FOOL's ERRAND!! --
Books 1 & 2 of "The Tawny Man" Series
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the Paperback
FOOL's ERRAND!! --
With Fool's Errand, we go back to the Six Duchies and Fitz Chivalry, the Farseer Assassin that we got to know in the excellent Farseer trilogy that preceded Robin Hobb's more well known (and also excellent) Liveship Traders Trilogy (which ended much too soon).
Anyway, as Fool's Errand opens we find Fitz (and his foster son Hap) living (incognito) the quiet life in a remote mountain cabin. A few of his old friends come by at different times to try to get him to come back to the castle and "make something of himself".... Besides, the Farseer Heir, Prince Dutiful needs an instructor in the hereditary magic of the Farseers, and Fitz is the only one that can do it.
Fitz refuses for many reasons, but mostly because he is assumed dead, and there are still many who would try to kill him if they knew he was alive.
However, when the prince is kidnapped, Fitz (along with his bond -wolf Nighteyes) join "Lord Golden" who is actually Fitz's old friend "The Fool".
Well, to make a long story short, Fitz and The Fool rescue Prince Dutiful and Fitz eventually agrees to become the Prince's teacher...
The book started out a little slow- It was well written and entertaining, bur far from exciting for the first 150 pages, then the pace began to pick up during the next few hundred pages with a fair amount of action, mystery, double and triple crosses. However, the last two hundred pages (of 662 total) were superb. I had a lump in my throat for half of the last couple of hundred pages and a smile on my face the other half.
One thing that I had not noticed previously is that the Farseer Trilogy and the Liveship Traders Trilogy take place in the same world!
After I finished reading Fool's Errand I immediately sat down at he computer and ordered its sequel, GOLDEN FOOL.
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Order the HARDBACK!! 
GOLDEN FOOL
GOLDEN FOOL starts out where Fool's Errand ended. Prince Dutiful meets his intended bride, a young girl from "The Out Islands" who he is to marry to cement the truce and new trade agreements between their two countries who were at war during the Farseer Trilogy time period. But nothing about his intended and her party is as it seems on the surface.
In addition to his duties as the Prince's magic teacher, masquerading as Lord Golden's servant Tom Badgerlock and one of the Queen's spies and a number of other jobs, Fitz needs to keep from being killed by the surviving members of those that kidnapped the Prince in the previous book, try to keep his foster son Hap out of trouble, avoid old friends that think he is dead, and stay out of the way of a couple of old / new lovers and The Fool/Lord Golden, all of whom are mad at him..... it is all very complex, and the exhaustion alone could kill Fitz if the sword wounds don't.
As if that isn't enough, about half way through the book, some of our acquaintances from the Bingtown and Rain River Wilds traders from the Live Ship Trilogy show up to ask for the Queen's help on a completely different matter.
I enjoyed every page of this book, and had to read it in a single sitting. Plots and Plots and plots within plots. We get to meet some new and very intriguing people and run across some unexpected people from earlier books.
And I eagerly await the next one!
This entire Farseer/Liveship/Tawny series is a MUST READ for fantasy fans. You could either start with The Farseer Trilogy and read straight through as they were written, or start out with the LiveShip trilogy first then read all of the Farseer/Tawny books in order. But I wouldn't START out with either Errand or Golden if you can avoid it. They age good enough to stand on their own, but I think your enjoyment would be much greater if you knew what went on before.