Book description
Return to the world of the Liveships Traders and journey along the Rain
Wild River in this standalone adventure from the author of the
internationally acclaimed Farseer trilogy.
Guided by the great blue dragon Tintaglia, they came from the sea: a
Tangle of serpents fighting their way up the Rain Wilds River, the first
to make the perilous journey to the cocooning grounds in generations.
Many have died along the way. With its acid waters and impenetrable
forest, it is a hard place for any to survive.
People are changed by the Rain Wilds, subtly or otherwise. One such is
Thymara. Born with black claws and other aberrations, she should have
been exposed at birth. But her father saved her and her mother has never
forgiven him. Like everyone else, Thymara is fascinated by the return of
dragons: it is as if they symbolise the return of hope to their war-torn
world. Leftrin, captain of the liveship Tarman, also has an interest in
the hatching; as does Bingtown newlywed, Alise Finbok, who has made it
her life's work to study all there is to know of dragons.
But the creatures which emerge from the cocoons are a travesty of the
powerful, shining dragons of old. Stunted and deformed, they cannot fly;
some seem witless and bestial. Soon, they become a danger and a burden
to the Rain Wilders: something must be done. The dragons claim an
ancestral memory of a fabled Elderling city far upriver: perhaps there
the dragons will find their true home. But Kelsingra appears on no maps
and they cannot get there on their own: a band of dragon keepers,
hunters and chroniclers must attend them.
To be a dragon keeper is a dangerous job: their charges are vicious and
unpredictable, and there are many unknown perils on the journey to a
city which may not even exist… Robin Hobb was born in California in
1952 and majored in Communications at Denver University, Colorado.
Assassin's Apprentice was her first novel, and was followed by the
equally successful Royal Assassin and Assassin's Quest. She lives
outside Seattle, Washington
