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A Reader's Guide to Robin Hobb's the Realm of the Elderings

Posted on April 30 2020

Robin Hobb’s writing has been a big favourite of ours for a long time now, The Realm of the Elderlings is truly unique, spectacular and a wild, magical ride. This high fantasy world from the mind of a truly amazing fantasy author is rich in characters, world-building, and a brilliant magic system. But it can be a little daunting at 16 books long, but we want to break things down to offer you a reader’s guide for Hobb’s fantastic series.

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WHAT IS THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS BOOK SERIES?

The Realm of the Elderlings is a high fantasy book series made up of multiple trilogies and a tetralogy (yes I just googled that). It has been published between 1995 and 2017 and contains five separate series along the way. The main story arc follows a bastard in the Farseer line, who is trained from a very young age to be an assassin. The Liveship and Rain Wild books follow side characters within the same world, and then all characters and storylines meet again in the Fitz and The Fool trilogy. We always refer back to this graphic from Robin’s blog…

A reader’s guide to Robin Hobb’s The Realm of the Elderlings

WHAT GENRE ARE THE BOOKS IN ROBIN HOBB’S THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS SERIES?

This is a high fantasy, adult book series for fans of George R. R. Martin, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Patrick Rothfuss.

WHAT TYPE OF THEMES DOES THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS EXPLORE?

High-fantasy
Adventure
Chosen one trope
Morally grey characters
Soulmates (this is NOT what you might expect…)
Lots. Of. Secrets.

For a bit of general info about the series… If you are a fan of slower-paced fantasy, you will enjoy them. The characters are wonderfully complex and definitely morally grey. The world and magic are depicted amazingly. I absolutely fell in love with the first chapter. It feels like you’re reading about friends.

IS THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS A HEAVY/SLOW BOOK SERIES?

Yes. It’s slow-paced fantasy at its finest. However, don’t think you’ll be bored for a second! There is always something afoot, always character intrigue, always a new piece of the puzzle to chase. Hobb’s writing itself is another reason to read - every page is beautiful. There are endless sticky tabs in our editions and passages we could quote.

ARE THERE ANY TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THE BOOKS?

Yes. There are a lot of heavy topics throughout the series, and we strongly recommend looking up any trigger warnings that may affect you before you begin. There are extensive lists compiled by other readers previously. We don’t want to miss anything by listing it here, but sites like triggerwarningsdatabase have you covered.

HOW MANY BOOKS IS ROBIN HOBB’S THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS SERIES?

As we’ve mentioned, the series is made up of multiple other series, but in total it spans a massive 16 books long! It’s split into multiple mini-series though, so easily broken up if you don’t want to read them all in one go. There are also a couple of smaller novella’s you could add to that number too..

IN WHAT ORDER SHOULD I READ THE BOOKS IN THE REALM OF THE ELDERINGS SERIES?

Robin Hobb has given us the order to read these books in and we are nothing if not loyal appreciators of Hobb’s masterpieces, so we’d suggest her order:

The Farseer trilogy

Assassin's Apprentice

Royal Assassin

Assassin’s Quest

The Liveship Traders trilogy

Ship of Magic

Mad Ship

Ship of Destiny

The Tawny Man trilogy

Fool’s Errand

The Golden Fool

Fool’s Fate

The Rain Wild Chronicles

Fitz and The Fool trilogy

Fool’s Assassin

Fool’s Quest

Assassin’s Fate

Additional novellas

The Wilful Princess and The Piebald Prince

The Inheritance & Other Stories

DO I NEED TO READ EVERY SERIES IN THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS SERIES FOR IT TO MAKE SENSE?

A lof of people stick with just The Farseer Trilogy, some people only own the Fitz and The Fool Trilogy (you bishes be cray). In theory, you could skip the Liveship and Rain Wild’s books, or even read only the Liveships…but we’d strongly recommend you don’t! Not to say we’ve tried and tested it but… let’s just say the events in Assassin’s Fate left us feeling a little bit confused the first time and required an immediate backtrack. It definitely didn’t ruin anything and you could get away with it if you really wanted to, but it’ll give you serious series FOMO and we bet you go back again! So in conclusion, for the best Hobb experience, which you owe to both Hobb and yourself, always be to read them in the order Robin tells us!

DO I NEED TO READ THE NOVELLAS IN THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS?

No. There is no major information that you’d be missing out on, but they are lovely expansions to the main story or history or events.

IN WHAT ORDER DO THE NOVELLAS FIT INTO THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS SERIES?

The Wilful Princess and Piebald prince is a prequel to The Farseer Trilogy but can be read at any point without spoilers. It’s further detail of a tale told by characters throughout the series. The Inheritance & Other Stories again can be read at any point, but probably enjoyed it best at the end!

WHAT IS THE BEST THING ABOUT THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS SERIES AND WHY SHOULD YOU READ IT?

It’s like nothing we’ve read before. And we read a lot. A LOT. Every great book has something about it that makes it so special, whether the characters, the world, the magic etc… but The Realm of The Elderlings has it all. It is a series to be treasured, that we will be rereading for the rest of our lives, and cry again every time. It’s a huge undertaking, and I mentioned in a previous blog post that I don’t like to break up a series. The first time, I was immersed in the Realm of The Elderlings for six months and it was worth every second. You can see my Goodreads reviews of the individual books here, if you so wish.

We have also very kindly been given an offer for you by BookBeat to give you 60 days of free audiobook listening if you sign up using our link! There is no obligation to keep your subscription, and they have the entire Realm of The Elderlings series ready to play! 👀📚

We hope you’ve found this a helpful guide to Hobb’s wonderful world. This series is so widely loved with so many popular fantasy authors from Maas to Martin referencing it in their own works, tweets, and acknowledgments. This really is a series loved by many, and like nothing else, you’ll ever read!

• The Paper and Word Team… but mostly Abby because she would die for this series •