Author Spotlight: Robin Hobb

Margaret Astrid Lindholm is the true name of one of my favourite fantasy authors, Robin Hobb. I read the Farseer Trilogy when I was teenager and still love these first three books so many years later. Having made my way through all of Robin Hobb’s books (except the most recent one.. I’ll get there!), as the years have passed she’s proven herself again and again as the standard for epic traditional fantasy. All her books set in the Realm of the Elderlings are beautifully crafted with characters that leap off the page and inhabit your mind so easily you can’t imagine you’re not actually friends with them in real life.

Written as sets of three books, you start with the Farseer Trilogy narrated by the illegitimate son of a Prince, FitzChivarly. Then you read the Liveship Traders Trilogy which take you to the other end of the world which is populated by ships whose figureheads live and adventure abounds as we are introduced to traders, pirates, noblemen and women. When we return to the Six Duchies in the Tawny Man Trilogy we met up with Fitz to see what he’s been doing (hint: not much but all hell is about to break loose again). The Rain Wild Chronicles is four books in length, and for die-hard fans of Fitz and Fool can be missed but if you’ve always wanted (like me) to know more about these strange and hostile lands they’re fantastic. Speaking of the Fitz and the Fool, their Trilogy has only just been completed and follows on the journey of Fitz and all those who are special to him. Did you like how I didn’t give anything away (that you don’t discover at the beginning anyway)? But hopefully wetted your appetite for this beautiful series of books.