Fool's Quest

Intensity has always been something I enjoy. I pursue it. I love it.

So it’s been very strange to find myself actually having a hard time with a book because…it’s too intense. Major spoilers ahead, by the way—there’s no way to avoid them.

This book disturbed me in a way that none of Robin Hobb’s books have so far (although they have gotten progressively darker starting with Fool’s Fate). There is torture described in more detail than ever before and this time being done by the supposed hero of the story! That scene was sadistic. And there are several other messed up moments revolving around torture and macabre violence.

And more to the point: half of the book is overshadowed with the threat of rape to these two girls. One of them is raped and there’s also a scene where a whole bunch of people get raped and then there’s dealing with the fallout of that trauma. Point is: there’s a whole lot of rape and threat of rape.

On top of that, this book is also really intense because the second half of it is basically a play by play of a parent trying desperately to conduct a manhunt for their abducted child. That hit me hard. That content I have no objection to, it was just…emotionally hard for me personally. A year and a half ago I was conducting a manhunt for my father. It was a terrible, sinking feeling that culminated in discovering that he was, in fact, dead. I don’t have to explain much more than that.

Another thing about this book is that the first half is agonizingly slow, and slow during a period of time where you know that the hero’s daughter has been kidnapped but he doesn’t. And so he’s just going about normal life and there’s just a whole lot of freakin NOTHING going on for way too long when you know all along what has happened and that he needs to spring into action. It’s too prolonged.

There were absolutely great things about this boo, too. Of course we have familiar characters that we have come to love being developed upon. In particular, Lant, a young man, becomes much more interesting and likable by the end. I love how he is progressing. I like getting to know Lant and his perspective, so that his past actions make more sense and we’re able to relate to him more; without that understanding he just seemed like a selfish prick before. But now he’s a character I’m rooting for. It’s also good to see him being the young character cutting his teeth on his first adventure in contrast to Fitz who is probably (it feels like, at least) on his last one.

And there are some truly delightful moments, several of them. There are moments with Kettricken, the Fool, Riddle, Nettle. There is an upset to the old order of things, including one really major thing that I won’t spoil.

But I guess the main reason this isn’t a five star read for me is that the first half is too slow for the second book in a series, and it’s just too dark. I did not start off thinking of Robin Hobb as grimdark at all, but for some reason that seems to be exactly where she’s going and for me that just isn’t what I want to read in fantasy. I read fantasy to feel cozy, not horrified. And I value my headspace. I read all kinds of books that have all kinds of dark moments and people have to take time to heal from trauma which is something I’m very interested in (the healing part).

But I really especially didn’t like dwelling in this space of prolonged trauma, such as having the threat of rape hanging over you for half of a book. That just is terrible for me. I don’t know. I can appreciate the fact that there are people out there who have experienced exactly that. And that’s absolutely awful and their stories should be told. But telling their stories doesn’t mean we need to live in that prolonged state again and reproduce the trauma. That I don’t think is necessary or helpful.

So this is a weird place to be in. After being a Robin Hobb fanboy for all these years and reading through 11 of her books so far, I’m actually wondering if I’m going to continue and read that last one or not. If someone here has read it, let me know if you think it will bother me as much as Fool’s Quest did.

Will you like this book? If you like the characters from the previous books and the way that Robin Hobb does character development and you don’t mind the fact that this is one of her slowest books yet, if you want to see what happens next with Fitz and you crave intensity, then this is probably for you. That is my best recommendation.