Reviews with content warning for Slavery - Mad Ship

Another great installment in the Liveship Traders.

I liked this one more than the first. The characters motivations were clearer, making even the bad or wrong decisions feel justified.

The plot was great, continuing the story, adding more twists and turns and unravelling the mystery further. It felt less in this book like bad thing after bad thing was happening, and there was less (although still some) sexual violence - which had felt excessive to me in the first book.

There were some pacing issues as other reviews have mentioned, the 2nd and 4th quarters were great and engaging, but the 1st and 3rd felt super slow, which made it hard to pick up sometimes ~ especially given it is 900 pages lol

Really excited to read the 3rd book!

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laraloops's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional 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

4.75

I really liked this book it's a good second book, building further on the themes and mysteries of the last book. There were revelations that were not super huge as they've been building even from the last trilogy (Assassin's Quest specifically) - the "parasites" the tangle was talking about about mid way through the book still caught me off guard.

For many people this was better than the first book - while I do like the action it had I felt like the way it climaxed felt more of a second book's climax, I didn't feel like it was as much of a climax as a preparation for the next book . That said I immediately got the third book and will keep reading it.

As with any Robin Hobb book the characters felt realistic and changed in their own ways. Wintrow is slowly getting more used to the pirate life, Kennit is continually being a piece of shit that everyone keeps interpreting as having a heart of gold (I find he is a very realistic depiction of men in power/men who have been abused and who fall back into the cycle of abuse). I love all the women in the Vestrit family. Malta especially grew in a realistic way

though I do continually feel uncomfortable with the fact she is continually referenced as adult/grown for her age at 13/14. I'm hoping it gets better in the next book but I am continually side eyeing Reyn

. There was definitely more sexual violence in this book and those bits were harder to read through. I do not mind their inclusion though I feel like some parts could have been less descriptive - I feel like the way SA is included in Assassins Quest or even Ship of Magic did the job well enough without as much description. This is more of a product of the time and is more of a nitpick.

I found Kennit's point of view to be fascinating. The beginning had me actively wishing

he would survive and the line that he would not breathe again made me put down the book. Of course, ,by the end I was back to thinking maybe it would have been best if he stayed dead.

He is undoubtedly a terrible guy with terrible thoughts and you can very clearly see the moments that his internal monologue conflicts with what he is actually feeling. The plans he has with Etta and Wintrow directly conflict with his actual feelings and he doesn't recognize it - his conversation with Etta later on in the book is so good at showing his actual feelings though his inner narration tries to convince him otherwise. His full backstory is not revealed yet, but his charm gives enough that you can guess what abuse he faced and it makes me worry for the next book.

One improvement in this book is that there is no Regal - a man who is terrible and continues to be terrible and in power. I felt at times in Farseer that he was just a villain and not much more than that (though I felt his end was very interesting). The closest too him is Kyle

who by this time is squestered away and slightly worrying me with what he could be up to or convince people to do.

or Satrap. The Satrap is the most like Regal and I feel the consequences of his actions have impacts on himself unlike Regal throughout most of the three books. He indulges in his vices and there are real consequences to his land and the Bingtown traders. In other words I feel that the antagonists are some of the most realistic we have seen.

I could continue on with this book, it may not be my favorite but it continually gives me things to think about. Unlike other fantasy books that I could not say much about other than to say they are good I feel this one has real weight to it that lends to literary analysis.

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irbix13's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-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

4.5

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tsolron's review against another edition

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4.25

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jessiemessy's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

3.75

Malta really went from being one of the most insufferable characters I had ever read to being one of my faves.

Even though these books are so long, this is the first one that I felt could have used some cutting down. It was really satisfying to read once Althea, Brashen, and Amber started to get a plan together (400 pages in) but the last 100 pages were a real slog to get through.

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