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juushikaSo I recently read Royal Assassin, the second book in Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy; I reviewed it, but I also want to talk about it all fannish-wise.
I'm not a particular Farseer fan. I never read them growing up, but have been impressed with them—not as great literature, but they're consistently compelling; Hobb takes a leisurely pace that stresses daily interpersonal relations over high concept worldbuilding, which I appreciate. I don't love the characters, but I adore the tropes, so let's talk tropes.
Companion Animals
That'd be psychic- and/or magical-human/animal bonds. (TV Tropes: Bond Creatures.) I've been reading a lot of this trope over the last ~two years. The companion animal trope is usually marked for its idealization: an animal is exempt from the burden of normal human socialization, they're usually subservient, and their love is dog-pure. Farseer has a lot of that, especially in the heart-wrenching end of the first book. But the Wit is taboo because society believes intimacy with animals corrupts a man, and it's about that too: the messiness and inhumanness of being bonded to a beast—in a way more reminiscent of Iskryne/A Companion to Wolves than Pern or Valdemar.
Unusually Intimate Relationships
This isn't an established trope but it's Juu's personal hobbyhorse: relationships which are unusually intimate and/or are intimate in unusual ways are my favorite thing in all media. In Royal Assassin, Fitz forms psychic bonds with Prince Verity that last for months; they share each other's sexual urges and even inclinations. He fights with the spirit of his bond wolf, ripping out enemy throats with his teeth. He envies the potential intimacy of the Skill-bonded coterie, groups half-dozen large who share a psychic link. The book wallows deep in weird over-intimacies and the difficulty of navigating interpersonal relationships, and it's messy and discomforting and slyly idealistic—and so while none of the characters or even relationships particularly interest me, the cumulative effect is fantastic. This is Forbidden Circle level intimacy, graceless and compelling.
There's a bit of hurt/comfort mixed in, too; perhaps what impresses me most is how tropey or, even more, how id-level the book is. Suitable, I suppose, for Fitz's adolescence: it's a book about unapologetic and impolite gut desires as much as it is about loyalty and coming of age. In other words: entirely my thing.
I'm not a particular Farseer fan. I never read them growing up, but have been impressed with them—not as great literature, but they're consistently compelling; Hobb takes a leisurely pace that stresses daily interpersonal relations over high concept worldbuilding, which I appreciate. I don't love the characters, but I adore the tropes, so let's talk tropes.
Companion Animals
That'd be psychic- and/or magical-human/animal bonds. (TV Tropes: Bond Creatures.) I've been reading a lot of this trope over the last ~two years. The companion animal trope is usually marked for its idealization: an animal is exempt from the burden of normal human socialization, they're usually subservient, and their love is dog-pure. Farseer has a lot of that, especially in the heart-wrenching end of the first book. But the Wit is taboo because society believes intimacy with animals corrupts a man, and it's about that too: the messiness and inhumanness of being bonded to a beast—in a way more reminiscent of Iskryne/A Companion to Wolves than Pern or Valdemar.
Unusually Intimate Relationships
This isn't an established trope but it's Juu's personal hobbyhorse: relationships which are unusually intimate and/or are intimate in unusual ways are my favorite thing in all media. In Royal Assassin, Fitz forms psychic bonds with Prince Verity that last for months; they share each other's sexual urges and even inclinations. He fights with the spirit of his bond wolf, ripping out enemy throats with his teeth. He envies the potential intimacy of the Skill-bonded coterie, groups half-dozen large who share a psychic link. The book wallows deep in weird over-intimacies and the difficulty of navigating interpersonal relationships, and it's messy and discomforting and slyly idealistic—and so while none of the characters or even relationships particularly interest me, the cumulative effect is fantastic. This is Forbidden Circle level intimacy, graceless and compelling.
There's a bit of hurt/comfort mixed in, too; perhaps what impresses me most is how tropey or, even more, how id-level the book is. Suitable, I suppose, for Fitz's adolescence: it's a book about unapologetic and impolite gut desires as much as it is about loyalty and coming of age. In other words: entirely my thing.
