Review: Shaman's Crossing

Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Robin Hobb is one of my favorite Fantasy authors. She not only provides detailed worlds and characters with wondrous magic, but characters that I can feel. She is one of the few authors that have actually made me cry. It's an activity that is extremely rare for me in real life, and I tend to avoid weepy books or movies because they just make me feel manipulated. But that was not the case with Hobb - the emotion she pulled out of me was much more real.

All of this to say, I've loved each of the books in the Farseer and Liveship Trader worlds that I've read so far, but the Soldier Son trilogy is completely different. The tone, the feel of the world, the setup of the characters - it all feels foreign. It took me a while to warm up to it. This first book felt quite dry until near the end when I started to see some of the world's magic. And I definitely had less empathy for the characters, as if I was watching more from a distance than in Hobb's other series.

I'm saying all this to warn you not to go into this series expecting something 'like' Hobb's other books. If you don't go in with that expectation, I believe it stands on its own merit. I enjoyed each book of the trilogy more than the one before it, and once I got to the third book I was completely drawn into this world. It took me longer to get there, but once I did, I was impressed yet again. It went on my favorites shelf with the others.



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