With their survival at stake, fifteen dragons—among them the wise golden Mercor, the haughty and dazzling silver-blue queen Sintara, and the delicate copper beauty Relpda—have set off on a dangerous trek into the unknown, up the Rain Wild River, in hopes of rediscovering the ancient Elderling city of Kelsingra, the lost haven for dragons and Elderlings alike. The dragons are accompanied by a disparate group of human keepers, rejects from Rain Wild society. They, too, yearn to find Kelsingra and create a home of their own, one in which they may make their own rules and decide their own fate. But is Kelsingra real or merely a fragment of a glorified past buried deep in the dragons’ shared memories? No map exists to guide them, and the noble creatures find their ancient recollections of little use in a land changed by generations of flooding and seismic chaos. As the dragons, the humans—including the strong and defiant Rain Wild girl Thymara; the wealthy dragon scholar and Trader’s wife, Alise; and her companion, the urbane Sedric—and their magical supply barge, captained by the gruff Leftrin, forge their way ever deeper into uncharted wilderness, human and beast alike discover they are changing in mysterious and dangerous ways. While the bonds between them solidify, starvation, flashfloods, and predators will imperil them all. But dragons and humans soon learn that the most savage threats come from within their own company . . . and not all of them may survive.
Dragon Haven picks up where Dragon Keeper left off. Let’s be frank: this book doesn’t have a plot, as its predecessor didn’t have a plot. It’s something of a soap opera, focused on character interactions and nothing but. If you don’t like most of the characters, then this trilogy will do absolutely nothing for you, similar to the Liveship Trader trilogy. Imagine A Song of Ice and Fire but strip away everything that isn’t character interaction.
This isn’t to say that Hobb’s setting is terrible; the Rain Wilds is a convincingly forbidding, unforgiving environment. Flora and fauna are described in loving detail, mishaps result not from some grand evil scheme but nature being a harsh mistress: parasites, earthquakes, flooding, terrible food. You can read the book as an expedition journal, because that’s essentially what it is. The characters’ goal, after all, is locating an ancient, lost city while mapping new paths, jotting down notes on vegetation and animals, observing the development of dragons. That is all the “plot” there is. Expect nothing more: no intricate political machinations, no prophecy. What you have are total strangers (and dragons) drawn together by a sense of being outcast, a hope for something new and better, a place where they can be themselves and belong, in every sense of the word. There are the Rain Wild marked, young men and women born with heavy mutations and despised by their own people, pushed into this expedition so their hometown can get rid of them. There are the dragons, stunted and weak, breaking out of their cocoons to find themselves not mighty beasts of their ancestral memories, but broken, crippled things barely able to hunt for themselves. There’s Alise, wife to a wealthy, abusive Trader and Sedric, her childhood friend and her husband’s lover. These very different people learn to coexist, grow up, adapt, and if you have come to like them in Dragon Keeper, watching them develop will be a delight.
Somewhat unfortunately, but realistically, many of the problems in the first book carry over. The same conflicts continue: dragons squabbling with each other, Sintara’s unstable relationship with Thymara, Sedric’s secrets, friction among the keepers, Leftrin’s and Alise’s affair. Some of them are resolved but for most of the book, it’s more of the same–I’d say the first half of Haven is almost static in terms of conflicts dragging on in the same vein they have since the start of the expedition. Doesn’t make it any less entertaining, but like real people, these characters take a long time to get over their differences and learn to play nice or become better human beings. Dragon conflicts are more or less a given, as like most fantasy dragons they are prideful, arrogant, and fierce–but unlike most fantasy dragons, you get to see them really develop. Rather than airborne fire-breathing terrors, these are creatures weighed down by mundane concerns: their claws going soft in the acidic river, parasites digging into their bodies, mud caking over their scales, learning to hunt, and having to be groomed constantly to stay clean. And maybe never, ever being able to fly. Even if you don’t like dragons (I don’t), it’s a fascinating take you don’t usually get in the genre.
Just as well-drawn are the sexuality and gender conflicts within the expedition, a microcosmic picture of the Rain Wild/Bingtown culture at large. Greft, a bully and wannabe leader among the keepers, likes to push everyone around–and he likes to push the girls most of all. Deciding that he’s the one who knows best what’s what, he pressures each female keeper into “choosing” a partner. A woman has to have a partner, he insists to Thymara, to keep the other boys from fighting over her. Thymara doesn’t want to be raped, does she? Because that’s what happens to women who don’t have men to speak for them. So pick a boy and keep him, and he’ll respect her choice. Greft knows how important it is to respect women’s choice. Why, he will even reinforce it: he prefers her of course, but even if she picks another boy, he’ll make sure the others keep their hands off. It all sounds sensible until you realize that he’ll only respect “choices” he coaxes, bullies, and cajoles others into. He respects women’s “choice” as long as it aligns with his heteronormative, binary view of gender. Thymara is fond of her childhood friend Tats, but she doesn’t feel herself ready to commit, and her answer to Greft is: “I choose no one.”
Which of course isn’t a choice he can respect.
“I don’t think that’s an option for you, Thymara. Perhaps Tats is the best match for you. You can probably make him wait and lead him about by the nose until it suits your fancy to come to his bed.”
…
“Don’t think this is something I’m imposing on you. I simply happen to see people and situations for what they are… The truth is, I want us all to survive. I can’t force you to do this. I can only point out to you that, right now, you have the opportunity to make a choice. Wait too long, even a few days more, and that choice may be taken from you. Once men have fought over you and one has claimed you, it will be too late for anyone to assert you have the right to choose your own mate. Then you’ll have to live with what you have.”
Girls get to choose but only up to a certain deadline. After that they’re just meat for anybody. I’m sure I don’t need to stress that this attitude is very real, this opinion is shared by living, breathing real-world meatspace people. That women are pressured, if not in terms so extreme, into relationships they may not even really want.
Thymara doesn’t give in. She insists that her choice must be hers: the right, even, to pick nobody. Couple this with Alise’s realization that an abusive asshole her husband Hest really is–her growth into a more mature person when faced with the reality that Hest has been cheating on her with Sedric, and reaching the point where she can forgive Sedric as a fellow victim of Hest’s abuse–and you have got fantastic personal journeys. It’s Hobb’s strongest point even if I find her tendency to pair everyone off with everyone else self-defeating. Nearly everyone finds true love on this ship. Sedric finds a hunter, the hunter’s nephew finds a keeper boy, Alise finds Leftrin, Thymara despite her protests will likely end up with Tats, and so on. The dragons are left up for question, but since there are so few females among them I’m guessing some of the males are going to turn out gay. But hey, all fine and good. Grown-up people entering into healthy, consensual relationships! What a rarity!
And then out comes the slut-shaming.
Jerd is a keeper, and one of the three girls among their lot. She sleeps around. This point is driven home, several times, at every opportunity. She “mates where she wants.” She’s slept with pretty much every single boy. Throughout the novel, other characters–including the boys she’s had sex with–look on her with disapproval. Greft “takes charge” of her to stop her promiscuity and claims her for his own. She gets pregnant and becomes an obnoxious brat and everyone calls her a bitch.
See where this is going?
Jerd, naturally, miscarries. It’s what sluts do, after all. Bellin, a woman and part of the ship’s crew, has long had difficulty with her pregnancies. She wants babies, badly. So at the scene of Jerd’s miscarriage, she demands that the other girls stay and watch:
“No,” she said sternly. “I want you girls here. Time to see the consequences of what you’re doing.”
…
“This girl here, she did what she wanted, with whom she wanted at the moment. And that’s her business, as she told me pretty hot once, and you’ve probably heard too. But here we are at the crossroads, and who is the work falling on? You see any boys or men in this room? You see any fellow pacing up and down outside, praying to Sa to give that little life a chance? I don’t. And that’s the message, girls. You don’t have a partner ready to put it on the line for you, to the last drop of blood in his body, well, then you’re a bloody fool if you spread your legs.”
…
“When this is over, a week or two from now, every one of those boys is likely to come sniffing after you. The ones you already had will assume you’ll still accept them, and the ones who haven’t will still be waiting to take a turn. If you’re smart, you’ll hold out for something from them this time, other than a few jolly humps.”“I’m not… a whore,” Jerd retorted indignantly.
“No, you’re not,” Bellin returned placidly. “A whore has the sense to get something for what she gives, money or presents. Something she can use to take care of herself. You just gave it away, girl.”
Uh. Yeaaah. Sex is a commodity and at least whores get money for it, right. Yes, Bellin dear, we know you’re bitter but really? I’m not going to say that Hobb is a slut-shaming misogynist, but the entire book has been written in a way to marginalize, condemn, and tell you how disgusting everyone finds Jerd, who might as well be named Slutty McSlut Whoreface. But, see, Bellin’s beef isn’t with her sleeping around–that’s her business, we respect women’s choices, right? The real issue, Bellin would like you to believe, is contraceptives:
“Something like that falls on me, it’s going to be Swarge’s child, not yours. He gives me a baby, well, I know that he and I will give the last breath of our bodies to make sure it lives. So, I’m letting you know, every one of you here with no partner willing to stand up and admit he’s your partner: keep your legs together. If anyone catches a baby in her belly on this ship, it’s going to be me. Or Alise there. We got the men to back us up. You don’t.”
…
“You remember, when you think we’re just being cruel to you, that there’s a reason for the rules. The rules are to keep you from hurting yourself. Every girl always thinks she’s smarter than the rules, always thinks she can break them and get away with it. But you can’t. And I can’t. So you remember that, next time you’re sneaking around and kissing that boy and letting him touch you. The rules aren’t there to be mean. They’re there to make life a little bit less unfair to everyone.”Bellin’s eyes slid to Thymara and Sylve. “And know this. If I catch you opening your legs to a boy on this ship, keeper or crew, it’s going to hurt. And humiliate. Because that’s a lot better than what we just had to go through here today.”
So for your own good, if she catches you doing the nasty with anybody, she’s going to beat you up and humiliate you in front of the entire crew! If you don’t have a reliable partner, how dare you open your legs, you slutty slut whoreface bitch you? Listen to Bellin. She knows better. Only women with men to support them, like her and Alise, get to open their legs and have babies. Single mothers? GTFO, bitches.
To which I say: what the fuck, Hobb? What the fuck.
