The Dargon Keeper by Robin Hobb - A Book Review

I am going to open this post with the usual - wow it's been a long time since I have reviewed a book. It's not that I have not been reading; I had finished The Girl with the dragon tattoo by Stieg Larsson pretty quickly. I then got stuck into Harry Potter again, but in French. I must say I am a bit disappointed, half the things that make a book such as the use of language and the small jokes and play with words were missing.

Dragon Keeper is by one of my all time favourite authors - Robin Hobb whose Assassin and Liveship series completed my introduction to reading fantasy. I had bought the book when it first came out in 2009 and got a 1st Ed Hardback which was signed by the author (I try to get those when I can). Now a year later, after lending it to a friend who finished it pretty quickly, gave it good reviews and had gone on to buy the second book. I had to get stuck in it myself.

Unlike most of her works The Rain Wild Chronicles is only in two parts rather than being a trilogy although I'm sure fans would have welcomed one. Now how do I know it's only in two parts? I had a sneaky look at the end of the second book Dragon Haven which came out far too quickly after Dragon Keeper and whose title gives the impression of a finale.

Hobb's previous works can only be described as Epic, for me she is amongst the best fantasy writers. Thus The Dragon Keeper had a lot to live up to. The book has an intriguing prologue which has the desired effect of drawing you in immediately. This is however followed by an expected slow start. Hobb writes beautifully, her descriptions and the character development were on par as usual albeit a number of mistakes which was unexpected. But as usual I did find myself getting drawn in and finished the book quite quickly.

However I was a bit disappointed. Dragon Keeper had lost out on a lot of the twists and intrigue I was anticipating. I could also see why. After three trilogies relating to Hobb's "Realm of Elderlings", The Rain Wild Chronicles had the distinct feel of tying up loose ends which may appeal to core fans but any newcomer would miss out on the best of Hobb's flair. This is slightly redeemed by a whole new set of characters but these lacked the closeness of being the major protagonist such as Fitz in the Assassins series and Althea, Kennit and Wintrow in the Liveship series where each book concentrated on one main  character while developing the others. For me that approach worked better.

Unlike the most recent of David Edding's works which caused me to stop reading books by him, I still cannot wait to read Hobb's next novel - Dragon Haven which would see a conclusion to Dragon Keeper. This is mainly because Dragon Keeper reads like the first half of a novel even at 560 pages.
I would still recommend the book but only half-heartedly, if possible start with the Assassins or Liveship series, they may have a slow start but by the time you finish them alongside the Tawny man series you will be a fan wanting more and the Rain Wild Chronicles will slot right in.

Trey Songz - Already Taken

This was leaked a while ago but it took me a lot of listens before I really got into it.



Trey doesn't seem to be as big an R&B performer in the U.K as some of the other American artists. But I believe he does have a great core following here, tracks like "Can't help but wait" and the more recent "Neighbors know my name" have received decent airplay.

Already taken is from the Step Up 3D soundtrack in stores July 20th. The movie should be around in August.
I very rarely listen or post songs from film soundtracks but I did not realise at first Already Taken was from Step Up 3D, I had to watch the video to realise as it consisted of a lot of movie footage. Already taken is a polished track with great arrangement and catchy lyrics. I love the end third of the tune as the beats speed up slightly it really draws you in.
Have a listen and support.

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