slow. good. slow though

so this is the one everybody in my Discord swears by and I went in expecting to have my life changed and instead I had a nice time, which I realise sounds like an insult and is not meant as one.

what is great: Fitz's voice. the whole thing is an old man writing down what happened to him as a boy, so there are these little asides where he tells you he was wrong about something, and you get the sadness of the ending arriving in advance and hanging over the whole book. that is a good trick and Hobb is patient with it.

the Wit. the animal bond stuff. I did not expect to care and then obviously I cared enormously, and if you know anything about this series you know what I am bracing for, and I am not going to talk about it.

what stopped it being higher for me is that not a lot happens. genuinely. it is 400-something pages of a boy being ignored in a castle and being taught things by people who will not explain why. which is thematically correct and also I was checking how far through I was. I need a plot engine and this one runs on atmosphere. Priyesh says that is a me problem and this time I think he might have a point.

also Fitz makes bad decisions constantly which is realistic for a fourteen year old and infuriating for a reader.

seven. I have already bought the next two. I do not know what that says about me.