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  • Dragon Keeper

  • Rain Wilds Chronicles, Volume 1
  • Written by: Robin Hobb
  • Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
  • Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (75 ratings)

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Dragon Keeper

Written by: Robin Hobb
Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
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Publisher's Summary

For years, the Trader cities valiantly battled their enemies, the Chalcedeans. But they could not have staved off invasion without the powerful dragon, Tintaglia. In return, the Traders promised to help her serpents migrate up the Rain Wild River after a long exile at sea - to find a safe haven and, Tintaglia hopes, to restore her species.

But too much time has passed, and the newly hatched dragons are damaged and weak, and many die. The few who survive cannot use their wings; earthbound, they are powerless to hunt and vulnerable to human predators willing to kill them for the fabled healing powers of dragon flesh.

But Tintaglia has vanished, and the Traders are weary of the labor and expense of tending useless dragons. The Trader leadership fears that if it stops providing for the young dragons, the hungry and neglected creatures will rampage - or die along the river’s acidic muddy banks.

To avert catastrophe, the dragons decree a move even farther up the treacherous river to Kelsingra, their ancient, mythical homeland whose mysterious location is locked deep within the dragons’ uncertain ancestral memories. To ensure their safe passage, the Traders recruit a disparate group of young people to care for the damaged creatures and escort them to their new home. Among them is Thymara, an unschooled forest girl of 16, and Alise, a wealthy Trader’s wife trapped in a loveless marriage, who attaches herself to the expedition as a dragon expert. The two women share a deep kinship with the dragons: Thymara can instinctively communicate with them, and Alise, captivated by their beauty and majesty, has devoted her life to studying them.

Embarking on an arduous journey that holds no promise of return, the band of humans and dragons must make its way along the toxic and inhospitable Rain Wild River - an extraordinary odyssey that will teach them lessons about themselves and one another as they experience hardships, betrayals, and joys beyond their wildest dreams.

©2010 Robin Hobb (P)2020 HarperAudio

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What listeners say about Dragon Keeper

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

“Gross”and earthy but entirely engrossing!

This story is surprisingly like an historical account written from the journals of an expedition, and very earthy and reptilian. I was a bit disappointed that the none of the dragons managed to fly. This is certainly not like other dragon books I have read - there is none of the flaming flamboyance and breathtaking flight, but pity, and there was only a vestige of past freedom and magnificence.

In a social context of racialism, we are first introduced to an urban culture and a tree-dwelling community - and within the latter, a kind of “untouchable” throwbacks to a past race who were part dragon. The protagonist appears as a Victorian lady, an amateur scientist, stepping outside the bounds of decorum to follow her vocation.

I found the narrator’s style a bit irritating in its emphatically precise diction - but I will definitely listen to the next book in this series, to follow the dragons and their keepers in their pilgrimage to their ancestral home!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Ending????

It ends unexpectedly, and you leave mid-sentence. Was quite disappointed. I don't know if this a usable or the author. It was almost like the author was told the book is two long and randomly cut it in 3 to make 3 books.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Story was amazing as always, anne flosnick however…

Ok, so Robin Hobb is amazing. That’s the only reason I powered through.

Anne Flosnik sounds like a 103 year old chain smoker after throat surgery.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Not your typical tale of good and evil

I love the nuance in this novel. The characters are incredibly well developed. Nobody is all good or all evil. Just real, imperfect people faced with choices, indecision, their own mistakes, attractions. Book ended rather abruptly, definitely need to keep going. Despite the lack of action this novel had me hooked.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good story

Good story but I was not thrilled with the performance. Every sentence seemed to end in a question.

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

No conclusion at all.

First time with this author. Belaboured inner conflicts and a lot of detail makes it move slowly. That in itself is not terrible - but the book literally ends in the middle of the same problems and conflicts it started with. If you find the sort of writing that is geared to endless sequels irritating, don’t start this one.

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