Byline: Genevieve Swart

Robin Hobb writes such vivid fantasies that the real world pales in comparison, Genevieve Swart discovers. A NEW book set in a new world is a big event for fans of Robin Hobb's trilogies. Shaman's Crossing is the first in a trilogy called The Soldier Son. It's set in the kingdom of Gernia, which is expanding into an eastern desert where nomads defend their land with shamanic magic. The narrator is a boy called Nevare, who is sent to cavalry cadet school to follow in the footsteps of his soldier father. Hobb was first fascinated by shamanism years ago while doing research on Laplander tribes. "You get echoes of it in many places, in the Shinto religion in Japan, almost all of the nature religions," she says. "Very often, it's associated with an animal. A shaman might be chosen by the deer spirit or the frog. When you come out of your trance, it's become your spirit guide." Even today, she says, many people feel an affinity with an animal although it no longer has anything to do with religion. "I definitely love wolves," says Hobb, who was born in California in 1952 but grew up in Alaska. "It was not uncommon for mushers [dog-sled racers] to have hybrid animals that were a dog-wolf cross because it gives them a lot of stamina. At one time, we did have a wolf, a cub." Just because she writes fantasy doesn't mean Hobb can make it all up. To create such entirely fascinating worlds, she...