Thoughts on "The Inheritance"

This is an anthology published under the names of Megan Lindholm and Robin Hobb. The latter is probably by the most well known of the two, being the author of the four of my favourite fantasy trilogies and the touchstone of all that is wonderful and harrowing about fantasy fiction.

Some of the stories will be less memorable than others. Now that I have closed the book, I can say that most of them involved animals, especially cats. The last story, Cat's Meat was a pleasant surprise - a return to the Wit, which I had not expected.

Megan Lindholm's stories were perhaps a bit more emotionally charged in that it was less about exploring the Six Duchies and more about the characters. And Lindholm has added small introductions to each of the stories in the collection, placing it in context. In Silver Lady and the Fortyish Man is possibly more revealing about Lindholm's own life than any interview could ever offer. She touches on about how a writer must often dredge up everyday experiences in writing something - I completely agree - before disguising it in words and plotlines. Finis took a vampire story and gave it an interesting twist. A Touch of Lavender is possibly my favourite out of the first half of the anthology. The comical image of a toad-like skoag burping out The Beatles' anthems is completely overwhelmed by the grim scene of old government estates, junkies moaning in their beds and fumbling for syringes etc, the horrible, claustrophobic scene of poverty. It's an odd mash The Wire with District 9.

After putting this book down, one is left wondering what Lindholm's life was like before she was married at the young age of 18 and what it was like when her husband was out at sea for months at a time, what it was like to live in a rundown house, to not have grown up in a sprawling, cosmopolitan city buzzing with people and cars. I feel worlds away from small-town America. I've never hitch-hiked in my life (apart from a once-off in southern France). My experiences of cheap diners are the ones run by a Pakistani family who reheat frozen corn fries and battered chicken wings with limp lettuce.

Female main characters are prominent in this collection - which is different from the Farseer trilogy or the Soldier Son trilogy. Still, Hobb treats men and women and everything in between with a fair hand. The Inheritance is about a young woman who goes to Bingtown after her grandmother dies and she is left with nothing. She inherits nothing but a silver ring and a carved wooden pendant. But it is what you do which is really what you "inherit" - at the end of the story, the girl owns nothing but is left with the feeling that she can fight for her destiny. She is no longer the submissive girl who feels mildly indignant at the injustices she receives or the fact that she does not put up any defense. This is also the case in Cat's Meat.

This will possibly be the last fictional book I pick up which is not university-related.