Dragon Keeper by Robin HobbMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I can see why some people were not excited with Dragon Keeper. It's really the first half of a 900 page book, and it moves very slowly without reaching any goals other than the start of a journey. Unlike the Liveship books, it's not a seafaring Fantasy adventure, but more of a long introduction to a new host of characters. The characters are where the book excels. Hobb has the ability to make you feel a whole range of emotions for them, including hatred for some.
I am amazed at how quickly I loathed one particular character, and became afraid of what he would do to others in the future. I hope so badly for vengeance against him at some point even though I fear what damage he will do before that can happen. None of the other characters are perfect, and all conflict with each other in some way, but they each evoke sympathy on some level because they make sense as fully developed people (or dragons). This creates a wonderful tension between characters who are not black and white, and I really want to see how they learn and grow and change through the next books.
I would recommend this for Robin Hobb fans who have already read the Liveship Trilogy and loved the Bingtown / Rain Wilds storyline. I found at first that I missed the Liveship storyline, but now I'm getting used to the pure Rain Wilds focus. Beyond that, this is really only for those faithful Hobb fans with enough patience to let the story build very, very slowly, who don't mind character-building and setup for 450 pages, and who are prepared to move directly on to the second book. The two should basically be viewed as one long book. I personally have enjoyed it so far, but am definitely looking forward to things picking up now.
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