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Amarie
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Posted: Sat 12 Feb , 2005 8:01 am
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Hugs to all of you. :mrgreen:

I agree with you on many things, Rodia. I like how Hobb takes her time as well. You and I have different experiences with Tawny Man however. When I read Fool's Errand, it was like seeing an old friend again. There was about a year in between my reading of Farseer and Tawny Man. I had to wait a little bit for Golden Fool too. I LOVED Farseer. I think the first person narrative really helped pull me into caring for Fitz. Unlike you, ench, I never found him annoying, well except maybe when he was being an idiot or doing something I didn't agree with. So, discovering his character once again in Tawny Man was wonderful. He'd changed too. As the reader, you saw the world a little differently through his eyes now, except once in a while, you find glimpses of the old Fitz. But it wasn't just Fitz I was glad to read about again. There was Nighteyes, the Fool, Patience, Kettricken, Burrich... The Fool is one of the best characters in fantasy IMO. I like how Hobb doesn't write adventure/sword and sorcery fantasy (albeit those too have their merits), but she leans more toward "high" fantasy in a way.

Jae, both Farseer and Tawny Man made me cry. Let's see now.. Which scenes in particular... The last part of Assassin's Apprentice, the last part of Assassin's Quest and the last quarter of Fool's Fate. That's not to say I didn't cry in between however.

LOL. I think it's funny you had trouble with her bizaare magics, ench. That's what I enjoyed about Farseer. The Skill, the Wit, the Forging, the Prophet/Catalyst...

Peeg, I'm not sure I'd recommend Liveship. It's a departure from Farseer/Tawny Man. For one thing, it's written from different characters' perspectives. I didn't much care for the main female character, but the supporting cast was interesting. I enjoyed Liveship very much, but not asmuch as the other two series.

I'd recommend Marillier's Sevenwaters trilogy again. If any of you like Celtic-influenced fantasy, female protagonists, sadness (the kind pervasive throughout the Sil but not quite as depressing), love for the earth and nature, and romance, I'd say try reading Daughter of the Forest at least. It's a twist on the Seven Swans fairy tale.

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Jaeniver
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Posted: Sat 12 Feb , 2005 11:03 pm
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i have that book, daughter of the forest. didn't like it that mch i never finished reading it. can't say why but something kept me from reading it till the end.

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peeg
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Posted: Fri 18 Feb , 2005 1:26 pm
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Wooohoooo, somone who's heard of (and likes) Marillier too!! :hug: Amarie :mgreen:

I wasn't planning to read the Liveships to tell you the truth....only if i REALLY REALLY liked the other two trilogys. The blurb sounded boring ;) But right now i'm reading The Hitch Hiker's Guid to the Galaxy trilogy (all five books :LMAO:), so Hobb will have to wait.

Jae, i can't believe you didn't like Daughter of the Forest. Why not? It was a bit slow in the beginning, but after that it gets reallly good. Tell us what kept you from finishing it and we'll fix the problem, preciouss ;)

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Rodia
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Posted: Mon 21 Feb , 2005 2:02 pm
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:D Hitch Hiker....looking forward to May, aren't we all. :D

I finished Fool's Errand yesterday, and am halfway through Golden Fool. It's a better book, I think...somehow the intrigues of Buckkeep are more interesting for me than journeys Fitz might be making. And of course, this is where everything gets complicated...
:devil:

I really like Fitz. He's human. He's wary, smart, and knows his duties but still procrastinates as much as I do. :P

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Jaeniver
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Posted: Mon 21 Feb , 2005 7:01 pm
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i really can't remember what the proble was PG :P i just didn't like it. i didn't get caught by it. and i forced myself to read it honestly. *sigh*

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peeg
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Posted: Tue 22 Feb , 2005 7:48 am
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That's really saddening, Jae, cause it's one of my favoritest books of all time :(

Rodia....felt like killing my friend at school today. She brought "The Golden Fool" to school today (talk about coincidences) and, learning that i wanted to read the books properly instead of starting in the middle like she did, promptly kept a running comentary on what was going on in each page of the book for my "benefit." Starting with something about the Queen crying around page 15 because her pet died, but I was trying not to listen. YOU never had that trouble, did you? :bang: :bang: :bawl: :help:

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Rodia
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Posted: Tue 22 Feb , 2005 7:58 pm
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ARGH!!! :rage: that's a friend??

But you managed... You didn't listen at all well if you thought that was the Queen's pet. :P Don't worry...don't worry. ;)


Now for a problem.

I have a habit of making notes on the margins of books I read. Especially if I like them. However sometimes there are books that just draw me in so completely that I don't even have a moment to think about the margins. There are no margins- just the world of the book. The Tawny Man is such a book.

I have however found the single jot I made when I read Golden Fool a year ago. (No spoilers, don't worry peeg :P)
Chapter 7, Explosions wrote:
I feigned a laugh I didn't feel. "It's okay, Thick. Go ahead and tell him, if you want."
It's OKAY?

WTF? (that's what I pencilled in on the margin. ;) )

I think Hobb just slipped there. She never once used 'okay' or any other obviously modern word before.

I'm a nitpicker aren't I.

What do you guys reckon?

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Amarie
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Posted: Tue 22 Feb , 2005 8:56 pm
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Could've been slip. I forgive her though. :love: I think she's phenomenal.

Some friend btw, Ro. A "friend" of mine did something similar to me. She gave away the ending to the Sixth Sense. Now, if anyone's seen that movie, you KNOW you just can't give away the ending like that!

I think that Tawny Man does improve with each book. So, you'll probably enjoy Fool's Fate even more. :D If you're a crybaby like me, better have a box of Kleenex handy.

Peeg, I don't think I've ever seen you before b77! Are you a TORCer? :scratch The fact that you like Marillier makes you ok in my book! :D

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Jaeniver
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Posted: Tue 22 Feb , 2005 9:05 pm
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:LMAO: Ro nitpicker you. i never even noticed :scratch ok so books were in Dutch maybe he translated it into something old dutch-ish.

and anyone telling the ending of the sixth sense ough to be hang :P

Last edited by Jaeniver on Wed 23 Feb , 2005 11:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Rodia
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Posted: Wed 23 Feb , 2005 10:49 am
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The Sixth Sense...oh no, that's criminal!!

I've got about fifty pages before the end of Golden Fool. That's a grand total of what, three days reading?

It's so good. :) And I do expect to cry, have quite a bit already...

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peeg
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Posted: Fri 25 Feb , 2005 1:35 am
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Nitpicky, Ro, my god, i probably wouldn't even have noticed if i was reading it. Not to mention that now i definetly will.... :LMAO: ;)

And yea, she's a good friend of mine, just likes to annoy me :D Waitasecond.....it wasn't Fitz's pet, was it? I have this useful ability to pick up things when i probably shouldn't (ok, FINE, i'm an unashamed evesdropper.... =:)) but it's really becoming annoying in this thread..... ;)

Amarie, actually, the only thing i know about YOU is that you've got some connection to Meaglin. Well, at least, i hope it's you i'm thinking of here.... :Q

Don't think we ever met on TORC....i'm prettygaladriel there, but just good old peeg here.... ;)

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Amarie
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Posted: Fri 25 Feb , 2005 7:12 am
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Oooh.. You're prettygaladriel? Then, I've seen some of your posts around, but I've not had the pleasure of actually posting with you. And yes, I'm that Amarie you're talking about. ;) Maeglin better not have some other Amarie floating about. :blackeye

Ro, will you please post once in a while where you are and what you think of it so far? :P

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Rodia
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Posted: Fri 25 Feb , 2005 1:11 pm
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Peeg, it wasn't his 'pet'. :p Stop asking spoiler questions and just read it!

I've started on Fool's Fate, Am.

Hobb is...from outer space or something. I refuse to believe she exists as a human being and isn't some true story telling itself.

It's such a delight, reading a new book. As I was going through Fool's Errand and Golden Fool again, I felt comfortable and familiar with the story- right now, I'm walking towards the unknown. It's exciting.

I don't know how she does it, but I feel all Fitz feels. The tension before they sail...the time slipping through his fingers as more and more of the matters he thought settled unravel.

When the Fool came to talk to him...my God was that painful. Reading that felt like I'd been drinking all night, throwing up all morning and crying all day.
I know how bonds between friends can change. I expect we all do...and the hardest thing to find is that circumstance has strained a bond you thought invulnerable. It feels wrong and you don't know how to fix it- you suddenly have to figure out a way to reach someone from the outside, when that someone was like a part of you for so long. It's scary.

So for now, the book is being very hard on me. I'm in a moody moment in my life...restless...and this read doesn't help. Or perhaps my own mood helps me feel the book better.

It's... it's just amazing.

I don't have many authors I call my favourites. Tolkien. Dostoyevski. Asimov. Card. There are many others I like but I need more than witty writing to call someone a favourite- the author has to fade behind his work, and reveal a new facet of the world to me through his book. Hobb does those things.

*shiver*

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Amarie
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Posted: Fri 25 Feb , 2005 7:02 pm
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Rodia wrote:
So for now, the book is being very hard on me. I'm in a moody moment in my life...restless...and this read doesn't help. Or perhaps my own mood helps me feel the book better.
I think that's worth noting. A lot of our experiences and feelings towards a certain book has a lot to do with the state we're in, the situation in our life. I don't think I would've appreciated GGK's Sarantium had I been 14 years old. There is much in it that would've gone unappreciated, many jewels neglected.

Of the three books in the Tawny Man, I remember the first and the last more clearly than I do the second. I think that had to do with the second being less "action-oriented". NOt much really happens to be honest. In FE, Fitz goes up against the Piebalds. In FF, he goes to ehm.. What was the island's name again?

I'm jealous of you, Ro. I wish I was reading FF for the first time again. This whole first-person narrative really does pull you in with Fitz. You feel what he feels. I think that's what makes Hobb so effective.

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Rodia
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Posted: Sat 26 Feb , 2005 6:53 pm
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Aslevjal is the island. They're on it right now, trekking over the glacier.

I can't remember the last time I managed to read all through my two-hour train journey without nodding off.

Well, it certainly feels like a glacier over here. Snow up to my ankles, ice on the streets, flurries and cold cold cold.

I liked the second book a lot, maybe for the same reason you don't remember much of it. I like Buckkeep and its maze of problems. On the Outislands, everything is so bland and foreign that I just want to finish the quest and go home.

Another nitpick though I might be mistaken- Fitz suddenly refers to the mysterious beach as 'The Others Island', and I'm sure he has not enough knowledge to do that. But aaanyway.:P

SPOILERS, PEEG...go away. I mean it.




We're traveling across Aslevjal. The Fool is here, and all the well-kept secrets of Fitz are coming unraveled. I worry about Thick, and Chade- neither of them seem capable of coping with the quest rationally. I wonder why it never occurred to Fitz that the Pale Woman stands behind the quest...it's what I think anyway, and he keeps asking himself why the Narcheska would ask for the dragon's head. It seems obvious to think that she did so at the command of the Pale Woman, who holds her sister and mother hostage...the Pale Woman thinks she is the rightful White Prophet and while the Fool labours to restore dragons to the world, she is set on preventing their return... I'm probably completely wrong but I think this is the only flaw in the book- Fitz has all the information needed to draw such a conclusion, and yet he does not. Or does he not really believe in the White Prophets?

I wonder what goes on with Hap.





.

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Rodia
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Posted: Mon 28 Feb , 2005 12:41 pm
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It's funny. The climax on Aslevjal happens just as the climax on TORC does. I'm being hit twice.

Ow.

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Amarie
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Posted: Mon 28 Feb , 2005 10:21 pm
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I'm sorry, Ro. I haven't been active on torc for over a year now, and so I'm rather emotionally distant from the happenings. But these mass bannings have scared and saddened me more than I ever expected. :hug:

I will reply to your Hobb post soon. I just have to eat lunch now then run to work.

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Amarie
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Posted: Tue 01 Mar , 2005 8:57 pm
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I think Hap is an idiot. Nothing will ever change that. He should've been raised by Kettricken instead of Fitz. Not that Fitz did a bad job, but I swear, Hap is the biggest idiot in the Six Duchies. :mrgreen:

Fitz believes in HIS white prophet, the Fool. Problem is, I don't see it the way you do. I don't think he could've tied it together. I don't know. I haven't read it in a while, but I don't think he could've seen it. Maybe he felt she *may* be behind it, but I don't think he fully knew for sure until it hit him like a truck. I might have to read it again, Ro, so I can't really agree or disagree.

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Rodia
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Posted: Tue 01 Mar , 2005 9:46 pm
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Well, I know the reader ALWAYS sees more than the protagonist. But here we travel in Fitz's mind. We see only what he sees. He sees a lot I don't...

Perhaps it's just the knowing that once a gun appears on stage in act 1, it must go off in the last act. I guess as a reader I expect everything to be significant.

I wonder what will happen with Jinna. It's nice to have a couple 'insignificant' threads.

I'm leaving Aslevjal. I'm not sure I liked the whole dragon climax...Or perhaps I just got used to this book being so 'normal' despite its fantasy elements. But I know I'm not happy with souls returning to those Forged by the Pale Woman's dragon. It seems too easy...too happy.

Poor Fool. :(

And I can't say I'm so sure Fitz believed in him! Not to the point of admitting it openly anyway. He believed in his friend, true, and never questioned his path. But did he really believe in the Prophet? It seems to me like he avoided thinking about it...he was too rational and down to earth and was afraid that once he'd start thinking about it seriously, he would have to say it's rubbish and only the Fool's clever words.

OH! :( The rooster crown...that never got used did it.

But shhh...I'm still reading. I was hoping to get to town today and buy the Assassin books...I won't be able to go until tomorrow or the day after so I'm taking my time finishing FF, I don't want a painful gap. :P

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Rodia
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Posted: Thu 03 Mar , 2005 1:29 am
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He's not doing what I think he's doing. :Q

He's not trying to...PEEG GO AWAY YOU IDIOT THESE ARE SPOILERS!

He's not trying to heal him...bring him back to life...exchange bodies...?

This is insane. I don't know why I find this so repulsive...I'm trying to take in the concept that the death and breaking of a body is the ultimate wound...if it can be healed, why should it not...

Perhaps this just goes too far against my Christian beliefs...

...or perhaps Thick is right when he says 'Besides, even if you mend it, there's no one to put back into it.'

*reads on feverishly*


By the way, I went all the way across town today to a shopping centre I've never been to to spend a ridiculous amount of money on the Farseer Trilogy. It was the only bookstore in town that had all three in English, and I refuse to be caught at the end of a volume without another one to continue!!!!

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