• Fool's Errand

  • Tawny Man Trilogy, Book 1
  • By: Robin Hobb
  • Narrated by: Nick Taylor
  • Length: 23 hrs and 9 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (388 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Fool's Errand  By  cover art

Fool's Errand

By: Robin Hobb
Narrated by: Nick Taylor
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $31.94

Buy for $31.94

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Return to the world of the Farseers…

Robin Hobb’s best loved characters, Fitz , The Fool and Nighteyes the wolf, face new adventures and trials in the first book of The Tawny Man trilogy.

When Assassin’s Quest closed, Fitz was living in self-imposed exile. Wracked with pain, he had chosen to discard the magical gifts that had seen him survive the wonders and torments of navigating the legendary city of the Elderlings, and of raising a dragon.

Now, in this the first of a new trilogy, we are returned to the world of the Six Duchies and the lives of those who managed to survive the events of the first Assassin trilogy.

Fifteen years have passed and events are about to sweep Fitz out of his quiet backwater life and into the main political current again. Persecution of the Witted has become rampant throughout the Six Duchies despite Queen Kettricken’s effort to damp it. The Witted themselves have begun to strike back. So when 15 year old Prince Dutiful disappears, is it only because he is nervous about his betrothal ceremony to an Outislander princess, or has he been taken hostage by the Witted? Worse, is he perhaps another ‘Piebald Prince’, a Farseer tainted by Wit magic? As the desperate situation worsens, Kettricken has no choice but to summon Fitz to Buckkeep, for who better to track the young prince down than another gifted with the Wit, together with his bonded companion, the wolf Nighteyes?

©2013 Robin Hobb (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"Hobb is one of the great modern fantasy writers… what makes her novels as addictive as morphine is not just their imaginative brilliance but the way her characters are compromised and manipulated by politics." ( The Times)
"A gleaming debut" ( Publishers Weekly)
"Assassin's Quest achieves a bittersweet, powerful complexity rare in fantasy" ( Locus)
"Robin Hobb writes achingly well" ( SFX, Praise for The Liveship Traders series)
"Even better than the Assassin books. I didn't think that was possible" (George R R Martin)
"Hobb is a remarkable storyteller." ( Guardian)

What listeners say about Fool's Errand

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    288
  • 4 Stars
    83
  • 3 Stars
    15
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    254
  • 4 Stars
    70
  • 3 Stars
    22
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    2
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    265
  • 4 Stars
    69
  • 3 Stars
    17
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Editing not perfect

Biggest complaint would be that there is 0 downtime between end of a chapter and start of the new one, resulting in no room to let the chapter to sink in.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Change in narrator!!

Unfortunately the narrator clearly never listened to the first trilogy in the series on the same character thus pronounces many of the characters names differently. Additionally, there are no pauses between chapter headings and the end of the preceding chapter.

Great story which is to be expected from the author. Sadly the narration of this audiobook has really spoilt it for me!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great book, one audio problem

I loved the book, like all other Robin Hobb books so far.
In this recording, I found it annoying that there is no break whatsoever after a chapter ends and a new one begins. For me, it destroyed some moments where I’d have wanted to think about how the previous chapter ended but there isn’t even a milisecond of space left to do that.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Horrible voice actor..

Yet again another voice for this series.. Unfortunately you can hear him breathe, swallow and mistakes aren't cut out, so sometimes it repeats itself..
Story is awesome, but if you have the patience read the book yourself

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great narrator for a great book

Long time fan of Robin Hobb, but this is my first time listening to the Tawny Man trilogy in audiobook form. While I enjoyed the narrators of Hobb’s previous two trilogies on Audible, Nick Taylor just kills it. Normally I would have interspersed my listening with reading an actual paper copy of the book, but this narration was too good to choose anything but audio!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

FitzChivalry Returns

Our beloved immature protagonist is dragged back kicking and screaming to once again save the world.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great

I love the story. The narration at first is a bit jarring compared to the assassins trilogy but you quickly become attached to it. The only thing is between chapters there isn't even a breath taken between the last word and the next chapter. Still wonderful though.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Return of the Fitz

I enjoyed, found it a bit shorter than previous ones. The matures topics covered - death and parenting - provide a lot to think about.

Even though I would've liked the previous narrator of Fitz's story to return, the different voice gave me chance to view the characters as older. I was bit chafed by the changed pronounciations of some names, but I got used to it and in the end it didn't detract from overall amazing experience.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

mesmerizing!

this is my first audiobook ever, so I picked a book I'm familiar with to "test the water".
i'll admit, at the begining I did not like it but I think that when the narrator begane to speak as Nighteyes; I was hooked.
I listened to it while working, and while the narrator's voice lured me in into the realm of Robin Hobb; it did not make me lose my focus.
absloutely amazing!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

should of stuck with the orginal narrator.

should of stuck with the orginal narrator. but you do get use to him by the end of the book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!