A review by elros451
The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb

5.0

Ship of Magic had me worried that Liveship was going to turn into a slog for me but this book proved me wrong constantly. Unlike in SoM where characters mostly stayed to their own storylines, in this one they all mixed together, moved around and created a far more compelling plot to supplement the dozens of amazing character moments that were already there in the first book. If SoM was a somewhat slow establishment of who all the characters are, Mad Ship really just lets them loose to interact and develop alongside each other. There are so many back to back to back chapters in here of amazing character work, dialogue, and world-building. I loved the additions of some newer, smaller POVs as well (with maybe the exception of some boring Reyn scenes) and the tension in many of the final scenes is unmatched. Whereas in SoM only one plotline really had a flashy ending in my opinion, this ending just kept going and had stuff to offer for every plot thread. Can't wait to get the the third one.

Ship of Magic was like 3.5-4 stars. This one is very easily 5.