Robin Hobb - The Tawny Man Trilogy (By Nicholas Taylor)

***These are the 2013 HarperCollins audiobooks narrated by Nicholas (Nick) Taylor. Not the older ones read by Jack Fox. I've seeded them to save people the time I spend organizing them. If you like them please help Hobb and her crew keep making jewels like these by BUYING them.***



Series description:

When Assassin’s Quest closed, Fitz was living in self-imposed exile. Wracked with pain, he had chosen to discard the magical gifts that had seen him survive the wonders and torments of navigating the legendary city of the Elderlings, and of raising a dragon.

Now, in The Tawny Man Trilogy, we are returned to the world of the Six Duchies and the lives of those who managed to survive the events of the first (Farseer) trilogy.

Fifteen years have passed and events are about to sweep Fitz out of his quiet backwater life and into the main political current again.

Persecution of the Witted has become rampant throughout the Six Duchies despite Queen Kettricken’s effort to damp it. The Witted themselves have begun to strike back. So when 15 year old Prince Dutiful disappears, is it only because he is nervous about his betrothal ceremony to an Outislander princess, or has he been taken hostage by the Witted? Worse, is he perhaps another ‘Piebald Prince’, a Farseer tainted by Wit magic? As the desperate situation worsens, Kettricken has no choice but to summon Fitz to Buckkeep, for who better to track the young prince down than another gifted with the Wit?

The Tawny Man Trilogy contains Fool's Errand, The Golden Fool & Fool's Fate, and is the third of Hobbs series set in the "Realm of the Elderlings". The Elderling sub-series are written in a way so that they can be enjoyed separately. But can also be read together. These books partly follow up on the story told in The Farseer Trilogy. Chronologically The Elderlings serier (so far) contains:

- The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince
prequel set generations before the Farseer Trilogy
- The Farseer Trilogy (Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin & Assassin's Quest)
- The Liveship Traders Trilogy (Ship of Magic, The Mad Ship & Ship of Destiny)
Set in the years after The Farseer Trilogy and containing links to it, but miles away with new characters.
- The Tawny Man Trilogy (Fool's Errand, The Golden Fool & Fool's Fate)
Returns to the characters from the Farseer Trilogy, 15 years later.
- The Rain Wilds Chronicles (The Dragon Keeper, Dragon Haven, City of Dragons & Blood of Dragons)
Following the story from the Liveship Traders trilogy, around the time of the Tawny Man Trilogy (but best read after imo)
- The Fitz and the Fool Trilogy (Fool's Assassin & ---)
First book just released, bringing us back to some of the Farseer/Tawny Man cast, taking place years later.

Book 1 Fool's Errand

Fifteen years have passed since the end of the Red Ship War with the terrifying Outislanders. Since then, Fitz has wandered the world accompanied only by his wolf and Wit-partner, Nighteyes, finally settling in a tiny cottage as isolated from the Farseers and Buckkeep politics as possible.
Starling finds him soon after he settles down in the cottage and visits him often. On one of her visits she brings him a young orphaned boy, named Hap, that Fitz raises as well as he is able.
The Fool finds him and convinces him that he is needed. The young prince Dutiful has gone missing just before his crucial diplomatic wedding to an Outislander princess. Fitz's assignment to fetch Dutiful back in time for the ceremony seems very much like a fool's errand, but the dangers ahead could signal the end of the Farseer reign.

Book 2 The Golden Fool

Fitz has succeeded in rescuing Prince Dutiful from the clutches of the Piebald rebels. But once again the cost of protecting the Farseer line has been dear: Nighteyes is dead.
Fitz, though bitter and grieving after the death of his beloved wit-partner, the wolf Nighteyes, reluctantly takes the post of Skillmaster to teach prince Dutiful the Skill. He feels he must since he is almost Dutiful's father. Dutiful, the heir to the throne, was conceived by Verity using Fitz's body fifteen years earlier with the use of the skill, and because of this is both Skilled and Witted. Fitz is not a great teacher and barely has control of his own Skill, but he is the only one left that has been actually taught how to use it. He knows that Dutiful must be protected from the addictive qualities of the Skill, as well as the dangerous temptations of the Wit and the political machinations surrounding both as the Piebalds threaten to throw the Six Duchies into civil war.
At the urging of his old mentor the Master Assassin Chade, now Queen Kettricken's Lord Councillor, he also attempts to seek new Skill users as companions for Dutiful. Maintaining a pose as the servant Tom Badgerlock to the Fool's own pose as the decadent noble Lord Golden, he stays in the castle and teaches his new Skill coterie, including the overeager Chade. His search leads him to a most unlikely candidate; a mentally-challenged young man named Thick, suspicious after years of mistreatment but stronger in the Skill than anyone Fitz has ever encountered.
At the same time, the Six Duchies also faces what may be its salvation in a long-term peace, or a new threat to the fragile peace that has existed since the end of the Red Ship War. Queen Kettricken plans to betrothe Dutiful to the Outislander Narcheska (Princess) Elliania, to forge a lasting alliance between the two lands as her marriage to Verity once did. The task is less simple than it appears, and Fitz becomes aware of wheels within wheels, as different interests war with each other with the stakes higher than anyone has imagined. These finally come to a head as Elliania declares she will not wed Dutiful without his undertaking a quest to slay Icefyre, one of the last true dragons.

Book 3 Fool's Fate

Once assassin to the king, Fitz is now Skillmaster to Prince Dutiful's small band, sailing towards the distant Out Island of Aslevjal. His duty is to help the Prince fulfil the Narcheska Elliania's challenge: Bring her the head of the dragon, Icefyre, whom legends say is buried deep beneath the ice. Only after this task is complete will they be married and bring an end to war between their kingdoms.
It is not a happy ship: the serving boy, Thick, is constantly ill/sea-sick, and his powerful telepathic abilities cause many on the ship to likewise be ill. Fitz, his Skill-dreams plagued by a female dragon, is unhappy at leaving the Fool behind but is determined to keep the White Prophet from his fate, death. Chade's fascination with the Skill is growing to the point of obsession.
Few on the Out Islands welcome the idea of a foreign prince slaying the Aslevjal legend.
A small party finally arrives on the frozen island where the dragon is, greeted by the Fool, who has flown there with the help of a stone dragon he previously rode. His intentions are at odds with Chade, who is determined to slay the dragon to secure peace, whatever the cost.