Hi booklovers
It's been a while since I've done a book review and today I want to review a trilogy that I started last year and finished in May: The Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb.
This is the second trilogy in her Realm of the Elderlings series. You can find all the information about the different series and the reading order on her website.
I read her first trilogy - The Farseer trilogy - last year and in October I finally felt like starting the second trilogy.
Going in to this trilogy I was mostly daunted by the fact that all three books are huge. As a non-native English reader, that can be quite intimidating. I also feared that - like with Assassin's Quest (book 3 in the Farseer trilogy) - the story would drag on an on. Luckily I was proven wrong from the start. Alternating between reading the physical copies and listening to the audiobooks made it a wonderful experience. Of course, the fantastic worldbuilding and great character development helped a lot too!
This storyline takes place in the same world as the Farseer trilogy, but in a different part of the world. This is called the Realm of the Elderlings.
Throughout the trilogy there are a couple of storylines that intertwine at one point or another in the story:
- The Vestrit trader family.
- Captain Kennit.
- The Rain Wild traders.
- The Serpents.
We get an almost complete new set of the characters, each with their own story, flaws and problems. We're introduced to most of them in Ship of Magic and we see them develop - for better or for worse - throughout all three books. There's a whole mix of characters; some I loved, some I hated and some that grew on me.
Some of my favourite characters include Althea, Brashen and the Liveships Vivacia and Paragon.
*In Ship of Magic the emphasise is on Althea Vestrit. We get to see her go through a lot of things, make some (very) stupid mistakes but also be persistent in her course of action (all throughout the trilogy, actually). I sympathise with her but at times I wanted her to speed things up a bit as well.
*Brashen caught my attention from the beginning. (Although I have to admit that at first I thought he was much older than he actually is. This happens to me a lot when reading adult fantasy. I always picture some of the male characters to be at least in their forties or fifties when in fact they are between twenty and thirty :-$) Brashen is a very flawed character, but that makes him more realistic and likeable. When he finds his true purpose in life nothing - well almost nothing - can stop him.
*The Liveships: the concept of the Liveships is so very cool and - to me, at least - unique that the ships almost instantly became some of my favourite characters. I love how humanlike they are and thanks to my vivid imagination and Hobbs magnificent writing, I could really imagine all that was described about them.
I also loved how further you get in the trilogy more and more pieces of the Liveships puzzle were revealed and how everything fit together.
Vivacia - being newly awakened - is more or less like a child at the beginning, but she quickly starts to change. I have to admit that she was sometimes very naïve, but that of course had to do with the fact that she's very young for a Liveship.
Paragon. He is one hell of a complicated character, due to everything that has happened to him. But that also makes him very interesting. I love his interactions with the different characters that are aboard him.
*One character that really grew on me was Malta Vestrit. She - in my opinion - goes through the most character growth. At first she was this spoilt, selfish little girl. The more the story progresses and develops, however, she really comes into her own. I went from not being able to stand her at the beginning of Ship of Magic to really appreciating her by the end of The Mad Ship and throughout Ship of Destiny.
*The opposite happened with Captain Kennit. I went from liking him to absolutely loathing him. The things that man does to become king of the Pirate Isles are just...urgh...
I did, however, appreciate how much detail Hobb put into his backstory and one moment in Ship of Destiny between Paragon and him really got to me. I had tears in my eyes walking to school.
The whole time I was reading about Kennit I was reminded of Captain Flint from Black Sails.
*Another character I absolutely despised was Satrap Cosco. He is such a whiny, spoiled youth, there is simply no redeeming him.
There are of course a lot more characters, but these are the ones that stood out to me the most.
The worldbuilding is once again phenomenal. The way Hobb describes this part of the Realm is very detailed and complete.
I also love the references to the Farseer trilogy. And apparently certain things from this trilogy are relevant for future books in the rest of the series.
If you love multiple POVs, third-person POVs, detailed worldbuilding and wonderful character development, then I highly recommend picking up this trilogy. However, I do suggest starting with the Farseer trilogy.
Needless to say I gave all three books 5 stars.
