| | |  | Amazon Kindle | Home » » » Dragon Keeper (Rain Wilds Chronicles, Vol. 1) (The Rain Wild Chronicles) | | | | | | | Description: | | Enter the spellbinding world of dragons . . . and those who tend them One of the most gifted fantasy authors writing today, New York Times bestselling author Robin Hobb has dazzled readers with brilliantly imaginative, emotionally resonant, and compulsively readable tales set in far-flung realms not unlike our own. In this enthralling new novel, she returns to the territory of her beloved Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies with a story of dragons and humans, return and rebirth, and the search for meaning, belonging, and home. For years, the Trader cities valiantly battled their enemies, the Chalcedeans. But they could not have staved off invasion without the powerful dragon Tintaglia. In return, the Traders promised to help her serpents migrate up the Rain Wild River after a long exile at sea—to find a safe haven and, Tintaglia hopes, to restore her species. But too much time has passed, and the newly hatched dragons are damaged and weak, and many die. The few who survive cannot use their wings; earthbound, they are powerless to hunt and vulnerable to human predators willing to kill them for the fabled healing powers of dragon flesh. But Tintaglia has vanished and the Traders are weary of the labor and expense of tending useless dragons. The Trader leadership fears that if it stops providing for the young dragons, the hungry and neglected creatures will rampage—or die along the river's acidic muddy banks. To avert catastrophe, the dragons decree a move even farther up the treacherous river to Kelsingra, their ancient, mythical homeland whose mysterious location is locked deep within the dragons' uncertain ancestral memories. To ensure their safe passage, the Traders recruit a disparate group of young people to care for the damaged creatures and escort them to their new home. Among them is Thymara, an unschooled forest girl of sixteen, and Alise, a wealthy Trader's wife trapped in a loveless marriage, who attaches herself to the expedition as a dragon expert. The two women share a deep kinship with the dragons: Thymara can instinctively communicate with them, and Alise, captivated by their beauty and majesty, has devoted her life to studying them. Embarking on an arduous journey that holds no promise of return, the band of humans and dragons must make their way along the toxic and inhospitable Rain Wild River—an extraordinary odyssey that will teach them lessons about themselves and one another, as they experience hardships, betrayals, and joys beyond their wildest dreams. | | | Product Details: | | | Average Customer Rating:
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102 of 110 found the following review helpful:
 Up the river without a paddleNov 23, 2009
By E. A Solinas
"ea_solinas"
Usually when there are dragons reintroduced into a fantasy world, they end up being strong, smart, beautiful, and all the rest of it.
But Robin Hobb examines a different idea: what if something hadn't gone quite right with the forming dragons? "Dragon Keeper: Volume One of the Rain Wilds" is a slow-moving, richly detailed book that builds on the past events of her last two trilogies, but introduces a rather different dilemma and radically different characters.
Five years ago, the dragon Tintaglia led a number of exhausted, half starved sea serpents to the Rain Wilds, and oversaw them going into their cocoons. But when they emerged, these new dragons were deformed and stunted in mind and body. Now Tintaglia has gone off with her new mate, leaving the hungry flightless dragons to be fed by the Rain Wilds people who are uncovering Cassarick -- and both dragons and humans are rapidly getting sick of this miserable arrangement.
So the dragons trick the humans into agreeing to take them to the ancient Elderling city of Kelsingra, along with several human keepers. Among those on the journey are the deformed locals including a girl named Thymara, and with an unhappily-married scholar named Alise. But can the strong personalities among the embittered dragons and their equally deformed keepers avoid clashes -- and who will make it up the river?
As dragoncentric books go, "Dragon Keeper" is pretty lacking in glamour. The dragons are stunted, petty, flea-bitten, muddy and fed on spoiled meat, and they live in a rainforesty region full of mud and acid rivers. Fun. The biggest problem is that "Dragon Keeper" goes SLOWLY -- it feels like somebody split one massive book in half, and that this is the first part before the plot really gets moving.
And the main plot is basically made of three big subplots that merge together about halfway through, as Thymara becomes a dragon-keeper and Alise joins the expedition. Fortunately if you can take the slowness, Hobb's imagined world is an engaging and complex one. Her writing is sumptuously detailed and full of atmosphere, whether it's the pleasant cultured Bingtown, the rough and deadly rivers, or the damp treetops of the Rain Wilds.
She also sculpts the plot around three main female characters, all mired in horrible situations. There's the haughty Sintara, reborn as a stunted wingless dragon who loathes herself and her fellows; Alise, a young woman devoted to studying ancient dragon history and lore, but unhappy in her marriage to a cruel, snotty playboy; and Thymara, who has had claws and scales since she was born and is marked as an outcast among the Rain Wilds folk (and loathed by her own mother).
And Hobb does an excellent job sketching out the supporting characters -- the dragons who seem to blossom under the keepers' care, the gaggle of outcast kids, and the rough, amiable Captain Letrin. Tats is a likable young boy determined not to let prejudice bog him down, while the whiny Sedric seems at first to be Alise's love interest (but who is more interested in her husband).
"Dragon Keeper" is a solid fantasy book that expands Robin Hobbs' longrunning fantasy world into a messier, cruder part of the world -- the only problem is that it's slow as a sleepy dragon.
59 of 63 found the following review helpful:
 Solid work from a fine writer...but I have mixed feelingsDec 27, 2009
By DF
"avid reader D"
I've read several other books by Robin Hobbs, and I've found her work hit and miss for me. This one has me sort of on the fence. I DID like it. Quite a bit, actually. Her world building is unique, interesting, and fraught with all sorts of problems--acid rivers, ancient volcanic eruptions, humans who are being changed into pseudo reptiles over teh generations in the Rain Wilds. Oh, and there are dragons with fertility problems and their offspring, who were born damaged. (How could you not like dragons, right?) It's compelling stuff, and her characters are also well drafted and very human in their foibles, fancies and troubles. The author displays her ability to handle complex plots and character growth issues while telling a story well. It's a solid start to a series.
My problem with it is perhaps only my personal preference, but I didn't like any of the characters except for Captain Leftrin and Alise...and she began to grate on me, too, near the end. The portrayal of the characters whose eyes we see through is realistically done, and they are extremely believable, even though I didn't like them. We have Hest, Alise's jerk of a husband; the arrogant-to-extreme dragon Sintara; Alise the abused wife finally out from under her husband's thumb; Captain Leftrin, who isn't a saint but is a real guy's guy and nice to boot; Thymara the Rain Wilds girl; and Sedric, the 'friend' accompanying Alise who is so shallow, selfish and two-faced I barely could stand reading his viewpoint. But I had a difficult time reading much of them, they were mostly so unlikeable to me, no matter how well written the story was.
And my final difficulty had to do with the pace. This book is SLOW MOVING. I like me some slow world building, where the world unfolds and is revealed like a flower opening its petals to show even more glorious colors as it does. But...sometimes it can be too slow. The first hundred pages were perhaps great for adding depth and understanding, but I could have done without all of Alise's backstory and the worm migration that led to the dragon problem. Perhaps the book needed them; the author no doubt had her reasons and I won't argue her ability to determine what a story needs. But for me, it was just too much and too slow, as nothing much happened.
The one thing I really actively did not like was the stuff about pigeons. There are some really dumb interludes that consist of messages sent from one pigeon tender to another, and the notes are used to transition between sections when time has passed, and allow the reader to see how much time has passed. I hated those and quit reading them except for a cursory scan to see if something critical were there. (Never found anything that I had to have there.)
So, I found myself liking the book yet not liking it. I thought it was well written but had to force myself to keep reading it instead of putting it aside. And, now that it's done, all I can feel is relief and some disappointment...but a lingering sense that I'd like to know how the story finishes.
It's mixed feelings for me. And I might read the sequel. On the fence on that.
75 of 85 found the following review helpful:
Not what I was hoping forNov 29, 2009
By M. Jacobs
Ms. Hobb is a very talented fantasy writer. I would never dispute that, nor would I really disagree with anyone who wanted to give this book a four- or five-star review. The plot is solid, as are the characters, and the setting is well-imagined and beautifully described. It just happens that I found most of the novel intensely exasperating and couldn't wait for it to be over. So I'm rating it at the same level I gave her Soldier Son trilogy, rather than her vastly superior Assassin/Tawny Man trilogies. (Minor spoilers follow.)
The best way I can describe what aggravated me so badly about this book is to say that if they turned it into a film, they'd have to show it on the Lifetime channel, as one of its endless parade of "women gamely holding up under the stress of sexism/chauvinism/male violence" movies. One of the reasons I love fantasy is its ability to take me out of this world; this topic does exactly the opposite, and reading almost 500 pages of this stuff was torture. The two protagonists, Alise and Thymara, do of course run into guys who aren't creeps, but most of the tension and suspense in the book is generated through their conflicts with the various male control freaks in their lives. Alise's husband is a horrible human being, and her male chaperone on her journey up the river is a duplicitous worm who deserves to be stepped on by a dragon. Thymara, the Rain Wilds girl, has similar problems with a controlling jerk who makes her feel like sexual prey (for good reason, from what I can tell) every time she turns around. Yuck yuck yuck.
I suppose I'd recommend this book, but in a qualified way. As fantasy, I don't think it succeeds all that well; as a depiction of women struggling to make their way in a man's world, it works fine. If that's really what you're looking for.
35 of 42 found the following review helpful:
 The Boring Half of a Bigger Novel.Jan 26, 2010
By Steven Diamond
"Elitist Book Reviews"
What happened?
Robin Hobb is held by many as a fantastic author of the fantasy genre. Her first three trilogies are constantly given high marks in most circles, and are easily recommended to newer readers of the genre. I recommend starting with ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE, it's a great read. However, her fourth trilogy--The Soldier Son Trilogy--was met with much poorer reviews (and rightfully so). So, when I saw that Hobb was releasing another novel, I got my expectations up hoping she would return to form, and imported it from the UK
Disappointment just doesn't seem to cover how I felt.
THE DRAGON KEEPER marks a return to the Liveship/Tawny Man universes Hobb created, and the result is terrible. The novel doesn't really build on any of the cool aspects of the prior series. It is, in fact, one of the worst novels I've read in a year. There is no climax. At all (more on this later). The story is mainly about fifteen or so young and crippled dragons struggling to survive.
The book is absurdly repetitive. However, what bothered me more than anything was the predictability. I hate reading a conversation that spans twenty pages, and have the culmination be obvious from the very first sentence we read. Now imagine this happening ten or fifteen times over the course of a novel. What? You can forgive that? OK, well how about every character being a predictable cliché? You know, the outcast girl, Thymara, whose mom is embarrassed by her, but whose father loves her even though (and because) she is physically "different" (in other words, a mutant of sorts). Oh yeah, and she finds herself drawn to the crippled dragons. Surprised? I was--that is, I was surprised Hobb would stoop to such a terrible character cliché. Not enough? How about the apparent "homely" woman, Alise, who marries for convenience...and then is still shocked that her husband doesn't value her. Don't worry, she meets a coarse, sailor-type man who is instantly infatuated with her. Shockingly, she becomes infatuated with him as well. Will they? Won't they? I'm fanning myself in anticipation. Yeah, sarcasm...it's the only way I made it through the novel. It is cliché on a Terry Goodkind/Dan Brown level.
There came a moment when I was reading and thought, "This is horrid. What's next? A random scene of homosexuality?" Guess what? The next chapter included a random scene of homosexuality. Is this a bad thing in itself? Not necessarily. If there was a motive for it, or if it had been used to explain certain characters more fully, then I could see it being important to include (gay characters don't bother me in the least in novels). However in this case it felt like it was thrown in for shock-value, and for the express purpose of creating some sort of false stir in an otherwise coma-inducing novel.
What's that? You want to know about the pacing? OK, there is one pace in THE DRAGON KEEPER. Snail's-pace slow. There is no action. None. There is no real political intrigue. There is no real character development--they are the same from page one until the end. In an effort to understand why Hobb would write something so terrible, I scoured (didn't take much effort) the internets and found that this is just the first half of a novel. It was so long, it was decided to cut it in half--and this is why we get no climax. Reviewers all over are cutting her slack for this, and giving her amazing reviews. Why! Why would they do that? If the novel is terrible, it is terrible. It doesn't matter if it is really only the first half of a bigger novel. All that means is the first half of the novel was absolutely pointless...just skip to the section of the novel worth writing and publish that. Don't waste our time and money by publishing an incomplete novel. A poor industry standard is being set here. Hobb tried to follow Patrick Rothfuss' example from NAME OF THE WIND (an excellent novel), and she failed on an epic scale.
One last thing. Chapter leads can be very entertaining. They can be used to cause misdirection, give additional info/history, or they can even further the plot of the novel. The leads in THE DRAGON KEEPER were beyond idiotic. They lent NOTHING to the novel. In all honesty, they were the worst leads I have EVER read, and they should never have been allowed to be published. They had no humor, plotting, historic, world-building, or story purpose. Completely. Pointless.
Don't read this novel...yet. As it stands right now, the novel is awful. Wait until the second half of the novel is released in May--yeah, thankfully both halves of the novel are being released close together. If it actually has a good ending, then perhaps the first book is worth reading just to get to the end. If the second half of her novel is close to perfect, then most of my plot and character issues could be erased (this is the only reason I'm giving this novel 2 Stars). My main worry now is that the second volume will incorrectly seem amazing when compared to this one. I think I will library it rather than import.
Language: A few words. I'm surprised Hobb didn't resort to more just to get more shock-value to keep people reading.
Violence/Excitement: None. Not even a hint.
Sex: Two scenes that weren't needed. If you are going to include this in your novel, give it some semblance of importance.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
 Oh my, oh my. Another winner from a reliable author.Feb 17, 2010
By Esther Schindler
There are a few fiction authors whose writing is so unrelentingly wonderful that all I have to see is his or her name on a book I don't own... and I walk it right to the checkout counter, without even looking at the description. Robin Hobb long ago earned a place on that list, for me (along with Lois McMaster Bujold, Elizabeth Peters, Barbara Hambly, Laurie R. King, and Steven Brust -- in case your tastes jibes with mine and you want to expand your reading list). If you want to know just how excited I was to see a new Hobb novel... I was offered a free copy through Amazon Vine and decided instead to pay for the hardback with my own money because I wanted "the real thing." Yeah. She's that good.
This new series is set in the same world as Hobb's Assassin series and in the same part of the world as her Rainwild Chronicles/Liveship Traders. If you haven't read either of those, please don't start with this book. There's way too much "what has gone before" for you to figure things out. Instead, start with Ship of Magic (which won't be any hardship, I assure you).
Dragon Keeper starts a few years after we last saw the characters from the Rain Wilds Chronicles, and some of them have bit parts. The central part of the action in this first volume is the dragons who Tintaglia so earnestly insisted that Our Previous Heros had to protect and nurture... except that, unlike the dragons you might envision from Pern, these don't all emerge as perfect specimens. In fact, *none* of the new batch of dragons are quite-right, and all are incapable of flight. As a result, they need humans to take care of them... until the dragons decide to take fate into their own hands. Sort of.
The book starts out in a herky-jerky manner because Hobb has so many characters to introduce. It's as though she has to set up the chessboard with all the pieces before she can get the tale truly underway. But I don't mind, really, because -- as usual -- she creates characters whom I care about, even when they may be at odds to one another. She has invented a world that is consistent within its own physics and is, I suspect, infinitely discoverable. I also really enjoyed Hobb's underlying premise, that things don't always work out quite right, such as dragons who can't fly but have all the arrogance of those who do. And I was charmed by the conversation between the people who send messenger-birds back-and-forth; there's quite a bit of humor here, as well.
The book ends without any major resolution; you will want the next book in the series in your hands NOW (at least I did) and it won't be out for a few more months.
But oh! This is the sort of Fantasy novel I love. If you like either of the earlier series, I think you'll devour this book with the same enthusiasm I did.
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