This conclusion of "The Tawny Man" trilogy also serves as a sort of conclusion to Hobb's other series, the "Farseer Trilogy" as well as the Live Ship" trilogy. The world she built in the "Live Ships" is the setting for both "Farseer" and "Tawny Man". "Farseer" deals with the youth and struggles of royal bastard Fitz Chivalry, taken in by his family's entourage as Royal Assassin. "Tawny Man" follows his career as an adult and explores his relationship with the King's Fool, a prophetic and other-ly being.

While the "Live Ships" at times strayed pretty far into the "Boddice Ripper" romance genre, the latter two trilogies have not done so as badly. They do make heavy use of that genre's technique of artificial conflict. Fitz has many secrets that he will not share, many conflicts caused by a sense of honor that makes no sense to the reader. We are tempted to pick him up, shake him, and say "talk to them!" about any number of deep misunderstandings.

Hobb's craft has evolved though, and in this ninth novel she does an even better job of supporting his reasons for those conflicts. She has always had a good continuity, with none of the annoying lapses of sequence, setting, or character that seem to plague the books that wander the line between High Fantasy and Romance.

In this novel we finally set off on the adventure to discover the dragon supposedly buried in a glacier among the Outer Isles. Prince Dutiful has sworn to find and slay it as a quest for the hand of the "Narcheska" of the Outer Isles, a marriage that will end centuries of reiving and warfare. Given what we know of dragons from the previous series, we must suspect some evil scheme among the Islanders. Nonetheless, the quest is pursued and we do not discover to the very end what the duplicity actually is.

There is enough forshadowing of the final revelation to cause a bit of frustration that the characters can't see it as well as the reader can, but there is some support for them being honor bound to proceed even if they are suspicious.

The previous novels of this series were more deeply layered with multiple plots. The conflict over the "Witted" natural magicians remains, but as they have come into the openand support the Prince, it's more a side plot than a sub-plot. The motivation of the Red Ship Wars is followed again, and the question of how the raiders in those wars stole the souls from people once again comes up. This is twined around the question of the character of the Fool as prophet, and his role in the quest for the dragon as well as his ultimate quest to cement the future of the Farseer line.

Her exploration of magic in this volume is more focused on Fitz. There is none of the previous work exploring the bond between man and animal, but more work with human-to-human magic and human perception of nature.

Thankfully Hobb lets up a little on our primary character, Fitz. His still suffers trials and tribulations, but there is more general sympathy and support for him, as he is kept among those who know most of his secrets.

The book makes a satisfying conclusion to a good series. Hobb's world building skills are unusually good, and while her conflicts may seem artificial, her characters are strong. Certainly we may hope for more High Fantasy from her, though perhaps in a new setting.