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A review by lakmus
Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
5.0
So apparently the Farseer Trilogy was warm up, and Hobb's got bigger psychological guns. I am loathe to admit that this behemoth is even better than the previous books, although it takes a while to get going and the book itself is largely setup. Here we have a larger array of Young People Finding Their Place In Life – and oh boy, dear old Harry and Katniss and whomstever are coming up short compared to these guys. Not because the stakes are more dramatic, they are not, the author just takes ethics and character psychology seriously (Wintrow's arc in particular, but he does have a convenient background for that).
I've seen some people say Malta gets To Grow (The Hell) Up, and I am looking forward to that, because here she is the most quintessential Young-Teen Girl ever, perhaps the closest analogue to Fitz, actually.
Minor aside: I find it amusing that the location of the previous book, the Six Duchies, where people in the previous trilogy were busy Doing Heroic Quests and Saving The World, is brushed off by the characters living in the current part of the world as barbaric uncivilized middle of nowhere, and the only consequence of Averted Apocalypse for them is economic unrest and maybe some weird rumours. That rings true of our world as well.
I've seen some people say Malta gets To Grow (The Hell) Up, and I am looking forward to that, because here she is the most quintessential Young-Teen Girl ever, perhaps the closest analogue to Fitz, actually.
Minor aside: I find it amusing that the location of the previous book, the Six Duchies, where people in the previous trilogy were busy Doing Heroic Quests and Saving The World, is brushed off by the characters living in the current part of the world as barbaric uncivilized middle of nowhere, and the only consequence of Averted Apocalypse for them is economic unrest and maybe some weird rumours. That rings true of our world as well.