Rain Wild Chronicles

Title: Dragon Keeper, Dragon Haven, City of Dragons and Blood of Dragons
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 2009-13
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 553+570+433+545



I'd pre-ordered Fool's Quest (sequel to last year's Fool's Ass(assin)) and it popped up on my Kindle right on time. I'd even started on it already when I happened to read on the internets that some bits in it 'spoil' the Rain Wild Chronicles,  which are the only ones in Hobb's Elderlings-books that I have not read. What to do, then? I've been intending to read them at some point, so not reading them first could spoil something important. But... but... four books, all around 500 pages?! Yeah, I went and got cracking. No pain, no gain. Or something.

This here is a SPOILER for the Liveship Traders books! At the end of Ship of Destiny, the dragon Tintaglia was working with the liveships and people of both Bingtown and Rain Wilds, to bring the sea serpents up to their old cocooning grounds. After some time, the serpents would come out as dragons, and terror glory would fill the skies again. Dragon Keeper starts at the hatching, but... the serpents had been serpents for too long, and they came out of the cocoons too soon. Mighty dragons, they are not. Cranky and hungry and deadly, yes. Flying magnificence, not so much.

The feeble dragons need keepers and food, and over time, become a nuisance. So a few unwanted outsiders volunteers are hired to take the dragons upriver, to find a place where they might find a better life, and hopefully never come back. There's about 15 dragons with a keeper for most of them, and the river barge Tarman (an ancient Liveship itself) and its crew along for transporting cargo. A few hunters are hired as well, to help the keepers feed the dragons. And there's even an expert on dragons and Elderlings, Alise Finbok from Bingtown, a young wife whose life's passion the exotic creatures have always been. Following her is her husband's secretary, who is not so keen on the stupid animals.

The dragons dream of the ancient Elderling city of Kelsingra, but its whereabouts or whether even two rocks of it stand anymore are unknown. So they trudge on up the Rain Wild river, hoping for a new home. The traveling seems to be good for the dragons: they are growing stronger with the exercise and learning to hunt for themselves. Still, it's nice when the puny humans groom and praise them. The keepers are changing as well, from just being around their dragons, towards what the Elderlings of old used to be. The lost world may not be so lost after all! So much happens and the characters grow and evolve, and, gasp! actually talk to each other when they have misunderstandings! Or secrets. Even I done fucked up reeeal bad -secrets. Not always, but it's so refreshing!

If I remember correctly what I read hastily a few weeks back, these books were originally intended to be just one or two books. The story in Dragon Haven continues straight from the end of Dragon Keeper, and frankly, I've been reading these back to back, jumping straight into the next after finishing one, so that I can't exactly remember where one ended and the next started. City of Dragons again continues straight from where Dragon Haven ended, but it's more the start of a new book than just a new chapter: it brings along new characters, some old familiar ones, some who have only ever been mentioned, and some completely new faces. I may or may not have let out a happy little squee when a few old favourites popped up!

I finished Blood of Dragons late last night, and started again on  Fool's Quest already. Since I was eager to get to it, reading the Rain Wild Chronicles seemed a bit of a chore at times, especially at the beginning, but I did end up caring for the characters, cheering for the dragons, and punching the air and shouting 'Fuck YEAH!' when a certain someone got their comeuppance, and then some! Oh yesssss. Mrs Hobb can be so, so cruel, but she's also so, so good.

And now, I'm going to go and spend the rest of the Sunday reading. I'm eager to get to the new adventures of Fitz and the Fool, but I'm also eager to get to meet the keepers and dragons again!


   But on his return to the city, he had seen what a dragon's wrath could do. She had not intended to pock the paving stones with acid holes, nor fill the harbour basin with sunken ships. That damage had been incidental. He had seen the harm that one dragon, fighting on behalf of a city, could do.
   He stood on the deck and tried to count the oncoming dragons. He stopped at ten. Ten times dead was very dead indeed. The slaves chained to their oars were praying. He was tempted to join them.