The Inheritance

By: Robin Hobb

Narrated by: Saskia Butler

Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

A collection of short stories from one of the most critically acclaimed authors in the fantasy genre, Robin Hobb. Including work written under her pseudonym, Megan Lindholm.

Bingtown heiresses rub shoulders in this wonderful collection with vampires and alien musicians, tramps and feral cats.

In The Homecoming, Lady Carillion Carrock and a number of other Jamaillian nobles are sailing to the Cursed Shores. Their journey is not by choice: for plotting against the Satrap, their wealth has been confiscated and they have been exiled. Until now, Carillion has done nothing but lead a life of privilege. She believes they are bound for wondrous cities, cities where ancient kings and queens dusted their skin with gold and wore jewels above their eyes. But when she is marooned by the ship’s unscrupulous captain, she will soon discover the grim reality of what survival in the Rain Wilds entails.

The Silver Lady is a would-be writer, ekeing out a dull existence by working in a Sears store. The one day a man comes in: fortyish, pleasant-looking. Nothing out of the ordinary. Except he says his name is Merlin, and he’s about to change her life.

Rosemary got involved with the wrong man. Pell is lazy, good for nothing, a bully. Her best friend Hilia knew it and so did her tom cat, Marmalade. But love is blind: Rosemary had Pell’s baby, renovated the cottage his grandfather left in his will, turned its land to good use; and then he left her for another woman. Now he’s back, and something must be done…

©2011 Robin Hobb (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

“Robin Hobb writes achingly well.” (SFX)

"Hobb is a remarkable storyteller." (The Guardian)

Liked some, hated other stories

Some of the stories were good (rainwilds, inheritance), others were downright depressing to read due to the subjects (dead cats, dead kids, female circumcision).

Not the sequel to rain WIld Chronicles

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Its quite enjoyable just not what I was expecting. I just purchased on the title and thought it was the 3rd book in the series.

Any additional comments?

I am enjoying it. Just word of warning, Don't be fooled by the title, its a series of short stories.... Which of course it does say quite clearly when you read the summary, which I didn't!

Book 2.1 of the Rain Wild Chronicles

First off, I have an issue with the title. Mainly as i purchased the book thinking solely it was indeed the third book of the Rain Wild Chronicles. Unless Robin Hobb draws somehow from the two or three stories held within that are set in the Rain Wild world for the next actual book then this book is irrelevant to the series. **WARNING** less than half this book is set in that world, and the stories are so detached from the series that they could equally as well be in a different world.

My next gripe is that whilst reading these short stories i had an oppressive shadow question my own ethics as every story has a righteous female protagonist and a unscrupulous male antagonist. True, one story was purely about women, though you can easily exchange the theme of female circumcision as a metaphor for man's subservience of women...

The majority of the stories are great. Most (maybe all?) had a cat theme, which was more adorable than the man-hating commentary.

The book is good, though be warned of the pretence of title and the continued portrayal of men as selfish and violent, excluding secondary characters; such as the nice fatherly figure.

Not what I was expecting

In general, I love Robin Hobb's stories but I was hoping that there would be more short stories revolving around the Rain Wilds, Elderlings, Farseers.... The stories were ok but it wasn't overly engaging. Saskia does a brilliant job though with the performance.