#the inheritance

Reviews

Short stories are deeply interesting reads. For one, the function of short stories and novella can vary. Is this intended as supplemental material for the core storyline? A space for the author to elaborate on the series' main themes? Homecoming and The Inheritance are more the latter than the former, expanding on underdeveloped lore and driving home a number of the overarching ideas present in the Liveship Traders. Ultimately, I found both stories to be enjoyable reads. My only critique is that Hobb's skill as an author lies more in her ability to develop her characters and draw the reader further into the world, two things that are much more challenging to do in a short story to the same degree as in a novel.

Homecoming is told through the diary entries of a Jamaillian noblewoman, Carillion Carrock, who is part of the initial expedition that sets out for the Rain Wilds. The story expands on a lot of the Rain Wilds lore we're introducd to in Mad Ship and Ship of Destiny. The reader is given a better understanding of who the first traders were and what brought (or rather drove) them to the Rain Wilds. We also learn more of Kelsingra and the Elderlings that lived there, as well as the initial responses the future traders had to discovering the ancient city full of riches. Without spoiling it, I also believe Hobb hints at the relatively untouched lore about the 'cost' of living in the Rain Wilds and the Cursed Shore which we only know in Liveship from Keffria's allusion to the child she lost.

Additionally, Homecoming showcases a number of Hobb's observations on misogyny and patriarchal control. Importantly, our main character and de-facto narrator Carillion is given no choice as to whether she will accompany her husband on the perilous (likely deadly) attempt to colonise the Rain Wilds. She is also very clearly undervalued, even resented, by said husband, all her suffering dismissed as something she must tolerate as a duty to her family. Her concerns are silly and make her a hysterical woman. Her talent and skills are dismissed as useless hobbies. It's only once Carillion has the opportunity to live outside her husband's influence that she comes into her own. Similarly, the idea of mastery and the attempt to exert your will over another are taken from Liveship and touched on here. There is also a briefer, though no less powerful, consideration of art and its significance (right down to its life saving properties!).

In contrast to Homecoming’s setting in the distant past, Inheritance seems to occur immediately before the events of Ship of Magic. It’s so contemporaneous, in fact, that there are references to the new traders and I half expected a familiar name or face to appear. Ronica Vestrit, perhaps. A Trell, Tenira, or even Restart would have sufficed. No such luck! Hobb has a bit more restraint than that. The story finds Cerise, our protagonist, just before she is turfed out of the house by her half-uncle and his family in the wake of her grandmother’s death. Her only share of the inheritance is a wizardwood charm passed down through generations of women. With it, she sets out on the road to Bingtown with the intention of reclaiming her Trader roots and denouncing the man that stole her family fortune and broke her grandmother’s heart.

Hobb explains in the introduction to Inheritance that in her personal experience what you inherit from loved ones who have passed goes well beyond the physical items. Above all, it is the formative experiences they share, the special skills and knowledge they impart. Here, Inheritance grapples with similar themes as Liveship in considering the effect internalised misogyny has on women. Cerise struggles to overcome the self-effacing behaviour her grandmother and mother passed down to her. She 'had thought it the lot of all women' to endure the world with passive resignation. This thinking is shown to put her in danger of assault. What protects her is the competing ideas that form the bulk of her inheritance; the wizardwood charm carries the memories and wisdom of generations of proud and independent Old Trader women. Cerise's inheritance is not money or jewellery, but culture, customs, a way of life. Importantly, her grandmother's decisions deprived Cerise of this heritage. She had 'surrendered' her life in Bingtown. Though the reader sympathises with Aubrentia here, we are still confronted with the fact that her choices had significant rammifications for her descendants. Moreover, the lessons Aubrentia imparted to Cerise are in direct opposition to the assertive actions needed to survive alone in the world or avenge her. It is only through reconnecting with her lost heritage and accessing the enhanced social authority Trader women have that Cerise can set out to reclaim not just her rightful place in Bingtown, but also her self worth.

I think it's probably unfair to give Homecoming and Inheritance a shared rating. However, I've decided to group them as they are both thematically and content-wise similar and directly related to the Liveship trilogy. Homecoming is certainly the stronger story and provides much more additional information about the world. It is interesting to see a wizardwood charm appear in Inheritance though, particularly as Kennit's charm seemed to tell him that he could not safely remove it from his wrist. Meanwhile, Cerise's wizardwood charm is carved to look like a long-dead ancestress and subsequent generations were able to wear it. Like liveships, moreover, the charm seemed to hold onto the memories and personalities of its previous wearers.

Both Homecoming and Inheritance can be read in The Inheritance: An Anthology of Tales from the Six Duchies and Beyond published under Robin Hobb and her other penname Megan Lindholm.