#elderlings

Chade is my favorite character for so many reasons (all right, I have a thing for assassins, rogues and other cut-throat and like minded individuals...and sociopaths) but I think we can all admit he is hilarious. And I say that in a derogatory way.

While Fitz wallows in his despair and Beloved lives to love no matter what, Chade's determination comes from his desire to have the last word. Fitz tricked him once pretending he wanted this stupid tapestry after dying/becoming a wolf? Well, next time he almost dies, he will have it! (I could talk more about how Chade forbids himself to be sad or to grieve but that is for another time. Maybe.)

“She pulled hair forward over my face, then cut it off square above my eyebrows…”

i like how hobb does worldbuilding between the first two trilogies. the first one (farseer, or assassin's noun) is told in first person from the perspective of one guy who is 1) a child to young adult 2) myopically focused on his duty, such that by the end of the series i still had no clear idea what the tech level was (implied to be medieval/early modern, but maybe that was all that was available to the narrator) or how the society functioned in terms of religion or social mores, or whether the setting even knew it was in a fantasy novel, because the existence of neither gods nor dragons nor gay people was relevant to the narrator unless he physically encountered them. most people in the nobility were named for virtues: chivalry, verity, celerity (my personal favorite).

Asking for unimaginable