Dragon Haven

Dragon Haven is the sequel to Dragon Keeper, which was the debut novel in Robin Hobb's new Rain Wilds Chronicles series. Dragon Keeper was excellent, and Dragon Haven was even more excellent and compelling, so much so that I couldn't put this book down at all while I was reading it, though I had to, lamentably, when I worked the other day.

Picking up where the previous book left off, we find the fifteen dragons, their keepers, and the crew of the Liveship barge, Tarman, still slowly slogging their way up the Rain Wilds River in search of a fabled city called Kelsingra, which the dragons only recall sketchily from their incomplete ancestral memories. The journey upriver turns out to be far more long and arduous than anyone expected, fraught with perils no one could have imagined. But it's the perils within the company of keepers and the passengers on the barge that turn out to be the most dangerous. This book focuses less on the dragons and more on the conflicts between the keepers, who themselves are outcasts from the society of Rain Wilders, and who are hoping to create a new life and society for themselves in Kelsingra. A man named Greft has named himself the leader of the Keepers, and he strongarms many of the young men & women into following his set of new rules, which includes trying to mate off certain pairs to keep the men from fighting over the women. Caught in the middle of this is Thymara, Keeper of one of the more temperamental and powerful dragons, Sintara. Greft pressures Thymara to choose a mate so the other young men in the company don't start fighting over her, but Thymara refuses, saying that Greft's new rules are really just as prohibitive as the rules they lived under in the Rain Wilds, and she asserts her right not to choose anything, including following any of Greft's directives.

On the barge, the stories mainly focused on are those of the two Bingtown residents, Alise, and her friend Sedric, who was sent along by Alise's nasty husband, Hest, to keep an eye on Alise. But Sedric has other plans, which include harvesting dragon parts to make himself rich so he can run off with Hest & live happily ever after. Alise, for her part, is falling in love with Tarman's captain, Leftrin. Both Sedric and Alise encounter situations that will change them beyond anything they could possibly have imagined, and their personal growth and gaining of insights were a huge part of this story, and very well written ones, too.

But the main thrust, of course, is getting to Kelsingra, if such a place really exists. The ending had me on the edge of my seat, and I was actually glad I didn't have TV for a little while so I could solely concentrate on finishing this book - and I was sad when it ended because I WANT MORE!

According to a post on Robin Hobb's web site, Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven were meant to be one manuscript divided into two volumes for publication. She does say that a third book is in the works, but it's not been written yet. The fact that these first two books were actually one manuscript accounts for the quickness in which book 2 was published - only a few months after book one. It will be a hard, long wait for book three, I can tell you! But I know it will be worth it!