The Mad Ship

The Mad Ship was not so easy for me to read. I had some difficulty with abundance of descriptions and overall slowness of the plot. Nevertheless, all of that was totally worth it. It was such a long time since I was immersed in the story so completely, that I was daydreaming about it.

And that is the most precious thing that the book can give to you.

Also, I just must mention the characters in this trilogy. All of them were crafted with so much love and precision. The development of Malta's character - standing ovation to the author. I believe that it requires a lot of patience not to just in one moment change the character's nature, but slowly, nurturing it with the events...

Next book - starting right now.

3.75 out of 5 stars – see this review and other at The Speculative Shelf.

The Mad Ship continues the conquests of those we met in Ship of Magic, while adding a few new character POVs to the fold. As paths cross and fates entwine, many single POVs pair together and the narration becomes more cohesive. Nevertheless, this is much less a complete tale as it is a continuation from book #1 — and with no definitive ending, I suspect book #3 will follow the same path. In many ways this trilogy is one loooong book, sliced into three parts.

I have been burning through Robin Hobb's work pretty steadily over the last few months, and I hit a wall with this book. As a reader, I seek fresh new journeys, but this ongoing saga progresses at such a slow pace that it was tough to stay as consistently enthralled as I was at the outset. Luckily, the quality of Hobb's writing remains top notch and the story grabbed me back as the ending approached.

With such a heavy emphasis on character development, it's easy to overlook how well Hobb does story revelations. She plants seeds for overarching mysteries that are very hard to solve as the reader, but when the answers are revealed they are surprising, satisfying, and they have ramifications for the overall Realms of the Elderlings world that keep me excited for each subsequent book.

I just finished this book, it is the 2nd book in liveship trilogy by Robin Hobb

one thing that has been driving me a bit crazy in this seriesl lol, is the "one who remembers" plot line with the serpents. It has felt that there is no purpose to it has felt like filler for the series until close to the end of this book in which we get more context of what and how it is all coming together, and its about time! lol

Malta is certainly taking a bigger role along with the mad ship in this book as the plot thickens so to speak, over all a great read and an amazing series. I am actually starting to like paragon lol

Guys. Guys. If you haven't read this series, do it.

This book picks up right where the last book left off. We get sooooo much more in depth with these characters. They are all so superbly fleshed out and made real. I felt so invested in their relationships and character arcs. The plot wasn't super fast paced, but I didn't feel like it ever dragged. I was definitely never bored by any means. I was constantly enraptured by the story. This one somehow was even better than the last book in the series and I thought that one was a masterpiece. Now I'm dying to start the third one because I honestly don't know how else Robin Hobb will be able to top this one, but knowing how I normally am (a crying mess) at the end of a series, I'm sure I will love that one even more. No middle book syndrome here!

TW: rape, sexual assault, slavery, violence, blood, death, murder, misogyny, grief, adult/minor relationship, drug use, drug abuse, gore, suicidal thoughts, addiction

As with the first book, an intriguing tale, with an interesting bunch of characters. Admittedly, some of the character development doesn’t quite ring true (I’m sure it was stated at some point, but I can’t for the life of me work out how old Seldon is supposed to be; he seems to be anywhere between 5 and 15) and, as with the first book, there are some events that seem a little too convenient (convenient earthquakes always annoy me). But, overall, the story kept me involved and I am looking forward to the completion of the trilogy.

I don't know when exactly it happened, though it was more than likely at the beginning of this book, but the characters all suddenly clicked for me. After spending most of the first book being vaguely interested in these characters, though not particularly invested, I am now finding myself being excited for all of them (even if I don't like the character, I'll still find them interesting to read about).

What Hobb excels at is characters, and in that case a slow burn is often necessary. Who's going to care about all the exciting action going on if you have no clue who your characters are? Most of the conflict here stems from the characters themselves and their motivations, and it makes for an addicting read.

On a sidenote, I just really really really love Amber. This has nothing to do with the review, but I just wanted to mention that.

This book took me several months to read, mostly because the other books I typically read move along much faster. This is a slow read, but slow in a good way, like from the crock pot instead of the stove. It is truly part of an epic fantasy. There are several stories happening at the same time, and lots of point of view switches. Chances are that when you finish one chapter on a cliffhanger, you won't see a resolution until maybe 3-4 chapters down the road. I love the world the author has created here. The pirates, the liveships, the wizardwood, the Trader families, the Satrap ... their lives detailed in a rare fashion.