Reviews with content warning for Rape - Mad Ship

One thing I absolutely love about Robin hobb’s writing is that you get to see how the characters grow and develop—and the exact paths they took to get there. It’s a benefit to having books this long—they’re long enough for her to have room to do that. To have room for Malta to grow out of her childish petulance, and to see how that journey is hastened along by her family’s hardships. Room for Kennit to learn that building up can be just as ruthless as tearing down. Room for a priest to bend his god to another’s will. Room for a ship to remember. The time pushing inexorably on as it molds the characters into new shapes.
And as exquisite as the characterization was, the pacing of the plot was a little off. The most climatic moment of the book (

when Althea baits a sea serpent with a rapist and Malta takes the worst carriage ride of her life

) came a full 100 pages before what is technically the climax of the story. It felt like the book should’ve ended soon after that, and it was hard to garner as much enthusiasm for the second (somewhat less interesting) dramatic event.

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w0lfyfr3n's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging slow-paced

3.5

Quite a challenging read for me, it stretched so long that I struggled to keep reading sometimes. However some other parts were so impressive that they had me reading all night !

The characters and world building are fantastic, but similar to the first book, the ending is abrupt and ties up none of the plot lines, simply inviting you to read the next equally long book. I probably will because I'm invested, I just wish there was some revelation at the end as a reward for getting through 900 pages 😭

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laszloluvr's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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thoughtsontomes's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.5

I might raise this to 5 but this book does meander at times although the meandering is for the benefit of the character arcs and complexities and the characters in this series are outstanding. It’s a very slow paced book but this second installment really expands on the world and character backstories to the point that I enjoy every POV we get, even the more frustrating ones.

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jana_f's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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roaming_enn's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

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

4.5

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onalark's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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stephanieridiculous's review against another edition

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2.0

It pains me to rate this so low, but I just strongly dislike this trilogy.

The world? So interesting and fascinating. The Liveships? Exactly what I want them to be. The Dragons? Such a great take on them. The Characters??? W I L D L Y hit or miss.

We're still strugglin' and strainin' over the vastness of the cast, many of which you aren't supposed to like & Hobb does a great job of making that the reality. Our female cast continues to be used and abused, brutally and on page, and the suffering of all is boiling over at this point. I so desperately want to love this trilogy, and I do appreciate what it adds to the Realm of the Elderlings in a grander scale, but this segment has unfortunately shifted where Hobb stands in my list of favorites.

I appreciate that the Realm is populated by cultures with wildly different values and systems, but I just can't fathom the need for so much sexual violence on page. It is possible, believe it or not, to establish the struggles of women - and make really powerful commentaries on those realities - without abusing them on page. And certainly without repeatedly showing us that women are most effectively subdued by raping them. It's so unimaginative & unnecessarily triggering for potential readers. The cost of using such situations absolutely does not pay off for me; it mostly feels like lazy writing to invoke an emotional reaction that I know for a fact Hobb is capable of producing without resorting to such base tropes. The ongoing establishment of unbalanced relationships, be that via power or age or a combination, is a growing concern for me with Hobb's writing, and it's a sad discovery that I missed my first time through the Realm books, but is now a glaring issue at every turn. This existed in Buck with Verity/Kettricken, but is now coming to full heights with Malta/Reyn and Kennit/Etta, and I know continues with other pairings in later books. It's creepy, and I don't like it.

I sincerely doubt I will ever recommend the Liveship Traders series to people, and when discussing Hobb's work at large I'll be encouraging people to just read the wiki and skip it when engaging with the Realm.

The good here is a small list, but worth pointing to - Amber as always, I adore. Matla coming into her own is great. More dragons? Yes, please. More Rain Wilds? Heck yea.

I am committed to finishing this series, but I just can't wait to move on to Tawny Man.

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