8/10
Overall, this second book in the Tawny Man trilogy arc is another solid installment in the overall Realm of the Elderlings saga. ( )

Someone give Robin Hobb a medal. End of review. READ THESE BOOKS. ( )

This book was okay, but it felt a little contrived, and the plot did not move much. We'll see how the series ends... ( )

Hobb needs to learn pacing, and plot advancement. And not to put 12 pages of unrelated inner monologue in the middle of a five sentence conversation between characters.

Also, you don't need to use the main character's full name every time a character talks to him. Seriously, "Tom Badgerlock" is mentioned 85 times. By characters who deeply knows the guy. ( )

This is the second in the Tawny Man trilogy and continues straight after the very sad closing of book 1. Fitz is back at Buckkeep Castle still in his role as servant to 'Lord Golden' who in reality is his old friend The Fool. The Piebalds, a group of terrorists who want power for themselves and revenge on all those who harmed the Witted (people who bond with animals), soon make it clear that they have him under surveillance and might choose to make an example of him, as a warning to the Queen of what they could do to 'out' her Witted son, Dutiful.

This is a book of 'bits' and disjointed as a result. A lot happens but there is no real plot. This includes the ongoing Piebald-Old Blood plotline, the training of Prince Dutiful and others in the Skill with Fitz roped in as a reluctant teacher bearing in mind that he was never taught himself, the machinations of the Outislanders and their real reason for betrothing the prince to one of their young women, the ominous presence in the background of the Pale Woman who is a forerunner and rival to the Fool as White Prophet, the war between Bingtown and the Chaldeans and the place of the dragons and newly formed Elderlings in this - because a delegation turns up trying to persuade the Queen to join in the war and help save the dragons - the problems Fitz has trying to get his foster-son Hap to knuckle down to his apprenticeship instead of staying out all hours with an unsuitable young woman, his 'romantic' problems with hedgewitch Jinna and his ex, Stirling - it goes on and on. Oh, and Chade is starting to act like an adolescent, and Fitz has to help an abused man who has a very strong Skill ability and appears to have Downs Syndrome. That, and acting as servant to Lord Golden keeps him very occupied.

I found that a lot of the book consisted of conversations about what was going on, what might be going on, what they might do, and spying on people, with very little action apart from one tense sequence when Fitz is involved in direct confrontation with the Piebalds. There is also the supremely ironic section where he somehow falls into a serious falling out with the Fool who admits he loves Fitz at which point Fitz's latent homophobia comes forcefully to the fore and he treats the Fool to some of the prejudice he has suffered all his life himself for being Witted - and thus robs most of the book of what is usually an interesting and intriguing character. Quite clearly a lot of what happens in this volume is intended to pay off in book 3 which I've already noted is 800 pages, longer than either of the other volumes, so I hope to see more action and real plotting with fewer dragged out descriptions of people's clothing and a lot less going over previous events that happened either in this series or LiveShip Traders. ( )