WHAT GENRE ARE THE BOOKS IN ROBIN HOBB’S THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS SERIES?  

 This is a high fantasy, adult book series for fans of George R. R. Martin, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Patrick Rothfuss.     

WHAT TYPE OF THEMES DOES THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS EXPLORE? 

• - High-fantasy

- Adventure 

- Chosen one trope 

- Morally grey characters 

- Soulmates (this is NOT what you might expect…) 

- Lots. Of. Secrets. 

For a bit of general info about the series… If you are a fan of slower-paced fantasy, you will enjoy them. The characters are wonderfully complex and definitely morally grey. The world and magic are depicted amazingly. I absolutely fell in love with the first chapter. It feels like you’re reading about friends.    

 IS THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS A HEAVY/SLOW BOOK SERIES? 

Yes. It’s slow-paced fantasy at its finest. However, don’t think you’ll be bored for a second! There is always something afoot, always character intrigue, always a new piece of the puzzle to chase. Hobb’s writing itself is another reason to read - every page is beautiful. There are endless sticky tabs in our editions and passages we could quote.     

ARE THERE ANY TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THE BOOKS? 

Yes. There are a lot of heavy topics throughout the series, and we strongly recommend looking up any trigger warnings that may affect you before you begin. There are extensive lists compiled by other readers previously. We don’t want to miss anything by listing it here, but sites like triggerwarningsdatabase have you covered.     

HOW MANY BOOKS IS ROBIN HOBB’S THE REALM OF THE ELDERLINGS SERIES? 

As we’ve mentioned, the series is made up of multiple other series, but in total it spans a massive 16 books long! It’s split into multiple mini-series though, so easily broken up if you don’t want to read them all in one go. There are also a couple of smaller novella’s you could add to that number too..  

Do i need to read every series in the realm of the elderlings series for it to make sense?  

A lof of people stick with just The Farseer Trilogy, some people only own the Fitz and The Fool Trilogy (you bishes be cray). In theory, you could skip the Liveship and Rain Wild’s books, or even read only the Liveships…but we’d strongly recommend you don’t! Not to say we’ve tried and tested it but… let’s just say the events in Assassin’s Fate left us feeling a little bit confused the first time and required an immediate backtrack. It definitely didn’t ruin anything and you could get away with it if you really wanted to, but it’ll give you serious series FOMO and we bet you go back again! So in conclusion, for the best Hobb experience, which you owe to both Hobb and yourself, always be to read them in the order Robin tells us!

Do i need to read the novellas in the realm of the elderlings? 

No. There is no major information that you’d be missing out on, but they are lovely expansions to the main story or history or events.

In what order do the novellas fit into the realm of the elderlings series? 

The Wilful Princess and Piebald prince is a prequel to The Farseer Trilogy but can be read at any point without spoilers. It’s further detail of a tale told by characters throughout the series. The Inheritance & Other Stories again can be read at any point, but probably enjoyed it best at the end!

What is the best thing about the realm of the elderlings series and why should you read it? 

It’s like nothing we’ve read before. And we read a lot. A LOT. Every great book has something about it that makes it so special, whether the characters, the world, the magic etc… but The Realm of The Elderlings has it all. It is a series to be treasured, that we will be rereading for the rest of our lives, and cry again every time. It’s a huge undertaking, and I mentioned in a previous blog post that I don’t like to break up a series. The first time, I was immersed in the Realm of The Elderlings for six months and it was worth every second. You can see my Goodreads reviews of the individual books too, if you so wish.

We hope you’ve found this a helpful guide to Hobb’s wonderful world. This series is so widely loved with so many popular fantasy authors from Maas to Martin referencing it in their own works, tweets, and acknowledgments. This really is a series loved by many, and like nothing else, you’ll ever read!

• The Paper and Word Team… but mostly Abby because she would die for this series •