Péter Bozsó’s blog

Ultimate guide to reading Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings

Robin Hobb is one of my favorite writers and her Realm of the Elderlings is my all-time favorite fantasy series. When friends or acquaintances find out that I love fantasy and ask for a recommendation in the genre, it’s always her and this series of hers that I recommend first - almost regardless of who is asking. Since she has many books in this series, it might not be obvious at first glance what the connection between them is or what the “best” reading order is. I wrote this guide hoping it will be useful for anybody who’d like to get more familiar with her art.

In case you are afraid of spoilers: please don’t be. I promise that nothing will be revealed about the content of the books in this blog post that you couldn’t read in their blurbs.

Chronological reading order #

Obviously, purists (like me) will tell you to read the books in chronological order, which is:

  1. Farseer trilogy
  2. Liveship Traders trilogy
  3. Tawny Man trilogy
  4. Rain Wild Chronicles tetralogy
  5. Fitz and the Fool trilogy

There’s also The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince, a standalone novel set in the past of the Realm. It can be read at any point between trilogies, or even between individual books, but I recommend reading it before, during, or after the Tawny Man trilogy. It provides a lot of context for one of the main conflicts outlined in those books.

What you generally need to know about the series is that it alternates between viewpoints. Every odd trilogy (Farseer, Tawny Man, Fitz and the Fool) is told from the perspective of the protagonist, Fitz. You are practically reading his diaries throughout his life.

The Liveship Traders and the Rain Wild Chronicles, on the other hand, are more “traditional” fantasy books. They tell their stories from the third-person point of view, bouncing around between different characters, always following the actions of a single character per chapter. Think of Game of Thrones’ narrative as something similar.

All of them are set in the same world, but because of these narrative choices and differences in focus, they can also be read non-linearly.

Non-linear reading order #

As you can see above, the Realm of the Elderlings is quite extensive and consists of seventeen books. (Not counting the many individual short stories I haven’t yet read myself.)

Reading such a long series is a serious time commitment. If you’re unsure about making that commitment but still curious, it’s best to go in this order:

  1. Farseer
  2. Tawny Man
  3. Liveship Traders
  4. Rain Wild Chronicles
  5. Fitz and the Fool

I did the same the first time I read them. The reason for me was simply ignorance: I didn’t know that Liveship Traders was part of the same series. I thought only Farseer and Tawny Man were connected through Fitz. (The Fitz and the Fool wasn’t published yet back then.)

I also tend to recommend going with this order first because some people I’ve pointed toward the series have bounced off of Liveship Traders. They really wanted to continue following Fitz’s journey, and the complete setting change threw them off. While Tawny Man does refer back sometimes to events in Liveship Traders, if you don’t read the latter first, you won’t miss anything substantial that would take away from the enjoyment of the former.

Going with this order, you get the best parts of the Realm in the least amount of time. After Tawny Man (which I think is the absolute peak of the series), you can still decide to continue with the rest or leave it at that.

Quality order #

To manage your expectations (and probably earn some death threats from other fans), I’m publishing my personal ranking of Hobb’s books here. In my opinion, this is how the series lines up quality-wise, best to worst:

  1. Tawny Man
  2. Farseer
  3. Liveship Traders
  4. Rain Wild Chronicles
  5. Fitz and the Fool

The Fitz and the Fool is a big departure from the rest in tone and somewhat in style too. It feels at times like unnecessary fan service, and at others as if it were written for any reason other than to please the fans. There are moments when the plot turns way too brutal, which to me seems totally self-serving, much like some parts of the previously mentioned Game of Thrones. At its lowest points I even wished I had stopped at the end of the Rain Wild Chronicles and never read these books at all.

Honestly, even after reading the last trilogy for the second time recently, I wish she had finished Fitz’s story with the end of Tawny Man. For me that was the climax of the whole series. (Even though I personally hoped for a slightly different conclusion to Tawny Man too. But I see the merits of the canonical ending as well, no real complaints about that.)

Some words of warning #

While these books are outstanding works of art and they are nothing like anything else in modern fantasy literature, they are also really difficult reads at times. They deal with the most beautiful and profound experiences of a person’s life as well as with serious emotional and physical traumas, chronic illnesses, and mental disorders. The characters are amazingly deep and complex and they’ll certainly become companions to you as much as to each other. But that also means that you will share not just all the joy, but also all the suffering they have to bear.

I’d like to call out Liveship Traders in particular. One of the main storylines of those books revolves around sexual violence. If that’s a sensitive topic for you or if you are a victim yourself, I highly recommend skipping those books altogether.

On the brighter side of warnings: these are truly exceptional books, especially in their genre. Many people (including me) complain that no other fantasy books really hit the same way afterward. So only proceed with reading these books if you don’t mind that everything else will feel at least a bit lackluster after them. (They are similar to The Wire in that regard, just in a different medium.)

Personal notes #

I admit that my relationship to these books is rather special. I have read most of the series four times already. (The Fitz books each time, the others only occasionally. Once in Hungarian, three times in English.) I read them first as a teenager, while figuring out the world and my place in it. I also read them during some of the most difficult times of my adult life. I tend to pick them up again and again when things get rough. They are a safe space and a mental respite for me. Old friends I can always come back to and rely on. They influenced the way I grew up and the man I eventually became.

I envy every one of you who has the opportunity to experience the magic of these books for the first time, going into the Realm without knowing anything. I wish you a great journey through the Six Duchies and beyond! Just make sure you don’t read them in public places, especially the end of each book. Ugly crying (be it for joy or for sorrow) is inevitable.