Editors Reads Verdict
One of the finest concluding volumes in epic fantasy — Hobb earns every tear the reader spends, and the relationship between Fitz and the Fool reaches a conclusion that is both inevitable and devastating.
What We Loved
- The conclusion to the Fitz/Fool relationship is one of fantasy's most affecting
- The Pale Woman and Icefyre constitute a genuinely original threat
- Hobb gives every character the ending they have earned rather than the ending they deserve
Minor Drawbacks
- The length tests patience even for invested readers
- Some plot threads are resolved more quickly than their development warranted
Key Takeaways
- → The completion of a prophecy is rarely what the prophet imagined — the Fool's White Prophecy is fulfilled in ways that could not have been anticipated
- → Love that has no hope of reciprocation in the conventional sense is still the defining force of a life
- → The price of surviving is living with the memory of what was lost, which may be the highest price of all
| Author | Robin Hobb |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Bantam Spectra |
| Pages | 892 |
| Published | January 1, 2004 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy, Epic Fantasy |
Fool’s Fate Review
Fool’s Fate is the concluding volume of Robin Hobb’s Tawny Man trilogy — and the conclusion of Fitz Chivalry Farseer’s six-volume arc beginning with Assassin’s Apprentice — and it is one of the great concluding volumes in epic fantasy. Hobb has been building toward this for six books, has earned the trust of readers who have spent thousands of pages with these characters, and she pays that trust back with a conclusion that is both inevitable and devastating.
The trilogy’s main threat — the Pale Woman, who is enslaving dragons and using Skill-carved stone to power her plans — is resolved in the frozen north, where Fitz and Dutiful’s company travel to slay the last of the sleeping dragons. The external plot is managed with competence but relative economy; what matters is what happens to Fitz and the Fool.
The Fool’s prophecy — the White Prophecy that has structured his entire life, his journey from Buckkeep to the end of the world — is fulfilled here, and the fulfillment is not what either reader or Fool could have precisely anticipated. Hobb is scrupulous about the logic of prophecy: the Fool has devoted his life to ensuring a future he could only partially see, and the cost of that devotion is everything. The scenes between Fitz and the Fool in the novel’s final third are the most emotionally demanding pages in the Realm of the Elderlings, and among the most affecting in the genre.
What Hobb understands about love — and the relationship between Fitz and the Fool is one of fiction’s great loves, complicated by difference of nature and the asymmetry of prophecy — is that it does not require reciprocation in the conventional sense to be real and complete. Fool’s Fate is the proof of this. It ends as it must, and the ending is exactly as painful as the story has earned it the right to be.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Fool's Fate" about?
The conclusion of the Tawny Man trilogy takes Fitz and the Fool to the Pale Woman's domain in the frozen north, where the fate of the world and the cost of prophecy are finally resolved. The most emotionally devastating volume in the Farseer cycle — and one of the great conclusions in all of fantasy.
What are the key takeaways from "Fool's Fate"?
The completion of a prophecy is rarely what the prophet imagined — the Fool's White Prophecy is fulfilled in ways that could not have been anticipated Love that has no hope of reciprocation in the conventional sense is still the defining force of a life The price of surviving is living with the memory of what was lost, which may be the highest price of all
Is "Fool's Fate" worth reading?
One of the finest concluding volumes in epic fantasy — Hobb earns every tear the reader spends, and the relationship between Fitz and the Fool reaches a conclusion that is both inevitable and devastating.
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