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Reread update: Ship of Magic was the first Robin Hobb book I read that was one of my all time favorite books(in this case literally), so I was curious if on reread it would move down a bit to among the other Hobb books that are among my favorite ever, instead of being basically my favorite.

Nope.
9.9


Ship of Magic takes everything I loved about The Farseer trilogy, and ramps it up to 11, somehow Hobbs writing shines even brighter in this expanded setting and PoV.



To start I am going to preface this with things that may cause you to not enjoy this book as much as me. None of these things are cons, more just the style of book it is. Be warned if you want a fantasy book with action, this is not the book for you. There are maybe 2 or 3 action scenes in the entire book, and the first one is more then halfway through. The next thing is that characters in this book will make some decisions that are just oh so human, and by that I mean dumb. If you find books where people make foolish decisions that you would never make frustrating and bad then this is not the book for you. Fortunately I think books where everyone was a logic bot would be pretty boring. Ok moving on from the disclaimer.

Some people have also said that this book has a rough start, and I literally could not disagree more. It is the best first 150 pages I have ever read in a fantasy series. It definitely isn't action packed, but emotionally it is so hard hitting.

“Many will rant and rave against the garment fate has woven for them, but they pick it up and don it all the same, and most wear it to the end of their days. You... you would rather go naked into the storm.�

As soon as I started this book I was happy to get back to Hobbs writing. She managed to combine the gravitas and beauty of Tolkien, with the readability and digestibility that is common among modern fantasy. I have always said that most books prose fall in a range that is not good or bad enough to significantly affect my enjoyment of a book. Hobb however is easily in the camp of prose that blows 99% of the genre out of its socks. There are simply scenes that Hobb can write, that other authors can't because they can't find the perfect words. Hobb finds the perfect words. Every time. I have said it before and I will say it again, Hobb is my prose GOAT, even after one trilogy, and in this book she continues to separate herself from the pack. It's so immersive, so elegant, so impactful, and it flows so well.




So after you get to the writing, what is The Liveship traders about. This trilogy takes place after the Farseer trilogy, but further in the south, mostly around a city known as Bingtown. The Bingtown traders are the only people in the world who have ships made of wizardwood. If a wizardwood ship sails with a family for three generations, and all 3 generations die on its deck, then it will awaken into a liveship. Most of this series could be considered a family drama, the third generation of the Vestrit family is coming to the end of his life, and Vivacia awaits.


“Only my pain is more silent than my anger.�

The real main reason this is my favorite book ever like with all my other favorites is the characters. The character work in this book is off the charts. It is by far the best character work I have ever read in a novel. Every single character is so human, I felt like I knew them as well I know characters I have spent entire series with after one chapter, and all of them have fantastic, natural character development. In my opinion Hobbs mastery of character shines even brighter in 3rd person limited then it does in 1st person retrospective. She has always had the ability to develop characters who don't have PoVs, and she still uses that, but it also gives her the ability to show us how so many characters see the world.

Hobb is also simply masterful at dialogue, I have no way to describe what makes it so perfect, but she captures who people are, their relationship to others, how they see others, and everything else that can be in dialogue perfectly, and there isn't a single line of awkward dialogue in all 4 books i've read from her. I suspect that will still be true after 16 books. Also their are sentient boats, and they are so amazing, I love them all, I want one.

He could smell the stench of their entrapment and hear their cries. Perhaps he was the one who was truly mad, for a key hung at his belt and he did nothing

Now time to talk about the remaining things, and what Liveship did better then Farseer. One of my main criticisms of Farseer was that it felt like the main antagonist had plot armor, and a lot of his success wasn't earned. That just gone here, and overall I think the main hateable foil in this book is an even better villain then his equivalent in Farseer.

The thing that really stands out is the worldbuilding and setting. I thought Farseer worldbuilding and setting were...fine, pretty good. But a lot of that story could have just being in generic medieval castle, and not much about the series would have changed. In general I don't think people read Robin Hobb for the worldbuilding, but in Liveship the setting came to life. The locations, and ships, and cultures, and cities were so much more unique, and well utilized. Also I thought the magical elements were a better fit. Farseer magic is a very simple hard magic system, and sometimes the limits to it seem to be whatever the plot needs it to. Liveship relies way less on having magical characters, and it has what I would call magical elements, that are there to add a sense of mystery and wonder. I think this is simply a better fit for the story Hobb is telling.

Lastly the plot and pacing of this book, which is normally Hobbs kryptonite was really really solid. It didn't feel like their was any real fat, and the way the plots interwove was incredibly well done. In general this wasn't the most unpredictable book ever, but when you correctly predict things in a Hobb book you are normally predicting that things are going to go terribly, which if anything adds to the sense of tension. It isn't that it looks like bad things happen but I am pretty sure the characters are going to be fine, with no lasting harm. In this book sometimes it looks like things are going well, but I am pretty sure that isn't going to last. If anything I see this as a pro, as it adds to the sense of tension. The combination of this and how much I care about all the characters made a lot of this book put me on the edge of my seat, and somehow Hobb is so good she can write a slow burn character driven page turner.

I don't think you can teach someone to write character, prose, relationships, and dialogue like Hobb, it is simply genius.

Words of Radiance has being the king of my top book list for 7 years.
The King is dead, long live the queen
10/10