Since last week I´m officially done with the Realm of the Elderling series! Which honestly makes me feel very accomplished, but it also leaves a gap.. What ´big series´ do I dive into next?! I know there are many epic fantasies out there haha, I might just have to finish some more series before I do that!
I will first give you my order of the separate series, starting from my ‘least’ favourite to my favourite series in this world! But know that none of these books got a rating lower than 4 stars!
- The Rain Wild Chronicles (fourth series)
- Farseer Trilogy (first series)
- Tawny Man (Third series)
- Fitz and the Fool (Fifth series)
- The Liveship traders (Second series)
I definitely enjoyed The Liveship Traders series the most, but Fitz and the Fool is a very close second! I think I just liked learning about the ships the most, and also I thought those characters were the most interesting! For the Rain Wild Chronicles, those characters interested me the least, and I think I expected a bit more from the dragons!
Besides ranking the series I thought it would also be interesting to rank all the separate books! I will be doing this mostly based on the CAWPILE rating I gave the books at that moment! For the books I read in 2020 (Farseer trilogy and Liveship traders), I will fill in CAWPILE now so I’m not sure how accurate those ratings will be. Again ranking from lowest rated to highest rated!
- Blood of Dragons – 7.71
- Dragon Haven – 7.86
- Assassin’s Apprentice – 7.86
- City of Dragons – 8.14
- Royal Assassin – 8.14
- Fool’s Quest – 8.29
- Dragon Keeper – 8.43 (I feel like this one should be lower?!)
- Assassin’s Quest – 8.43
- Fool’s Assassin – 8.57
- Fool’s Fate – 8.71
- The Golden Fool – 9.00
- Ship of Magic – 9.14
- Fool’s Errand – 9.14
- Assassin’s Fate – 9.43
- The Mad Ship – 9.43
- Ship of Destiny – 9.57
Looking at these ratings I feel like my order of the series doesn’t make sense?! But I think I’ve become stricter with my ratings halfway through last year/ this year. So I guess it makes sense that the books I read at the beginning of last year got higher ratings, even though I enjoyed them less?
Also you can see that none of the books got the full 10, which probably the upper ones do deserve, but I rarely give 10s on CAWPILE, because I feel like that means that nothing can be better?! and what if I find a book that I enjoy more haha. Idk, guess it doesn’t really matter anyways!
But conclusion, I absolutely love Hobb! I hope she will write another series in this world. I definitely think it would be possible, following one of the main characters in the Fitz and the Fool series, maybe at a bit older age?! Would be great!
Also I kinda want to reread the Liveship traders trilogy! I listened to them all on audio, but kinda want to read them physically, so maybe I will! They are some big books though!
Ooooh, I loved seeing your thoughts on this, Evelyn! I just finished Tawny Man, so I still have two series to go, but I’m actually very much in agreement with your ranking of the first three! (Our rankings within the Farseer trilogy differ a lot, though – Assassin’s Apprentice is my favorite by a long shot, probably because Fitz wasn’t constantly pining after Molly in it ) So yeah, you’ve made me very excited for Fitz and the Fool (I can’t get enough of the two of them together anyway ), and I’m just gonna hope that I’ll love the Rain Wild Chronicles a ton even if you do think they’re the weakest!
I can see what you say about Molly! And I wonder if my order would be different now if I would reread the series!
Fitz and the Fool is excellent!
The Rainwild is still a very good series, just not as good as the rest if you would ask me haha! It hs a bit of a different vibe, since the characters feel mumch younger (although they not necessarily are!)
It’s been so long since I have read Robin Hobb and I have only read the first 3 series and her Soldier Son series which I did not care for. I have had Fool’s Assassin on my TBR forever and will hopefully get to it someday!
I want to read the Soldier Son series, but I want a bit of a break first, since they are of course different series!
I hope you will love it once you pick it up!