I'm terribly sorry that I couldn't get into this book, I heard it's one of the best and greatest in fantasy. But whenever I tried to read a page, my mind went to a million places that were not the book. Not my writing style if that happens, I'm afraid.

I was simply unable to penetrate dense, this meandering narrative that purposely jumps between 1st, 2nd and 3rd perspective. I'm sure it's nice if you're up for a challenge, but I'm too old to be annoyed by books. I want to read for fun and to relax, not to be confused.

This book is told in the first person perspective of a dog, which is the main reason why I was interested in reading it. My expectations were blow out the windows once I started reading. I love the narrative, the fast-paced storytelling, and all the things that are so very much like a dog in this book.

Caleb, the narrating dog, tells his story in such an articulate manner that it's sometimes almost Shakespearean. Meanwhile, it has a tendency to be quite funny, because, well, he's a dog thinking dog thoughts. If you have been around dogs, I think you'll immensely enjoy his narration.

The story takes us right through World War II, and I assume you can imagine roughly where it goes. Still it was interesting to read all of this seen through the innocent eyes of a dog. It reminded me a little of The Book Thief, which tells the story of WWII through the eyes of an innocent child.

I feel like these days it's important to remind ourselves of the Holocaust and the events that led to the formation of Israel, no matter where you stand on current politics. You can disagree with them, but still understand how their need for a safe harbor arose. This book certainly did that for me. It was really fun and quick to read, even though I didn't care so much for the mildly religious aspects that it occasionally contained.

This is a cute and cozy, humorous urban fantasy book with a large focus on conversational narrative. It blends several genres and tropes into each other and tries to put new twists on them. 

Having said that, this book is not for me. I just don't vibe with humorous books, I never have - I also never really enjoyed reading the greats of this genre like Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett. 

Beyond that, the book is also obviously a debut novel and the writing is still a bit rough around the edges both in language and in characterization. I feel like Silvana is a bit of a flat character that has no memorable personality. But it could just be that I missed it because I don't really know how to read humorous books.

What I did think though while reading is that this would make a brilliant TV show for me of the kind that I love watching - such as The Magicians, The Order or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Would love to see that adaptation!

A cute, very well written novella that gives a lot of context to the main books of the Realm of the Elderlings. 

This is the end. The grand finale of an epic 16-book series. My head is buzzing with having read 300+ pages in 2 days. I will write a proper review in the next couple of days.

It's funny, this book actually has very little plot, but it still manages to fill 740 pages that are devoured with ease. Bee has been kidnapped, and Fitz and the Fool are reunited at last - but both are forever changed by their pasts. A large part of this book is preparation for what's to come, with Fitz being infuriatingly stubborn while the Fool once again found a way to outsmart him.

Towards the end of this volume, it seems like everything finally comes together. And I truly mean everything - all 14 books that came before this one. This is of course when Fitz

arrives in Kelsingra, together not with the Fool, but with Amber. And we see Fitz with the Skill and the Wit alongside the Dragons and the Elderlings with the Silver.

But of course, it ends on a cliffhanger, so I expect that the final volume will neatly tie all of those vast silvery threads together, worthy of such a monumental series.

Finally, the beginning of the end. And we're back to Fitz, in what I expected to be the final series, tieing up ALL the the vast threads in this massive universe...? Or not? 

This book is absolutely not what I expected

, starting with the misleading title - I kept reading and reading and reading, waiting for the Fool to show up. What I got instead, is a very odd child for the majority of the book. While is was interesting to see her perspective as well, it was also VERY jarring. I love Fitz's books so much because he is the narrator, and it's just fascinating to get lost in him. I don't dislike Bee's narrations, but it somehow doesn't feel quite natural to me after so many books I already spent with Fitz. 

As for the plot, well it feels like this is just a very slow start to it. The first couple of chapter were a bit erratic with multiple time jumps and fast fowards until we reached "the present". As for the plot, well it seems obvious to me that Bee is a product of Fitz's union with the Fool (and Nighteyes), and that she's the unexpected son because she likes to dress like a boy. But where will this story ultimately lead? With this cliffhanger, who knows, but I expect to finish the remaining two books within the next couple of weeks. 

It's been a long, long journey, but finally dragons have returned to the world. This book finally ties together the other three books in this series, which tended to be a tad tedious. The city is being rebuilt, the dragons are becoming worthy of their name, and Elderlings are returning to the world. 

This book also touches on a lot of topics from the Six Duchies parts of the series, and we learn a lot of lore on how the magic of this world works and where it's coming from. But it is seen from a different perspective, leaving a lot of mysteries yet to be solved. I've been wondering if and how all of this will eventually be tied together in the final trilogy. 

Altogether, a really good conclusion to the Rain Wild Chronicles. I wish the first three books would have been more concise, whereas I think this book could possibly have been a bit more detailed. I find it a bit ironic that some books seem to ramble on endlessly, and in this final one, sometimes some events are just skipped and we fast forward in time. 

But the strong suite of all the Elderlings book has always been its characters and their development, and the same goes for the Rain Wild Chronicles. These characters are unrecognizable by the end of the series, that's how much they changed - and that includes the dragons, who were clumsy, pitiful beings at the beginning of this series. By the end of it, they were warriors as much as the rag-tag band of keepers have become.

Extra points for this being the queerest of all Elderlings books so far, with no less than 6 gay characters, and some hints of polyamory!

They finally made it! Or so you thought... Sometimes I feel like Hobb uses plot devices to artifically prolong her plots, and it's the same with this book. The 2-book-long journey to Kelsingra finally ended, but they still haven't really 'arrived' there yet, have they? 

What I did like about this book though, was that finally some of the characters from The Liveship Traders are starting to play a bigger role - which I kinda expected from the first two books in Rain Wild Chronicles, from which they were rather absent. 

This book is thankfully a lot shorter than most of this series, and thus moving at a more bearable pace. It still very much is setting up the finale. And I already dread what's gonna happen there, because everything points towards utter devastation by capitalism, too much like the real world. But I guess the dragons will have a few words to say on that.