Dragon Keeper (The Rain Wild Chronicles, Book 1)

A slow start but soon becomes as immersive as you can expect from Megan's work. A must read for any fan of Megan's Farsser universe.

It's a slow paced book, true to the style of Hobbs. People might find it boring to go on, but if you stick to the pages you will be rewarded. For the entire series is rewarding, at the end. The kids who evolve as keepers are a marvel to watch.

An Elderlings book that I’ve only given four stars to? I suspect this is largely because I have not yet become immersed in this world, and the number of different characters - some of whom are arrogant dragons - haven’t given me a hook to really be bought into this next section of the Elderlings series.Despite brief appearances by Malta Althea, Brashen and Paragon from the Liveship Traders series, this almost feels like a completely separate set of books. It may also be because I’ve been so deep in Fitz’s world for his books where all of the action is seen through his eyes, that returning to a multiple perspective book feels a bit of a jolt.Here we are more focused on the dragons who aren’t dragons, those that we last saw as serpents, or at least the few surviving members of the tangle who made it out of their casings to emerge as weakened versions of the awesome Tintaglia and Icefyre.The human characters are a pack of young Rain Wilders more marked by that harsh environment than most of their families and chosen to guide the heavily dependent dragon young upriver to try and find a mythical Elderling city. It’s well done, with a deepening lore, and I’m sure that once I feel more engaged with these characters I will enjoy the remaining section of this trilogy just as much as I’ve enjoyed the previous ones. I’m certainly moving straight on to the sequel.

I bought all four books in the series before reading the first one because Robin Hobb is one of those authors who has never let me down, until now. Looking at all those 5 star reviews my opinion clearly isn't in synch with the majority, but I found it increasingly difficult to care what happened next. I hated the characters, they were more like stereo types than real people, the good guys so virtuous and goodly they made me want to vomit, and the two dimensional bad guys blandly followed the bad guy role. The first two books in the series had focus, getting the dragons to Kelsingra, and though I didn't like them, the end of book 2 had a conclusion and in my opinion the series should have stopped there. The 3rd and 4th book meandered aimlessly with no discernible plot until 80% of the way through book 4, something interesting happened, and I thought it was finally going to get interesting, but no, the potentially exciting events are brushed over in a handful of pages and its back to the drivel, and then its all over.If you like reading about angsty women very slowly and tediously throwing off their oppression with a few dragons plodding along for company then you will probably give this series 5 stars. It bored the tits off me. Don't buy all 4 books at once, make sure you enjoy book 1 first.

I'm going to start this review off by saying that these books are part of a larger series, it's the 4th installment in the Realm of the Elderlings, and 9 books proceed this. I mention this as there are reivews from people that think this is a stand alone series.The book is very high quality and I love the cover art. The book arrived fast and in good condition. These books help to answer more questions from the series about the Elderlings and Dragons, and I'm thoroughly enjoying this series and finding out more history of the lore of the Elderlings world! But if you're thinking of buying these, please read the three previous trilogies first (you can find the reading order on Google).

As a spin off from the live ship books I’m highly disappointed! The live ship books were brilliant and thought these would be too but find this first book is so boring compared! I’ve turned pages so quickly and skimmed most of it. And keep going over old ground from the live ship books about what I already know about the dragons. I take it that was because people might not have read the live ship series! But still. It just didn’t really follow on either as the dragons do t feel like the serpents they once were. And the book could have more to do with some of the characters from the live ship. Just boring to me.

Wonderful imagery in Robin Hobbs writing. Very imaginative & descriptive. No gratuitous violence or sex either. Shows good understanding of people & also natural world. Her books can make you sad & make you laugh but they always transport me into another world. Great for those wishing for an escape from their own reality for a while, for pure relaxation orfor an adventure in a wondrous world. This author's books always lead to late nights as hard to put down!