The Mad Ship (The Liveship Traders #2)

I love Robin Hobb’s books and the Liveship Traders is my favorite collection. I have read the assassin series and other works, but the Liveships are the best – both for the story line itself as well as the well-developed characters that evolve from book 1 to book 3. I don’t want to share any surprises (spoilers) so I won’t mention the plot much other than to say that it is satisfyingly complex without being too complex. Part mystery. Part fantasy. Part alternative society. You will become so totally immersed in this saga, you may find it difficult to put down without finishing. This is the second time I have read the series (I was shocked that it was no longer in the local library) and was pleased to find it on Amazon. Thank you, second hand book dealers.

I came to The Liveship Trilogy from the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies. This is actually a sidestep between those two that takes place in the same world but in another region. Only one character from the other two trilogies is involved in this story yet all of it weaves together to form a 9 book series. If I had not had the luxury of choosing to skip from Farseer to Tawny Man in order to stay with Fitz Chivalry I would have read everything in sequence……which I now see is the best way though not essential. Hobb has skillfully written the trilogies so that you need not venture to the Liveship series in order to maintain continuity. Having initially skipped to Tawny Man I did not feel anything was missing. Enough information was provided to fill any potential gaps. However, this is not to suggest that anything in the Liveship trilogy is not worth reading. This series stands on its own as well as fits together with the other two. It is an emotionally gripping tale full of characters you will learn to love. Fortunately this one ends leaving room to continue in a future story. Where Tawny picks up and ends does not define where Liveship could go. I do not regret the order I read them in because I needed to stay with Fitz Chivalry’s story at the time. The design of each tolerates such a sequence. But Ideally, do yourself a favor and read the sequence in order from Farseer to Liveship to Tawny Man so you can gain the most from this wonderful tale.

After I read “Ship of Magic” for this first time I was conflicted. I loved the writing style and the story but couldn’t stand some of the characters. In fact, I hated them so much that I made it about one fifth of the way through “Mad Ship” before putting it down for something happier.

But then months later the rain wilds chronicles came out and I was too curious to pass them up and knew I needed the back story of the Liveship Trader Trilogy to really understand it. So back I went to all three books.

This time I discovered that the characters I couldn’t stand so much weren’t much of an issue in “Mad Ship” which primarily follows three members of the Vestritt family. There is Wintrow, onboard the captured and newly awakened family liveship Vivica (who is being successfully wooed by the charismatic pirate Kennit) walking a fine line between being a captive of or for admiration of the pirate, who freed him from the slavery his own father bought him into. Malta, his sister, who is enjoying her first courtship in Bingtown-even if it from a Rain Wilds man she may have no choice to marry to save the family financially after the loss of their liveship. And Althea, who always expected to inherit her father’s ship, hatches the most daring plan of all with the Vicica’s former first mate Brashen, to take the abandoned and blind liveship Paragon-who killed two of his crews and is mentally unstable-out to find Vivica and attempt to ransom her back or recapture her.

At the same time political strife is stirring with Bingtown’s homeland as their leader, a young and foolish man, prepares to visit the colony. Up the strange rain wilds river the origins of the fantastically strong wizardwood liveship are constructed out of is hinted at. In Bingtown itself trouble is caused by the increasing slave population. A strange prophetess with a way with wood befriends Althea and Malta and joins on to save Vivica. And the sea serpents continue their mysterious but all important search for both “she who remembers” and an illusive goal none of them can quite recall-but know the absolute importance of all the same…

This is really a great book and only enhances the mystery and overall excitement of the trilogy further. It’s every bit as wonderfully descriptive as “Ship of Magic” in both landscape, history and characters but fortunately some of the more hateful characters have way less face time in this novel, or actually manage to grow a little so you don’t feel like smacking them. I enjoyed this immensely and raced eagerly towards the third.

Five stars. And have the last book “Ship of Destiny” ready at hand-the ending is such you won’t want to waste any time.

This was an intriguing series. Too many hours spent reading but just couldn’t pull myself away. Tthe characters were varied, interesting, unpredictable, and it was well written. Thats the clincher. So often there will be an interesting story, but it’s so poorly written that it’s a chore to read. The Mad Ship, as well as books 1 and 3 were so engrossing that I would come to the surface after hours of being immersed in their world and would have trouble keeping the plot and characters out of my head while I tried to work or anything else. Kudos to Robin Hobb for the well thought out, well constructed world and story!

This is my favorite series ever. Ive had to talk many of my friends into reading this and most of them cant get into it. It takes a few chapters but its so so worth it! Love the characters especially. I have to give the author credit for making you love a hated character. Please read this series!

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