Customer Reviews

Ship of Destiny: The Liveship Traders

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Robin Hobb's Assasin Apprentice trilogy is on my short list of books to reread, so I looked forward to this second series by an author that seemed very capable.

I have previously reviewed one or each of the first two books in this trilogy, 'Ship of Destiny' being the closing volume. I see the average rating is 4 stars and I agree with that result, and, I recommend the series as a whole.

But why does this volume lose a star? Well, twice after reading a fair portion of the book I put the book down and read something else; though I read the last half of the book through the last time I picked up the book. It just seemed looooooong. It took time to tell each part of the story without the parts seeming like they were about to come together (and I found it a little startling when they did) almost like you're reading overlapping stories that weren't moving toward a payoff. But was it too long? I can't say how it could have been edited down, or even if it should be (IT is still a 4 star book!) And it was rewarding in the end how the different story parts were resolved, the reader is left with a vision of how the part of the world in the story changed and might continue, what the course the lives of the characters might take... Actually, I really appreciated the ending for it gave a sense of what foot the story's 'ever after' would get off too.

PS. It's been a while since I read the other reviews, but I remember one or a few that seemed to comment to be discontent with the number of strong female characters. As a guy, I didn't have any problem with this, and there are sufficent strong/important male characters, and there are 2 main Liveships the play equal roles in this closing volume; one a female Vivica and the one a male Paragon. Also, one bit of wisdom I heard once comes to mind. 'If men had to go through child birth, the human race would end within a generation', so, let's not discount which is the stronger sex.

.... and I not only read a lot, but I'm married to a much awarded writer -- and he loves Hobb as much as I do. How anyone can fault this writer is beyond me. I've just started the first Tawny Man volume in that trilogy. Hobb's use of language is superior and her few errors -- considering she's written over 3-million words in about ten years -- are insignificant. Her language gift also has her inventing words, as well as remarkably asute names. And lest anyone think she makes up her stories out of whole cloth, she has a considerable education and research in natural history, the sea and sailing (her husband had to have helped and bless him and her for that), an alternate universe with peoples and languages to fit... well, I could go on. I do not read fantasy, but I'm nuts about Robin Hobb whose mythology/religion/sexism is right on, along with what she's invented to bolster this threesome. Her sense of military history and armament is extraordinary and she had to steep herself in same.

Her I-Dea of Skill and Wit and just plain human and other animals feelings/emotions/thinking is second to none. This fantasy is really not so fantasy-ish, but a call to recognize the way our world really works or doesn't.

Nancy Eckert

The first two books were excellent and imaginative. The idea behind the story is terrific. But this last book was very unsatisfactory. The end was too unrealistic. Some characters' ideas sounded too modern to me, all the feminism and the democracy.
Less romance would be nice too, I don't like Danielle Steele. I'm sorry but a lot of that was not only completely unnecessary but also annoying, especially the parts involving Brashen and Althea.
And I used to think characters surviving against all odds were OK but George R. R. Martin spoiled me.
I also agree with a previous review that the series could be trimmed down a lot. A lot of details weren't very relevant to the overall picture. She focused too much on what the characters were thinking and less on what was happening. Sometimes she could have let the characters' actions speak for themselves. It would have made the story a lot shorter and more enjoyable.

I love this book! I won't tell you it's a flawless book because I do believe it could have been shorter and that not all of the sub plots're captivating. It just that this book is suit my taste in every aspect. I'm a sucker for seafaring/swashbuckling adventure especially when it features pirates and their conquests. I love how the author managed to fill her story with well-developed and accesible characters that make me FEEL for them or even love some of them including the bad guys. But most of all, I love Hobb's creativity in creating the live ships and made them truely ALIVE by combinding her own imagination with the existing creature in fantasy world we've known.

Reading this trilogy gave me the time of my life. It might be too long for most people but it absolutly worth your time. Though judge by this book alone I'd give it 4.5 stars, I did find companion Serrilla's so annoying, Ryen's truely a lovesick fool I felt he didn't deserve a happy end and Kyle's role in his reappearance's totally pointless. However, judge by the deep feeling I felt for the characters and how I good I felt after reading the last page, I can careless about those flaws.

Robin Hobb is a powerful writer, who visualizes a realistic world that is awash with the color of fantasy. The compliments stop there.

This book (and indeed the whole series) is too long, and needs a lot of the fat skilfully cut out of it. The dialogues are inane and the characterization is repetitive. The pro-feminist stance goes from intriguing to irritating to downright embaressing. And no, Robin cannot be forgiven for being an all-powerful woman writer. What would we all think if one of her male peers in the fantasy publishing world were to take a pro-male stance? We know that answer...

I love the story but I felt it became stodgy towards the last 200 hundreds pages of each book. PLEASE RE-EDIT THE TRILOGY AND RE-PUBLISH AS ONE 1,500 EPIC!!!

The flab in the novel is surprising considering the tame and unsatisfactory ending. I got the feeling Ms. Hobb got bored of the whole project when she first put pen to paper on the third instalment.

A pity because the dragons and liveships and serpents are excellent. Pity about those cardboard, cliched good girls and impotent bad men. I would have fed the lot to the serpents two books ago!

I am now going to indulge in a good bit of Wilbur Smith reading just re-acquaint myself with that good old fashioned testosterone-rousing action novel: for MALES!!!

This is the third and last book of The Liveship Traders (after Ship of Magic and The Mad Ship).

"King" Kennit of the Pirate Isles is now captain of the Liveship Vivacia. After discovering his main city Divvytown had been raided by slavers and all but destroyed by Chalcedean patrol ships, he sails to Others Island with his woman Etta and the former priest-boy Wintrow Vestrit, now his fervant follower. There, Wintrow will have his fortune told by the Oracle, but instead ends up rescuing the crippled sea serpent She Who Remembers from her prison-pool, scalding his body with her toxins in the process. And when the serpent touches Vivacia, the Liveship suddenly realizes who, or what, she truly is. New destinies are set into motion.

Further to the North, after doing up the Paragon, Althea Vestrit, Brashen Trell and Amber finally set sail to claim the Vivacia back from the pirate king, barely in time before a treacherous attempt on the Satrap's life is made. Indeed, on the evening of the Summer Ball, war breaks out in Bingtown, and the Old Traders families are forced to flee to Trehaug, the treetop capital of the Rain Wilds. But as Malta and her little brother Selden are exploring the ruins located under Trehaug, answering the dragon Tintaglia's pleading calls for rescue, a terrible tremor shakes the Earth and the underground city collapses over them. Helping the dragon escape is their only chance of survival.

The setting free of She Who Remembers and Tintaglia marks the beginning of a new era for both humans and dragons, who will have no other option than to collaborate for their kins to survive. And as the pages turn and the story flows, new alliances are made, and others unmade, as all parties are slowly converging for a final battle on the choppy seas of the Cursed Shores.

Although as a whole I'd say I preferred her Farseer trilogy, Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders is an astounding, thrilling pirate adventure tale, with an extremely well-thought-of plot and real, three-dimensional characters. The hardships the heroes are going through reshape them, such as young Malta, who matures from a spoiled little brat to a fine diplomat, or Wintrow and Brashen, who gain more self-confidence throughout the series. In turns, you'll be fascinated by the mysterious prophet Amber, enraged by Althea's stubbornness and pride, seduced by Reyn's exotic figure and kindness, and you'll even feel pity for the "baddies". Fantasy books just don't come any better than that!

Robin Hobb creates a magnificent world in this trilogy. Nice character development and description. This entire series makes the Farseer Triology and the Tawny Man trilogy all the more enjoyable.

I do recommend reading the Farseer Trilogy first, though. If you read that trilogy first, then the Liveship Traders and finally the Tawny Man trilogy (only 2 out so far) you'll appreciate the pieces much more.

"Ship of Destiny" is, in a word, disappointing. While it is worth reading, it's not up to the same standard as "Ship of Magic" or "Mad Ship". Hobb does bring a conclusion of sorts to the series, but a lot of the book seems to be either too silly or too forced to fit in with the first two volumes. "Ship of Destiny" does have some good moments, but I really expected something better from this work.

We start where "Mad Ship" left off, with Bingtown mostly destroyed while in Trehaug, Reyn has just managed to release Tintaglia, the last dragon. Farther south, Vivacia is struggling with the knowledge of where wizardwood comes from, while Althea and Brashen try to figure out how to locate Kennit and get their ship back. I realize that it must be difficult to successfully wrap up a story where so many different things are happening, but the plot of "Ship of Destiny" really seems to rely too heavily on amazing coincidences. A huge group of characters all meet at the same place and time by random chance, a character avoids a difficult dilemma because two events conveniently happen at the same time, and so forth.

Like most readers, I think that characterization is one of Hobb's biggest strengths. There are some characters in "Ship of Destiny" who manage to remain both believable and sympathetic, most notably Althea, Ronica, and Brashen. However, some of the others seem to have their personalities change so fast that it's not really credible. I wouldn't necessarily say that the author does a bad job with characterization in this book, just that it appear a little bit hasty and sloppy at times. Another gripe that I have is that all of the resolutions reached among various groups that help bring about the happy ending are a bit of a stretch. For instance, all of the groups in Bingtown, including the Old Traders, New Traders, former slaves, and Three Ships families, are surprisingly willing to put aside their differences and get along with each other considering the distrust and animosity that they showed in the last book.

Other than those complaints, "Ship of Destiny" is still a pretty strong book compared to the rest of the fantasy genre. Hobb's writing is still adept, and she has an excellent ear for dialogue. And there are some well-written scenes in this book where you actually feel for the characters and experience some suspense about what will happen next. For those who enjoyed the first two volumes of the Liveship Traders series, I certainly wouldn't discourage you from tackling this one as well. I just think that it's generally below the level of quality that we've come to expect from Hobb.

Robin Hobb concludes her Liveship Traders trilogy in fine fashion, weaving an incredibly vibrant tapestry of pirates, dragons, romance, danger, and political assignation. In particular, the second half of this book is packed full of action as the author deftly maneuvers her characters through rough seas, both literally and figuratively, and brings the entire epic to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion.

Essentially, the book begins, with bringing us up to speed on the three major plots that had formed from the last book: 1) Althea Vestritt and her drive to reclaim the stolen liveship Vivacia, 2) the pirate, Kennit, and his quest to rid the Pirate Isles of the slave trade, and 3) and the events back in Bingtown and The Rain Wild River where war has broken out and an uneasy alliance is just beginning. There is much ground to cover in this volume and so the pace of the more mundane events picks up a notch from book two, and it is not long before the three individual plots begin to overlap and build upon each other. Some of the lesser characters from the first two books, including Reyn, of the Rain Wild folk, the Satrap and his companions, and Althea's all-but forgotten sister forge new roles and become instrumental in the plot development. All of the characters have come a long way since the beginning of the series, and to see their growth as characters is one of the most fascinating aspects of the entire series. It is fun to watch as they transform from weak-willed adolescents into fulfilling their various roles, whether as full-fledged leaders or as political scapegoats.

Thankfully, the author has not kept us in suspense regarding all of the secrets and intrigues of the first two books. Here we at last discover the true nature of the serpents, the wizard wood, the liveships themselves, and we uncover the mystery surrounding Paragon (the Mad Ship) as well as Kennit's background. And, yes, the dragons not only finally make their appearance but also take center stage.

This book is a "10". It combines exactly the right amount of tension, danger, romance, build-up, comic relief, and everything else that makes a great story come to light. Many novels come close but never quite reach such a pinnacle. It simply succeeds on so many levels. Some may read it for the great fantasy adventure it is while others will take away a far subtler but fascinating undertone that provides key insights on human relationships of all forms. And, truthfully it is, plain and simply, original. The settings, the characters, the plot, are wholly original. The ability to create such a believable fantasy setting and populate it with such colorful characters is truly a remarkable gift. And yet Ms Hobb doesn't let this perfection stand in the way of a truly rousing adventure tale.

First a bit about the series that this book is the final volume in. I am a huge fan of Robin Hobb, and it was this series that started me in reading all of her books. I just completed the entire Liveship Traders series for the second time. You could read it over and over again, wanting to be with these characters for longer. It says something that I own the second and third volume in hardcover, because I had to rush out and buy the next installment.

Robin Hobb incorporates a vivid level of detail about the world, and Ship of Destiny ties together all the threads that a reader of the series has been wondering about. The peoples of this world are molded by their environment, and Hobb has clearly planned a long history for this world. The amount of time that must have gone into the creation of the world really pays off in the readability of the books.

Her characters are so much like live humans. I could relate to Malta from my years as a teenage girl, to Althea, and to all of the other characters. The same rebellions any teen has with the authorities are reflected in this fantasy novel.

The quality that makes this one of the best trilogy-enders I've read is that all the characters have their ends tied up, have changed in some way, and all my questions were answered. It is very rare for a writer to be able to tie everything together and create a satisfying ending for an involved story like this.