Giants of Fantasy: Robin Hobb

Margaret Ogden is known to modern fantasy readers by her pen name, Robin Hobb. Hobb’s most prominent stories are set in the Realm of the Elderlings, including The Liveship Traders trilogy and the iconic story of Fitzchivalry Farseer, contained in the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies. Hobb’s most recent release is a series of short stories titled The Inheritance which also contains contemporary fantasy work released under her original pseudonym, Megan Lindholm.

Among the greats
While Hobb lacks the celebrity status of authors like George R. R. Martin, the quality of her work sets her among the very best modern fantasists. Indeed, Orson Scott Card has credited her with “arguably [setting] the standard for the modern serious fantasy novel.” Regardless of which side of such an argument you might find yourself, it can’t be denied that Robin Hobb is one of the premier proponents of the first person voice in fantasy.

Hobb in real life
I had the privilege of attending a reading and signing event with Hobb in Sydney earlier this year. While the evening was primarily a celebration of her work as Robin Hobb, she wanted to take the opportunity to establish the difference between the voices of Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm by reading a passage from each taken out of The Inheritance. It was a unique opportunity to hear the same writer tell stories so differently.

In the Q&A that followed, Hobb explained that she believes in the idea of writing what you know, so the fantastic elements of her stories tend to reflect aspects of real life, including the magic. In some cases, the principle is applied very literally—for fans of The Liveship Traders who appreciated the accuracy of the nautical elements, it turns out that her husband is a third generation seafarer. Yet in spite of knowing plenty of sailors, she didn’t (and wouldn’t, of course) write any characters specifically based on real life acquaintances.

Clarke’s Law
I particularly appreciated Hobb’s insightful comment about magic. Perhaps contrary to current convention, she deliberately creates magic that is difficult for the reader to understand and unreliable for the characters using it. Her reasoning is simply that, based off Clarke’s Law, any magic that is sufficiently reliable is indistinguishable from science.

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