Forest Mage

Book Two of the Soldier Son Trilogy

By: Robin Hobb

Narrated by: John Keating

Length: 31 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

A luminary in SF literature, Robin Hobb continues her marvelous Soldier Son trilogy with part two, Forest Mage.

Nevare Burvelle has survived major combat and is making a quick recovery from a disease plaguing his fellows in the King's army. He also believes he is free from the Speck magic that held him under its sway. Now traveling home to rendezvous with his fiancée, Nevare suffers haunting visions and soon realizes that malicious magic still resides within him - and is intent on destroying everything he holds dear.

©2006 Robin Hobb (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

Run!!!!

Would you try another book from Robin Hobb and/or John Keating?

NO!!!!!

Any additional comments?

The first book in this series is amazing. Then it all goes down hill. The other two books are just about how fat people are huge and disgusting but it's not really their fault. Every book I have by Robin Hobb has been horrible except this one. But like I said the series goes to crap in books two and three. STAY AWAY!!!

Not as good as Book 1

Character was an idiot, story line was poor and long winded, narrative was too monotone. Not your best work.

The Main Character is not the Main Character

The main character in this story (and the preceding book) has no agency. He makes no decisions and has no responsibility for the outcome of the story. He is constantly the victim of circumstance and other characters' decisions, never taking action of his own volition.

Maybe you will enjoy the story of the world that is presented here from a second person limited perspective, but I find it extremely frustrating.

Tedious!

I love Robin Hobb, but this trilogy is slow and tedious in detail. the main character is a totally clueless whiner. He has magical experiences but is so single minded in what he wants he is clueless to the bigger picture. Disappointed in the character and the tedium of this story.

We get it, he's fat

Probably 31 hours of the most revolting and depressing Robin Hobb book ive listen to. Every other sentence is "My name Navare, i am now fat"

No Action

im almost done with this book..and going to stop listing. The author, for some reason haves no concept of action. It's a good story, but is missing the hero i'd expect in a epic Fantacy book.

Painful

The story is incredibly slow and drawn out. When dreadful things happened to Nevare (which they did repeatedly), I was so pleased that at least something was happening (probably not the reaction the author was after).

I quite liked the first book, but this one just dragged. I want to know what happens in the end, but don't know if I can face book three.

This book dragged on but went nowhere.

I've enjoyed many of this authors other titles. Very disappointed in this book. The book goes on for so many hours. This story should not be over 7 hours. I get the point but not the length.

I really wanted to like this series.

I really wanted to like this series. The setting is awesome. There is a wonderful political landscape, a fairly original system for magic, and interesting peoples. The problem is that the individual characters are mind numbingly dull and painfully lacking in intelligence.

The main character of the novel is so amazingly un-dynamic that you wonder if he has any memory for the past events of the books. Three-fourths of the the way through the second book, we have watched him go through a vast number of experiences and been forced to tediously read his moaning and self-reflections on them, and then he repeats the same verbal responses, preforms the same actions, and gets the same results. We are told by other characters that he is smart and fit to go out on his own to explore and be a "Scout," but all the evidence we witness makes me wonder how anyone could reach that conclusion. Honestly, the book would be much improved if it randomly ended with, "And he fell in a hole and died. The End."

The other major issue is Hobb's inability to get to the point. I can't decide if Hobb wants us to see Burvelle as an idiot, or if she thinks the readers are so stupid as to need the same point to be retold to us 10 different ways. I guess it's one way to fill up space.

I journeyed with Nevare Burvelle because I wanted to see more of the world he inhabits, but seeing his world through his eyes while listening to his inner monologue is far to painful to continue into another book.

All of that said, the narration gives this tedious work some life. I'll be looking for other books read by Keating.

Accused & misunderstood again,I don't care anymore

Robin Hobb is a talented writer. She comes up with interesting ideas and she can write.

But she seems to get in a rut in this series.

She writes the main character well enough that you care about him. But then, over and over again, he is misunderstood and accused of awful behavior and crimes. He moves from one place to another and then the same scene develops. Over and over again.

Yes, its purposeful and has a point, but it makes for a somewhat unpleasant read. Tedious.