Choosing a Robin Hobb book to start with isn’t just choosing a series—it’s choosing a doorway into a huge, interconnected world. All but one of Hobb’s trilogies make up a giant tale told in many pieces (the oddball is the Soldier Son series). They span continents and decades, damaging leadership and ecological damage, traumatic childhood and challenging coming-of-age.
And you can start in several places. If you’re a completist, you’ll probably start at the beginning, but if you’re not, you can choose based on character, or location, or focus. Would you like a young man with royal blood, or a headstrong young woman fighting to lead the family business? Prefer your dragon-centric tales set in a strange, deadly landscape? Would you like to explore a bustling port town in a series where family drama involves magical ships? Or do you like your fantasy set in castles and keeps, fully engaged with the foibles and flaws of royalty?
Where not to start is with Hobb’s just-concluded series, Fitz and the Fool, which picks up with her most-beloved characters decades after they were introduced. The Fitz and the Fool books are differently paced and focused, a culmination of years spent with these two characters and their complex relationship. But if you’ve read the books leading up to this trilogy, the emotional payoff is considerable. So let’s get started.
If you want to start at the beginning: Assassin’s Apprentice, The Farseer Trilogy
At six years old, the boy who will come to be called FitzChivalry Farseer finds out he has royal blood. But this is no simple, happy story of secret prince; it’s the tangled, difficult story of a prince’s bastard who is too dangerous to be left alone, and too valuable to be killed.
Assassin’s Apprentice is a compelling read, but not an easy one. From Fitz’s broken magical bond with the young dog Nosy to the constant and horrible presence of Prince Regal, Fitz’s nasty half-uncle, things are not easy for our hero. He’s lonely and isolated, often insulted, if not outright threatened, and even his assassin mentor, Chade, is a mystery. (Chade is a delight: imagine a cantankerous Squib version of Dumbledore crossed with A Song of Ice and Fire’s Varys, but more willing to get his own hands dirty.) And I haven’t even mentioned the Forged, the semi-zombies ravaging the land in the wake of the attacking Red Ship Raiders.
Apprentice is very much the beginning of a story, and not a novel that really stands on its own; it leaves Fitz in a neighboring kingdom, recovering from another horrible attack, and with little to nothing resolved. But if you grow fond of Fitz—and I suspect you will, if you’re still reading—you will find him hard to leave behind. He’s deeply flawed, endlessly noble, full of doubt and prone to trouble. You will probably want to throw the book across the room at some of his eventual choices. But I can think of few characters I’ve followed so long—all the way into the middle age of Fool’s Assassin.
I picked up Assassin’s Apprentice when it came out because I grew up on epic fantasy and always wanted more—but also because Hobb is my college best friend’s mother, and curiosity had the best of me. But if curiosity started me on this series, the books themselves kept me going. Apprentice was the first book to ever made me miss my subway stop; more recently, Fool’s Quest made me cry on a plane. Be careful where you read these.
If you want to start with pirates and ships: Ship of Magic, The Liveship Traders Trilogy
Far down the rugged coast from Fitz’s home in Buckkeep is the city of Bingtown, home to the Liveship Traders. Liveships are literally named: after three generations of sailors die on their decks, they “quicken,” becoming sentient beings with all the memories of their deceased family. Althea Vestrit was certain that her father would leave their ship, Vivacia, to her—but he doesn’t, passing it on to his elder daughter, Keffria, for her Chalcedean husband Kyle to command.
Chalded is not a nice place, but the slave trade has made it wealthy, and Kyle opts to use Viviacia as a slaver. He won’t let Althea sail on the ship until she proves herself as a sailor, so off she goes to work on the sea, where she encounters the delightfully named Brashen Trell, who used to sail on the Vivacia. With a name like that, you know there are romantic hijinks afoot—but that’s not what keeps Ship of Magic moving. Hobb builds a bigger world than just that of the relatively privileged Traders. A pirate named Kennit comes up with a plan to free slaves, turning them into freed crews for his fleet of pirate ships; Althea’s nephew, Wintrow, struggles with being forced to sail when he wants to be a priest; and, in a storyline that starts small but becomes huge in Hobb’s connected worlds, young, bratty Malta Vestrit deals with the fact that her life is not necessarily going to turn out exactly how she imagined it.
I adore Malta, eventually, but she’s unbearable at first. Her growth is one of Hobb’s most effective character transformations. Ship of Magic, like Assassin’s Apprentice, is very much part of a longer story, and like the Farseer Trilogy, its world just keeps growing, eventually encompassing the secrets of the sea serpents whose story is woven into that of the human characters. The ecology of Hobb’s world is thoughtfully built out, and all connected, sometimes in unexpectedly heartbreaking ways. In later books, you meet Paragon, a mad Liveship, and visit an island beach whose inhabitant I will never forget. There’s a little bit of overlap with the Farseer books—but more with the Rain Wild Chronicles, as only Liveships can sail up the magically polluted Rain Wild River.
If you’re in it for the dragons: Dragon Keeper / Dragon Haven, The Rain Wild Chronicles
If you are impatient for your dragon-related books to get to the dragons already, start here; the Rain Wild series will spoil you for a few things about the Liveship Traders, but on the other hand, if you then read the Traders books, you’ll have a new perspective on the history of dragons (and on Malta Vestrit). The Rain Wild River spills into the sea near Bingtown, forming a natural barrier between it and Chalced that affects the region and its people. Rain Wilders come to Bingtown to trade, and they figure heavily in the Traders books, but the unstable landscape itself is a character here—and a constant threat.
The Rain Wild series follows a group of young people who are chosen to be dragon keepers, to accompany their charges on the (very likely one-way) journey to a lost city at the source of the Rain Wild River. One of them is Thymara, a young Rain Wilder girl altered, like so many of her people, by the toxic landscape. The keepers are accompanied by Alise, who enters a marriage of convenience in order to access the funds that will let her study dragons, and Leftrin, a barge captain who uses a piece of wizardwood (the material used in Liveships) to enable his vessel to travel the Rain Wild River.
The heart of this series is built on the dragon-keepers’ developing connections with their dragons, and the dragons themselves, weak, poorly formed creatures that lack their ancestors’ majesty and have only some of their ancestral memories. It’s been a long time since dragons were in the world, and these need human help. Their relationships are prickly, taut, sharply unlike like human relationships. The Rain Wild series ties together a handful of threads from Hobb’s other books—some incredibly satisfyingly, and some less so. The first two books feel like one book, and it’s hard, looking back, to remember where the line between them is; the arduous journey up the river takes a long time, and Hobb never shies away from the exhausting reality of traveling, hunting, dealing with other people—and dealing with dragons. This series is the most slow-burn of the three I’ve discussed here, but if you’ve read the other two, it does a lot to fill in the universe Hobb’s created, and to create a fantasy world where change, rather than tradition, takes hold.
Molly Templeton grew up without a television, which maybe explains why she read so many doorstop epic fantasies as a teen. She is Tor.com’s publicity coordinator and resident Buffy obsessive, and can also be found on Twitter.
I hadn’t realised that the series were all connected at first, and I ended up reading the Rain Wild Chronicles before I read the Liveship traders trilogy. Take what I say with a grain of salt, because I’m now convinced that the books need to be read in strict order (the overlap isn’t always large, but the small bits can give away huge plot points). However I found that the Malta arc in particular does much better if the books are read in order. It’s such a dramatic transformation that it is really hard to invest or believe in young-Malta if you’ve met the older one.
Or…skip the dragons altogether. Sorry, but I read the Farseer trilogy first, then Liveship Traders, then the Rain Wilds and it started great, but just kept getting worse. Honestly, the drop in quality (in my eyes) from Liveship to Rain Wilds was massive. I sometimes wondered if it was even the same author.
But now that Hobb is writing about Fitz again, it’s great. And it’s not just the character (who is actually a bit of a putz). So not sure if it was the material (nope, I like dragons) or the characters (who were…fairly weak in the Rain Wilds set) or what, but I just could not get into the Rain Wilds chronicles at all. Liveship was slower for me to start, but I ended up enjoying it, mostly.
For my money, it’s all about the Farseers. Miserable bastards, most of them, but extremely entertaining to read about.
So heck, maybe start with Rain Wilds, then Liveship, and then Farseers. Worst to first isn’t a bad way to go.
I really can’t recommend starting anywhere else but the beginning. I guess you can get away with reading the Liveship series first, but even that has some overlap with the first Fitz trilogy, as it contains a major character (in disguise). In any case, Hobb is one of the best out there. Nobody writes better characters than she does. And considering that the Fitz series are in first person, that’s saying something.
@2 – I agree. The Rain Wild series is not nearly as good as the main Fitz books.
Rain Wild Chronicles are, by far, the weakest books in the series. They best serve to flesh out the world building in the series, and to answer a few mythology mysteries posed in earlier books. I enjoyed them, but I would hate for them to be someone’s first Hobb impression.
Gotta start from the beginning.
I read them all helter skelter because I didn’t know it was a whole series. And then when I did start the series I allowed my love for Fitz to cloud my decision making and skipped the Liveships. Soooo wrong. I’ve since done a complete reread in the correct order and that would’ve been so much better. Sigh…I die a little when someone recommends skipping the Liveships to just go straight on with the Fitz story. The author writes them in the order she does for a reason. Who am I to think I know better than she does?
I really don’t agree with advice at all. Yes, you could start at one of those and not be lost, but there is a much larger story going on and the series are connected. If you read them out of order, going back to read the others, you will have learned spoilers without realizing, you will miss references from series you skipped.. Also, the final book in the newest trilogy ties all the series together. I think you really want to read all of them, and for the best reading experience, read them in order. And for reference, I am saying this as someone who followed advice that I could read them out of order, then when I went back to read the ones I skipped over, I really regretted it. Was I lost? No. Do I think it would have been better to read them in order? Absolutely.
I was just wondering last week where to start reading Hobb’s novels in this massive interconnected series. I may have missed it but can someone, please list the books in order from beginning to end.
Thank you!!!
@8 – Start with the Farseer Trilogy, then to Liveship Traders trilogy, then to the Tawny Man trilogy, then to the Rain Wild Chronicles, and finally to the current the Fitz and the Fool trilogy.
@9 – Much thanks!
How is this even a question? You should only read the series from the very beginning. To start anywhere else not only deprives you of a whole lot of back story and world building, but even the little bit of overlap in character and references would be missed.
I agree with everyone here that the Rain Wilds Chronicles is the weakest of the series. Personally I think the issue there is that it’s four books instead of the normal three and thus it drags a bit. It did not need to be four books long. The characters and story are interesting but there seemed to be a lot of filler that bogged down the plot.
I’ve never understood how someone can pickup a book and not realize that you’re in the middle of a series or the middle of an entire world. It’s written on the cover usually what book of the series you are in. So to answer your question @@@@@ gratefuldad2111 you should start with Assassin’s Apprentice in the Farseer Triolgy.
I read the soldier son series first. This told me i needed to read more from this wonderful author. I wasnt disappointed, althought the soldier sons are now my least favourite of all her books.
The most spoiler-free route is through the order they were published in, ie Farseer, Liveships, Tawny Man, Rain Wilds and Fitz and Fool. But to be honest, until I read the Tawny Man series, MUCH after I’d read Liveships, I never would have guessed the identify of the cross-over character. It really isn’t necessary to read Rain Wilds between Tawny Man and the Fitz and Fool series, if you don’t want to wait to find out what happens to Fitz and the Fool.
The one item I’d add here is the novella The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince, which takes place before Assassin’s Apprentice and explains the origin of the Piebald Prince legend. I reviewed it here a few years ago. I lost track of this series after the Tawny Man books and have been considering going back to the beginning and rereading the whole thing before tackling the later books. (And FWIW: publication order is my recommendation!)
I read the Liveship Traders first and then the Farseer Trilogy. So it was while reading the Farseer Trilogy that I came to slow realisation about the Fool and the Fool’s bigger connection to the world that Hobb created. (Whew, did I do that without spoilers?).
Robin Hobb is one of those authors whose books I can pick up and reread regardless of where they fit chronologically. Except for The Soldier Son series which was just awful.
The first Robin Hobb story I read was the short story “Homecoming” in the Legends II anthology, a diary by one of the Jamalian exiles who founded the Rain Wild settlement. I suppose it could be read at any point in the series complex, but it was published right before the Rain Wild Chronicles and should probably be read before it.
I then started the Liveship trilogy, intermingled it with the beginning of Farseer due to library availability, then read the rest of Farseer, Tawny Man, Rain Wild and eventually Firz and the Fool as it came out. I loved the Rain Wild Chronicles best, but agree with the advice to not start there. I don’t think I lost much by starting with Liveship, though it’s one of the reasons I’m more attached to the crossover character’s guise therein than to the others.
I read the Soldier Son Trilogy much later, and considered it the sloooooowest Robin Hob series. But that may be because I was generally less interested in the characters and setting than the slow RotE books. I liked the notion of metabolizing food into magic, though. ;-)
This is not how I’d recommend others read them, but I read the Tawny Man series first, then went back and read Farseer, Liveship Traders, Rain Wild Chronicles and now, of course, Fitz and Fool.
@17 – Hi Karen, just curious, did you do that on purpose or were you unaware of the earlier books?
I was unfamiliar with Robin Hobb until I stumbled across the Rain Wild Chronicles a couple of weeks ago and have enjoyed them immensely. All I can say is: wow, if these are here “worst efforts”, I can’t wait to read her earlier work!! If I had been aware of her previously, I would have read them in strict publishing,order, just because that’s the way I prefer to tackle such things.
Not only should the Fitz and the Fool trilogy be read last, it’s probably a richer experience if you haven’t skipped any earlier series, as it brings together all of their major storylines and many of their major characters. Readers who skipped Liveship or Rain Wilds might still find the plot understandable (I wouldn’t personally know), but may find it harder to understand or deeply care about the reappearing people and places without knowing and “experiencing” their backstories.
Interesting to hear other readers criticize the Rain Wilds series. I agree it wasn’t as emotionally wrenching as the others but it was but it’s still excellent reading to be sure. I think the most exciting part of the series was right in the middle and the resolution of the final book was a little predictable, so the lesser anxiety at the end didn’t leave me crying or dumbfounded like the endings of her other series. But as an investment of a week or more to complete the series, it’s well worth it. Reluctant heroes, despicable slimy antagonists, a creepy uber-villain behind the scenes driving the fates of the main cast of characters, mysteries solved and unsolvable, all set in the tantalizingly magical world of the Cursed Shores and Elderlings. Definitely satisfying.
haha got a little off topic there.
Definitely read them in order. While each series stands alone to be sure, there’s cross-references of people and events throughout the series which add richness to the story and you can only get that if you’ve read them in order. I was lucky to have stumbled upon Assassin’s Apprentice first and gone in order from there. So cool.
I’ve read them all. I did not read them in the proper order though, I wish I had. They really should be read Farseer, Ships, Tawney Man, Dragons, Fits&Fool. Luckily I did read Farseer first and Fits&Fool last.
I’m my opinion reading them in publication order- Farseer, Liveship Traders, Tawnyman, Rainwilds, and then Fitz & the Fool makes the most sense as far as character building, overlap, and the overall storyline. I unfortunately read the rain wild chronicles first, and then the tawnyman series, I absolutely loved both series but once I realized that the books had overlapping story lines and characters, I went back to the beginning (farseer) and read all the books in order of publication. It made for a very captivating and encompassing read and I loved the ever expanding world and characters Robin Hobbs created. There definitely were spoilers from reading two of the series out of order, the relation between elderlings, dragon, serpent, liveship, and humans and of course the transformation of young Malta and Selden. I recognized that there was a character in the liveship traders who seemed to have the “skill” although untrained. Can you guess who? Although I would have recognized the crossover character anywhere, there may have been more mystery behind that particular character if read in order. And yes, fitz and the fool are the most beloved characters, as they should be, having had three series (9 books) dedicated to the development of there intertwining back stories and ever complex friendship, but many of the other characters from the Bingtown and Rainwild trader families, the magical and mad liveships, the dragon keepers and dragons, and the dastardly yet noble pirates are just as beloved in my eyes. There world as a whole is one I wished I lived in. I am not a currently reading the final book in the fitz and the fool, and am dreading the end to one of my favorite fantasy worlds, but look forward to reading some of her short stories and ‘the willful princess and the piebald prince’. Either way, these books are a must if you love fantasy and characters that are complex and richly developed, read them chronologically or each series as a stand alone. Enjoy!!
Can you tell me what books involve Fitz and Molly at Whithywoods were they have a special daughter who at the end of the trilogy is comparable to Queen of the fairies?
I am pulling my hair out trying to find it.
Thanks
Pam :)
@25
Are you thinking of the Fitz and Fool Trilogy? The first book is Fool’s Assassin and it features Fitz’s daughter Bee.
I inadvertently read the Tawny Man series, then realised that there was this whole series that preceded it (mostly whilst reading Tawny Man) and went back to the Farseer and went straight to the Fool. Someone else above mentioned that they weren’t sure whether or not one could still be emotionally invested in some of the crossover characters if you went to the last series without reading the Liveship or Rain Wilds and I can tell you that I was fully into it. I still am even though I’m now on the Liveship Trilogy. As others have mentioned, I would absolutely recommend starting at the beginning and moving your way through: there are many parts that are given away by reading it in the wrong order. Rain Wilds next, I guess :-)