First let me say that I have another series on my shelf by Robin Hobb. When I started this trilogy I noted from others who had read it and reviewed it that several of them said it was far from Robin Hobb's best work. Several also said if you haven't read anything by Robin Hobb don't start here. Some said they would recommend these books only to Robin Hobb fans. From this I take hope.I see many liked it a great deal...I see some people I usually agree with liked it a great deal...I liked the firs...

I read this book immediately following the first book in the trilogy. The first books ends with adventure, conflict, moral dilemmas, strong character interaction and hope that the main character had learned something that will help him in the adventures to come. Instead, this book throws us back into plodding, slow, weary exposition as more sadness befalls Nevare and he travels into a new life that is even more sad and useless than his previous one.Nevare was frustrating in the first book, but h...

Another book by Hobb which I thoroughly enjoyed. Again I say I really don't know why this series has low ratings here, I actually really enjoy this and I am so intrigued about what will happen in Book #3 as so far Hobb has surprised me with twists and turns in both the first book and this one.As we pick up the story here we again follow Nevare, the young Soldier Son who has already faced so much more than he ever thought he'd have to. Nevare has gone through trials of wit, skill and disease, and...

Most of what I like about this book and Robin Hobb's writing I've already said in my review of the first book so I'll just link to that here. The beginning of that review still holds true.Just as the first book describes Nevare's journey or perhaps "coming of age" as a Soldier's Son in Cavalry school, this book might be described as a belated "coming of age" story where Nevare grows in a journey of "becoming" in regards to the Speck Magic that claims him.In some ways this does feel like a "middl...

Huh. Probably should have just called this one Bad Things Happen to Nevare.Robin Hobb is swiftly spending the credit she earned with her last book. If giving Shaman's Crossing a second chance dispelled my vaguely unpleasant memories of it, those memories are returning with renewed vigour, despite the fact that I have not read Forest Mage before.Bad things happened to Nevare in the first book, of course. Bad things have to happen to the protagonist; without conflict the story would be rather

If you are a huge Robin Hobb/Megan Lindholm fan, you will probably enjoy her latest Soldier's Son books. These books are just as character driven as her previous work; the characters just as solid and fleshed out (no pun intended), the overall writing is just as polished. If Hobb explored moral ambiguity through Fitz in the Six Duchies world, she goes even further with Nevare in her Soldier's Son books.Nevare is not as exciting a character as Fitz or Althea or the Fool. He starts out fairly shal...

So, I really like Robin Hobb as an author. I have read everything else she has ever written under this name. Always, the books are well written but always follow the troubled life of the main character.Well, this book marks the first time I have given up on a character of Hobb's. Fitz-Chivalry and Althea and the rest, they made mistakes, they were stupid but you had a grudging respect for them that kept you going, even when you watched there life disenegrate from the course they chose.But I can'...

There is a movie I watched once. I can't remember the name. But at one point the son starts watching videos of a larger woman who webcams herself cooking and eating for others. It is a fetish.If you have this fetish you will probably enjoy this book. If not.... you may like it you may not. For me it was too slow and the action at the end was just too little too late. I mean how long can this protagonist remain utterly clueless? Apparently for 700 pages.I'm a little sad. I love Robin Hobb. But th...

I gave this 3, but it's a very weak 3 and briefly I was tempted to give it 2.Epiny and Spink are the only things that really save this book. Nevare is driving me up the wall with annoyance, because he is 1) so incredibly passive this entire book and 2) really not the brightest. I'm not going to say this is out of character for him, because he definitely had elements in the previous book, at least about the passivity. But it's taken it to a new level and really, there's only so much time I want t...

DISCLAIMER: This review assumes that if you're thinking of reading this series then you've already read The Elderlings books. If not, stop reading this and pick up ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE post haste.Whoa. This book was a serious mind fuck. If you think FitzChivalry Farseer had it bad then meet Nevare Burvelle. Hobb's sadomasochistic love of torturing the shit out of her characters is taken to the next level in FOREST MAGE.Fitz had it rough. There's no denying that but my heart never hurt as much f...

I’m once again a happy bunny, even if I’m not ecstatic. I’m happy to report that book two is so much better than book one, with a marvellous climax towards the end. But I’m not perfectly satisfied: I struggle with the zero connection to the main character which really is a problem for me; and considering that we are talking about a Robin Hobb here, it remains such a strange feeling. She’s still drawing with the same crayons, doing all the things she normally does (read: putting her characters th...

I don't think I've read another book in which the protagonist has gone through so many troubles and suffering! Robin Hobb has a sort of tradition of making her characters suffer but what she puts Nevare through is close to unbearable. Trouble after trouble followed by bad luck and disaster with no apparent end in sight! But despite all this, it has kept me at the edge of the seat from the beginning till the very end and I am already eagerly waiting to start the next book. So I'm giving it a 🌟🌟🌟🌟...

Robin Hobb is a favourite author of mine. This trilogy is good but not quite as good as her previous books.

Robin Hobb excells in writing characters that are tragically human. Time and time again her characters deny their destiny, struggle against fate, make astoundingly bad decisions, have terrible luck, and are put through the most soul tearingly body wracking experiences. Ms. Hobb fulfills that most human of hopes, reward after monumental trials and tribulations. In this story Nevare Burville, the soldier son of his noble family, finds himself under a seemingly irreversible spell that causes him to...

I really wanted to finish this book, but by the time I'd gotten about halfway through (and it's a pretty long book, so that's a pretty substantial number of pages) it still felt like almost nothing had happened. I got really sick of the constant descriptions of Nevare's--and just about everyone else's--size, and of how everyone always had the exact same reaction to his new appearance. It's too bad because I really did want to know what happened, but I just can't face reading the rest.

So I'm doing something a bit different and actually reviewing this book on Goodreads because I don't think I'm going to make a whole book review video on my YouTube channel. Here goes:This second book in the Soldier Son trilogy, following Shaman's Crossing, was kind of a let down for me. I was very excited about the first book because it was gorgeous first person with mysterious magic. I also loved the military aspect of the first book. Forest Mage hardly had anything to do with the military, wh...

In Forest Mage, Robin Hobb presents an emotionally challenging journey, furthering the dramatic psychological context of The Soldier's Son Trilogy with a near endless series of perditions, forcing the odds-against hero of the first book, Navare, into the destiny-spiraling role of a misunderstood anti-hero, who walks the tightrope between two extremely different peoples and their conflicting interests in a sophisticated spin on 'going native in a time of war', with many obvious parallels to the e...

I’ve been trying to read this for months and I just can’t. I really wanted to read and love this but I’m just not interested or invested anymore. Nothing will compare to my Fitzy and the Fool. I’ll keep hold of my copies but I won’t try reading them again for a while. I love Robin Hobb. But sometimes even your favourite author can’t tick all you boxes. And that’s ok. At the end of the day you are not going to love every book. Fingers crossed for the future.

This is the second in the Soldier Son trilogy. I had serious doubts about the first one, but found this second to be much more palatable. The main character, Nevare, is forced to break with this traditional beliefs/goals in a much more significant way within this book when he is expelled from the military academy for his ever-increasing weight. Hobb made a good choice in making her hero obese (or probably morbidly obese). At times I wanted her to be a little more clear-cut in the message that pr...

I couldn't put it down, but I wasn't happy while I was reading it. Yes, it was at the incredible level of detail and world-building I expect from Robin Hobb. Yes, everything awful that could possibly happen to her characters happened. And for some reason, I found it incredibly annoying that one of the awful things happening to the main character is that he got really, really, really fat as a result of the Speck magic. Like grotesquely immense to the point that people would fall into horrified si...

Audio book by Recorded Books, read by John Keating. This could have been a LOT better. The story was great & the world is so unique, but Hobb repeats herself far too much. Why did I bother to read the first book when the entire story is laid out in this one? Why does she have to repeat the same reasoning over & over. Since the hero is an idiot anyway, it just gets old. The hero's intelligence is another issue. Yes, he is in denial & young. Yes, he was raised in a very controlled, restrictive env...

The awful thing about trilogies is having to read through to the end of the third book to discover what happens, but while I might skim the last chapter of the next book in a shop, I doubt I will buy it. Forest Mage was such a disappointment, given how much I enjoyed Hobbs' earlier Farseer books—I found this novel repetitive and pedestrian. I never found myself liking Nevare, and for a number of personal reasons, the constant remarks about his weight made for uncomfortable reading. I felt tw...

Oh no! I never thought I would write these words.....I did not really care for this book. How can this be, it's Robin Hobb for God's sake!But I just didn't care for it....I didn't hate it because she is such a good writer but there was just not too much going on. I think that I have really high expectations for her and maybe the bar is placed a little higher in her case.Not even sure how to review it.....the hero goes off to an outpost and digs graves....meets some mysterious creatures.....more

...Hobb's portrayal of Gernian society and it's many flaws is utterly believable, instantly recognizable and very detailed. By the end of the book, Nevare as been exposed to, or party in just about every one of them. The author is known to be very hard on her main characters but few sink to the level of Nevare in this novel. And yet he keeps trying. His father desperately tried to give the boy Nevare a spine and he has succeeded in ways he clearly didn't envision. I don't like him much, but in

I feel like i gained a lot of weight while reading this book

Enjoyed this book almost as much as the first, though it did lag a bit at times.

I'm emotionally wiped out after reading this. If you don't like novels where the protagonist is put through the wringer, don't read this book. If you are new to Robin Hobb I advise you to start with the Farseer trilogy.

One of the things that I have read about this series, is how it is not in keeping with Robin Hobb's other work which somehow makes it weaker, almost as though she has lost her way a bit from with this series.In truth it is different and that is probably the crux of the problem. People rightly love her Four Kingdom novels and the characters that abide there, so to see her stepping away from that it probably a bit of jerk in it's own right, but in stepping well away from the 'standard' conventions...

Forest Mage by Robin Hobb (a.k.a. Megan Lindholm)This is the second book in the Soldier Son Trilogy. Nevare Burvell, a second son, is destined to be the family soldier. His naïve acceptance that birth order is responsible for all aspects of life is challenged by his life experiences. The forest magic forces Nevare to abandon hope and look to the Specks. Despair comes to mind when analyzing Nevare’s life. Every time he turns around what ever he strives to achieve blows up in his face. He finds hi...

This book was good, but hard to read, and probably about 200 pages longer than it needed to be.Hobb tells an engaging story that suffers from two distinct problems. The first is the "idiot plot" where her protagonist has to be an idiot to do lots of the things that he does. The second is that like many of her heroes in past books, they do little but suffer and know very little happiness. It wears on the reader after a while.That said, the story is interesting enough, and the characters engaging