Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb

11 reviews

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Brilliant! Everyone I’ve heard say that this trilogy is the worst of the Elderling group is wrong! 😅

The character work is amazing- you hate every character at one point or another but you know why they are the way they are. 

The way Hobb takes on slavery, greed, coming of age, passion, religion, and probably other themes I’m not remembering, is expertly crafted. 

When I first started I thought “why is she writing about men again?!” But she isn’t 😀

The ending was wrapped up so smoothly with a lot left to ponder on for the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

littki's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Slavery, Violence, and Trafficking

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Vomit, Grief, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, and Abortion

errie's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Abortion, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

smokingchagga's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I stopped reading this book after looking up what event the hard trigger warning for book 3 of the trilogy was for. I don't mind having spoiled it for myself but I had to think long and hard if I was willing to read that. Needless to say, I couldn't stop thinking about this series and had to continue. 

Note: sexual violence is a major thing in this particular series. The threat of it is quite heavy and it can absolutely be a deal breaker for someone who is sensitive to it. There were also a few instances where an assault or the direct aftermath of one was explicitly shown. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

atalea's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Excrement, Vomit, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

kaziaroo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Confinement, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Excrement, and Vomit

Multiple graphic limb amputations

apparitor's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction

wolfthorn's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

It's taken me 19 days, but I've finally finished this book. All 897 pages of it. It wouldn't have taken me so long if I'd not switched to reading something else part-way through! I am rather glad to be done with it, it is so incredibly grim. The entire book is full of misfortune and there's only one truly happy moment that I can think of. There are so many irritating characters, even the main two - Althea and Wintrop - are annoying. I think possibly the Vivacia is about the best character in the whole book. But the most infuriating bit was the fact that the book just stopped. It didn't finish with some parts of the storyline resolved, no, it just ended. Grrr. I don't know if I will read the second book. Part of me wants to see Althea get her ship and Kyle get the comeuppance he truly deserves, but I don't know if I can deal with any more misery. Especially not another 850 pages of it.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug use, and Death of parent

Minor: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Excrement, and Alcohol

thebookfinch's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Slavery, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

aseaoftomes's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious tense 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

February 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 first book in the Liveship Traders trilogy and the fourth book in the overall RotE series and we 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 in this first book and Bingtown is home to merchant families - traders who own these magical ships called liveships (ships that come to life after the third generation of a family member dies aboard the ship). 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug use, Sexual content, Excrement, and Religious bigotry