Robin Hobb on the conclusion of her Soldier Son Trilogy : UK SF Book News

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Jul

23

Robin Hobb on the conclusion of her Soldier Son Trilogy

Posted in: UKSFBN Talks To on 23rd July 2007 by UKSFBN admin

The third volume of Robin Hobb's current fantasy series, The Soldier Son, was published earlier this month by Voyager Books in the UK.

Robin Hobb has been described by The Times as "a great modern fantasy writer" and The Guardian as "a remarkable storyteller" and has been on the receiving end of rave reviews for her entire career. With The Soldier Son, she took a new narrative direction, moving away from the her hugely popular World of the Elderlings setting, crafting a new milieu from a blend of sources and influences.

We got in touch with Robin to ask how her new fictional direction had gone down with her readership, and to find out which worlds she was planning to explore next.

UKSFBN: With the completion of the Soldier Son Trilogy you must have a good idea of the general response that its new direction has had from your readers and fans. Would you say it's generally been quite positive, or are some people still pining for more tales set in the World of the Elderlings?

Robin Hobb: "Oh, that is so hard for the author to tell! The problem is that some readers are more vocal than others. And unhappy or frustrated readers are much more likely to fire off a scorching email than a reader who closes the book, sighs and thinks, "That was nice. I think I'll walk down to the coffee shop for a cup of tea and a cinnamon roll." Right now, the positive responses that have been posted on my newsgroup and the ones that have found their way to my email box have far outnumbered the negative ones or flames. So I think that is encouraging.

"Of course, the ultimate truth will eventually be discovered when the long term sales reports come in. In a year or two, I may know the answer to that question.

"I'm really determined to hold myself to a standard, as best I can judge, for telling a quality story...""There will always be people who just want another helping of a book they enjoyed. I think that if I said, 'Okay, I'm writing another Fitz and the Fool book,' I'd be overwhelmed with happy email. But the thing is, before I ever sit down to do that, I want to be sure I have a story that will deserve that happy email, not just be a wish fulfillment tale for people who want to watch the characters interact some more.

"So, it's a hard line to tread. I'm really determined to hold myself to a standard, as best I can judge, for telling a quality story rather than dishing up a second helping that is only made from warmed-over characters."

UKSFBN: Has the response from critics and reviewers been similar, and do you pay any more attention to reviews that you do to fan-feedback?

Robin Hobb: "You know, I can't really tell, because I've been avoiding both."

"I run and hide from reviews and from fan-feedback, as much as I can. For all the years that I've been doing this, I should have a thicker hide, shouldn't I? But the fact is that stinging reviews on Amazon or nasty-grams in the email still really smart. Is it okay to admit that writers remain human and that the wrong sort of message at precisely the right moment can sabotage a whole day's writing?

"I'll also admit, sheepishly, that when I'm already having a bad day about something, that's when I'll masochistically go and look at those LiveJournal sites that love to hate me (why do they keep reading the books, one wonders, if I can't get anything right?) or look at what is said in a 1 star review on Amazon. That, my friend, is called wallowing in misery. I'm sure I'm not the only writer who does it. The funny part of all this is that a great review can never lift me as high as a terrible review can cast me down. So I know that the equation of reading reviews is that I'm always going to end up lower on the scale in my self-esteem than when I started. So I avoid both. And thus I'm able to write more."

UKSFBN: Is there any particular element, character, theme, scene etc. in the books that seems to have resonated particularly strongly with your readership?

"Some people thought it was time for a fat hero. Other people found him disgusting."Robin Hobb: "I don't think it's a spoiler now to say that I wrote about a fat hero. FAT! And that seems to have been a very peculiar lightning rod for the hits it brought me. Some people thought it was time for a fat hero. Other people found him disgusting. I knew from early editorial reaction when my agent and I were first offering the book that I had inadvertently discovered a hot button issue. No one seems neutral about Fat. No one seems to be 'fat-blind' the way some people are race or gender blind. Everyone has an opinion.

"When I was writing the book, I began to notice how many times a day I received a message about Fat. In the grocery check out line, every woman's magazine, every gossip tabloid features at least one headline or article about Fat. Advertisements on TV, for diet food, for gymnasiums, for home fitness equipment, for 'slim down' undergarments - it's a landslide. Go shopping in a mall, and you see anti-fat products everywhere.

"The overall impression is that FAT is what is wrong with the world, and that if you can exorcise it from your life, you will be beautiful and healthy and maybe rich, and married to your one true love. You know what I think it is really about? Maybe we want to believe there is one thing about ourselves that, if we could fix it, everything in our lives would come right. We'd get the job, the boyfriend/girlfriend, or whatever, if only we could lose that extra weight and trim up a bit.

"You know the one thing that some people seem to dislike hearing? That fat doesn't matter; the person inside the fat or the boney body is what matters. The message I got from some readers was that I should not have allowed Nevare to be heroic while he was fat. I really felt that they could not see my hero because he was fat.

"And that surprised me.

"Readers can see past a dark and grim countenance, serious scars, an antisocial personality, a depressed narrator, and some really horrendous character flaws. But a Fat hero? A lot of readers boggled at that. I'm still surprised by it."

UKSFBN: You're currently producing a book a year; a schedule that you seem to have kept to for a good while now. Given that you're now a well-established 'name' in the genre with a guaranteed fan-base, do you ever feel the temptation to take some time off, or try your hand at other projects? Or is the impulse to write simply too strong?

Robin Hobb: "I want to run away and live in Alaska on a remote island with no Internet, and only a wolf-dog for company. (Oh, dear. Now everyone knows why I always felt that the end of a certain book I wrote was actually a happy one!)

"The sad part is, I'm serious. I would love some solitude. But I have my own kids and spouse, and my large extended family and my friends and neighborhood... and nothing stands still. Turn away from all that, and you've missed some things that will never come again.

"I... have all these stories queued up in my brain, waiting their turns to be written.""There are so many things I'd love to learn to do. Knit and tat and embroider. I'd like my garden to prosper rather than survive. I'd love to be able to play a musical instrument. And I have a tower of books I want to read.

"But I also have all these stories queued up in my brain, waiting their turns to be written. And unfortunately, the line just keeps getting longer. Here's a thought that scares me. I'm 55 now. Say God gives me another 20 years AND that I'm capable of writing a book a year for those twenty years. Oh no! That's only 20 books! And the books at the end of my mental queue start shouting, "me first, me first!" And the short stories start insisting that I don't really need to sleep and eating regular meals will only make me FAT (ahem!) and I should write them instead. So I keep writing.

"Oh, and one other thing. I don't believe there is such a thing as a 'guaranteed fan base' or total security with a publisher. If I were absent from the racks for a couple of years, I might have to fight with my elbows to get out there again. Nothing stands still."

UKSFBN: In the past you've written science fiction and urban fantasy as well as the more recognisably heroic or epic fantasy of the Assassin, Liveship and Fool series. Do you ever get the urge to write something completely different, or do you think that your writing will always contain an element of the fantastic and magical?

Robin Hobb: "Oh, you evil man, you! Reminding me of my temptations. Of course I do! I want to write everything! And I want to make little movies, too! On my computer, there are so many project ideas and I know some of them will never see the light of publication. I have two urban fantasies, a YA fantasy, a children's Christmas story... and those are just the ones that I've stolen time to work on recently. There are all sorts of things jostling around, wishing I'd write them. Mysteries! Snarky, sarcastic short stories! Horror! YA. Children's books. Poetry. Ah, well. Better that I suppose than not knowing what I want to write next."

UKSFBN: Voyager UK have re-issued some of your earlier books with new cover art that's quite different to the originals. What's your opinion of the general trend towards more graphic-design-led - as opposed to artistically expressive - covers, and do you have a preference at all?

Robin Hobb: "If it's not broken, don't fix it! I leave all that to the artistic folk at the publishing house! I do think that different covers appeal to different segments of the readership, and I trust my publishing house to know what it is doing. I know what I am. I'm a writer and a story teller. Someone else had better be in charge of art and marketing, for I don't really have any expertise in that area.

"...cover art has been one area in which I've been extremely blessed...""I will say that cover art has been one area in which I've been extremely blessed. I don't think that Robin Hobb has ever yet had a bad cover! And I've met some extraordinary people who happen to be cover artists. Like John Howe. Well, actually, I've never met him, but we do exchange a lot of email. And his website and newsletter are both great."

UKSFBN: And so, the big question: what's next for Robin Hobb, or indeed, Megan Lindholm? We understand that you'll be returning to the Rain Wilds for your next book? Do you have title in mind, or any more background info you'd be happy to share at this point? And have any deals been struck for a series?

Robin Hobb: "This is all TENTATIVE! No signed contracts yet, but this is what I think I'll be doing for the next three years or so. Maybe.

"First, a single book set in the Rain Wilds. This is NOT a direct continuation of Liveships or anything like that. Readers will get some glimpses of characters they've seen before, but not a full fledged continuation of any character's story. I want to be very honest about that. It does take place chronologically after the events in Fool's Fate. And of course, things that happened in that book are going to affect things that happen in the Rain Wilds and Trehaug. That is how the world works.

"I'm putting together an anthology of shorter works by both Megan Lindholm and Robin Hobb. There will be new Hobb and Lindholm stories in that, as well as some of the older stories that are hard to find. And then, of course, I'll write another book. But I haven't definitely decided which one it will be.

"Oh, and I'm planning to contribute a story to an anthology called Warriors, to be edited by none other than George RR Martin and Gardner Dozois. That's over a year down the pipe, though. And on the side, I'm going to keep writing on my weird Christmas story, just in case. Every writer needs one odd project!

"Please do visit my website at www.robinhobb.com and wander through my fun house. Don't take anything there too seriously; it's not meant to be that sort of a site. And if you have a pressing or bizarre question about my work that you can't find addressed on my website, please do visit my newsgroup at webnws.sff.net

"Even if I'm not there at the moment, I check it daily, and for some reason there is a very fascinating and friendly group of other people there. So please come visit."

For more about the author visit www.robinhobb.com. Renegade's Magic, part three of The Soldier Son is available now from all good bookstores and online retailers, including Amazon.co.uk.

Source: Robin Hobb

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