I read the main Robin Hobb books a few years ago & to this day they remain my favourite fantasy novels of all time. Hobb is great at many things, including world-building and creating intrigue (her only flaw is the pacing at the start of some of her books IMHO). But the shining star in her books as far as I’m concerned is how well she writes characters. Her characters have proper emotional depth and from these depths interactions arise that feel realistic. For instance, her main character, Fitz, is brave and dumb and scared and caring and clueless and all the other things that humans are. The same goes for all other Hobb characters. Their character then gives rise to their actions and friendships and conflicts in a very natural way. And this made me invested in them, made me care for them. For instance, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such wonderful character growth as in the case of Malta. And Kyle was a brilliant villain, precisely because his perspective was in a way understandable. It made him feel like a real abuser, not a cartoon character.
I haven’t been able to find much fantasy that also achieves this (obviously, there’s plenty of literary fiction that does emotions well, but I also want swords and dragons damnit!). For instance, I’m now reading ‘The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi’, which has received great reviews. But….it’s fine. It’s not bad. But all the characters are just so flat, so cliche. The main character is one of those ‘strong female characters’ who can beat up all the men while making wise-cracking jokes. And all the dialogue feels video game like to me. E.g., if one character felt betrayed by something that someone else did years ago they will literally say ‘you betrayed me all those years ago’. Ugh.
Is there any fantasy that has the same emotional depth as the books of Robin Hobb?
(The only author who comes to mind, who does characters equally well is Terry Pratchett)
by BlaasKwaak