I love Big Books and I Cannot Lie

FOOL'S QUEST (Fitz and the Fool Trilogy #2)
Robin Hobb
Del Rey Books
August 11, 2015

I especially love big books when Fitz and the Fool are back, and at nearly 800 pages, Fool's Quest is a whopper. In the previous installment, Fool's Assassin, The Fool has reappeared and is much changed. He apparently has been tortured unto near death and is sightless; so unrecognizable in fact that Fitz nearly kills him when the Fool touches young Bee.  Distraught, Fitz must take him through the Pillars to Buckkeep Castle to be healed. He leaves Bee in the care of the two offspring of Lord Chade with predictable results. The two are completely unable to protect her when Withywood is raided by a band of  Servants of the White Prophet, supported by a troop of brutal Chalcedean mercenaries. The Servants are searching for the "Unexpected Son" and they are the ones who tortured the Fool.  They believe that they have found him in Bee, but do not know that she is a girl.

When Fitz learns of his daughter's kidnapping and the havoc wrought on the people of Withywoods, he is for a time paralyzed with grief. He learns all he can about the kidnapping and sets out to find Bee. The journey to find her is one in which Fitz's old assassin instincts come to the surface again. Believing that he has lost Bee forever, vengeance is all that is on his mind and in his heart. Fool's Quest ends with Fitz and his unwanted companions in desperate trouble in the ancient Elderling city of Kelsingra.

There are moments of transcendent joy and sorrow in Fool's Quest. Fitz is one of my favorite characters ever, a man torn apart by conflicting loyalties and responsibilities. Although he finds acceptance at Buckkeep that he never dreamed of  he is tortured by guilt and self-doubt.  The characters both old and new are, as always, beautifully realized; whether I like them or not. The new players in the trilogy range from useless to vicious with a few exceptions like Perseverance, the Withywoods stableboy and Spark, the Fool's servant. And I have always been more than a little ambivalent about the Fool.

Fool's Quest is a worthy follow-up and should completely satisfy those who found Fool's Assassin a little slow-paced. I am surprised how much I became invested in Fitz's odd little daughter, Bee. Her voice is barely present and I missed her tremendously, even though I understand the reasons. That is my only quibble and not enough to deduct from a full 5 Star rating.

Thanks to Del Rey Books and netgalley.com for an advance digital copy in return for an honest review.