Chatter Of The Squirrel

Book: Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb

October 3, 2009 on 1:32 am | In Books | No Comments

A new series from Robin Hobb. She’s leaving the world of Soldier’s Son behind and going back to the events of the Liveship Trilogies.

When we left Bingtown and the Rain Wilds, the sole surviving dragon and her new human allies are shepherding the sea serpents back to their cocooning grounds. The sea serpents had been wandering the seas for far too long, genetic memories failing them as a distant geological disaster twisted the geography. The same disaster that had killed off the dragons from the world, and from the memories of men.

Finally a queen has risen and guides the serpants to their long overdued metamorphosis. And the time of dragons will come again.

But the whelps that emerged from the cocoons are malformed, bad tempered reptiles. Not even a sliver of a shadow of a runty dragon. Such was the despair and disappointment that even the lonesome queen abandoned her mutant kin. And the men all too quickly forget their debts to the queen.

This story centers around Thymara, a malformed Rain Wilds child who pairs up with a stunt-winged blue dragon with delusions of grandeur.

Alice is a scholar of dragon lore. In a loveless marriage. Seeking to complete her scholarship on dragons.

She is accompanied by her husband’s secretary, who is also her husband’s secret butt-buddy.

Alice is also being romantically pursued by the rogue-ish captain of the barge following the dragon keepers and their charges up river.

At one point, the Mad Ship and his captains (from the 2nd book of the Liveship Traders) make a cameo. And in that sense, the face of Fitz Chivarly (from the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies) also makes a brief appearance.

This book didn’t enthrall me the way Fitz and Nighteyes did. The characters are unique and interesting. But, they’ll never be as cool as the young assassin and the wolf cub that talks to him. Still, I enjoyed it a lot.