Reviews

LOVED this! The complex characters and intricate plotlines that Hobb can craft are truly breathtaking. I feel like an entire world has unfurled before my eyes and I will never cease to be impressed by how strikingly real these characters feel - they are flawed and multidimensional and every single one of them changes and grows as real people do.

Kennit continues to be a fascinating antihero and is really entering his megalomaniac era. Big Walter White energy!! There was a neat contrast between how Kennit was doing the right things but for the wrong reasons, while Kyle was doing the wrong things but for (what he truly believed) to be the right reasons.

Then there's Amber, the literal love of my life 🥺

“It’s not the first time I’ve been called a fool, and likely not the last…”

had me SCREAMING. There's one point where she says, “Sometimes I hear myself still talking to him, and I know how he would answer” and this has gotta be

talking about Fitz right

?

It's especially evident here that Hobb writes character relationships like no author I have ever encountered. The evolving dynamics between all of these diverse types of people/sentient beings is rendered in glorious clarity. Several times I caught myself questioning a character's behavior or motives and then a later reveal would make me realize I was too quick to judge them and I think that reading this series has genuinely made me a more empathetic person in real life.

Compared to the previous books, there is quite a lot of plot in this one. There are some intense action sequences, beautifully done reveals, and lots of twists and turns that had me completely sucked in and having lost all sense of time. In Ship of Magic, I was craving a bit more of the "magic" element but The Mad Ship had a wonderful balance between fantasy, action, drama, and politics.

And the lore!! I definitely could have done with fewer cryptic chapters of sea serpents just writhing around in their big spaghetti tangle but the magic of the liveships, dragons, and serpents is so richly-drawn and some of the most enchanting writing I've ever seen.

The way Robin Hobb's books sweep me off my feet gives me such nostalgia for the childhood fantasy that made me fall in love with reading in the first place. At the same time, these books have so much depth and nuance to think about. The themes are deeply tied to the human condition and the very real struggles of our world, from large scale problems like slavery and colonization to the internal struggles between doing what's best for yourself versus what's best for others.

“Half the evil in this world occurs while decent people stand by and do nothing wrong. It’s not enough to refrain from evil, Trell. People have to attempt to do right, even if they believe they cannot succeed.”

Seeing more of how the liveships came to be raises a lot of ethical questions about how they have been exploited. There is a dissonance between Bingtown's denouncement of holding human slaves and how they have profited hugely off of using the liveships and justifying it by saying that they aren’t human. It made me think hard about what we tell ourselves in order to do what is easy versus what is right.

Seriously though, Robin Hobb is writing in a league entirely of her own and she eventually answers questions you didn't even know you had. What a spectacular seafaring adventure.

“Everyone thinks that courage is about facing death without flinching. But almost anyone can do that. Almost anyone can hold their breath and not scream for as long as it takes to die.

True courage is about facing life without flinching. I don't mean the times when the right path is hard, but glorious at the end. I'm talking about enduring the boredom, the messiness, and the inconvenience of doing what is right.”

laufox's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

These books are sheer perfection.

fruitface's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

youngthespian42's review against another edition

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5.0

There is not a single POV character I dislike in this book. I am sad every time I jump to another group and I excited to see the people I’ve jump to. Maybe we are all trauma bonded at this point but everyone feels like my people. Malta steals the show in this one. Her arc is so interesting and satisfying. Cannot wait to finish this trilogy.