Robin Hobb Books in Order: Realm of the Elderlings Guide

By T.L. BransonFantasy

Whether you picked up one of the Robin Hobb books on a whim, heard other fantasy readers rave about Fitz and the Fool, or finally decided it was time to see what the hype is about, you probably got here with the same question: how do you read the Robin Hobb books in order?

Most readers start with Realm of the Elderlings, but Robin Hobb’s backlist under that name also includes the separate Soldier Son Trilogy, plus a novella, short fiction, and collections. This guide pulls all of that into one place and keeps the main reading path easy to follow.

Jump to:

Realm of the Elderlings Books

If you’re here for Fitz, the Fool, the Liveships, and the Rain Wild dragons, start here. Publication order is still the clearest way to read the Realm books because the subseries build on one another.

The Farseer Trilogy

  1. Assassin’s Apprentice (1995)
  2. Royal Assassin (1996)
  3. Assassin’s Quest (1997)

The Liveship Traders Trilogy

  1. Ship of Magic (1998)
  2. The Mad Ship (1999)
  3. Ship of Destiny (2000)

The Tawny Man Trilogy

  1. Fool’s Errand (2001)
  2. Golden Fool (2002)
  3. Fool’s Fate (2003)

The Rain Wild Chronicles

  1. Dragon Keeper (2009)
  2. Dragon Haven (2010)
  3. City of Dragons (2012)
  4. Blood of Dragons (2013)

The Fitz and the Fool Trilogy

  1. Fool’s Assassin (2014)
  2. Fool’s Quest (2015)
  3. Assassin’s Fate (2017)

Realm Novella and Short Fiction

  1. “The Inheritance” (2000) in The Inheritance & Other Stories
  2. “Homecoming” (2003) in Legends II
  3. “Words Like Coins” (2009) in A Fantasy Medley
  4. “The Triumph” (2010) in Warriors
  5. “Blue Boots” (2010) in Songs of Love and Death
  6. “Cat’s Meat” (2011) in The Inheritance & Other Stories
  7. The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince (2013) (Novella)
  8. “Her Father’s Sword” (2017) in The Book of Swords

Where the Realm short fiction fits

You do not need to stop the main novels to track down every short story. Most of them work best as side reads.

If you want to slot them in, The Wilful Princess and the Piebald Prince works well after Liveship Traders and before The Tawny Man. The Inheritance fits nicely after Ship of Destiny. The rest are best treated as optional companion stories that you can read whenever you want a little more from the world.

Soldier Son Books

Soldier Son is Robin Hobb’s other major series under the Hobb name. It is completely separate from Realm of the Elderlings, so you can read it on its own whenever you want more Robin Hobb.

  1. Shaman’s Crossing (2005)
  2. Forest Mage (2006)
  3. Renegade’s Magic (2007)

Story Collections and Anthologies

If you want the extra material beyond the main novels, start here. Some of these books collect Robin Hobb stories directly, while others are multi-author anthologies that first published one of her Realm stories.

Collections

  1. The Inheritance & Other Stories (2011) collects three Realm of the Elderlings stories by Robin Hobb, Homecoming, The Inheritance, and Cat’s Meat, along with seven Megan Lindholm stories.

Anthologies featuring Robin Hobb stories

About Robin Hobb

Robin Hobb is the fantasy pen name of Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden. Before launching the Robin Hobb name with Assassin’s Apprentice in 1995, she published as Megan Lindholm.

Under the Robin Hobb byline, she is best known for Realm of the Elderlings and the separate Soldier Son Trilogy. She was born in California in 1952 and later moved to Alaska as a child.

Her work has earned major recognition over the years, including the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award and Comic-Con International’s Inkpot Award.

Looking for more books in order?

If you want more fantasy authors and reading-order guides like this one, start with my Fantasy Books in Order index.

5 thoughts on “Robin Hobb Books in Order: Realm of the Elderlings Guide”

  1. I’m not sure who thought that the Rain Wild Chronicles concluded, but from where the fourth book left off they weren’t occupying the city only exploring it while setting up outside the city and waiting for the ship to return with supplies before winter. As far as the fourth book story goes, I expected another book or 2, maybe 3 to conclude this series as it seemed unfinished to me. This seems to happen with authors who seem to be retiring or who sadly passed away before completing the book series and the family doesn’t allow co-authors to finish the series leaving the stories wide open.

    Reply

    1. The fourth book on the Rain Wild Chronicles released in 2013 and Robin Hobb wrote three more books after that. She hasn’t written anything in a few years, but to my knowledge, she’s still alive and not “retired.” I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for her lack of new works. I know COVID affected a lot of people different ways. I also know she hadn’t released a book in three years prior to COVID so that’s not a complete excuse, but I’m sure we’ll see her release a new book eventually. As to the Rain Wild Chronicles, it appears Hobb has moved on from that series and would likely write something unrelated. Sorry.

      Reply

    2. Are you sure you didn’t stop reading at the 3rd book of rain wilds?
      By the end of the 4th book all dragons and keepers were living in Kelsingra. As soon as each dragon could fly they lived in the city, using the dragon heated bath houses etc.
      Reyn and Malta and their new child had moved there and were considered “king and queen”.
      The dagons and keepers had found and made use after restoring the silver/skill well.
      At the end of the book the dagons having settled so much into their city declared war on chalced using weapons and harnesses found in Kelsingra.

      As the other commenter mentioned, it’s a quadrilogy within a larger story, in the following trilogy we see Kelsingra again.

      Reply

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