by Robin Hobb
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| List Price: | $25.95 |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $10.09 |
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Product Description
Plague has ravaged the prestigious King's Cavalla of Gernia, decimating the ranks of both cadets and instructors. Yet Nevare Burvelle has made an astonishingly robust recovery, defeating his sworn nemesis while in the throes of the disease and freeing himself—he believes—from the Speck magic that infected him. And now he is journeying home to Widevale, anticipating a tender reunion with his beautiful fiancée, Carsina, and a bright future as a commissioned officer. But there is no haven in the bosom of his kinfolk, for his nights are haunted by grim visions of treachery—and his days are tormented by a strange side-effect of the plague that shames his family and repulses the lady of his heart. And as the still-potent magic in his blood roars to life, Nevare realizes a terrible truth: that the enemy who seeks to destroy everything he loves dwells perhaps not without but within him.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Worse than the first, 2008-09-02
The first book had the small benefit of leaving hope that a plot would eventually start to evolve or at least characters would become interesting to the reader. After the first 100 pages of the second book in the series it's obvious that this is going nowhere. Beware the 5 star reviews who admit "its slow, but..."
Its tedious...period.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Engaging, occasionally irritating. , 2008-09-02
I like Robin Hobb's work quite a bit. This is no mean feat if only because the kind of epic fantasy that she writes is a genre that I am very fussy about reading. I am easily disappointed and annoyed with swords and sorcery works. They have to be really good to keep my attention.
Let me make a long story short-- I wasn't disappointed in Forest Mage. It is not a perfect book. But, in part I enjoy Hobb as a writer particularly because she does not write perfect books. Her characters are imperfect, often irritating. She resists the obvious happy endings just enough to be really interesting. I like that her characters can be important figures without being the Sekrit Heir to the Throne or whatever other stereotyped fantasy goal there is to achieve.
Forest Mage is strongly flavored with melancholy and dismay. I actually liked Nevare much better in Shaman's Crossing than here. There are some obvious uncomfortable points about his character development (can't say much without revealing a spoiler) but those aside, I also got frustrated with his stubborn refusal to face change. I will grant you that many of his reactions are perfectly realistic, but it got a little bit guilt-ridden and whiny-- particularly towards the end.
I stayed up way too late reading this book when I should have been sleeping. That, by itself, says something about how compelling the story is. I'll be looking forward with interest to Renegade's Magic.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 True to Robin Hobb's tradition., 2008-08-20
This is the second volume is the Soldier Son trilogy (after Shaman's Crossing and before Renegade's Magic).
Recovering from the plague, many surviving cadets can now only hope for a fragile health. Nevare convalesces remarkably well though, but as time goes by, he realizes the Specks' magic is taking a much crueller toll on his imbued body.
Looking forward to travelling back home to Widevale for his brother's wedding, his joy will be short lived. Nevare is far from welcome. Indeed, his father blames him for his condition, and will do everything to set things as they should be. To no avail. When the plague comes again and decimates the region, Nevare has no choice but to leave.
Cast out, he makes his way eastwards, and spends some time in Dead Town. There he meets Amzil and her children, who'll become as close to friends as he's ever had in the last months. But as he helps her, her neighbours' jealousies start to threaten her life. He'll leave when his duty commands him to take the wounded scout Buel Hitch to Gettys.
Gettys is a fortified town at the base of the Barrier Mountains, the last one on the King's Road which is being built to reach the sea beyond the mountains. But upon arrival, Nevare rapidly notices that the city is a pale shadow of what he expected, that the command is a shambles, and that roadworks has all but stopped at the edge of the forest. Not only are felled giant trees blocking the way, but a strange spell of fear and despair has fallen over the inhabitants, preventing any progression of the construction.
Despite his crippling condition, Nevare manages to gets a post at the graveyard. In the nearby forest, he'll meet a Specks woman named Olikea, and will start to learn about her People.
True to her tradition, Robin Hobb deals her main character unjust fate after unfair hand. And as poor Nevare is really at a lost about what he should do about the Magic, his social situation only gets worse, he becomes the victim of wrongful decisions, biased reactions and finally, false accusations. All this is interwoven with lavish forest scenes betraying the author's love of trees and Nature, and exquisite descriptions of food that you can savour with Nevare. The ending is beautiful and very moving and I'm very impatient to read the third and final book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Great book, 2008-08-14
This book mostly deals with something Nevare suffers from after getting the plague. As the synopsis on the back of the book states, it has something to do with Speck magic that's possessed him. It's caused his family and friends to shun him. For a large part of the book Nevare is learning to deal with this condition and what to do about it, and how to return to a normal life. But the magic won't let him. It's a constant battle between what he wants and what the magic wants. In the end, he has to choose.
I first impression of this book as I read it was the same that I had of Shaman's Crossing -- it drags major plot points through hundreds of pages, when I thought it could've been tightened up. But that's probably just how Robin Hobb writes. Then I thought that some of what was happening was bizarre. His condition and the description of it (I don't want to give any spoilers) and what happens as a result of it is definitely very bizarre. Then Robin Hobb, as usual, goes through and makes sure she can both physically and mentally torture her protagonists. Again, I'm sure that's just how she writes.
Some of that was a bit annoying, but the story was so compelling that I was always interested in what would happen on the next page. I found myself ocassionally reading ahead just to see what other character Nevare would be talking to on the next page. I always had to know what was going to happen to him. There's also a lot of drama and I can't say that I was disappointed in what happened in the end of the book. Overall it's a great read, and worth every penny. If you want to read more realistic fantasy that is very engaging and can keep you interested, then this book, or any other by Robin Hobb, is a good place to start.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 I won't read the next book, 2008-06-29
I liked the first book in this series, but this one didn't pull through. It is a very melancholy tale and it was really hard to like the protagonist. I won't purchase the next book in the series.
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