The Golden Fool cover art

The Golden Fool

The Tawny Man Trilogy, Book 2

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The Golden Fool

By: Robin Hobb
Narrated by: Nick Taylor
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About this listen

The second in the thrilling fantasy series returning readers to the Six Duchies and the magical world of the Farseers, from the author of the bestselling Assassin’s Apprentice.

Fitz has succeeded in rescuing Prince Dutiful from the clutches of the Piebald rebels, and has returned with him to Buckkeep castle. With Dutiful safe again, Queen Kettricken can proceed with plans to marry him to the Outislander princess, Elliania, but with tensions building among the peoples of the Six Duchies over Kettricken’s tolerance of the Wittted, even Buckkeep is no longer safe. A reluctant Fitz is assigned to protect the young prince, and also train him in the Skill, and in doing so he finally makes contact not only with his estranged daughter, Nettle, but with someone in Buckkeep who may possess a greater Skill talent than Fitz. And who may represent a terrible threat to the Farseers. Meanwhile, Elliania arrives, and before she will accept Prince Dutiful’s betrothal challenges him to undertake an impossible quest. He must kill a legendary Outislander dragon.

©2013 Robin Hobb (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Royalty Dragons

Critic Reviews

'Hobb is one of the great modern fantasy writers… what makes her novels as addictive as morphine is not just their imaginative brilliance but the way her characters are compromised and manipulated by politics.'
The Times

Assassin's Apprentice:
'A gleaming debut'
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Assassin's Quest:
'Assassin's Quest achieves a bittersweet, powerful complexity rare in fantasy' LOCUS

'Robin Hobb writes achingly well'
SFX

Praise for The Liveship Traders series:
'Even better than the Assassin books. I didn't think that was possible'
George R R Martin

'Hobb is a remarkable storyteller.'
Guardian
All stars
Most relevant  
Love the story but needs better editing. Sentences are repeated multiple times during story, disrupting the flow

Great story. Poorly edited recording

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Enjoyed this enormously.
Still miss Paul Boehmer but Nick Taylor does admiral work as well.

Great book

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I really enjoy Nick's performance but the editing is terrible.

Its a good development of the story but not as climatic as the first in the series. It felt like it was building towards the final instalment.

Solid middle

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Great follow on from book one. Story building nicely for next phase. Love the characters.

Now into book 3!

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Great story and Narration for the most part but I have noticed a couple of recording/editing errors in both this and the last book that should be fixed. He rereads some lines as if he intended on editing out the original read but never did.

Great story. Recording errors from Narrator

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I am always blown away at the narration on any audible book, and this is no exception. You can distinctly recognise the separate voices of the characters, and it is always heartfelt. I have read these books a number of times, but this is my second time listening to the audio version. Definitely recommend these books to anyone who likes a brilliant character driven story.

Fantastic Series

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It’s book two in this trilogy, yet I’m still struggling a tad with the different pronunciation the narrator gives for names, in comparison to the first trilogy. Other than that, I am in my element listening to these books. Robin is a genius!

Robin keeps on impressing

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Book 8 and it’s still got me hooked! Excellent depth of characters and great performance. Fitz continues to be stupid at times but that’s him!
Sometimes the editing repeats a sentence or changes volume but can cope. Also able to run at normal speed

Excellently narrated and amazing story

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I have read these books many times since I was a teenager, This is the 1st time listening to it & found it wonderful.

Brilliant storytelling

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as per title, much of my issue with the first book in tawny man trilogy was due to the recording, happily these issues are gone with this title and I loved the narrator, especially Fennel the cat!

performance much improved over first book

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