Ship of Magic (Liveship Traders Trilogy Book 1)

A beautiful book. You should read it for detailed characters which are based in practical world with both goodness and flaws, for a completely new world of seas which is rarely written as fiction background, and lastly for new fantasy characters 'liveships'.
However I thought the book was too long and the snakes perspective repetitive, skipped it entirely.

I jumped whole-heartedly into this trilogy after finishing Hobb's stellar Farseer series. I read several reviews of the Liveship series ahead of time, and so I went into it knowing that the books were very different from the tales of FitzChivalry and only had a minor crossover with those stories. I mention that to point out from the beginning that this is not a review by a disenchanted reader expecting the Farseer part 2.

My main problem with the Liveship series is that it moves painstakingly slow. Perhaps the problem is that the story is divided up amongst several main characters with alternating chapters for each. Perhaps Hobb found herself with too many storylines, and not enough pages to flesh it all out. Whatever the case, what we're left with is a book in which a hundred pages will go by and the story has not moved forward an inch. Once the initial events of Ship of Magic play out in the first few chapters, it feels like nothing happens for the rest of the book. Each of the books feels that way. It is not until the last half of the final book in the series, Ship of Destiny, that the story feels like it's actually moving. In fact, having just finished the final book, I feel that the entire story told over 3 books could have easily fit into one.

My other problem with the Liveship series is that Hobb appears to have fallen into the trap of many fantasy writers today - the belief that good fantasy writing requires constant failures and catastrophes for the protagonists. Call it the "George R.R. Martin Complex." I noticed this in the Farseer books to a lesser degree, but she has taken it to new highs, or better said lows, here. For three straight books, nothing ever goes right for any of the protagonists. Each of them encounters nothing but failure, disaster, and defeat. Every plan is thwarted, either by the heroes own persistent, predictable flaws, or by the superiority of the anatagonists. Never are the protagonists given even the slightest amount of success or triumph. Not until the very end of the entire series does anything "good" happen to any of the "heroes." In between, their homes are destroyed, their dreams dashed, their bodies broken, and - *minor spoiler alert* - two of them are raped! I found it exhausting and depressing to read and was frustrated by the futility of it all. I'm not saying all or even most of the story needs to be all roses and rainbows for the protagonists. But there has to be the occasional success to keep hope alive in us the readers. By the end, I was so beaten down after three books of constant losing on the part of the "heroes" that their final triumphs felt empty and not worth the very long, very slow, very depressing journey.

My advice, skip this series, and jump straight to the Tawny Man.

Bought this book because I was given "Mad Ship"...the second in the series and loved it.
The books are a mix of intelligent High Fantasy and deep philosophy...rich complex characters...and intriguing multiple plots.
The cover of the book is terrible...as it makes one think of a cheep tawdry romance.
As soon as I finish this trilogy I will have to read more from the same author.
I'm Hooked.

I love fantasy-series and this is just another one that was a close to perfect read.
Loved the story (although the idea of reading abut ships was not something I am into), but it is a god and solid story ,with great characters. Hobb is such a talent.

An absolutely great read. The only thing to complain about are the terrible typos every 50 pages or so.. Fix that up please I am not impressed having to spend 11 bucks on sloppy proof reading. next time I'll stick to hard cover.

What an incredibly depressing book; Here's a bunch of characters you may like'em... You like'em? Good, we will now tear their lives apart and repeatedly abuse them both mentally and physically. Have fun.

It's well written aside from that though...