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  • Fool's Errand

  • Tawny Man Trilogy, Book 1
  • By: Robin Hobb
  • Narrated by: Nick Taylor
  • Length: 23 hrs and 9 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (1,320 ratings)
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Fool's Errand cover art

Fool's Errand

By: Robin Hobb
Narrated by: Nick Taylor
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Summary

Return to the world of the Farseers…

Robin Hobb’s best loved characters, Fitz , The Fool and Nighteyes the wolf, face new adventures and trials in the first book of The Tawny Man trilogy.

When Assassin’s Quest closed, Fitz was living in self-imposed exile. Wracked with pain, he had chosen to discard the magical gifts that had seen him survive the wonders and torments of navigating the legendary city of the Elderlings, and of raising a dragon.

Now, in this the first of a new trilogy, we are returned to the world of the Six Duchies and the lives of those who managed to survive the events of the first Assassin trilogy.

Fifteen years have passed and events are about to sweep Fitz out of his quiet backwater life and into the main political current again. Persecution of the Witted has become rampant throughout the Six Duchies despite Queen Kettricken’s effort to damp it. The Witted themselves have begun to strike back. So when 15 year old Prince Dutiful disappears, is it only because he is nervous about his betrothal ceremony to an Outislander princess, or has he been taken hostage by the Witted? Worse, is he perhaps another ‘Piebald Prince’, a Farseer tainted by Wit magic? As the desperate situation worsens, Kettricken has no choice but to summon Fitz to Buckkeep, for who better to track the young prince down than another gifted with the Wit, together with his bonded companion, the wolf Nighteyes?

©2013 Robin Hobb (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"Hobb is one of the great modern fantasy writers… what makes her novels as addictive as morphine is not just their imaginative brilliance but the way her characters are compromised and manipulated by politics." (The Times)

"A gleaming debut" (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Fool's Errand

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Overall
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Changes in narrators

The book is brilliant!! Unfortunately,change in narrators from the farseer books was quite annoying! Firstly unable to pronounce peoples names either correctly or as pronounced in the first books so took me a while to even realise to whom they were referring to! Secondly, confusing at times as to which character was speaking as there was no real change in voice,also confusing.lastly,poorly edited as a few mistakes were left in.the story is brilliant but i wish they could keep the original narrators as these become the voices and demeanour of the characters. Its Burrage not boregauge and Ket-trican

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Bring back Paul Boehmer!

Having just finished listening to Paul Boehmer's narration of Robin Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy (which I found absolutely epic) I excitedly bought The Fool's Errand assuming (stupidly) it would also be narrated by Paul Boehmer as a continuation of Fitz's story. Instead, Nick Taylor's is the narrator and while I'm sure he's a lovely person his narration is so bad I can't even bring myself to listen past the first chapter. While Boemar's over the top English accent took a bit of getting used to in The Assassin's Apprentice, I found that in a fantasy setting, the theatrics kind of worked and three books later I was completely immersed in his creation of the Six Duchies world. Now with these new audiobooks instead of Nighteyes sounding like John Hurt whispering in your ear we've got Ray Winston after 6 pints and 20 Benson & Hedges. It's like someone told him, "just make your voice growly, that's what wolfs sound like." Not only that all the pronunciations are wrong - Burridge in now 'Burrig' and Kettricken is now 'Ktriggin' and Starling has gone from being a willowy seductively voiced minstrel to a Devon Farmer's Wife - ooooh aahhr. Wish he'd just listened to the Farseer Audiobooks before he agreed to take the gig. Anyway, rant over, I have decided to re-listen to the end of The Farseer Trilogy and while I have a proper sounding Nighteyes fresh in my mind, start reading the Fool's Errand paper book instead. I'm sure the actual book itself is grand - 5 stars etc. etc.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

new chapters

the abruptness of a new chapter kept making me jump....leave a little time between, me thinks.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent story poorly edited

I adore this book and was very excited to listen to it told. The story is as excellent, as I recalled from reading the story myself, but this is slightly affected by very poor editing that includes repitition and errors. Still enjoyable to listen to, as it is read well (bar mispronuncitation of Kettricken's name) but frustrating that the presentation is so poor.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A book you can’t put down, nor should you.

Nick Taylor should have been the narrator through out the nine books as he does the characters voices justice. Please re-record the others so I can enjoy them as much. I find myself listening to this series over and over again never wanting to say goodbye to Fitz. The story draws you in and you can not put it down. A worthy credit spent indeed! I have listened to this many a time and still I can’t predict what happens.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Everything superb except the editing!

Chapters crash into each other rather and a couple of errors not edited out.
Shame, as book and reader both excellent

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great book terrible voices

I am from the west country, but this narrator wants me to rip my ears off. The voice makes no sense, why does starling sound like my cousins from Hartcliffe. Shes a minstrel not Vicky Pollard, and night eyes mysterious voice now sounds like a dodgy uncle from London. I will continue to muddle through but i have bought the physical book so I can read it at home and listen to the audio while i work. This way i can save myself from the voices a bit more.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story/ frustrating lack of consistency

A great story and nice to see and experience Fitz's life post the initial trilogy.

The only problem is with consistency in the narration.

Nick is a good narrator with lots of different voices but lazy not to have listened to the previous books. The change of pronunciation of ketricken to k'tricken and burritch to burrick grated on me the whole way through and detracted from the quality of the story

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story and the narrator is fine

Yet another fantastic tale from Robin Hobb. Changes of narrator are always potentially difficult, but Nick Taylor is significantly better than Paul Boehmer whose strange transatlantic accent took most of a book to get used to. Only 4 stars, because the change of pronunciation of key names was unnecessary.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely awesome.

It's so good to back in the game with my favourite trio from The Realm Of The Elderlings, Returning to the world of Fitz, the Fool and Nighteyes in the first book of The Tawny Man Trilogy, Fool's Errand. It's like being back with old friends you haven't seen in years.
I absolutely enjoyed the Farseer Trilogy and the last book left me longing to get back to this world and to the life of FitzChivalry to see what happened after the end of Assassin's Quest had left me feeling a bit nostalgic. This book has everything that made me love the story and gave me some hope of a better life for Fitz, because he really deserves happiness after the hell he went through in the last trilogy. But knowing Robin Hobb her characters never get an easy ride. Set fifteen years later after the red ship wars, a new conflict and threat comes to Buckkeep and the Farseers line. The witted are being persecuted for their old blood across the kingdom, the Piebalds have a sceme of their own. When Prince Dutiful is deemed missing, Fitz is called backed into action and courtly matters when visited by old friends. Robin Hobb really knows how to emerge the reader in the mind of Fitz and the characters making you feel every emotion that they go through and have to deal with as things happen throughout the book. Damn you Robin Hobb, you broke me, better get tissues for this one on stand by. I very highly recommend, now for Golden Fool...😢🐺💙🔥

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