda Craig sees Fitz as "half in love with his friend".[11] While positively viewing how Hobb's work blurs gender boundaries, Lenise Prater criticizes Hobb's emphasis on "monogamous, romantic love" in the Rain Wild Chronicles, seeing that series as a conservative representation of queer relationships.[12][13] Peter Melville disagrees, viewing the concluding image of Fitz and the Fool trilogy as "confirm[ing] the series' place within the larger history of queerness in the fantasy genre".[14]
Mariah Larsson views the series as
Reception
Fantasy reviewer Justin Landon found Fool's Assassin slower-paced than the prior Elderlings books, writing on
Critic
References
- ^
Zutter, Natalie (October 24, 2019). ""I Have Been Incredibly Privileged to Write the Full Arc of Fitz's Story": Robin Hobb on 25 Years of Assassin's Apprentice". Tor.com.
- ^ a b Clute, John (October 29, 2021). "Hobb, Robin". In Clute, John; et al. (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (3rd ed.). Gollancz.
- ^ "WorldCon75: Interview with author Robin Hobb". Helsinki Times. August 22, 2017.
- ^ a b c d O'Neill, John (April 23, 2017). "Robin Hobb Wraps Up the Fitz And The Fool Trilogy With Assassin's Fate". Black Gate.
- ^ Nicholls, Claire (July 2, 2014). "Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb: Book Review". SciFiNow.
- ^ Nicholls, Claire (August 14, 2015). "Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb: Book Review". SciFiNow.
- ^
"Fitz and the Fool - Assassin's Fate". Harper Voyager. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
- ^ Larsson 2021, p. 126.
- ^ Prater 2016, pp. 24–25, 29.
- ^ Melville 2018, p. 294.
- ^ a b Craig, Amanda (August 14, 2015). "Fool's Quest, by Robin Hobb - book review: More swords and sorcery from a Dame of Thrones". The Independent.
- ^ Prater 2016, p. 32.
- ^ Melville 2018, p. 301.
- ^ Melville 2018, p. 300.
- ^ Larsson 2021, pp. 124, 136–138.
- ^ Larsson 2021, pp. 130–131.
- ^
Landon, Justin (August 12, 2014). "Pastoral Family Drama: Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb". Tor.com.
- ^ Shilling, Jane (August 23, 2014). "Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb, review: 'high art'". The Telegraph.
- ^ Teitelbaum, Ilana (September 8, 2014). "Bright Home, Dark Heart". Los Angeles Review of Books.
- ^ Flood, Alison (July 28, 2017). "Robin Hobb: 'Fantasy has become something you don't have to be embarrassed about'". The Guardian.
Works cited
- Larsson, Mariah (2021). "Bringing Dragons Back into the World: Dismantling the Anthropocene in Robin Hobb's The Realm of the Elderlings". In Höglund, Anna; Trenter, Cecilia (eds.). The Enduring Fantastic: Essays on Imagination and Western Culture. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-4766-8012-5.
- Melville, Peter (2018). "Queerness and Homophobia in Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogies". ProQuest 2156322163.
- Prater, Lenise (2016). "Queering Magic: Robin Hobb and Fantasy Literature's Radical Potential". In Roberts, Jude; MacCallum-Stewart, Esther (eds.). Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Popular Fantasy. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-13054-3.
External links
- Fitz and the Fool trilogy series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database