The Tawny Man Series

The Tawny Man series
Fool’s Errand (2002), Golden Fool (2003), Fool’s Fate (2004) Robin Hobb

I have two problems with really good books. The first problem is that once I start reading I don’t want to stop–eating, sleeping, everything is secondary to the book. The second problem is that when I finish a book or series that is really good, I don’t want to read anything else new. Partially because I fear that whatever I read next won’t be as good as what I just finished, and partially because I don’t want to leave the story.

The Tawny Man series definitely falls under the category of really good books. I could hardly stand to put them down, and everything else was secondary to reading.

The books continue the story of FitzChivalry Farseer, taking place more than a decade after the The Farseer Trilogy. ‘Fool’s Errand’ starts out relatively slowly–no adventure, no battles, just the life of FitzChivalry who has retired far into the country under the name Tom Badgerlock–but I was engrossed from the start.

I’m not sure whether someone who had not read the first three books would feel the same way. After everything that happened to Fitz, it felt good to see him living in calm and quiet. Especially since you knew it wasn’t going to last. (That was a given. Who would want to read a book solely about some guy getting old in a cabin in the woods?) And Fitz–or rather Tom–is drawn back into the intrigue of the politics of the Six Dutchies.

I think what I like so much about these books is that Fitz is so very flawed, and he does really stupid things, yet it all seems to reasonable and rational until you get to the consequences. But he lives with the consequences, and survives despite everything. Nothing turns out perfectly, but neither does real life.

My only warnings are that she likes to kill off people–no one is safe. And the deaths are not easy ones, and the injuries taken are not easy ones. No one takes a serious wound and walks away.

If you read Assassin’s Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassin’s Quest then you will definitely want to read these books. If you have not yet read the Farseer Trilogy, then I strongly urge you to do so. You probably won’t be able to find them used–I almost never see them at our local used bookstore–but I think it’s well worth it to get them new.

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