TheRetiredBridgeburner, on 12 July 2018 - 06:01 AM, said:
Luv2B_Sassy, on 11 July 2018 - 11:01 PM, said:
I found those slice of life, lack of action things invigorating. Especially with characters who are past mid-life (though of course Fitz has feet on both sides of that). So little of fantasy focuses on those aspects of life though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I definitely really liked some of it - there are some really beautiful moments in some of the "slice of life" stuff. Just felt like the balance was a bit off in Fool's Assassin in particular - I think because for me it was the first Hobb where I felt it was painfully obvious where the plot was going and I felt impatient for it to get there.
This. I don't mind me some slice-of-life (though there's an entire genre for that, so please no whole book) and as I pointed out in one of my previous comments, I do like how Hobb deals with the aging of her characters and how she describes it, BUT there ought to be
some plot (especially when it's so obvious where she is going but refuses to get into gears) AND - and I may have mentioned this before in some way - I
hate pointless repetition. I just passed a chapter in which Fitz recounted TWICE a story he's recounted before
in this very book already. I'm not a goldfish. I see the point of reminding readers about what happened, BUT NOT TWICE WITHIN PAGES OF EACH OTHER. WITH THE SAME FREAKING WORDS AND SENTENCE STRUCTURE. I also don't see the point of Fitz continuing to mope around for ten pages before deciding to so much as speak to someone.
I think that once again, the
Liveship Traders trilogy is a great example of how to do it right. We see a lot of the characters' day to day lifes and the routines of the Vestrit family, but it either serves the plot directly or teaches us something about their world.
Anyway, I have no idea what it is about Hobb that makes me go back again and again and still I want to rant all the time. She IS great at writing characters and a bunch of other things.
@JPK: If you like Fitz, you should be fine for the most part. I personally disagree with some of the plot decisions she made in the
Tawny Man trilogy, which has coloured my perception of Hobb quite a bit. but a lot od people loved those.
This post has been edited by Puck: 12 July 2018 - 09:35 AM