Dragon Haven, by Robin Hobb

[rachelmanija]

If you missed my review of the first book, a motley crew of extremely unlikable people and equally unlikable dragons set off on an expedition to find the possibly mythic city of dragons. Most of the first book sets up the expedition. The second book concerns the expedition itself.

I’ve now read the second book. It’s better than the first, sort of, but I can’t really recommend the set as a whole. I still don’t see why this story required two fat books to tell—both are very, very padded and repetitive. So much of the story involves slogging through a swamp, without much happening other than characters hating each other, that I began to feel as if I was slogging right there with them. But not in a good way.

On the positive side, one of the two evil gay men from the first book has a quite good redemption plot, including a romance with a nice gay man who is absolutely perfect in every way. I feel a little bad criticizing Hobb for making a gay man too nice after previously criticizing her for writing evil gay men, but seriously, he is perfect. He exists as an antidote to the eeeeeevil gay men in the first book. That isn’t actually a great example of non-homophobic writing, though it’s certainly an improvement on the last book.

There is an explanation of the dragon-Elderling-Rain Wild mutation thing, which is reasonable but not as intricate and cool as the dragon-serpent revelations of the last series.

The characters are more likable in this book. Generally. The mutant clawed Rain Wild girl, who was one of the few whom I actually liked from the first book, gets stuck with an excruciatingly boring plot that made me cringe every time it switched to her POV. The men demand that she choose one of them, and she says she’s an independent woman and doesn’t have to choose anyone. This sequence is repeated what felt like fifty times, though it was probably only four or five.

Also, there is an extremely gross section early on dealing with giant parasitic worms. It’s long, too.

There are some narratively satisfying moments, but overall I can’t recommend this.

DRAGON HAVEN (RAIN WILDS CHRONICLES, NO 2)

Comments

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

So much of the story involves slogging through a swamp, without much happening other than characters hating each other, that I began to feel as if I was slogging right there with them. But not in a good way.
Like LOTR!

[jinian.livejournal.com]

How disappointing. I was really hoping for more cool dragon mystery revelations, but it doesn't sound like they'd be worth it.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I could tell you what they are in two sentences...

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

I would say that Hobb needs to write about something other than dragons and Elderlings and the perishing Rain Wilds (of which I had enough several trilogies back), except as I recall from your reviews when she did write about something else, it sucked even more.

What I guess she really needs is a good severe editing.

[sarahtales.livejournal.com]

I actually just finished this, and liked it a lot more than you did: Sedric's redemption plot was great, and I didn't feel like Carson the Nice Gay Dude was crazy nice - he was just very nice. Like Thymaras's father: very decent, and then Sedric and the two young minor characters involved in their own gay romance all seem like normal folk. Which is what I wanted. That said, I am much more invested in Sedric's relationship with his copper dragon. ;)

The giant parasitic worms, and also the whole description of growing wings as fingers growing in a gash in your back, will stick with me for a long time. But I kind of like that too - makes me believe in the gross reality of the expedition.

I wasn't blown away, or super surprised by anything but how much I liked Sedric's plot, but I did like the book quite a bit.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Sedric and his copper dragon were by far my favorite part.

I was also very frustrated that after all that build-up, we never got to explore Kelsingra! Well, clearly, with the exception of Sedric/copper dragon, Hobb and I were interested in completely different aspects of the story.

[sarahtales.livejournal.com]

Wait. I assumed Kelsingra HAPPENED IN BOOK THREE.

Okay, now I am annoyed and frustrated. I really did read this as an 'origins, quest, destination' trilogy, so much that I guess I ignored a lot of the relationship wrap-ups. Augh.

Also, I admit that the worms and finger wings are sticking with me very unpleasantly, and have been all day. Which - well, she meant them to be gross, and thus she has accomplished her writerly goal excellently well, but... ewwww.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I had thought it was the concluding book, and when the first came out it was said that there would only be two, but checking her website, she says she's working on a third book "about the Rain Wilds." Not clear whether or not it's a direct sequel. Unfortunately, since as you say the relationships were pretty much all resolved, I worry that it will be like the third Ship book, which had 50 pages of plot stretched out over 400 pages.

I kind of liked the fingers, but did you notice that we never got a clear description of what the unfurled wings looked like? I was so frustrated! I really wanted to know.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

So, two books out there by authors named Robin (the other one being Robin McKinley), both published in the late 2000s, called Dragonhaven and Dragon Haven? That's too much, IMO. Someone should have nixed the title.