Author Topic: Robin Hobb  (Read 5533 times)

Nessa

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Re: Robin Hobb
« Reply #30 on: February 27, 2010, 06:12:25 PM »
How many books does Hobb need in order to finish her characterization of one character?  Do you need to read all 6 books in order to "get" Fitz or even 3?   I don't know about anyone else but I consider that bad writing.  I don't think see how Fitz is any different than say a Harry Potter or Qvothe or Vin.   Those were already great characters after their first books. 

It is not bad writing to have a character evolve over many books. This is true whether it's 2 books or 10. Vin is not the same person by book 3, just like Rand had changed over 12 books, and Fitz has changed and evolved over 6 books. This IS a sign of goood writing. Why? Because it's hard to do well. You can write the baseline of a character in book 1 (and even some evolving of characterization), but having them continue to evolve over several books takes skill.

For example, you can have book series such as mysteries where a main character pretty much stays static throughout. This isn't bad writing, because the purpose of the stories is the mystery (such as the Dan Brown books, in which Dr. Langdon doesn't change from book to book), but writing an evolving character across a series is difficult to do.

Having a character evolve over a series of books is representative of life. I've been married for over 13 years and I'm not the same person I was when we were first married. And there are things my husband does that still surprises me, that I'm still learning about him. When an author can successfully show that kind of change in a character, that does make it good writing.
« Last Edit: February 27, 2010, 06:14:18 PM by Nessa »
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