Interview with Robin Hobb . . . Posted February 18, 2008

Worlds Apart: speaking with Robin Hobb (and Megan Lindholm)

ASIM: Hi Robin, thank you for speaking with us. I began reading the Robin Hobb books with the Liveships trilogy, then discovered the wonderful Assassin books. I can remember how excited I was when I discovered you were revisiting Fitz's world in the Tawny Man. What do you think it is about your books that so appeals to the readers?

RH: Oh, if I had a clear answer to that, I would bottle and sell it! I think that is the most fundamental question that faces all story tellers: why did my audience like this tale and not that one? Why is this a timeless story, and that one something that vanishes even before its pages are pulped?
The only thing that has been consistent for me is that readers seem to enjoy most the stories where I made the biggest investment as a writer. When I loved and cared about all the characters, when I went through the story over and over, when I found myself sniffling and wiping tears when I was writing certain scenes, then I seemed to be writing stories that really reached people.
If writers could ever quantify the answer to your question, we'd all write best sellers, all the time!

ASIM: The characters you write about demonstrate all the facets of human nature - they are not always likeable, they are not perfect, they make mistakes - do you think this adds to the appeal of the books?

RH: The door into the story is often a character that the reader can identify with. If a book offers that link, then I think readers experience the story more deeply. There is nothing quite like that dreadful feeling of, "You're making a mistake, but I think I would have done the same thing in your place!"
As a reader, I often had problems with protagonists who learned to be the best swordsmen possible in two or three days. Or discover their hereditary magic and almost instantly become amazingly powerful with it. I also found myself more jealous than excited about beautiful heroines who were intelligent, great athletes, and talented with magic. Oh, sure, like I don't already have enough of those amazingly blessed people in my life! So, as a writer, I tried to write heroes who were more like myself and other people I know. They have to work at their talents, and even when their magic is genetic, they still need to practice, practice, practice. And being good at magic or swordplay doesn't always mean they are socially skilled. Characters with faults who can still become heroes offer, I think, more for a reader to identify with. Characters who fail sometimes are people I can understand, and perhaps the reader can understand as well.

ASIM: Fitz (from the Assassin and Tawny Man books) is seen by some readers as a model for the word perseverance - he struggles on, despite the myriad obstacles, starting with his birth, and continuing through his death and resurrection and beyond. Is perseverance the word you think of when you're writing about Fitz? Sometimes his life seems so horribly unfair!

RH: Hm. And what was your Monday like?
Doesn't it always seem to you that just when there is something you absolutely must do, life rains all the rest down on you? The taxes come due, your car gets a flat on the freeway, and you come home to find that not only has your dog gotten sick on the sofa, but you must rush him to the vet and hope you have that much room on your credit card! Life isn't fair. And most of our heroes, in real life, don't get the rewards or even the recognition they deserve. But they are still heroes. Each of us is given the opportunity to be the hero in our own tales. It doesn't mean that you get to marry the prince or princess, it doesn't mean you get rich or that people recognize that you've tried to be a good person. The only thing you can earn, for sure, is the words "The Lord knows I've tried!" And you, yourself, know that you've tried. For a lot of people, I suppose that isn't enough. But for many of us, if we can make it enough, we can find a lot more joy in our lives.
That probably sounds rather preachy. Well, yesterday was Easter, so I've probably been a bit more thoughtful lately about these things.

ASIM: The ambiguity of the Fool is a fascinating part of all the books set in the realm of the Elderlings. What made you draw the Fool in such a way?

RH: I think you'd have to ask him.
He was the most unruly character I've ever dealt with. He showed up as a single sentence in the outline, muscled his way into the book, messed up the plot, revealed things I didn't know about some of my characters while keeping all his secrets to himself, and then rode off into the sunset.
I don't know if I'll ever write anyone like him again. Sometimes, I don't know if I'd want to! Wherever he came from, I was glad to know him. That doesn't mean it was easy to live with him for a decade of my life.
Readers often ask me questions about the Fool. For the most part, I don't know the answers. I have suspicions, and I do know things about him that never made it into the books, but for most of the questions they ask me, the answer is, "I don't know. He never talked about that with me." He was and remains a very private sort of character.

ASIM: Some of the characters in the Liveship trilogy are so inherently flawed that it can be difficult to relate to them (for example, Kennet) - was this intentional?

RH: Oh, Kennet was Kennet, much as the Fool was the Fool. There are people like him out in the real world, and so I felt justified having him in the book. Kennet is what I think real 'villains' are. Not moustache twirling, "I love evil and I will help it rule the world" characters, but people who have been stunted or twisted by life, and then have to live that way. If you've ever tried to have a conversation with someone on the opposite side of the political fence and try to get to the root of why he or she has beliefs that are so at odds with your own, then you may know what I'm talking about. We tend to vilify people who don't agree with us, be it on questions of race, religion, gender, abortion, gun control or wine! We even see some of those people as inherently bad because they don't agree with us. And some people's beliefs do lead them to do bad things. There is no mistaking that. But I don't believe that the perpetrator thinks he or she is doing a 'bad' thing. They are just acting in accord with their own internal logic.
No one is one hundred percent wicked. I don't think anyone believes, "I am evil." With Kennet, I wanted to look at that. I wanted to catch glimpses of who he might have been, if his life had gone differently when he was younger.

ASIM: You have gradually revealed the connections between the Liveship stories and the Assassin books - is there any chance you'll revisit the world to make the connections even stronger?

RH: I have no idea.
And that actually sums it up rather nicely. To go back to that world, my ticket would be a compelling story idea, one that had to be set in that world and demanded to be written. I don't want to lie awake at night thinking, "I need a Farseer story. Let's see, who was left standing and what can I make them do?" For me, at least, writing doesn't work that way. That doesn't mean that I look down on people who can do that; to the contrary, I envy them. It's just that my own writing doesn't go that way. If I get a wonderful story idea, and then I say to it, "Hey, you could be set in the Farseer world!", it's going to say, "I don't think so. Write me true to myself or not at all." That's just how my muse works.

ASIM: You've seem to have taken a different route with the new trilogy, with a bit less action and some complexly drawn societies. Was this a conscious choice, to move away from some of the bleakness of the Farseer and Liveship series'?

RH: Oh, see the answer to the question above! Nevare (The Soldier Son trilogy) and his tale had been waiting in the queue for some time, and it was his turn to be written. I don't do a lot of conscious choosing; I'm sure that a lot of deciding goes on in the back rooms of my brain, but for the most part, I sit down at the computer, the curtains open and there's someone standing in the spotlight, waiting to start dictating to me. I think that is why so much of my output is in the first person.

ASIM: In Australia we have been fortunate to see reprints of the Megan Lindholm novels. I've read that you don't get time to write novel length Lindholm stories any more but do manage to get out a few short pieces by that name. Is it challenging to "turn off" Robin Hobb to write as Lindholm?

RH: Again, it's as above. The story is usually quite clear as to whether I write it as Lindholm or Hobb. I do wish I had unlimited time to write, but I suppose that if I didn't make a commitment to finish a book by a certain time, I'd endlessly dither and dabble. So, having a deadline forces me to finish the story and say, "Here it is, and I don't get to play with it anymore." The contract commitment to finish the book is what cuts off my time to write short stories, as Lindholm, Hobb or anyone else. I have a huge file of stories I'm going to write 'someday.' I hope I get a chance to do them all.

ASIM: What can we look forward to you next?

RH: Right now, I don't know. I'm deliberately taking two months off from writing. This doesn't mean I'm not writing. It does mean that I'm test driving a number of book and story ideas, without having a contract commitment to any of them. I'm seeing where they go and what they feel like. How strong is this character? Can she carry a whole book, or does it feel more like she's going to drop after a novella? Is this a book idea, or a short story, or a one-liner? Is this book ready to be written yet, or does it have to ferment for a while? Very often, for me, a book has to wait until all the minor characters and sub plots are willing to show up for rehearsals. Sometimes that takes years. Other times, I find that the book is all there, but I've mistakenly thought that it was three different books. All I have to do is put all three ideas in one file and suddenly the book is ready to start being written.

ASIM: So, any plans for a visit to Australia in the near future?

RH: I've cut back on my traveling this year. Time to stay home and do some preventive maintenance on my house and yard. Things were starting to look pretty shabby around here. So, my only planned trip this year is the Worldcon in Japan in late August. Other than that, my journeys are to the paint store, the garden shop and places like that.

ASIM: Robin Hobb, thank you for flying with Andromeda Spaceways.

RH: Thanks for the opportunity to chat! And happy Fifth birthday, and I hope you have many happy returns of the day!