Rating: 
Summary: Great Concept
Review: This is the first book of Robin Hobb's new series. The concept is really cool, ships made out of "wizard wood" that come to life. Hobb creates compelling characters and has a great knack for storytelling. The only criticism I have is that I find the pacing of the story a little slow. There's nothing in particular I can point to. Perhaps it the internal dialogue of the characters. Probably I'm just impatient for the plot to resolve.
Rating:
Summary: You must read the whole series to appreciate this book.
Review: This is the first book I have read by Robin Hobb and I have to admit it is the lead in book to one of the better fantasy series to come out in the last several years. I was hounded into reading The Liveship Traders series by a couple of friends and have to say that I am glad they kept up the attack. Robin spends an inordinate amount of time developing her characters and settings, which make for a long drawn out story and one of the complaints that is pointed out in other reviews. But it is an excellent start to the Livetrader series, which continues in Mad Ship and ends in Ship of Destiny. If you dedicate the time into this book you have to continue through to the end of the series or be disappointed with this book. The characters that you learn about in this book lead into an amazing story. The characters are interwoven with the story to the point they can not be separated. The downside of this fact is that the end of this book you are not sure what the story is about and/or who are the main character(s), but you want to find out what happens to these people (sometimes hoping for the worst). When I completed this book the only character I could cheer for was Maulkin (the serpent prophet) while I loathed the human characters for the pettiness. This just demonstrates the level of character development Robin Hobb puts into the story. The detail concerning the settings in this novel are enough so that the reader feels part of the story but there is still quite a bit left to the imagination. The Pirate Isles and Rain Wild River are mysterious places that the reader will want to know more about these localities (My only complain is that the maps do not include the location of the Rain Wild River). The most interesting setting(s) are aboard the Vivacia and the other liveships that support the story. In fact, being aboard any ship is this series is an exciting adventure. The most amazing thing that Robin was able to accomplish in this book is the ability to give the Liveships their own distinct personality. Vivacia is distinct from Ophelia, both of which have nowhere near the level of depth that Paragon's character is explored. Even though Vivacia seems to be the most important of the Liveships, Paragon has the most interesting tale. The book does not stand on its own at all, but shines as a lead in to The Liveship Traders series. I now plan on checking out Robin's Farseer trilogy.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent start
Review: Since I've read Hobb's first trilogy (the Farseers), I still regonice some of the world described in this book, and her style of writing (in which I fell in love through the Farseer trilogy). This is a promising start on the new trilogy, and she still have a way of describing the world vivid enough to create pictures in your head as you read. You feel with the characters, and it's hard to let go of them when the book ends, and you get the feeling that you MUST know what happens next to them. This is a great book, and I recomend it to any fantasy reader, new as old.
Rating:
Summary: Vivid, exotic and original.
Review: From the first page, the vivid and exotic world I was drawn into stopped all else. For five days the world around me ceased to exist. I did not check email. I did not do homework. I disappeared to my room whenever I had the opportunity. The book went *everywhere* with me. _Ship of Magic_, as well as the other two in the series are easily the best fantasy books I have ever read. Most of the fantasy books I pick up now pale in comparison, much to my chagrin. If you're trying to avoid the same old storyline of the indiscriminant character who grows into a hero/ine's role and must go questing for that legendary sword, I can't recommend this book more highly. This is the most original storyline I've come across yet. The plot isn't so complex that it will make your head spin, but it definitely isn't simple. And by the end of _Ship of Destiny_ (The 3rd and final book) there are still little plot twists and surprises that I wasn't able to predict. The characterization is unsurpassed. Hobb's characters are constantly evolving. Kennit is the most psychologically intricate character I have ever come across. Other characters one should keep an eye on are Malta and Keffria. And if you're worried because books about seafaring just aren't your thing, don't worry because I felt the same way! If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I would. I really hope that Robin Hobb writes a series to continue this trilogy.
Rating: 
Summary: Original but EXTREMELY SLOW AND DISAPPOINTING!
Review: This is one book that will leave you clueless and frustrated with absolutely no idea of what the plot is about, right to its very end. Infact, this book tries to dwell on developing its characters so much that it forgets to do the main thing - and that is to bind its characters to any real event that could possibly give readers an idea of what is happening. Instead, readers just bogged down in emotional details that drag on forever. What is worse about it is that, with most of the plot focused on character development, one fails to feel any bond for these characters - more specifically, towards the Vestrit women. Difficulties become so predictable regarding the plight of the Vestrit women. It seems as if the author wishes to impress readers by detailing the hardships that women went through by spending half the time thinking of unrealistic ways to plunge them into unnecessary trouble. Example: Grandmother and mother were supposed to be women of strength but somehow, their brains failed to point out the obvious; to explain to Malta why she could and could not do certain things. They tell her not to open the dreambox but they don't tell her why. If Malta understood the family debt and the blood bond, she would have dropped it like a hot potato! And the irony is that, the grandmother realises the astuteness of Malta's mind earlier on and yet, still neglects to do the obvious. Infact, grandmother was a very irritating, brain numbing character that failed to do the common sense things that anyone would expect of a smart, strong minded woman. And hence the book continues in this manner. Little twisted plots with such obvious ways out that a reader couldn't possibly lose oneself in the book. Infact I literally had to look for the book after throwing it at my wall several times and the only reason that kept me reading was the £6.99 that i had spent on it. Of all the characters, I found Paragon's to be most intriguing. Paragon the Mad Ship but alas, when u finally get to someone interesting, the character is underdeveloped. Kennit, Etta, Brashen and even Althea and Wintrow showed promise but the book flittered so much from one tale to another, that it was difficult once again to fully engage any of these characters. And when there were so many breaks from one plot to another, there weren't any in the style of writing, you are stuck in boring after boring, there was no light hearted relief to take the edge off. There was no character that you really came to appreciate, to love and hoped would survive the end of the book. As for the serpents who were supposed to play a mysterious and yet significant role in the plot, there was not a clue as to what the hell they were supposed to see!! All one got was the time old cliche, "We were once masters of everything...." or something very similar to that. And that is all about what Maulkin saw. He doesn't know what they were, how they were masters or how long they lived! The serpents spend their whole time in the plot following a ship or something that could reveal mysteries about their past and voila! we hit the end of the book. With the exception of the Vivacia quickening, nothing significant happens to any character in this book. Althea and Winstrow just gain a little muscle and sea experience with no eye opener, Brashen is still the sailor, Kennit is still the captain at the brink of owning his first liveship, Paragon is still considered mad and beached and grandmummy, mummy and daughter are still locked in their own petty squabbling. By the way, it took forteen chapters for the Vivacia to actually leave her docks! I give points for the book's originality and the promise it showed for the rest of its characters. It could have been an excellent book but sadly, something went wrong.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful fantasy novel - complex, graphic, moving!
Review: At first, I thought I would not like this novel. I'm not usually a fan of novels that dedicate a small section to one character, then two pages later jump you to another character. I find them too chaotic to read. However, this is one of the things that keeps me plowing through this series! No more do I get angry that the story is jumping to a new character, than I find myself totally caught up in THAT person's part of the story. There is amazing depth to the characters in this series...there are characters to hate, many to like, many to feel great sympathy for - all of the things that make me like a novel! You learn small glimpses of these people's pasts that make you *just* think you understand them - then they turn around and surprise you with something else! This is definitely not a typical fantasy - no mages, goblins, orcs, dragons....oops...well...okay.....maybe dragons...but none of that other stuff! Truly an exciting novel.
Rating:
Summary: A stunning, complex, uplifting novel, truly amazing...
Review: I have been reading sci fi/fantasy since I was 13 (I'm now 32!) and this is by far one of the best books I have ever read. The characters are so well defined that you empathize with them and share all that they go through. This is even more amazing because although the story is told from the point of view of several characters, you are never lost nor do you struggle with the different viewpoint. You sink right into the reality of each individual, whether it is the strong and fierce heroine or the Satrap's (ruler's) courtesan who gambles her life on her political abilities in order to create a life of her own. The world is brilliant, with a complex social system and political intrigue that is missing from most fantasy novels. The trials and the sacrifices that the Vestrit family endure in order to hold fast to their values and their way of life is to the point of heartbreaking. However, what they achieve through their perserverence is something that fills you with wonder and awe. This book is a must read. I have given copies to all of my friends, and their reaction is the same as mine was after finishing each book, and the series: "wow."
Rating:
Summary: Robin Hobb entertains...
Review: I loved Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, so I figured I'd give her new Liveship Trilogy a shot as well. The first hundred pages or so were a bit slow, leaving me to wonder if I was going to be disappointed by an author who had so impressed me when I was first introduced to her. Lucky for me, she proved my suspicions to be unfounded! Soon after those hundred pages, I was eating up the story, truly enraptured in all the characters and their plights. What I love about Hobb is that she really makes you love the characters you're supposed to love and hate the characters you're supposed to hate. She illicits very strong emotions...at least from me anyway. I loved this book and I'm looking forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy to find out what happens next!
Rating:
Summary: Swashbuckling Adventure in the Quest for the True Self
Review: If J.K. Rowling is the Louis Carroll of our era, Robin Hobb is Herman Melville. Hobb claims in her web site that it was her intention to write a "swashbuckling adventure story with pirates thrown in for good measure." This may have been somewhat of Melville's intention too. I believe there is a bit of tease here. The greatest adventure, the most danger, is always the journey inside. The most difficult quest is the search for selfhood. The major characters in this novel must journey to find out who they are. They have a social identity, a role to play, or a place in the ecological scheme of things. But who are they really, at the core? What is their true identity? As I have found in other books by this author, many of these characters at first glance seem exotic and strange, but as we get to know them, we see ourselves, or people close to us. Here are a few of my favorites. There are the liveships, Vivacia and Paragon - brought to life by some magic after three generations of their owners have died on board them. But who are they really, and where do these strange souls come from? There are Brashen and Althea, both children of prosperous merchants, both of them estranged from their families after insisting on going their own way. There is the pirate, Kennit. He is a casual killer who doesn't understand what love is. At the beginning of the first book he purchases for himself a good luck charm carved to his own visage. It is made of the same substance as the liveships. This charm serves him as a most uncompromising conscience and psychotherapist. He soon finds his direction has changed. But has he, himself, changed? There is the young man Wintrow, first headed towards priesthood, but then diverted to life at sea - both at his parents' whims. His younger sister Malta is a bratty self-centered teenager - is she there just for comic relief? Finally, there are the sea serpents, on a long migration they do not understand towards a destination they do not know. The Liveship Traders Trilogy takes place in the same world as the Farseer trilogy, but unlike the earlier work, it is written from multiple points of view, frequently switched. Moreover, one does not get the same sense of inevitability, that events must work out as they do. The characters are set in their initial circumstances; they then make their choices. Some grow, others do not. Some are fortunate, others, not. This trilogy, then, may be a bit less organized and artistically coherent as the Farseer trilogy; but there is much suspense in this uncertainty, and delightful surprises. As in Moby Dick, one character asks whether man or God is in charge of destiny. A prophet wonders, if she had correctly fulfilled her mission, whether the fate of the world would have been changed. The questions are left for us to answer. The reader will not want to stop reading this trilogy after Book 1 or Book 2. As with all great adventure, we know that for the characters who survive, their quest will continue; but we must leave them, inevitably, midway through.
Rating:
Summary: Journey to Identity
Review: If J.K. Rowling is the Louis Carroll of our era, Robin Hobb is Melville. Hobb claims in her web site that it was her intention to write a "swashbuckling adventure story with pirates thrown in for good measure." This may have been somewhat of Melville's intention too. I believe there is a bit of tease here. The greatest adventure, the most danger, is always the journey inside. The most difficult quest is the search for selfhood. The major characters in this novel must journey to find out who they are. They have a social identity, a role to play, or a place in the ecological scheme of things. But who are they really, at the core? What is their true identity? As I have found in other books by this author, many of these characters at first glance seem exotic and strange, but as we get to know them, we see ourselves, or people close to us. Here are a few of my favorites. There are the liveships, Vivacia and Paragon - brought to live by some magic after three generations of their owners have died on board them. But who are they really, and where do these strange souls come from? There are Brashen and Althea, both children of prosperous merchants, both of them estranged from their families after insisting on going their own way. There is the pirate, Kennit. He is a casual killer who doesn't understand what love is. At the beginning of the first book he purchases for himself a good luck charm carved to his own visage. It is made of the same substance as the liveships. This charm serves him as a most uncompromising conscience and psychotherapist. He soon finds his direction has changed. But has he, himself, changed? There is the young man Wintrow, first headed towards priesthood, but then diverted to life at sea - both at his parents' whims. His younger sister Malta is a bratty self-centered teenager - is she there just for comic relief? Finally, there are the sea serpents, on a long migration they do not understand towards a destination they do not know. The Liveship Traders Trilogy takes place in the same world as the Farseer trilogy, but unlike the earlier work, it is written from multiple points of view, frequently switched. Moreover, one does not get the same sense of inevitability, that events must work out as they do. The characters are set in their initial circumstances; they then make their choices. Some grow, others do not. Some are fortunate, others, not. This trilogy, then, may be a bit less organized and artistically coherent as the Farseer trilogy; but there is much suspense in this uncertainty, and delightful surprises. As in Moby Dick, the question is asked whether man or God is in charge of ones own destiny. One character wonders, if she had acted differently, whether the fate of the world would have been changed. The reader will not want to stop reading this trilogy after Book 1 or Book 2. But in the end, for those who survive, the journey must continue, and we must leave them, inevitably, midway through.
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