Robin Hobb - Fantasy Author

Robin Hobb is the pen name of acclaimed fantasy writer Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, the author of some of my favourite series of fantasy novels. She had her first novel, Harpy's Flight, part of the Ki and Vandien Quartet, published in 1983 under the pen name Megan Lindholm and went on to publish another nine primarily fantasy novels under this pseudonym between then and 1992.(please see the bibliography below)

She began to use Robin Hobb as her pen name in 1995 and has written some of the the most adored fantasy stories that have been published since that time. Her first three series of books (nine novels in total) are all set in the mystical world known as: The Realm of The Elderlings. Each three book series has it's own story to tell and could be read as individual stories but read from start to finish all nine books have a bigger tale to tell. Robin Hobb's story telling storytelling is done in an inviting and eloquent manner, usually through the first person point of view, but what really sets her apart from other fantasy authors is her incredible characterisation. Anybody who has read her novels will know that she creates truly beloved characters : The Fool, FitzChivalry, Althea, Paragon, Chade, the list goes on.

The first of these three series is The Farseer Trilogy:

• Assassin's Apprentice (1995)
• Royal Assassin (1996)
  
• Assassin's Quest (1997)

The first three books, The Farseer Trilogy, takes place in the Six Duchies. It follows the story of FitzChivalry Farseer. The realisation that he is the father to a bastard son ends Prince Chivalry's ambition to become the next king of the Six Duchies. He decides to abdicate, leaving his younger brother Prince Verity next in line to the throne. He abandons his son and leaves him to be raised by the stable master Burrich. Prince Regal, the youngest of the three royal brothers, has his own ambitions to take the throne, and would like nothing more than to do away with his brother's bastard child. But King Shrewd, old as he is, sees no value in killing the child and wants him trained as an assassin. For an illegitimate child can be risked in situations where a true born prince can not, and may perform tasks that would damage the good name of an heir.

So FitzChivalry begins his training to become the royal assassin. From the beginning he shows a natural but unhoned ability for the Wit, a magic that allows him to communicate and commune with beasts but is hated by the folk of the Six Duchies. FitzChivalry's natural ability in this magic is accepeted because a bond with a beast could have useful applications for a royal assassin. It is later discovered that he may also possess the royal magic of the Farseer line,known as The Skill, this makes him both more valuable to the King and a bigger threat to Prince Regal's ambition to take the throne. When the battle with the Outislander's Red Ship Raiders comes to a head, competition for the throne intensifies and the now King Verity leaves the Six Duchies in search of the realm of the elderlings on a mission to renew an old alliance the bastard realises that the fate of the Six Duchies may well be decided on the course of his actions.

This is followed by The Liveship Traders Trilogy:

• Ship of Magic (1998)
• Mad Ship (1999)
• Ship of Destiny (2000)

The tale of the Liveship Traders is set in Jamaillia, Bingtown and the Pirate Isles, coastal towns that lie much further south than Six Duchies. The Six Duchies war with the Outislanders has severely damaged the trade that has made Bingtown so prosperous in the past. The Liveship Traders are falling into poverty. Prior to this, owning a Liveship, built from wizard wood, guaranteed the wealth and prosperity of the traders family for generations to come. For, it is only Liveships that can navigate the treacherous Rain Wild River to deal with the mystical Rain Wild Traders for their exotic and magical goods plundered from the ruins of the elderlings once great cities. Althea, second daughter of the Vestrit trading family, expects that when her father dies and the liveship quickens, she will inherit the captaincy of the family ship the Vivacia. Instead,it goes to her older sister Keffria and her less than desirable Chalcedean husband Kyle. The once proud ship Liveship becomes nothing more than a glorified slave ship.

When Althea is disowned by her family for refusing to accept their decision she decides she will become a succes in her own right to prove to her family that she deserves the captaincy of the Liveship.Enter Brashen Trell, an old shipmate, Amber, the mysterious wood carver and Paragon, the abandoned,beached and insane Liveship. The only friends and allies she can muster in her quest to regain control of the Vivacia. On her journey she encounters slave traders, pirates, sea serpents and most shockingly a dragon. Can she regain ontrol of the Liveship or do the Liveships wish to be the masters of their own destiny?

And finally The Tawny Man Trilogy:

• Fool's Errand (2002)
• Golden Fool (2003)
• Fool's Fate (2003)

The Tawny Man Trilogy picks up the tale of Fitz and the Fool some fifteen years after the Red Ship wars. Queen Kettricken is determined to secure her son's throne by arranging a marriage between Prince Dutiful and Elliania, the daughter of their old enemies in the Outislands. But the Six Duchies themselves are restless. The Witted are weary of persecution, and may choose to topple the throne of the Farseers by revealing that young Prince Dutiful carries an old taint in his blood. The Narcheska Elliania sets a high price on her hand: Dutiful must present her with the head of Icefyre, the legendary dragon of Aslevjal Island.

Meanwhile, to the south, The Bingtown Traders continue to wage war against the Chalcedeans, and seek to enlist the Six Duchies into the effort to obliterate Chalced. Bingtown's temperamental ally, the dragon Tintaglia, has her own motives for supporting them in this, ones that may lead not only to the restoration of the race of dragons but also to the return of Elderling magic to the Cursed Shores.

Fitz, in the person of Tom Badgerlock, will accompany the prince on his quest to secure the dragon's head. For reasons of his own, he decides that it is of the utmost importance that his old friend, The Fool, not accompany him. Chade agrees with him, and thus Fitz sets out without his companion, to face an enemy from his past and also decide what future he will claim for himself.

After she completed these nine books she went on to publish The Soldier Son Trilogy which, despite being less favourably received by critics and fans alike is still a very enjoyable read. Its set in a new and unrelated world and follows the life of Nevare Burvelle, second son of a new Lord of Gernia, destined (by virtue of being a second son) for a life in the higher ranks of the Gernian military. On a deeper level the books explore man's relationship with the earth and the destruction of this relationship due to our obsession with progress and technology.

• Shaman's Crossing (2005)
• Forest Mage (2006)
• Renegade's Magic (2007)

Nevare Burvelle was destined from birth to be a soldier. The second son of a newly anointed nobleman, he must endure the rigors of military training at the elite King's Cavella Academy—and survive the hatred, cruelty, and derision of his aristocratic classmates—before joining the King of Gernia's brutal campaign of territorial expansion. The life chosen for him will be fraught with hardship, for he must ultimately face a forest-dwelling folk who will not submit easily to a king's tyranny. And they possess an ancient magic their would-be conquerors have long discounted—a powerful sorcery that threatens to claim Nevare Burvelle's soul and devastate his world once the Dark Evening brings the carnival to Old Thares.

Plague has ravaged the prestigious King's Cavalla of Gernia, decimating the ranks of both cadets and instructors. Yet Nevare Burvelle has made an astonishingly robust recovery, defeating his sworn nemesis while in the throes of the disease and freeing himself—he believes—from the Speck magic that infected him. And now he is journeying home to Widevale, anticipating a tender reunion with his beautiful fiancée, Carsina, and a bright future as a commissioned officer.But there is no haven in the bosom of his kinfolk, for his nights are haunted by grim visions of treachery—and his days are tormented by a strange side-effect of the plague that shames his family and repulses the lady of his heart. And as the still-potent magic in his blood roars to life, Nevare realizes a terrible truth: that the enemy who seeks to destroy everything he loves dwells perhaps not without but within him.

Condemned by his brother soldiers and sentenced to death, Nevare has no option but to escape. Suddenly he is an outcast and a fugitive—a hostage to the Speck magic that shackles him to a savage alter ego who would destroy everything Nevare holds dear. With nowhere to turn—except, perhaps, to the Speck woman Lisana, the enemy whom he loves—he is mired in soul-rending despair. But from out of the darkness comes a bright spark of hope.Perhaps, somehow, the hated magic that has long abused Nevare can be used by him instead. Could he not learn to wield this mighty weapon for his own purposes rather than be enslaved by it? But down what perilous road will this desperate new quest lead him? And what will be the outcome and the ultimate new incarnation of Nevare Burvelle?

On the 25th of June 2009 we can once again return to The Realm Of The Elderlings When Robin's new book Dragon Keeper is published worldwide. You can read the prologue at http://voyageruk.wordpress.com/dragon-keeper-exclusive-early-extract/

Bibliography as Megan Lindholm

The Ki and Vandien Quartet

• Harpy's Flight (1983)
  
• The Windsingers(1984)
• The Limbreth Gate (1984)
• Luck of The Wheels (1989)

Tillu and Kerlu

• The Reindeer People (1988)
• Wolf's Brother (1988)

Other Novels

• Wizard of The Pigeons (1985)
  
• Cloven Hooves (1991)
• Alien Earth (1992)
• The Gypsy (1992)