Mad Ship
Ratings21
Average rating4.4
Wow, what a story. The pieces are coming together, but the way they do is fantastic.
Executive Summary: I really enjoyed this book. I rated book 1 in this trilogy as a 4 as well, but on a scale of 10 book 1 would be an 8 and this would be a 9. There was a lot of setup in the first book that wasn't necessary in this one so the over-reaching story really started to pick up steam.
Full Review
This book does suffer a bit from “middle book syndrome”, but not that much for me to mind. The ending of the book seems reasonable for a book boundary, but would leave me frustrated if I didn't know there was another book to follow.
I learned answers to a lot of the questions I had from the first book, while adding new questions to be answered by the final book. Some things became more clear, but I feel there is still a lot to be revealed.
There is a lot of great character development in this book. Malta in particular who I wanted strangle every time she showed up in book 1 seems to finally growing up a little in this book. Ms. Hobb has always seemed to love to torment her characters and does an excellent job depicting growth in the face of this adversity.
I'm eagerly looking forward to finishing the final book in the trilogy.
Overall I really enjoyed this books. It was not my favorite of the series but it was still really good. Some characters I didn't like in book 1 started to show major improvement. The ending of the story, I feel, was an amazing set up for the third book and I can't wait to read it.
Really should've read this trilogy before the Tawny Man Trilogy but reading it after the Tawny Man Trilogy is really it's own fun too.
This book was a wild ride! I loved every moment of it. It really delved into the fascinating lore of liveships and their magic, but what surprised me the most was how much the characters grew. Malta, in particular, became my favorite point of view character. I can't help but wonder if Althea will eventually reclaim her liveship, and I'm definitely rooting for her and Brashen. Overall, a fantastic read!