Shaman's Crossing

This is by far the worst Robin Hobb I've read. She tends to be repetitive and do way too much description of trivialities even at her best, and I've learned to just skip over the parts where she's telling us something for the third or tenth time. But she writes characters that you almost can't help but care about (though she also has a tendency to be very cruel to her main character), and tells stories that keep you enthralled. The other flaw in her writing is that the main character seems to experience an awful lot without learning of growing or developing from it, and I do get tired of them blaming themselves for absolutely everything in the world that goes wrong. But usually the story hangs together well enough, and the characters and the worlds she creates are interesting enough, that it's worth sticking with it anyway. More, her stuff is usually positively addictive. Which is why I bought this. But this one was more just annoying. All the flaws in her writing were very prominent, the virtues less so. I mean, if you're going to write a coming-of-age story, the character really should develop and grow, learn from experience. Not just endure and slog along feeling bad about himself. The limitations of first person narrative contributed to the problems. The guy has dreams that he remembers well enough to tell us about in detail, then claims to forget all about when he wakes up. He has to forget about them in order for her to maintain his failure to learn without making him out to be a complete idiot (which he comes perilously close to at times as it is), and he has to remember them so he can tell them so the reader isn't completely in the dark--and she never resolves the dilemma. So if you want to try her stuff, or just want some good science fiction/fantasy, skip this one. The Assassin's Apprentice series, or the Fool's Fate series, are much better.