Blood of Dragons

***

3 Stars/5

Thanks to Edelweiss and Harper Voyager for giving me this book to review.

The young dragons and their misfit keepers are finally settling into Kelsingra, along with Alise and her lover, Captain Leftrin. Reyn and Malta are traveling down river with their sickly baby to see if the Dragons can help, whilst worrying about the welfare of Malta’s brother Selden who has not been seen since setting off on a voyage.  Tintaglia is struggling after receiving wounds from the Chalcedeans who are under orders to bring back Dragons blood in his quest for immortality.  Alise’s estranged husband, Hest has also been caught up in the Dukes quest through his greed for profit at any cost.  We also get to follow the ongoing story of the Keepers of the Birds in Bingtown and Cassarick.

Blood of Dragons is the final book of the Rain Wild Chronicles series and I like this book because I enjoy Robin Hobb’s writing style and stories.  This book follows the steady pacing of the previous books in the series, though it didn’t feel like the final book in the series as there still seemed to be quite a lot of threads left unfinished and I felt that it needs another book after this one to conclude it all.

The author is very good at exploring the characters’ thoughts and motivations, though they tend to be either good or bad, not much in the way of middle ground.  You end up with quite an in depth understanding of each of them, and how they justify their actions.  One minor niggle was as the convenient way in which Hobb dealt with Hest.

I really hope Robin Hobb writes more books set in this universe and especially ones where we find out more about Selden and the Chalcedean Duchess and Malta’s baby’s as he grows up.  I would recommend Blood of Dragons, and the rest of the Rain Wild chronicles to people who have enjoyed Robin Hobb’s other series, and people who like the Earthsea Quartet by Ursula LeGuin.