Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb

02 Oct, 2026

Earlier this week I finished Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb.

It's the third book in her Tawny Man Trilogy, which itself is the third trilogy in a series of books—The Realm of the Elderlings—that all take place in the same world. Yes, a book review about the ninth book in a specific series probably doesn't apply to many people, but:

1. The process of writing these book blurbs has been fun and useful for their own sake, and more importantly
2. You should read these books.

If you're into fantasy, or if you like character-driven books, or if you appreciate great prose, or if you just want to be thrown into a convincing world that slowly unravels itself and is joy to discover and read about—please read Robin Hobb.

She has already become one of my favorite authors, but with this book she's really approaching best of all time status for me. Hobb has created some of the most compelling characters I've read, and Fool's Fate gives the two I appreciate most—Fitz and the Fool—a conclusion that would be satisfying even if there weren't more books in the series.

To avoid spoilers I'm not going to say much about the plot or what happens, but at this point I trust Hobb entirely to bring things together in her finales. She certainly takes her time to build up the world, build up relationships, and build up (and tear down) specific characters—but it's always worth the time it takes.

The middle of this book did have some particularly slow parts with characters doing a lot of traveling,¹ but you're still getting great character development and dialogue that makes every page a joy to read.

At least when Hobb isn't purposefully tearing your heart out.

Overall: 70

• Character: 80
• Prose: 70
• Plot: 60
• Worldbuilding: 80

Highlights

• Useless to wonder, I told myself. Whatever would be would be, and I’d have to deal with it as it came.
• I’m sure that at any moment of the day, you can find some reason to be too busy for this. But a man makes time for what is important in his life.
• “Life is change,” the Fool observed placidly. “And death is an even greater change. I think we must resign ourselves to change, Fitz.”
• If one is willing to work at it, one can extend that same sort of perception to others. It is a worthwhile thing to do, for it conveys a level of understanding of one another that makes hate almost impossible. Seldom can one hate a person if one understands that person.
• Little tasks are how I have always hidden from my thoughts.
• “Do you ever get over it? Did you ever get past it?” He asked me so earnestly for there to be a tomorrow that did not possess that shadow. I told the hardest truth I had ever had to utter. “No. You don’t. I didn’t. You won’t. But you do go on. It becomes a part of you, like any scar. You will go on.”
• Web tried to talk me into going with them, saying that I too would benefit, but I begged off yet again, promising that truly, truly, one day I would make time. He smiled, and reminded me that no man could make time, but only use that which he was given wisely.

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