Customer Reviews
eco warriors - By: Paul Tapner, 23 Sep 2008 
third & final volumein robin hobb's trilogy of fantasy novels called the soldier son trilogy. these are about nevare. a would be soldierin a world where red indian style indigenous people are being threatened by the expansion of humanity, his career & life have been ruined & forever changed by a native magic woman who is using him to fight back against humanity.
whilst the book does bring you up to speedin the first chapter you really need to have read the first two volumesin the series [shamans crossing & forest mage] to get the most out of this, so go & read those first if you havent.
if you have, then you are safe to read on.
those who read the first two books will recall the second ended with nevare giving himself over to the magic, & leaving all his human friends & enemies thinking he's dead. as a result of this, he ends up with the natives, & another personality takes over his body. this is called soldiers boy, & he's determined to destroy humanity.
can nevare get control of his body & life back? & what will happen to the world?
typically excellent prose from robin hobb but this is more a novel of character than plot & thus many will find it slow moving. but as a novel of character this is exceedingly well written. the conflict between nevare & his other half is well done, & the experiences he goes through & the settings are as well. things do happen, & changes occur to the characters & the world as a result.
after which one hundred pages are required to wrap the fate of everyone else up, & this they do.
4.5/5 from me, as whilst typically excellently written the story ultimately isn't quite as strong as it wasin the first two volumes. but robin hobb remains a very good writer & this will not put me off trying her subsequent work.
Know what you're getting into... - By: P. Tennent, 18 Sep 2008 
I choose to write this review more generally about the whole soldier son trilogy. Most of the reviews so far have made unfavourable references to the frankly awe-inspiring assassin/liveship/fool trilogies. I, however, don't think a comparison can reasonably be made. Superficially there are similarities between the styles of writing from Fitz & Nevarre (respective narrators of the books) - both are highy emotionally compelling character explorations told from the point of view of a character who is both protagonist & unwilling recipient of many of the events driving both stories. The books are confessionals of the strugglein these characters to do 'the right thing.'
There however the similarity ends. The soldier son books are setin an entirely different world (still equally fantastical) & contemporary with colonial technology & values, thoughin fact the same story could probably be transplanted onto any number of time periods. While the setting is largely militaristic (book one takes place predominatelyin a military academy, book twoin a military outpost & book threein the opposing camp) little of the text is concerned with warfare - indeed the descriptions of any actual warfare are few & far between. If that is what you seekin a similar temporal setting, then I'd suggest reading bernard cornwell's sharpe series.
Instead, this series focusses on polar tensions. There are actually three societies comprising the worldin which the books take place. The Plainspeople, the Gernians & the Specks. the first of these seem largely incidental to the story & seem to exist mostly to flesh out the world. This is not necessarily a bad thing but one does get a sense of unfulfillment from them. The other two societies, conversely are fantastically realised. We have the colonial-esque Gernians & the more traditionally fantasy-based tree people (the Specks). Both societies, & their drastically conflicting values are deeply explored, & the tension between the beliefs of each society creates a deliciously tense setting. Even the idea that they are at war is fascinating as neither really understands the conceptin the manner of the other. Indeed, the Gernians are unaware that the specks consider themselves at war with them., while the Speck make war on them by spreading disease & discontent. The setting seems to be designed to highlight the contrast between urban expansion & natural harmony, & the 'war' between the peoples seems just to be a realisation of the deeper tension that exists as a result of urban encroachment on the natural environment.
This polarization is further explored with the protagonist, Nevarre Burvelle. Hobb takes the unique step of separating Nevarre into two distinct entities: Nevarre & Soldier's Boy. Intriguingly our narrator is only one of these two personalities - thus we have a series narrated by half a person - a concept that is truly fascinating & endlessly intriguing. Our narrator is principally the Gernian half of Nevarre, though he certainly has much sympathy for the specks, while his opposing half, Soldier's Boy appears to be primarily Speckin outlook - though the few glimpses we get of Soldier's Boy's sympathy for the Gernians suggest at a character who is equally as troubled with his conscience as Nevarre.
Conscience as it turns out plays a major rolein the narrative. It forces one to question whether Nevarre really is literally splitin two, or simply exploring his own actions & atrocities against the two opposing peoples. His loyalty by default is Gernian, but only the specks treat him well because he's fat. Yup. Fat. Hugein fact.
So here's another theme of the novel. Prejudice. Nevarre becomes hugely fat during book two as a result of becoming a mage. Suddenly he is ostracised by his own society, even his own family, & revered by the Specks. The exploration of people's attitudes towards fat people are not something one would expectin this genre, but the book carries it off fantastically. Here we have a hero who is physically un-heroic, indeed for much of book three he is not evenin control of his body, we see through his eyes what soldier's boy does as becomes the personification of soldier's boy's conscience. To read a book told from the perspective of someone's conscience is an experience I will not soon forget.
I have heard criticisms of the magic systemin the book as being "clumsy" or "impenetrable." I actually like the latter, though I see it as a compliment rather than a criticism. The eponymous "Forest Mage" is not our narrator Nevarre, but rather Soldier's Boy. We are not privy to soldier's Boy's thoughts, & thus the magic remains just that - magic. Nevarre doesn't know how it works, & so it should be. We use the idea of magic to describe phenomena we cannot fully comprehend. Nevarre dabbles, but certainly doesn't know what he's doing or how he's doing it. Interestingly there seem to be two different uses of the term magic. One isin the more traditional sense - a power to achieve incredible things such as fast travel, or an influence on people's emotions. The second use seems more intangible. It seems to refer to magic, or more properlyin this usage "the magic" as an entity. Perhaps it could be more easily imagined as fate. If "the magic" wants something to happen, it happens. I rather like the usage, especially as it appears to be a version of fate that has an active & opposable component.
Nevarre is a wonderful character to read, though he may not always be terribly likable, & as with all Hobbs characters, sometimes you want to bang his head against the wall & explain the thing he can't seem to comprehend. I suspect he was also a joy to write. His incarnation as half a personality, gives a fascinating perspective & is something few writers have attempted. David Gemmell's Dark Moon did something similar, but on a much smaller scale. Make no mistake, this series is on an epic scale. We have 2000 pages of extraordinary character realisation. I have just discussed Nevarre, but the fabulous three dimensional characters that Hobb builds up around him are a joy to behold. Epinyin particular is exquisitely drawn, albeit from Nevarre's perspective, as she strives towards an early concept of feminism.
This series is slow. Glacially slow, & yet contains very little filler. It's also horrendously addictive. I found myself blasting through the whole seriesin three days. If you want fast paced high fantasy this is not for you. Even avid Robin Hobb fans brought up on a diet of Fitz & the Fool may wish to pass this one by, but if you like your fantasy to challenge your expectations & make you think, then I can think of few finer series.
To end on a lighter note, one does get the distinct impression from time to time that the venerable Ms. Hobb may have been on a diet while writing this. Some of the descriptions of the food that the specks lavish on Nevarre are salivation-inducing. Do not, under any circumstances, read this series (or at least the latter two books) without access to a well stocked fridge...
Lost in the forest - By: Stephanie Noverraz, 17 Sep 2008 This is the third & final volumein the Soldier Son trilogy (after Shaman's Crossing & Forest Mage).
Barely escaping Gettys & its angry mob with his life, Nevare flees into the forest. Realizing that the King's Road is planned to go right through the part where Lisana's tree stands, he makes one last attempt at stopping its construction with the Magic. Alas, it doesn't work as expected & Nevare's Magic is all be depleted.
Finding himin this poor condition, Olikea & her son Likari need to feed him again until he regains a respectable girth, so they can present him as Great One to their kin clan at the Wintering Place, on the other side of the Barrier Mountains.
As time passes & Nevare tries to find out what the Magic expects him to do, his Speck self, Soldier's Boy, becomes more & more powerful, until he finally takes control of his body. Nevare is then nothing but a helpless witness of Soldier's Boy's actions: when he tattoos his skin with the dapples of the Specks, or when he plans a raid on the Gerniansin Gettys to stop their Eastward progression. Only on rare occasions can Nevare surreptitiously tap Soldier's Boy Magic & dream-walk to his cousin Epiny, to try & warn her of the impending attack.
A major part of the book takes placein the forest with the Specks, & even though I'm a tree-hugger, sadly I must admit that their culture failed to intrigue me. I felt close to Nevare but not to Soldier's Boy. Probably because the "Gernian-bred" me was taking sides, & I found myself constantly waiting for signs that things would look up for Nevare, that the scales would finally tipin his favour & reunite his split personality without too much loss & sacrifice. But that's also why I found the last third of the book tremendously exciting.
As a whole, the Soldier Son trilogy was a more than excellent series, & Robin Hobb's storytelling surpasses everything I have read. However, I still have a preference for her precedent trilogies (The Farseer, The Liveship Traders, & The Tawny Man). I do hope it grows on me with time, though. I'm sure it will.
Tries to be two different things and doesn't really work - By: Mr. M. J. Archer, 30 Jul 2008 
Robin Hobb is an excellent author, there's little doubt of that. While the Soldier Son is far from her best work, I am sick of people complaining because they prefer the Farseer more, or because her latest output is not as good as her older material. Well sorry to break the bad news to you, but authors have good times & bad times like the rest of us. I don't want another Farseer. I have already read that book. You cannot take a negative view on a novel because it is different from another. What you can do is take a negative view because the book is not particularly well written.
The Soldier Son suffered from day one. It was a difficult read, &in my opinion there were many great concepts & stories which were never really sewed together properly which caused the whole trilogy to have a detached feeling. What I mean by this is that there are two main themes through this series - the colonial era Gettysburg setting - Old Thares, Widevale, the plains people - & that part of it is all excellently described (even the main townin the last book is called Gettys). The second is the forest magic setting - the Specks & their great people, & their way of life. Again, very well described & an excellent new concept of magic.
Where it all fell down was where Hobb tried to bring these two cultures together - ironically mirroring the problems seenin the story between the two peoples. I feel that this story tried to be a great colonial book & a great tree magic book, & instead of perfecting one, the thread split down the middle & the whole trilogy fell into the crack at the centre. The book is as split as like Nevare & Soldier's Boy.
Having read it, I feel I have come away confused an a little bit bombarded with too many things which were mentioned too briefly. I have no clue how the whole Lisana thing saving Nevare actually works having only just finished it. I couldn't tell you how the problem of Nevare & Soldier's Boy finally being unified was actually rectified, because I don't think it was really explained very well. I have a nasty feeling that some things were swept under the carpet, though I can't seem to pinpoint specifically what I mean. I criticised the first two books but I think they were both better than the third, only upon reading Renegade's Magic did I realise how well thought out the world was & how well it was describedin the first two books. But the book is not entirely without merit, I found myself enjoying most of it.
Hobb is now writing a new novel about the Realm of the Elderlings, setin the same world as the Six Duchies, thank God. This should please different people for different reasons.
An enjoyable read nontheless - By: Rosslock, 29 Jul 2008 The soldioers boy trilogy had a lot to live up to, coming hot on the footsteps of one of the best epic fantasy series (Assasin/Liveship/Fool trilogies). The author obviously wanted to write something completely different, &in that she succeeded. No, it is not as good as the afore mentioned epic fantasy books. But read on its own, this series is still compelling enough.
I did enjoy this, it had some interesting twists to the usual magical ingredients foundin fantasy books. However I think one of the major let downsin this series is the characterisation of the main players, especially Nevarre. He is not particularely likeable, & ultimately that is what lets this trilogy down a bit.
A classic it is not, but read it anyway & enjoy it for what it is.
