Ever since I was 13-14 and read the Farseer-trilogy for the first time I've been hooked on Robin Hobb. It's been a while since then and I have read better fantasy, but Hobb will always be my favourite and close to heart. I was at a friends house, who's all time favourite also seems to be Hobb, and she got hand on a special signed edition of
The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince. Of course I had to borrow it!
So...what did I think?
Hobb has always, in my eyes, used a "simple" language when she's writing but her words are spellbinding. In her earlier trilogies connected to The Realm of the Elderlings she's writing in first person, and so does she in this book. The book contains two short stories; The Willful princess & The Piebald Prince. Hard to guess, huh?
We are following Felicity who is the close friend and companion to the willful princess Caution and later on also wet-nurse and caretaker of the bastard prince Charger, also known as The Piebald Prince. It is the last will of Felicitys own son, who's a minstrel, to write the truth about the events that has occurred. The simple, sometimes ugly, truth and not euphemestic in any way. The truth is dark and twisted. Jealousy, envy, love, hate, ambition, sorrow is taking place in both stories.
The stories are by themself interesting, but I don't think the book is something for the first-time-Hobb-reader. I do understand that some people, who hasn't read the Farseer- and The Tawny Man-trilogies, are disappointed of the book since the stories doesn't contain any depth in the telling. But for the hardcore-Hobb-reader it will give some answers and facts about the Piebald Prince, who is an important character in how the Six kingdoms-people view the Witted ones. Why is one kind of magic appropiate but not the other? Why is the Wit banned?
I give it 4 out of 5.
