Dragon Haven (Rain Wilds Chronicles, Vol. 2)
*Starred Review* The second volume of the Rain Wilds Chronicles shows Hobb again working at the highest level of contemporary fantasy, to which her creativity with dragons adds additional—there's no other word for it—majesty. Battered, bruised, and lamed sea serpents have returned to the Rain Wild River to lay eggs that will hatch into dragons. But the dragon hatchlings are feeble, misshapen, unable to fly. They can't even survive without the assistance of human Dragon Keepers. Keepers and dragons make a perilous foray up the river in search of the long lost Elderling city of Kelsingra, which possibly holds the key to the dragons' survival. Tight bonds unite the humans to their ancient liveship Tarma, but as they voyage upriver they find the landscape hideously altered by earthquakes and storms. Starvation stalks them, and the bonds among humans, at least, fray even without any open treachery gnawing at them. The Rain Wilds is one of the most gripping settings in modern fantasy, highly to Hobb's credit, and an entire novel amid its lowering trees and rock formations would be impossible to put down even without Hobb's superior skills at characterization. Let us applaud, and shelve this with the rest of Hobb's magisterial fantasy fiction, though it won't stay on the shelf long. --Roland Green--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.