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    Dragon Keeper
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    Dragon Keeper
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    Dragon Keeper
    Audiobook20 hours

    Dragon Keeper

    Written by Robin Hobb

    Narrated by Anne Flosnik

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    After many years, dragons have hatched again outside the ancient city of Cassarick. But something is wrong with the creatures; each is inferior or weak in some way, and many die. Tending these stunted dragons has left the people of the surrounding area weary. The Traders Council, the city's leadership, fears that if the Rain Wilders stop providing for the young dragons, the hungry and neglected creatures will rampage and destroy Cassarick. To avert catastrophe, the council rules to relocate the young dragons to "a better location" up river, and residents are recruited to escort the valuable yet fearsome creatures on the arduous journey. Among them are Thymara, an unschooled Rain Wilds girl of sixteen, and Alise, a wealthy, educated, and deeply unsatisfied Bingtown Trader's wife.

    Witnessed from the viewpoints of these two very different women, Dragon Keeper tells the story of this disparate band of humans and dragons as they make their way along the toxic and inhospitable Rain Wild River in search of their new home-the ancient, long-lost city of Kelsingra.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Audio
    Release dateJan 26, 2010
    ISBN9781400183333
    Unavailable
    Dragon Keeper
    Author

    Robin Hobb

    Robin Hobb is one of the world’s finest writers of epic fiction. She was born in California in 1952 but raised in Alaska. She raised her family, ran a smallholding, delivered post to her remote community, all at the same time as writing stories and novels. She succeeded on all fronts, raising four children and becoming an internationally best-selling writer. She lives in Tacoma, Washington State.

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    Reviews for Dragon Keeper

    4/5

    660 ratings46 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Great dragon book but does not end conclusivelyDragon Keeper is a great fantasy story with many smaller stories that end up blending together to weave a remarkable tale. Many great characters, great plot, and steady pace. My favorite character is a young teen that becomes a Dragon Keeper. She has black claws for fingernails and scales on her body. This I the first book of a series.
    • 4/5
      This was okay, but not quite up there with the Liveships or Fitz books for me. There's definitely some promise in the overarching plot, and I quite like the POV characters of Thymara and Alise. However, the book is lacking some of the magic of Hobb's other novels from the Realm of the Elderlings. Hopefully things will pick up in the rest of the quartet!
    • 2/5
      I got half way through the book and could not force myself to finish it. I tried, I really did.
    • 4/5
      Dragon Keeper is the first in the Rain Wilds Chronicles by Robin Hobb and tenth in her greater Realm of the Elderlings series. While you can probably enjoy the story regardless, I recommend to have read the Liveship Traders prior to starting this book as this series is a direct follow up to those events and many things from those books are referenced with the idea that the reader is already in the know. So far there is no impact from the Farseer Trilogy at all and only one minor relation to the very end of the Tawny Man series which you can probably skip too and still understand the whole story no problem. Without further ado...It has been many years since Tintaglia saved Bingtown and struck a deal with the Traders to protect the newly hatched dragons. Tintaglia has vanished and the Traders are having trouble with keeping up their end of the bargain. The new dragons were too old when they cocooned as serpents and born too early, hatching weak and deformed. Many did not survive their first year. Those who did are becoming a menace, hampering efforts to excavate a buried Elderling city and costing a fortune to upkeep. There is only one solution: the dragons must be relocated somewhere else. Anywhere else. A crew of keepers are hired to help herd the dragons upriver to the mythical city of Kelsingra. Legends say Kelsingra was the home of dragons and Elderlings in ages past. Does it still exist? Can dragons and keepers survive such a journey?This book is all about setting the stage for remainder of the series. The first two thirds of the book are spent in character building and Robin Hobb is an expert at it. We are introduced to a large cast though the story is told primarily from four points of view. Alise Finbok is in a marriage of convenience with Trader Hest Finbok. Their relationship leaves a lot to be desired. She's a self proclaimed dragon expert and has dedicated herself to learning everything she can about the creatures. She negotiates a trip to visit the hatchlings to learn about dragons directly from the source. Sent with her as her secretary/guardian is Hest's right hand man, Sedrec Meldar. To say that Sedrec is unhappy about this arrangement is an understatement. While grudgingly accepting this horrible duty he decides to put the trip to good use and has a nefarious plan of his own to try and gather dragon parts as they're worth a fortune. Leftrin is captain of the oldest known liveship, Tarman. He and his crew are hired to assist with the dragon's relocation and will be loaded down with supplies for the keepers and hunters that have signed on for the journey. Sintara, also known as Skymaw, is one of the new dragons. She is frustrated by her and her kin's malformed bodies and taunted by ancestral memories of what a dragon is supposed to be. She is paired with Thymara as a keeper. Thymara is heavily touched by the Rain Wilds. Thymara grew up knowing she should not have existed, being born with claws instead of fingers and toes, and jumps at the chance to join the expedition to make her own way in the world. Great care is taken to flesh out everyone's perspectives, backgrounds, motivations and dark little secrets. In addition to the main points of view, there are around 16 dragons total, 14 keepers, the rest of Tarman's crew and a few hunters hired on to help provide food for the dragons on their trip. It seems like a lot but ended up not being that bad to keep up with.Again, the feeling of setting the stage is greatly apparent. The pacing is very slow. Just as the plot really gets going, it ends on a small bombshell that I imagine will have great impact to the rest of the series. It was great learning more about the Rain Wilds, an area hinted at but not really encountered in depth before. My heart really went out to the dragons and their keepers. Both groups are the rejects of society. I hope this journey helps them to rise above their circumstances. But it's a Robin Hobb book so there will definitely be more hardships ahead. It's a good set up and an interesting read. On to book two!
    • 4/5
      I delightful book.. all about some poor crippled dragons who want to soar and the people that care for them.. Part 0f a series and I can't wait to read the second one :)
    • 3/5
      Nice start to a unique fantasy series.
    • 3/5
      Loved how it started. Got tired of it about 2/3 of the way through so fast read to the end.Will try the next one and see how it goes.
    • 5/5
      Loved it. great characters with diverse lives. Can’t wait to read the next installments.
    • 3/5
      Started as a three star but at the end, surged quickly to a 4 star range! Still, it’s not fair to say the entire book was that good, although it certainly kept me interested. I anticipate a weaving of a complex tale, looking forward.
    • 1/5
      I was two-thirds of the way through when my library loan came to an end, and I didn't renew it. The world was richly detailed, but the pace was excruciatingly slow. Looks like the book was essentially the preface for the rest of the series.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable beginning to this new series by Robin Hobb. I've been waiting to read it when the whole thing is published. This is the set up and introduction to the characters. I enjoyed it greatly and went straight on to the next book.
    • 4/5
      (Wow, this took me a whole week. I thought I'd finish it sooner than that...)

      I must admit that I'm suffering from Hobb withdrawal after having finished Fool's Fate. With that and a desire to read about arrogant dragons, I chose this book. Hobb excelled at most of what she set out to accomplish, which is why this book receives four stars. However, she left some things in an unsatisfactory condition.

      I should liken Hest's behavior to Kyle, Wintrow's father in the Liveship series. Both are utterly unlikable and both will or have undoubtedly received their just desserts. However, I feel that Hest is more repugnant than Kyle, possibly because of how he purports himself in his marriage. Kyle might have abused the crap out of poor Wintrow, tattooed him, and generally turned him into a human puppet for Vivicia, but Hest is worst in that his behavior is complicit with Sedric. Kyle acted on his own cruel ways without much help from anyone else. Hest and Sedric, by helping along the sham marriage, and Sedric for instigating it, are arguably worse.

      And this leaves me in an uncomfortable position, because, for all that Kyle (and the Piebalds and everyone else lumped in that category) are utterly unlikable characters, they weren't POV characters. To have Sedric take on a POV and be aware of everything that he's putting Alise through is abhorrent to me. I don't care what your inclinations are. Be a decent human.

      If Hest is a horrible human being, in some ways Sedric complements him exactly. The evil that he's done, at the end of the book, has repercussions that I hope he suffers from for a very long time. I could handle Sedric (and possibly Hest) if Sedric weren't a POV character. I don't want inside his head, thanks.

      Moving on from that...there were a few typos here and there, things I would have thought fixed by the paperback edition but evidently not. In some ways, Greft's behavior toward Thymara is reminiscent of Hest toward Sedric and Alise, because he seeks to control the situation. Greft is manipulative, selfish, and cold. While this builds tension, it just adds to the overwhelming amount of negative characters in this book.

      It's odd to note how much the serpents have changed personality-wise since their transformation. Maulkin is almost the same (I love you, Mercor!), but Sintara has become almost a mini Tintanglia. I think it's impressive that the dragons have such strong personalities, although the fact that they're all disabled in some way or another sickens me. Maulkin fought so hard to have them hatch as dragons and for naught, it seems.

      It's good to see familiar faces again, speaking of Maulkin. I cheered when Alise and Sedric climbed aboard Paragon and was glad to see Althea, Brashen, and Malta again. However, their appearances are more like cameos than anything really noteworthy.

      I'm hoping for more impressive character development in the next book. Reportedly, this was intended to be one book, Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven. It might have been better suited as one long book. Since Hobb has done long books in the past, I'm not entirely certain why she changed her mind here. It ended rather abruptly here and more character exposition would have been nice.

      This is not to say there aren't sympathetic characters. There are. I just feel like the sympathetic characters are overshadowed by the cruelty of the antagonists. Also...can I just say this, "OMFG SEDRIC GIVE IT A REST."

      Ahem. This is longer than I'd intended, so I think I'll stop here before I ramble too much.
    • 2/5
      *****I just wanted to say that I have finished the second book, Dragon Haven. The improvement from the first book is almost miraculous. So, though I stand by my low rating and negative review of Dragon Keeper, I would recommend you push through it and read the rest of the series, because I adored the second book.*****


      I'm only about a quarter through this book, but it is frustrating me so much that I have to vent my feelings. This is a good story, but the writing does it absolutely no justice. I adored the Farseer & Tawny Man series from Hobb, and her writing style was perfectly fine in those. And her wide variety of characters, and in particular her representations of women, were excellent. I think her Liveship series was somewhere in between the others and this book in quality.
      The story is ridiculously overwritten. 211 pages in, and I cannot recall any ordinary conversations- they are all super long, almost formal, and seem to talk about the same town issues/ over and over again, with no distinct differences in the perspective from different characters. The speech between one character and the next is almost identical sometimes, and conversation tends to repeat another character's thoughts from a mere one page earlier. I cannot believe an editor was so lax as to approve this! I can ignore bad writing for the sake of a good story, but repetitive, uncreative writing just jars me from the story, and bores and frustrates me.
      As for the female characters- why are they so downtrodden? I get that Hobb might want to talk about the struggles of women in a less-developed, slightly oppressive environment, but she has gone overboard. In this, and the Liveship series, no women seem to be free from oppression of some sort, which makes for a boring story and stunts their characters. And I am a strong feminist, so normally I wouldn't make that kind of argument. But Hobb could show the struggles of oppressed women, and even show a few of their perspectives, without repeating the same story over and over again. Yes, fantasy should explore social issues. But it should also be entertaining, and all the oppression just makes me depressed. And the series are completely uncreative in their oppression. They constantly use rape, abuse, or threat of them, as a plotline. Use some imagination for god's sake! Show some more subtle forms of oppression. In the Farseer & Tawny Man series- the women had their troubles, most even faced sexism and oppression, but it was only one facet of their experiences, which made for well-rounded, interesting characters. Free your women, give them more chance to LIVE!
      The Farseer & Tawny Man series are about a royal bastard (the born out of wedlock kind, not the jerk kind). The equivalent of this in those stories would be if Hobb had written in an extra five characters facing the troubles of being a bastard in a conservative society, and instead of making their experiences unique, she merely repeated the storyline of the first character with slight differences, over and over again, until their bastardhood overshadowed everything else about them and their experiences.
      I sincerely hope this story will improve as it goes along. If just baffles my mind that Hobb could write such amazing, beloved stories, and then turn around and write this disaster.
    • 3/5
      The title of this book being: Dragon Keeper: Volume One had me intrigued. I like fantasy stories and dragons obviously piqued my interest. The beginning was good. It was detailing the efforts of Dragon queen Tantaglia and getting the serpents to their nesting grounds so they can coccon and become dragons. Then we start skipping around getting details that aren't very descriptive from other sotry variables. You meet many characters in their seperate environments that in the future will entwine together. The first 50% of this book is dealt with these tidious details. It isn't until the 2nd half that it even begins to get into the Dragon Keeper side of things.

      I really was put off by this book. Every chracter was oppressed. I don't think I read about one single character that wasn't outcast in some form or fashion because of something in their lives. The dragons come our deformed mentally and physically. The Rain Wild chracters that will be prominent are outcast because of deformities in their bodies. The Jamaillia's were slaves. Then there's a woman who apparently wasn't pretty enough when she was young and didn't get any offers. She wants to go meet the dragons but gets afianced by a jerk of a character who then treats her like garbage all because he's a closet homosexual. So he's oppressed as his lover is also she's opressed because of it. What I learned of the societies that these multiple chracters live in is that no one is accepting of anything. The very dragging back drop is equally followed by lagging descriptions of the people and places they go. It ends with the obvious opening as to where the next book picks up. The great news for me is I won't continue with this series.

      I have given it 3 stars because 2.5 wasn't an option. The idea was a good one. I don't mind people having to face challenges in order to live their lives but there is too much oppression and angst and sadness for you to feel anything but anger or sadness. If a character is deformed bring to light the challanges they face but don't make their world completely a hell hole because of it. If you want a homosexual chracter then let them be it open and proud of who they are. I would have been more accepting of the book if everyone seemed to want to change what made them special or different because apparently others wouldn't accept them as they were.
    • 4/5
      Yay! The Rain Wilds are back!
      This book takes up the story following the Liveship Traders trilogy.
      I have to say, the introduction to the story was done masterfully. You know how some authors start a series, and the first chapter or so is an awkward reiteration of "what already happened?"
      Well, this does that - and it needs it, because, seriously, it's been twelve years since the Liveship Traders trilogy finished (!), and I could use the reminder. But it doesn't feel forced or awkward at all. I was impressed.
      The story focuses on the return of the endangered dragons to the Rain Wilds, and a number of people who are caught up with the dragons' fate. The reality of the dragons is not the glorious thing that many hoped it would be: politics and finance play a significant role.
      Among the main characters: Alise, a smart but naive young woman who finds herself in a loveless marriage (as to why it's loveless: duh, is anyone that naive!?) and focuses her energy on scholarship - anything to do with dragons. Thymara: a young girl, physically mutated. According to Rain Wilds custom, she should have been exposed at birth, but her loving father saved her. Leftrin: a barge captain, who steals the now-forbidden wizardwood for his liveship...
      Overall, the book is really good. It's not the best in this lengthy epic, and it takes a little bit to get going, but it's very enjoyable.
    • 3/5
      the audio narrator really did not work for me, and the story dragged.
    • 3/5
      The title of this book being: Dragon Keeper: Volume One had me intrigued. I like fantasy stories and dragons obviously piqued my interest. The beginning was good. It was detailing the efforts of Dragon queen Tantaglia and getting the serpents to their nesting grounds so they can coccon and become dragons. Then we start skipping around getting details that aren't very descriptive from other sotry variables. You meet many characters in their seperate environments that in the future will entwine together. The first 50% of this book is dealt with these tidious details. It isn't until the 2nd half that it even begins to get into the Dragon Keeper side of things.

      I really was put off by this book. Every chracter was oppressed. I don't think I read about one single character that wasn't outcast in some form or fashion because of something in their lives. The dragons come our deformed mentally and physically. The Rain Wild chracters that will be prominent are outcast because of deformities in their bodies. The Jamaillia's were slaves. Then there's a woman who apparently wasn't pretty enough when she was young and didn't get any offers. She wants to go meet the dragons but gets afianced by a jerk of a character who then treats her like garbage all because he's a closet homosexual. So he's oppressed as his lover is also she's opressed because of it. What I learned of the societies that these multiple chracters live in is that no one is accepting of anything. The very dragging back drop is equally followed by lagging descriptions of the people and places they go. It ends with the obvious opening as to where the next book picks up. The great news for me is I won't continue with this series.

      I have given it 3 stars because 2.5 wasn't an option. The idea was a good one. I don't mind people having to face challenges in order to live their lives but there is too much oppression and angst and sadness for you to feel anything but anger or sadness. If a character is deformed bring to light the challanges they face but don't make their world completely a hell hole because of it. If you want a homosexual chracter then let them be it open and proud of who they are. I would have been more accepting of the book if everyone seemed to want to change what made them special or different because apparently others wouldn't accept them as they were.
    • 4/5
      I had high expectations for this book because of the author, but it took me a while to get invested in it. It has a slow start, but very interesting characters. This book, and its sequal, are really character studies. I recommend this to those who love character-driven novels.
    • 4/5
      A string beginning to the series. Well-developed characters, interesting interactions. The villains for the next book are set up. Thymara and Alise are getting stronger. Travel may bring them freedom.
    • 4/5
      Read this last night. I was not very tired and uh, stayed up until the wee hours reading this book. I haven't read any of Robin Hobbs' books in a while so I had forgotten alot about things in that 'verse. It ended too soon. When I got to the end - it really did feel like the end of the beginning rather than the end of a story. Which figures- given that it's the first book in a planned trilogy. (I understand that book two came out earlier this summer.)
    • 2/5
      The first half of the book, I didn't mind that it was so slow and fairly repetitive. I was still intrigued and considering picking up the second book because I found the characters interesting enough. But that feeling didn't last. [Minimal spoilers] The main characters don't even meet each other or the dragons until 300 pages in to a 500 page book. For a book that claims to be about misfits on a journey with dragons, that did not bode well. Then, they don't even leave for their journey for another hundred pages. So we get about 1/5 of the book being about the promised journey - and it's not even that satisfying because it's just the beginning part where they don't fully trust each other yet. The book ends on an incomplete note. It's almost like Robin Hobb had the sequel included as the rest of the book, but someone told her it was getting too long, so she just chopped out the rest. Sigh.
    • 3/5
      Robin Hobb's characters are very real. They have strengths and failings and the ability to overcome their failings with effort.

      Dealing with dragons is difficult at the best of times. But when they are misformed and need help that they are resentful for, it makes life even more difficult for those contracted to take care of them.

      I enjoyed reading this book. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more had I read the sets of series in their intended order rather than starting with this one, but I'll go back and read the others in her series when I can.
    • 3/5
      I really wanted to love this book.

      I adored the Farseer Trilogy and I had a love/hate with the Liveship trilogy. One of the best parts of the Liveship trilogy, I thought, was the mysterious Rain Wilds, so I was hoping that this book would be awesome.

      And it was OK. So far I like the series, and I will be continuing with it, but the storytelling itself was a little grating. There was a lot of switching between perspectives within the story, without warning, and it detracted from the story, jolting me out of my happy reading immersion. A large portion of the book was slow, and not in a good "slow because we're having to set up backstories and story tell before the story can get going" slow, but "I think I'll skim this now because nothing important is happening" slow.

      I like the premise - learning more about the Rain Wilds, the scholarly society woman doing the best she can to follow her passion while being trapped in a rigid patriarchal system, a whole bunch of not-so-majestic and damaged dragons trying to survive and find their home. The story starting finally moving interestingly towards the end, and I still look forward to the next book.
    • 4/5
      I grew up on a toxic waste dump. I realize that sounds melodramatic, but technically it's accurate. My childhood home was ringed by no fewer than five Superfund sites - and, as we like to say, those are just the spots they've cleaned.

      When I was a kid people weren't so concerned about the pollution. Arsenic was in the dust we kicked up on the playgrounds, on the berries we picked in the woods, in the small ponds where nothing lived and no birds ever stopped. The waterways were lined with gray heaps of slag from the copper smelter, in some spots enlivened by oil-slick rainbow stains made by unknown chemicals seeping out from the rocks. We were told not to fish or swim in the bay, which seemed to us kids to be hilarious: looking down off the docks into the still, metallic depths, we couldn't picture fish living down there at all, let alone anything you'd think of eating. And that was just the water. I still don't know what the mills were belching into the air, or what they're still churning out - sometimes, when the wind is right, you can both smell and taste the air: a sulphuric grit which stings your eyes and irritates your throat.

      Now it's been spruced up. They sealed off the slag heaps and built fancy condos on top of them, planted new grass along the edges, dug up people's lawns and replaced them with new, cleaner topsoil. The smelter company offered a cash settlement to the people living closest to the plant, and they took it, even though the surveys hadn't been completed. They worked hard to restore the bay, and now when you stroll through the new grass and out along the docks you can look down to see bright colonies of starfish and sea anemones clinging to the piers, and deeper down, the quick dark shapes of fish.

      Later, of course, we learned that the pollution went farther and deeper than the smelter operators had admitted to. Too late for the people who had settled, and too late for all of us who grew up splashing in that water and breathing that air. Statistics are readily available about disease rates in my hometown, telling us that you're much more likely to die of obscure cancers or get heart or lung disease there. I haven't seen anything on autoimmune disease, except that it's a hotspot for diabetes. I'm curious mostly because everyone I know, just about, has something crazy and unlikely wrong with them. Lupus, MS, celiac disease, autism, Crohn's disease, asthma - you name it. We're a sickly bunch.

      We're not alone. All over the planet, people grow up in the shadow of industrial toxins, watch their kids and their friends get sick and die, watch their own bodies with wary concern. What can you do? You go on. Sometimes your pain and your poison can be transmuted into something beautiful, into art, into action, into something meaningful. Sometimes you just have to learn to accept your limitations and endure the pain.

      And so this is a story for us. Here is a world where profit has trumped issues of morality and health, where generations grow up living with the legacy of pollution. It's sort of a counterpoint to the sunny ending of the Liveship books, where dragons and men are reunited and the deformed people of the Rain Wilds are transformed into something better. In this new series, we meet the people who were left behind, still deformed, without the hope that some magical intervention will save them from themselves. How they go on, and how they learn to transform themselves, is nothing short of inspirational.

      This is what fantasy is best at, and this is why it's necessary.
    • 4/5
      Robin Hobb has a particular flavor that I'm never quite sure I like, but can't stop consuming. She's certainly a master of her particular arts.

      Dragon Keeper is a follow-up to the Liveship Traders books (sort of - all new characters, but mostly informed by those plots) and the short stories set in the Rain Wilds.

      I liked the dragons themselves - I get very tired of magical intelligent beings who live only to make their human companions feel good about themselves, and the relationship here is almost exactly the opposite. There were some interesting things going on with the human relationships, too - what happens when people who have lived restricted, low-caste lives strike out on their own with no rules? (Although I was kind of disappointed by the psychopathic gay man and his mincing codependent lover - I feel like she could have done something much more interesting and less stereotypical with that setup.)

      This is definitely, as Hobb has said, a character-focused series. The plot, such as it is, moves almost infinitely slowly, and the action centers around the individuals (I won't say "people") and relationships rather than adventure. But there's a lot of good stuff going on there, and it's well worth digging into.
    • 4/5
      The Dragon Keeper is the second book I've ever read by Robin Hobb, the first being Assassin's Apprentice, book one of the Farseer trilogy. My first thought after reading that one was that I liked it well enough; Robin Hobb is great storyteller, and Assassin's Apprentice was quite enjoyable. Still, while I was definitely on board to read the rest of the series, nothing about it excited me enough to make me want to drop everything and rush out for the sequel, if you know what I mean. In fact, it's been almost two years since I read the first book, and I still haven't gotten around to Royal Assassin. Shameful, I know.Now, I realize I should really make the effort to finish up young Fitz's story first, but then The Dragon Keeper landed on my lap. This first book of the Rain Wild Chronicles has gotten rave reviews from many of my fantasy-book-loving friends, so I admit I've always been curious about the series. That, and it's hard to resist the prospect of a good story about dragons.The book begins with a group of sea serpents journeying upriver to cocoon themselves so that they might hatch into dragons. They are overseen by Tintaglia, the last known dragon. It is her hope that their efforts would reintroduce their kind to the world, with the help of humans on the Rain Wild Council. We are then introduced to our key characters: Thymara, a young girl marked by a birth defect that gave her scales and clawed fingers; Leftrin, captain of the wizardwood liveship called Tarman; Alise Kincarrion, a woman who weds a successful local Trader named Hest Finbok in a marriage of convenience for both of them; and Sintara, a dragon who has hatched from one of the cocoons mentioned at the beginning of the book. Their stories all come together when a group of human keepers must set out on a quest to escort a party of dragons to find the legendary city of Kelsingra.I have to be honest; I found the first half or so of this book really slow, and it took me a while to figure out why. In the end, I determined it was the characters. While they each come from fascinating backgrounds and unique circumstances, I failed to drum up much interest for their personalities. Thymara, for example, came across to me as rather bland. Normally, Rain Wild babies with birth defects like hers would have been left for dead immediately after they were born, but she was rescued from that fate by her softhearted father. As a result, most people look upon her as a mistake that never should have happened. Don't get me wrong; while these little details about Thymara gave me insight into her character and I certainly enjoyed reading about them, the issue was that I found little else to set her apart from most young outcast protagonists in a lot of the other fantasy books I've read.I felt much the same about Alise. Her story, however, was much more interesting to me. Her relationship with Hest is pretty sad, with him being a cold and emotionally abusive ass. To Hest, their marriage is just another business contract; Alise is only useful to him for her ability to bear him an heir, and in exchange he has offered his considerable assets for her to fund her dragon research. As it turns out, there's more to the reasons why he is incapable of ever returning Alise's attempts at affection, which made my heart go out to her. And yet, her personality was so unexceptional that I found it hard to truly root for her.I think some of this stems from the dialogue. For instance, in the book is a minor character named Greft, a young dragon keeper who very swiftly and efficiently sways the others around him to set himself up as the leader of their crew. Often in his manipulations, he says things along the lines of "Surely, you must see this is the way..." or "I am sure you can understand..." I mean, do people really fall for patronizing verbiage like that? It all just sounds so forced and over the top. I know it's a minor gripe, but I didn't like how instead of actually giving the character a charismatic personality, the writing often falls back on dialogue choices like that.Now, the dragons, on the other hand. Not magnificent and noble creatures, these. Robin Hobb's dragons in the Rain Wild Chronicles are weak, malformed and unable to take care of themselves, relying on humans to hunt for them and clean them. From what I read of them, they also seemed petty and squabbly, and Sintara annoyed me to no end with her arrogance and posturing. But still, the dragons here felt fresh and different for me, and I liked them a lot for that.While the beginning was slow to pick up, the positive news is that once the characters were all set up and the adventure got going, the book just got better and better. In fact, I was quite irked when it ended, just as things were at their most interesting. It was actually pretty abrupt.I have to say that in general I don't mind cliffhangers, not if they're executed deftly and with panache. Unfortunately, I can't claim that this was one of those endings. There was no real conclusion, no cooldown, not even any real attempt to wrap things up nicely. Without warning at all, everything just comes to a screeching halt.However, to the book's credit, the way it ended was still very effective. I already have the next book on hold at my library. And that, at least, is more than what I did for the Farseer trilogy.
    • 4/5
      This is a slow book. I remember picking it up earlier this year, or maybe it was sometime last year, and got halfway through before I set it aside and never got back to it. Luckily I remembered most of the first half so when I picked it back up this month I only had half a book to finish. Generally Hobb’s books are all slow. Hobb focuses more on character development and less on action filled scenes. I loved that aspect in her Farseer and Tawny Man series because I loved Fitz and wanted every detail I could get. Here I didn’t like the characters as much. Each one has their downfalls. Not as characters, but as people; this is overall great because that makes them very human and very realistic. But it does cause mix feelings of endearment. Hobb has always given readers the unflattering aspects of life, which I always admire. These aren’t heroes, just people trying to survive in a harsh reality. I’m looking forward to the next book even though I’m sure that one will also take a little bit to get through. While I don’t have much time to give it, going to school as I am, I love Hobb’s writing enough that I’d like to make time for it.
    • 4/5
      It's always a pleasure to return to Robin Hobb's Bingtown and Rainwild settings, which are once more in the throes of change. This time, she presents us with the outcasts of human and dragon society, and the text is really a passionate argument for their worth and that society should allow them to become everything they can be, while at the same time never becoming sentimental about them and allowing them to be flawed and sometimes unworthy beings. True to form, things will never be easy for them; Hobb delights in putting obstacles in her characters' paths, and one of the things that I appreciate most in her writing is that the road to maturity and self-knowledge is frequently painful and uncomfortable (for both characters and readers). It was also a pleasure to see how life is treating characters from the Liveship books: we get to spend brief but significant time with some old favourites. Cunningly, they're also used to illuminate the choices our new main characters are making - in particularly, they present Alise with a new range of possibilities, outside of her sheltered experience.The Dragon Keeper is not as epic in scope as Hobb's other works, and suffers a little from an overly-luxurious pace (although when the trade-off is extra time spent on characterisation, as it often is with Hobb, I seldom mind). As others have mentioned, the ending is somewhat abrupt, almost cliff-hangerish, and I'm keen to read the next book soon. One final caveat: here, Hobb is dealing more directly with male homosexuality (though not explicitly) than she ever has before. Unfortunately, both of the homosexual characters are quite unsympathetic. However, I do have faith in her ability to grow and change her characters (think of Malta in the Liveship books!), and even when they're being thoroughly unlikeable, she's always careful to present their motivations in such a way that the reader can understand them (e.g. Kennitt), and I don't consider this a real criticism (yet :-).
    • 4/5
      Guided by the dragon Tintaglia, they came from the sea: a Tangle of serpents fighting their way up the Rain Wild River, the first to make the perilous journey in generations. For Thymara, a Rainwilder born with scales and caws, the return of dragons symbolises the return of hope to her war-torn world. Leftrin, captain of the liveship Tarman, also has an interest in the hatching; as does Bingtown newlywed, Alise Finbok, who has made it her life's work to study dragons.But the creatures which emerge from the cocoons are a travesty of the dragons of old. Soon, they become a danger to all: it is decided that they must be moved. Far upriver lies the legendary Elderling city of Kelsingra. Perhaps there the dragons will find their true home. However, if the dragons are to get there, a band of dragon keepers must be recruited to attend them. None are expected to return, or even survive, but Thymara is certain it is her destiny ... As usual, Hobb's characterisation is absolutely flawless in this novel. The story is primarily told through Sintara, a dragon who cannot fly, and Thymara, a Rain Wilds girl who was allowed to survive despite being born with scales and claws. Interspersed are the view points of Alisa, a Trader-born woman in an unhappy marriage, her childhood friend Sedric, and the captain who is ferrying them on the Rain Wilds River, Leftrin. These characters are so wonderfully described that I never dreaded a change in point-of-view. I feel that they grew in predictable ways through the course of the story, and the only negative point is that I was never surprised by any of the major developments in the novel.I have always found Hobb's level of world-building impressive, and this book did not disappoint. The descriptions were vivid and rich in detail and I absolutely loved it. The story is mainly set in the river valley that used to be the dragon's breeding ground, where the dragons have not visited for generations, and has become swampland, marsh and rain forest in the intervening years. Humans live in the trees and have discovered ruined Elderling cities, but they do not understand the things they find there. The level of thought into the ecology of a world is rarely seen in fantastic literature, and makes this book a thought provoking read.The most annoying aspect of the novel is that it it does not have a conclusion. The story is set up very slowly and the journey of the dragons and their keepers only begins half way through the book. The novel is paced as though it is a much larger book, and comes to an abrupt halt. The lack of conflict (and its subsequent resolution) left me disappointed. I would suggest that this book should not be read unless its sequel is close at hand.A great story with amazing characters you can not help but sympathise with, The Dragon Keeper continues Robin Hobb's amazing work in fantastic literature. I suspect this novel would be unsatisfying if the sequel is not read soon after, however the exploration of human nature and its place in the wider world will entertain many readers. If you loved Hobb's other works, then this is a must for you, and if you have not, then it would be best if you stated with The Farseer Trilogy and worked your way through the novels of The Realm of the Elderlings.
    • 4/5
      The book started out slow and even a little boring. I almost turned it aside unfinished. However, Robin Hobb is known (to me) for slow beginning and brilliant endings so I persevered.Once the place markers were set and the characters introduced, the pace picked up and I found myself entertained and thoroughly immersed in this world of dragons.Thymara, touched by the Rain Wilds and born with claws and scales, should have been disposed of at birth, but her father could not allow that to happen and went against his wife’s wishes by keeping her. Alise, almost an old maid when she finally marries, had already set her mind to the study of dragons and refuses to let her new husband stop her studies. Lethrin, captain of a Live Ship, will do anything for money…and love. These three people are thrown together when the council are persuaded to move the young dragons to a place more suited to their needs. The problem is … none of them are expected to return to civilisation, as it’s a dangerous journey.The three main characters are complimented by a great cast of secondary characters. Their individual stories are complex and real. This is compounded by external conflicts and danger. In my opinion, what the author lacks in being able to get straight into the story, she makes up for in character and world development.This is a brilliant book, once you get past the first 50 or so pages. However, the story ended without resolution. Smack bang in the middle of the tension…it finished! To be continued in book 2. As my definition of a story is that it must have a beginning, a middle and an ending this was a great disappointment for me.