Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

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Following a recollection of Nighteyes’s early experience, “Winterfest Eve at Buckkeep” opens with Fitz starting awake in unfamiliar surroundings, returning to his human experience from the dream of being a wolf. Fitz soon assesses himself and his situation, and he attends to the Fool, noting the changes that had befallen him since they had last seen one another and ruminating on the Fool’s request that he kill the Servants. He ruminates, too, on how he has left Bee and Nettle’s decision about her sister, and he notes the changes that have been enacted on Chade’s old hidden chambers as he works to set things to rights.

As he works, Fitz reaches out to Chade through the Skill, only to find him engaged in diplomatic matters concerning Kelsingra and its potential alliance with Chalced. After brief consideration, Fitz leaves off thoughts about those efforts and resumes his work to attend to the Fool, slipping clandestinely back into the halls of Buckkeep and despondently considering his separation from Bee as he takes in the sights of holiday preparations and changes to Buckkeep Town as he approaches it. Amid his shopping, for the Fool and for Bee, he considers the difficulties involved in resuming his former identity as Badgerlock, and he returns to Chade’s hidden rooms without incident.

Once there, Fitz notes the service provided to the chambers and pens a letter to Bee. He is soon disturbed by the approach of a serving-boy, Ash, whom Fitz soon dismisses. Ash leaves a message from Chade behind, one that offers Fitz an identity as Lord Feldspar and commissions him with information-gathering–something that offers a perverse excitement, along with a reasonably complete kit for the clandestine work in which Fitz was trained long ago.

The Fool wakes, and he and Fitz talk together briefly before the Fool works to navigate himself to the chambers’ table, where food awaits. Progress is slow, but he reaches his goal, and at the table, the two exchange some reports of their doings, the Fool noting that Bee was the “son” he had sought. Fitz notes that Bee is his daughter, and some argument about that point ensues, leaving the Fool confused and either sullen or fatigued. Fitz then begins to do the work Chade has asked of him.

As all sequels seemingly must, the present novel begins with exposition, bringing a reader abreast of in-milieu current events and foregrounding major threads to be pursued in the text. Hobb handles the events-summary well, using Fitz’s confusion at waking in unfamiliar surroundings to smooth over assessment of them and the situation that puts him among them, as well as using the conversation between Fitz and the Fool to establish their current tensions. The message to Chade, something entirely reasonable to include, also permits the swift establishment of current international contexts, and Chade’s machinations give Fitz a reason to go out and get involved in larger events, making more plot possible. It’s something I appreciate as I begin to read the novel again.

As noted, this is not the first time I have read the novel. I discuss my first time doing so here, a little more than nine years ago as I write this, and while much of what is in my initial comments remains true as I write now, I have to wonder how much of it will continue to do so for me. After all, I first discuss the novel after having completed a reading of it, and I am not all the way back through the novel again as I write this. Too, I am a different man now than I was then; I am not a still-aspiring academic, and while I was a father then, nine years in the life of a child is quite a long time, and a parent cannot help but change as the child does. And some of what I discuss has changed; there seems to be much more attention given to world-building and the implications of fantastical elements in texts now than there was then, whether just by me or by creators themselves.

I do look forward to the continued rereading, truly. Looking back to some of the earlier portions of it so as to pull up references made in the present chapter (and I’ve doubtlessly missed some along the way; I’ve read and reread and written about Hobb’s works so many times they form a sort of background noise for me, and I don’t always note everything in them that there is to find) has reminded me of how long I’ve been working on this project, doing so in fits and starts along the way, updating inconsistently as I can steal moments to attend to it among the many other things that clamor for, that demand and deserve, my attention and my efforts. I have changed as I’ve done this work, although not so much because I’ve done it and continue to do it as for other reasons; having some record of the change is…interesting, at least for me.

I hope the rereading continues to be interesting for you.

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