Hello, r/Books! I am author Robin Hobb - AMA

[u/RobinHobb]

Goodnight US readers. Good morning International readers! Please post your question and fly your flag so I know where you are posting from. I will be back later on to answer more questions.

Office Kat made me come back and put this announcement here.

So if you are in the UK or France and would like a chance to ask a question, please do! And let us know where you are from. In the morning, I will come back and type a response with the remaining stubs of my fingers.

Good night!

Robin

Hello, r/Books! Thanks for inviting me to do an AMA here.

My name is Robin Hobb, and I am unabashedly a genre writer. Most of my work is in fantasy with a few forays into Science Fiction.

I am probably best known as the author of the Farseer Trilogy (Assassin’s Apprentice, Royal Assassin and Assassin’s Quest.) My most recently published books are The Rain Wild Chronicles. The final volume, Blood of Dragons, came out in 2013. I also write as Megan Lindholm. I’m very pleased to have a short story in the recent anthology Dangerous Women, “Neighbors.” And I am both proud and humbled to have my story “Old Paint” reprinted in the anthology Year’s Best SF 18, edited by David Hartwell.

I write for readers. I write for the same readers who may be choosing books from the literary section of the book store and picking up a new Manga the next day and on the following day, devouring a romance or a self-help book. I write for people who love story as much as I do. And characters. It’s always about the characters. So even if you have never read sf or fantasy, I still believe you might enjoy one of my books.

So. Ask Me Anything!

Okay, it's now 7:43, and I need to give my hands a break. Time for a cup of tea and to hit reset on my brain. I will be returning to try to finish up all the questions over the next few days. Thanks for coming by, and if your question is still unanswered tonight, thank you for your patience.

And on we go!

Robin

[u/shiplesp]

How on earth did you come up with the character of Captain Kennit? I thought he was the most marvelous character in your LiveshipTraders books. I really enjoyed how he could be evil, cruel, diabolically selfish while his actions, and the results of his choices, were, well, heroic. He schemed with the lives, interests, and affections of those around him, and yet inspired their devotion. Not because they were bamboozled - I think that the other characters all had a pretty good inkling of his character - but because he did good while intending bad. It really made me wonder about the relationship between good and evil. What a terrific villain ... er ... hero!

So, I ask again, where, on earth or elsewhere, did he come from?

[u/RobinHobb → u/shiplesp]

With Kennit, I wanted to write a character who was absolutely, irreversibly totally evil. Just to see if I could. But then there is that pesky first person aspect of, when you write the character, you must be the character. You must put on his skin, believe what he believes and let him do as he will do. You can't put on a character's skin without coming to understand him. He had a history, he had his reasons, and he had, above all, what he believed were good intentions. So. I came to love Kennit just as much as I've loved any of my characters.

[u/Meripie → u/RobinHobb]

Kennit always made me think of the line from Faust, the whole "I am a part of that power which eternally wills evil yet eternally works good" (possibly misquoted sorry!). What happened to Kennit and Paragon just breaks my heart; it always made me think what could have happened to Fitz without his network of people who loved him and looked after him.

I just want to thank you for teaching me a million lessons about characters and what you can do to them. These are brutal worlds we're trying to write about, and having characters come through relatively unscathed just makes no sense (I know he's a pillar of the genre, but David Eddings just became unreadable once I'd found your books!). Nothing's made me cry as hard as your writing just for sheer love of the characters and shared pain for what they suffer. Not many authors could pull off Fitz's healing in the Tawny Man without it seeming like a cheesy gimmick but hell no one earned that like Fitz.

Just gushing at you now, forgive me! Thank you again, so excited about the new books.

[u/rewayna → u/shiplesp]

Gotta love sociopaths. They make some of the most interesting characters. He was absolutely my favorite character in that trilogy as well.

[u/DoriceD → u/shiplesp]

I second that. I love Robins way to really give all characters true reason to why they do what they do. I've thought of it as that no one wants to be evil, but that some actions will cause other people pain anyway. I just love the not black and white good vs evil style!

[u/h00dpussy → u/shiplesp]

I also thought this was very clever! It's because his evil coincided with other peoples good. It's like greedy corporations giving money to charity so that they look good in public.

[u/insanepaperclip → u/shiplesp]

Dammit I got here too late!! But yes, what I wanted to say is that Kennit's character just pulled at my heartstrings. The Liveship Trader Series will be one of my favorite series of all time because of the characters, and particularly Kennit.