City of Dragons was a fairly enjoyable read, but it proved to me that even the greatest fantasy writers are more than capable of producing those dreaded ‘filler’ books in series, where things need explaining and there seems to be no other option to writing a book where not very much happens at all.
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In this book we see more of our favourite (hormone-ridden) dragon keepers who are undergoing some fantastical changes as well as all the usual pangs of adolescence, with jealousy and lust spreading about the place like wildfire. I got a little bit tired of one of the characters’ hypocrisy, and though I’m sure Hobb was using him as an example of how NOT to treat women, it was still grating to read his monologues about how unfair it is that the girl he likes slept with someone else... WHEN HE SLEPT WITH SOMEONE ELSE FIRST. Gross.
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The RainWild series does feel quite different to Hobb’s other books - she uses exclamation marks in normal narration, not just dialogue, in this series and for some reason it bugs me. And her foreshadowing feels a bit more heavy-handed...
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The last 100 pages did pick up, I’m excited to see how the quartet ends, and the hints of rebellion and a feminist uprising at the end more than made up for the rest!