One thing I will say about Rhobb is that she is great at making epic fantasy situations a realistic amount of miserable and lame. I'm reading Fool's Fate right now wherein Fitz is stuck on a shitty ass boat trip turned glacier hike with 1. A very teenage teenager who is also royalty and (secretly) his son, 2. His ageing childhood mentor who has major control issues and won't understand why Fitz won't just do what he says and 3. The guy with the most strong magic mind powers, who also has an intellectual disability, Does Not Want to be on this Miserable Ass Journey, is Fitz's direct responsibility and is using said magic mind powers to make Fitz bump his head on things.
This could be epic. It's a bit epic. There's a prophecy maybe. It doesn't feel epic. It feels miserable. Everyone keeps getting seasick. Everyone is pissed off at each other. The ageing mentor figure is a bit bigoted but refuses to acknowledge it. The teenager keeps having teenage moments. The quest might be impossible and also doomed. Also it's raining.
Honourable mentions also go to Fitz's teenage dream-walking illegitimate secret daughter who is also currently pissed off at him, the prince's plot-tormented teenage fiancee, a runaway boy who is the son of his emotionally fraught teenage situationship ex and his childhood father figure (both of whom believed him to be dead), and the guy who seems to know all Fitz's secrets which is surprisingly ok since he's a weirdly chill guy except that he keeps trying to get Fitz to make healthy life choices (now is NOT the time). And then The Fool (oh boy) rocks up. What a time to be alive.
