Rating: 
Summary: A Fitting Finale
Review: It's great to see a fantasy author who can sensibly finish a series, rather than leaving their readers wondering what they should build out of the neverending brick-like volumes. "Ship of Destiny" is a fitting finale to Hobb's trilogy, yet it leaves enough intriguing nibblets behind for another series set in the same world. "Ship of Destiny" is a fun book -- it pulls the reader in and doesn't let her leave until the last page. Hobb's wonderful imagination shows no signs of fading -- her world is colourful and its magic both insidious and compelling. I cared about the characters, even the pirate Kennit; they were interestingly drawn and mostly believable. That said, I would give the book 4 1/2 stars. I found a few plot-lines superfluous and weakly integrated into the story -- especially those that pertained to Companion Serilla. She was distinguished by nothing more than the atrocities that happened to her and her story fizzled to an end. Also, the dealings of the matriarchs of the Vestrits were stretched into too many pages, leaving little sparkle. Finally, I was annoyed by the constant jumping from character to character. Just when Malta was drowning the focus shifted to her brother, when he was in trouble, we'd get to hear from Althea. I was waiting for the commercial to start every time the focus shifted, and then suddenly realized that I was reading a book and could turn pages. Still, I'd recommend the book to any fantasy-fan for it is superior to most popular fantasy. I'll definitely buy her next work.
Rating: 
Summary: The End of the Quest
Review: One of my personal goals in writing The Liveship Traders was to attempt to write a villain who was truly a villain yet was a fully developed character to me. I've always had a difficult time with 'bad guys' in science fiction and fantasy. Too often they are either stereotypes of power-mad despots, or they are off the page for most of the book, and the reader is only told how bad they are. I wanted this villain to be very accessible to the reader. I wanted his actions to be understandable even as they remained inexcusable. One difficulty I had with Kennit was that I became entirely too fond of him. The more I understood his motivations, the more human he became to me. Looking back at the writing of Ship of Destiny, I think Kennit is a character that brought me a lot of satisfaction. In some ways, knowing him more fully also let me understand my other characters more completely, and to be more unflinching about their motivations.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read....
Review: .... and I not only read a lot, but I'm married to a much awarded writer -- and he loves Hobb as much as I do. How anyone can fault this writer is beyond me. I've just started the first Tawny Man volume in that trilogy. Hobb's use of language is superior and her few errors -- considering she's written over 3-million words in about ten years -- are insignificant. Her language gift also has her inventing words, as well as remarkably asute names. And lest anyone think she makes up her stories out of whole cloth, she has a considerable education and research in natural history, the sea and sailing (her husband had to have helped and bless him and her for that), an alternate universe with peoples and languages to fit... well, I could go on. I do not read fantasy, but I'm nuts about Robin Hobb whose mythology/religion/sexism is right on, along with what she's invented to bolster this threesome. Her sense of military history and armament is extraordinary and she had to steep herself in same.Her I-Dea of Skill and Wit and just plain human and other animals feelings/emotions/thinking is second to none. This fantasy is really not so fantasy-ish, but a call to recognize the way our world really works or doesn't. Nancy Eckert
Rating:
Summary: Voyage's end. Or is it?
Review: "Ship of Destiny" was supposed to be the final book of Robin Hobb's "Liveship Traders" trilogy, but it leaves many loose ends, including the nature and fate of the bead-maker, Amber. And what about those slug-ugly creatures who imprisoned She Who Remembers? Who were they and what is their fate?
There are references to 'Bingtown dragons' in the first book of Hobb's 'Tawny Man' series, so perhaps that is where the author is going to blend in a few 'Liveship Traders' odds and ends.
In "Ship of Destiny," Althea Vestrit continues her quest to recover her liveship Vivacia until the bitter-sweet end of the trilogy. But Vivacia is no longer the girlishly innocent ship that bonded with Althea back in "Ship of Magic." The carrion-hunting sea serpents are no longer mindless slaves to their appetites. Bingtown is burning and the Old Traders are in disarray. The pirates appear to be sweeping all before them. The plot moves on, not always rewarding the just and punishing the evil.
It's funny how the pirates turned out to be the good guys in this trilogy. I was really sad when my favorite character died, no matter that he was seriously flawed. The parts where I zoned out involved the sea serpents. Even after She Who Remembers showed up, they were kind of one-note-Johnnies.
In spite of a few slow spots, 'Liveship Traders' is a great fantasy trilogy. Hobb's dragon life-cycle I think is unique in all of the literature--and it makes glorious sense. Just think of dragon flies.
I'm hoping we hear more of Malta and the mutant Rain Wild River Traders in further books by Robin Hobb, even though the 'Liveship Traders' trilogy is complete.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: When i first read Ship of Magic, i was confused with Maulkin and his tangle n i was utterly disgusted with Kennit's profound lust. i didn't really understand Mad Ship too well either but when i turned to Ship of Destiny, everything came onto me with a blow!
I was instantly swept away with every single detail Ms. Hobb gave me. i developed an affection for Malta's bravery and faith and i rather liked the relationship of Etta and Wintrow. i did think he was a little young for her, though.
I was very shocked when Kennit raped Althea, i didn't really expect that to happen. in the mad ship, i labelled Kennit as a good man and a good captain of the ship, viewing Vivacia's liking for him. When i reached to the rape part, i just couldn't get into my head that he would rape and innocent girl for her looks like Wintrow... Reyn was a superb hero and i cheered on for Tintaglia. I pitied She Who Remembers and wished she survived as a dragon.. Serilla is not as tough as i thought her to be and beauty-concious Malta has toughened into a real Trader. good for that girl!
This book was awesome, amazing and breathtaking and i assure to readers that they won't ever regret reading or buying this book! Ms Hobb, pls write another sequel of it and focus it more onto grag tenira; i like that boy.
Rating:
Summary: Truly Good Ending
Review: I'm very impressed by where Robin Hobb took the third and final book. Not everything turned out how I expected it to, but that's OK.
The characters were developed more with some characters you hated in the first two books fleshing out into likeable human beings. The Kennit thread of the story gets nicely resolved and I had truly not expected myself to like what happened with that story thread at all. The serpents finally make full sense to me which had been a source of slight discontent in the first book. The political and social problems in Bingtowm were also nicely handled.
Overall a truly satisfying end that had a few surprises, a good amount of justice, and didn't seem like a slapped on ending like many trilogy endings have a habit of feeling.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good book.
Review: I liked this book but do have to agree it was a little to long winded. Robbin Hobb is still one of my favorite writers even though she goes a little overboard with the pro-fem characters. I figure it is just make up for all those years of all male heroes.
Rating:
Summary: Now that's more like it !!!
Review: Superbly self motivated character development in a completely believable world with some wonderful fantasy twists, a dragon with quite an attitude, coming of age for some characters and tragedy / recovery for others, a strong female lead with a velvet touch, and surprises galore keep your eyes glued to the pages as they fly by far too quickly. The greatest sadness is when the book is done.
Ok, I've not been very thrilled with the other two books in this series feeling they are far below Hobb's talent as evidenced in the Farseer trilogy which precedes this series. My complaint was not her writing style which is always top notch, it was my disdain for so many of the main characters in this series. Sure, there are always some characters you don't exactly warm up to in every book but for me, there were too many in this set that didn't cut it.
Characters I disliked in book 1 and 2 of this set are:
* Malta
* Kennit
* Kyle
* Ronica
* Keffria
* Selden
* Wintrow
* Etta
* Davad Restart
* the Satrap and his companion of the heart
Characters I was neutral about (all main characters!):
* Vivacia
* Amber
* Grag
Characters I truly liked in book 1 and 2 of this set are:
* Brashen
* Paragon
* Opheila (she is awesome).
Quite honestly, the storyline surrounding Paragon is all that got me through the 2nd book in the series!
This third book turned so much of that around that I'm amazed. Most amazing for me was that I could actually warm up to Malta. About the only character I never could warm up to regardless of how wonderfully Hobb established motivations for his actions was Kennit.
This third book simply is a wonderful story bringing all loose ends to a nice neat warm gushy finish -- a finish I so longed for yet never received in the finale of the Farseer series (thank you Ms Hobb).
Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: Exciting and well-written conclusion to one of the best fantasy series I have ever read. I enjoyed this ending significantly more than the plodding and ultimately disappointing Assassins Quest. Awesome book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but could have been GREAT with careful editing
Review: Robin Hobb is a powerful writer, who visualizes a realistic world that is awash with the color of fantasy. The compliments stop there. This book (and indeed the whole series) is too long, and needs a lot of the fat skilfully cut out of it. The dialogues are inane and the characterization is repetitive. The pro-feminist stance goes from intriguing to irritating to downright embaressing. And no, Robin cannot be forgiven for being an all-powerful woman writer. What would we all think if one of her male peers in the fantasy publishing world were to take a pro-male stance? We know that answer... I love the story but I felt it became stodgy towards the last 200 hundreds pages of each book. PLEASE RE-EDIT THE TRILOGY AND RE-PUBLISH AS ONE 1,500 EPIC!!! The flab in the novel is surprising considering the tame and unsatisfactory ending. I got the feeling Ms. Hobb got bored of the whole project when she first put pen to paper on the third instalment. A pity because the dragons and liveships and serpents are excellent. Pity about those cardboard, cliched good girls and impotent bad men. I would have fed the lot to the serpents two books ago! I am now going to indulge in a good bit of Wilbur Smith reading just re-acquaint myself with that good old fashioned testosterone-rousing action novel: for MALES!!!
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