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  • Forest Mage

  • The Soldier Son Trilogy, Book 2
  • By: Robin Hobb
  • Narrated by: Jonathan Barlow
  • Length: 24 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (134 ratings)

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Forest Mage cover art

Forest Mage

By: Robin Hobb
Narrated by: Jonathan Barlow
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Publisher's Summary

The second book in the brand-new trilogy from the author of the Tawny Man trilogy, following on from the best-selling Shaman’s Crossing. The King's Cavalla Academy has been ravaged by the Speck plague. The disease has decimated the ranks of both cadets and instructors, and even the survivors remain sickly. Many have been forced to relinquish their military ambitions and return to their families to face lives of dependency and disappointment.

As the Academy infirmary empties, Cadet Nevare Burvelle also prepares to journey home, to attend his brother Rosse's wedding. Far from being a broken man, Nevare is hale and hearty after his convalescence. He has defeated his nemesis, Tree Woman, and freed himself of the Speck magic that infected him and attempted to turn him against his own people. A bright future awaits him as a commissioned officer betrothed to a beautiful young noblewoman.

Yet his nights are still haunted by dreams of the voluptuous Tree Woman; dreams in which his Speck self-betrays everything he holds dear in his waking life. Has the plague infected him in ways far more mysterious than the merely physical? Despite his fears, Nevare will journey back to Widevale in high spirits, in full expectation of a jubilant homecoming and a tender reunion with his beautiful fiancée, Carsina.

But his life is about to take a shocking turn, as the magic in his blood roars to life and forces him to recognize that his most dangerous enemy, an enemy that seeks to destroy all he loves, might dwell within him.

©2012 Robin Hobb (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

What listeners say about Forest Mage

Average Customer Ratings
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    1 out of 5 stars

Forest Fatty

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. do yourself a favour and start a new series, I beg you. This is a painful book detailing a half decent main character being betrayed, cheated, disbelieved and generally being blamed for everything. His amazing superpower is fatness; I'm not even joking. The magic power that he cannot use or control makes him fat and has no real benefit other than making the whole world distrust and hate him. The only things that happen are when the "magic made me do it". This is the worst fantasy book I have ever read, and I cannot believe it came from the same authour who gave us "The Farseer Trilogy".

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4 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Very disappointed

It dragged on, I kept listening in the hope that good things would happen. Very slow and depressing. I had to stop listening a few time as it was so annoying. Very disappointed after reading so many.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

listen to a different robin hobbs book!

I love Robin Hobbs books but while well written this was depressing beginning to end!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Astonishing

If Franz Kafka were a modern fantasy author, this is the horror he might write.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Tragic

If you're a sucker for tragedy then you will enjoy this book. Not Robin Hobb's best trilogy, but enjoyable all the same. A lot of people find the main character Navare to be whiny and are frustrated with his lack of action. His soul was divided in two, and each half functions as a separate identity (Soldier Boy and Navare) which was raised in two different worlds and cultures. Each half suffers under the loss of the other. Navare as a whole person would be brave, driven, decisive and very un-whiny - so there would be no story as a perfect Navare would have solved the worlds problems with no fuss.

I enjoyed the narrator, he had an animated style and put on different accents and voices for the characters without doing the annoying high pitched voices for female characters that some male narrators do.

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2 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

10 chapter of fat shame

No real story for the first 10 chapters just a lot of talking about getting fat and descriptions of the food he ate.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Naïve Fool

Main character becomes annoying with his repeated, stupid decisions and inability to stand up for himself. Too many bad things befall him I think. There needs to be less of that in the story as it frustrated this reader. Excellent narration.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not as good as the First

The repetitive inner monologue of Nevare returns. In the place of him being a noble born soldier, he now endlessly bemoans being fat.

The concept of uglier people being untrustworthy is also brought up in The Farseer trilogy, which this story has started to resemble more as it continues.

The tone is overly depressing for my tastes. There is little in the way of respite from the constant suffering.

The Narrator for the more part is calming, well spoken and I enjoy his use of character voices. With a single exception of Amsel whom he vocally mischaracterises in my opinion. Overall 3/5, hoping the next book does not disappoint.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • MJ
  • 02-09-2021

Another great story from Robin Hobb.

whilst I don't love this series as much as the Fitz & The Fool series, or the Rain Wilds series, it is still wonderful.
the narrator, whilst having a lovely voice to listen to, absolutely butchered the pronunciation of so many words which is just like nails on a chalkboard to me. it would be great if these could be edited to be changed, but im not sure how audiobooks work in regard to that.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good, but also depressing

Robin Hobbs is really good at putting her characters through hell. This is no exception.

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