Forest Mage

Forest Mage
Book Two of the Soldier Son Trilogy
by Robin Hobb


The second book from Robin Hobb in the Soldier Son Trilogy is just as compelling as the first book Shaman's Crossing. In this book we continue the story of a soldier son, second born son, named Nevare Burvelle starting with life at the academy after the end of the Speck Plague. Nevare recovers better then anyone else effected by the plague but as he soon finds out his side effect is about to change his life for good. Nevare heads home for his brother's wedding but instead of the triumphant return he was hoping to make. His side effect leads to him being ostracized by his family and fiancee. Eventually his condition causes his father to renounce him and his story continues as he tries to become the soldier the Good God made him to be as a second son.

Again Robin Hobb does a great job in character development through the book and her descriptions of the environment is vivid. In the world she created for this trilogy it is very similar to the US and the interaction between the European descendants (Gernians in the book) versus the native population (Plainspeople). The only difference is a third entity (Specks) and magic making it a somewhat familiar to reality fantasy series.

Expand review to include spoiler information

Nevare after recovering from the nasty Speck Plague that broke out in the capital city that decimated much of the population and that of the academy's future officers in the King's Cavalla. But for some reason instead of being left weak by the plague like most survivors of the Plague he instead retains his stature. However, very shortly he starts to realize things aren't quite as they were before. He's gaining weight despite his physical labor and normal portions of food. Which baffles not only him but the Academy's doctor as well. Before long though Nevare is off for home for his brother's wedding which will cause him to miss a month of school.

On the trip home despite small meals and a long arduous trip he is still gaining weight. During one part of his trip he stops off at an attraction called the Spindle Dance. It is a wonder that was created by the Plainspeople and their "magic". Now the village is empty and it is a tourist stop run by some half-breeds. This wonder looks at a distance to be spinning and looks like the rock that it is made out of is defying gravity. However, for Nevare no matter how close he gets to it it continues to spin. Some other tourists show up and during a confrontation with a kid who is trying to deface the wonder with his knife something bad happens. During the struggle to save the kid from falling into a crevice the knife slides down to the base of the Spindle and it causes it to stop spinning not to mention the agony it causes in Nevare. No one else seems to notice this strange effect. Note: in this world the magic of the Plainspeople can be negated by iron. Which is how the Gernians defeated the Plainspeople.

At this point it would probably be a good idea to recap some of the story from the first book to explain how Nevare is in tune with the magic that is counter to the beliefs of his country's religion. Nevare's father in hoping to make him a well rounded soldier son and to toughen him up gives his teaching over to a Plainsmen called Dewara. At Dewara's side he is beaten, taught the ways of the Plainsmen and even asked to do a ritual to become one of his people. During this ritual he is taken to a "Dream" like existence. Here he is told to go across the bridge and kill the enemy on the other side. However, this enemy is a woman, who he'll come to know as Tree Woman, and Nevare has always been taught to protect women not to harm. This delay costs him as the woman captures him and takes a part of him from him. After returning from this place he is dropped off at his father's estate at deaths door. Later in the book when he goes to the carnival he sees some Specks there and for some reason feels compelled to make a sign to them. This sign is a signal done through him by Tree Woman who uses that part of him that she took to see things and do somethings through him. At this signal the Specks do the Dust Dance which is what causes/spreads the Speck Plague unbeknownst to the Gernians. During the plague outbreak Nevare with the help of his "occult aware" cousin Epiny takes on the Tree Woman in this other Dreamlike world. When he's traveling through this world he sees people in a long line crossing the bridge to other side. These are people who are effected by the plague and once they cross they'll be gone. Nevare slays Tree Woman with Epiny's help and is able to turn back many people from the bridge including his best friend Spink. Spink after recovering marries Epiny. Anyway Nevare having slain Tree Woman gets that part of him that she took back. However, that other part of him is Speck like and being so also brings the magic of the Speck people into Nevare.

Back to this book now. Nevare then heads home where he is treated as a pariah by his family as he is now so fat that his clothes are bursting at the seems. His father puts him on a fast and makes him work hard all day. Nothing helps. At his brother's wedding he is spurned by his fiancee, Carsina. His father still disgusted by him end up locking him in his room since he feels that Nevare is lying to him and is sneaking food in the middle of the night after catching him in the kitchen one night. The reason for the late night meal was that Nevare and his old teacher Sergant Duril had gone out in search of Dewara so that Nevare to ask him some questions. In the confrontation of words with Dewara Nevare's other self, the Speck Self as he calls it, makes Nevare say something that enrages Dewara into attacking Nevare. He ends up skewering Nevare with his sword but before he can finish him off Duril shoots Dewara dead. Nevare thinking that he's going to die from the wound instead discovers it's no more then a scratch. Which is counter intuitive to the evidence of blood on the sword. It also heals up within a couple of days. During this time that he is locked away his father brings him his meal at night and during the day a servant oversees Nevare doing his chores during the day. Even after a long time of doing this his weight still doesn't drop in fact he's gained more. His father asks what he has been bribing the servant with to give him more food. His father will not believe him that he has nothing to eat but what he's given at night. So his father leaves him in his room and only brings up meals to him and never lets anyone else to ever see him. Still he does not lose any weight. By this time a bout of the Speck Plague comes through the area. Claiming Nevare's older brother, mother and his older sister. In the midst of the plague Nevare is forgotten about but instead of dieing somehow the Magic inside him keeps him alive until Duril comes to free him. While his father is recovering emotionally and physically from the plague and the loss Nevare and his youngest sister, Yaril, run the household quite competently. However, once his father recovers he thinks that Nevare is trying to rise above his soldier son station to take over as Heir. After a big fight Nevare's father disowns him and sends him away.

After leaving Nevare still wanting to fufill his destiny as a soldier son takes off in search of a regiment to join up with. After a long journey he winds up in a run down town of Dead Town. This town was made up of convicts, who are working off their sentence building the Kings Road, and their families. However, there are not many left and those that are there are barely holding on. Nevare befriends a woman and her children by doing work for a place to stay. While he's there he teaches the women to hunt for game, cultivate a garden correctly and basic skills needed to live off the land that she hadn't learned growing up in the city. One day a Scout, Hitch, for a fort not too far down the road, Gettys, comes in hurt from a wild cat attack. Nevare gives him some first aid and decides to help the man get to Gettys a four day trip. On the trip Hitch isn't doing so well and at one point confides to Nevare that the Magic sent him to get him. Nevare and Hitch finally make it to the fort where with Hitch's recommendation he gets taken on, even with being too fat, as a cemetery guard. Once he gets to his lodging out at the cemetery he gets to work making it up the best he can.

The issue with the cemetery and the need for a guard is that bodies get taken by the Specks. They are usually found in a tree and returned. After a while at his post a body gets stolen and when he finds it in the forest it is being absorbed into a new tree. When he goes to remove the body he is confronted by two Specks who tell him that the man wants to stay there and not to be put back in the ground. This doesn't make any sense to Nevare so he ignores them and brings the body back.

Back in town Nevare sees his cousin Epiny in the streets but not wanting to dihonor her and her husband Spink he doesn't approach her. But in stairing at her he attracts the notice of one of his fellow soldiers. Who from then on takes a big interest in everything he does. Spink runs into him a little later and recongizes him but Nevare tells him he must be mistaken. Nevare is trying to spare them the embarassment of his situation but Spink is having none of it. He comes out to see him later and they end up meeting in secret from time to time. During this time Nevare gets blamed for the disappearance of a whore he had visited in town. To top that off he runs into his old fiancee, Carsina. When he trys to approach her to ask for her help in contacting his sister, as he knows his mail along with Spink and Epiney's is not reacher her due to his fathers interference. But she pretends not to know him and from this he is accused of harrassing her. Every time Nevare thinks things are settling down in his life something gets in the way. His reputation in town is just getting worse as people think he is a rapist, murder and accoster of women. So he starts to stay away from town.

By doing this he ends up in the forest one day to try and get some logs for making a fence along the cemetery to keep the Specks from stealing the dead in the graves. However, instead the same Speck man from before shows up and tells him he will lead him to some good trees. Instead he ends up leading Nevare to his daughter instead. In Speck culture it seems the women are in charge of everything so she sets her claim on Nevare. Their relationship is one of her taking him for her own and trying to fatten him up as she recognizes him as a Great One, a powerfull man of the Magic. The more Magic a person can use the bigger their physical appearance. He is now caught between two worlds one is the world of the forest, the Specks, and the world of being a soldier, Gernian. For the rest of the book this drives just about all he does.

As the story goes on he learns more and more the Magic is the source of everything bad that's been happening to him. It wants him to do something and he's not doing it so it helps him move along so he'll be able to do it. First it got him kicked out of the academey, then it killed off those he was close to at home so that his father threw him out, it cause his friend Hitch who also has some of the Magic in him to kill the whore that died and to cause the blame to fall on Nevare. The Magic wants Nevare to drive his countrymen away from the forest. This is because as Nevare will discover via his new Speck contacts the tree they are cutting down to create the King's Road are in fact the spirits of their ancestors.

The final part of the book goes really fast and things just keep heading downhill fast. Due to the Speck Plague causing more deaths in town and the fact that some of the dead seem to come back to life. Nevare gets accused of Necrophilia on the corpse of his old fiancee. On top of this there is proof, that was setup by Hitch, that he killed the whore who's body was recently discovered. So Nevare finds himself on trial. After he is convicted his cousin Epiny working with the woman from Dead Town, who is now working for Epiny and Spink, work to set him free. In the escape attempt he is caught by a mob. Spink is trying to get to him and the woman from Dead Town is about to be raped because she is helping Nevare. Because of all this Nevare gives into the Magic completely and causes everyone to stop. He makes everyone think that they killed him and buried him. Then he makes his way off into the forest to figure out what he has to do for the Magic.

Next Up: Blood Bowl: Rumble In The Jungle