Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Mad Ship

May 2021 reread

For those of you who don't know me, the Realm of the Elderlings (RotE) is a series that means everything to me. It's impossible to review something I love and adore as much as I do. Anything I say about this book won't encapsulate the overall feeling and story, so I'm not going to do my normal routine (fully).

This is the second book in the Liveship Traders trilogy and the fifth book in the overall RotE series and we continue to follow several characters, mostly from the same family (the Vestrits) with a few exceptions. This takes place in another part of the world - primarily Bingtown and we also get an added Rain Wild portion. As with the first book, it's full of feminism, pirates, dysfunctional families, political intrigue of a different kind than we had with Fitz and complex relationships of all kinds.

Every element I normally do in my breakdowns (writing, plot, characters and world building) is just phenomenal. Hobb's characters and world building in particular are some of the best I've read. It's not a simple act of reading these books, you live them.

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noaregine's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Hobb's books, for all the flaws and virtues, never fail to take me to the place where books used to take me when I was twelve.

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achingallover's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Hobb is incredible, and I love this trilogy for all of it's characters but the women really make it. So much here that you gain on a reread and so much slots into place and is set up for the final book. (more detail to follow when I have time)

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hardbackednooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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

Having read the Rainwild Chronicles first, I know most of the outcome to these events, but watching them unfold is endlessly fascinating. This trilogy (and especially this book) really give you a taste of how broad Hobbs' world is beyond the main Fitz and Fool storyline and I'm so glad it's fleshed out more in the next trilogy. Malta has become such a compelling character in this book, along with Keffria and Althea. The fight depicted on the cover of my copy (which I think was one of the first covers) wasn't as epic as the cover made it seem, but still - I didn't the plot twist coming that led to it, nor did I predict the outcome.

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cnohero's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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