Blood will tell.
I have a problem. I often feel like the mad white serpent in that user icon of mine. It's because I have two groups in my flist, and I've realized they don't meet. I don't think there's one single person among you that belongs to both groups wholly. ailati and thestrawberry are the only ones that sort of blend those lines I think - do correct me if I'm wrong. (And then there's a bunch of people outside both groups.) So I feel like very often I'm raving and no one understands a word.
So let me explain this to you. There's the group of people who have read and are more or less obsessed with Robin Hobb's books. Who's that? In short, she's the best thing to have happened to the genre of fantasy literature since J.R.R. Tolkien.
And then there's the tFL.org clique, people who are obsessed with building and joining fanlistings. Fanlistings are an addictive hobby. FLs are websites that quite simply "just" list fans of certain subjects (but they are often quite a lot more than that. However, I'm trying to keep this simple. :D)
Why is this a problem? Because with my recent adoption of the Nighteyes and the Tawny Man fanlistings (and because a couple of people have closed their fls) I'm now the ONLY ONE at the tfl.org network that has Hobb fanlistings. All 6 of them. Not cool!
Since I really can't recommend getting addicted to fls to anyone (just joining them can become a really bad obsession, I'm warning you!) I want to recommend Robin Hobb to everyone. First of all, those of you who haven't read her: you are missing out. And second of all, if you're into fanlistings, once you've read just a couple of chapters you'll quickly realize how many fantabulous things are in need of a fl. ;)
So, I recommend one of two things. The usual approach is to go to a bookstore or a library and find a book called Assassin's Apprentice. It looks like this
or this
in the UK and Australia
and like this
in the US.
One word of warning: this is a first book in a trilogy. The trilogy is the first part of a trilogy of trilogies (well, in overall there's 9 books, 2 short stories and one upcoming book). In the very likely case that you are one who likes the story, I can tell you that the pages WILL keep turning themselves regardless of how tired or hungry you are, or how many important job or school demands you have at the moment. I know that those of you who've read these books could write testimonials about this fact. :D
I hope you don't now think that this is just one of those crappy series of semi-medieval sword & sorcery fantasy that have given the genre its bad name. Hobb takes every cliche of the genre: the royal bastard who doesn't know his whole parentage, the dragons, the pirates, the ever-plotting court, the fight for the crown, the magical animal companions etc etc etc and turns them upside down. And. you. will. love. every. word.
If you need a translation, we've got most of the covers covered (ha!) here at the PlentyWiki. The French translation is L’Apprenti assassin, the German (Die Legende vom Weitseher 1) Der Adept Des Assassinen, the Polish Uczeń skrytobójcy, the Finnish (although the translation is horrible) Salamurhaajan oppipoika and the Russian Ученик убийцы - to my knowledge there isn't a Norwegian translation but I know you girls manage English better than is needed. :)
The second approach is to go here and download a free completely legal copy of a book called Shaman's Crossing (the site says it's only available for US residents but I've heard that people from other countries have been able to download it with no problems - haven't tried it myself yet). This is the first book of her newest trilogy (that's not related to the trilogy of trilogies). Some people don't like it as much as they loved her previous books, but it's not because these are worse, it's just that they might not be what you'd expect from a fantasy author. Still, it's FREE so it can't hurt to download it while you're browsing that flist, right? :)
Now, you have no excuses. From now on, when no one is commenting on my Hobb/fl entries, I know it's not because you're all "no comprendo" but because you're all reading! :D
So let me explain this to you. There's the group of people who have read and are more or less obsessed with Robin Hobb's books. Who's that? In short, she's the best thing to have happened to the genre of fantasy literature since J.R.R. Tolkien.
And then there's the tFL.org clique, people who are obsessed with building and joining fanlistings. Fanlistings are an addictive hobby. FLs are websites that quite simply "just" list fans of certain subjects (but they are often quite a lot more than that. However, I'm trying to keep this simple. :D)
Why is this a problem? Because with my recent adoption of the Nighteyes and the Tawny Man fanlistings (and because a couple of people have closed their fls) I'm now the ONLY ONE at the tfl.org network that has Hobb fanlistings. All 6 of them. Not cool!
Since I really can't recommend getting addicted to fls to anyone (just joining them can become a really bad obsession, I'm warning you!) I want to recommend Robin Hobb to everyone. First of all, those of you who haven't read her: you are missing out. And second of all, if you're into fanlistings, once you've read just a couple of chapters you'll quickly realize how many fantabulous things are in need of a fl. ;)
So, I recommend one of two things. The usual approach is to go to a bookstore or a library and find a book called Assassin's Apprentice. It looks like this
or this
in the UK and Australia
and like this
in the US.
One word of warning: this is a first book in a trilogy. The trilogy is the first part of a trilogy of trilogies (well, in overall there's 9 books, 2 short stories and one upcoming book). In the very likely case that you are one who likes the story, I can tell you that the pages WILL keep turning themselves regardless of how tired or hungry you are, or how many important job or school demands you have at the moment. I know that those of you who've read these books could write testimonials about this fact. :D
I hope you don't now think that this is just one of those crappy series of semi-medieval sword & sorcery fantasy that have given the genre its bad name. Hobb takes every cliche of the genre: the royal bastard who doesn't know his whole parentage, the dragons, the pirates, the ever-plotting court, the fight for the crown, the magical animal companions etc etc etc and turns them upside down. And. you. will. love. every. word.
If you need a translation, we've got most of the covers covered (ha!) here at the PlentyWiki. The French translation is L’Apprenti assassin, the German (Die Legende vom Weitseher 1) Der Adept Des Assassinen, the Polish Uczeń skrytobójcy, the Finnish (although the translation is horrible) Salamurhaajan oppipoika and the Russian Ученик убийцы - to my knowledge there isn't a Norwegian translation but I know you girls manage English better than is needed. :)
The second approach is to go here and download a free completely legal copy of a book called Shaman's Crossing (the site says it's only available for US residents but I've heard that people from other countries have been able to download it with no problems - haven't tried it myself yet). This is the first book of her newest trilogy (that's not related to the trilogy of trilogies). Some people don't like it as much as they loved her previous books, but it's not because these are worse, it's just that they might not be what you'd expect from a fantasy author. Still, it's FREE so it can't hurt to download it while you're browsing that flist, right? :)
Now, you have no excuses. From now on, when no one is commenting on my Hobb/fl entries, I know it's not because you're all "no comprendo" but because you're all reading! :D