Book Review-The Liveship Trader Series

So yesterday I sent in a book review to Literary Escapism, in hopes that I will be picked to review books for them! I decided to share my book review with all of you. Enjoy!

The LiveShip Traders
Book 1: Ship of Magic
Book 2: Mad Ship
Book 3: Ship of Destiny
Written by Robin Hobb
Cursed Islands. Blood thirsty Pirates. Ships with Live talking figureheads. Dragons. Magical treasures. Daring rescues. True love. Families who stick together. Yes. The LiveShip Trader series is a series of books unlike any other. So many story lines waiting to come together. With so many twists and magical turns you will be guessing till the last book.

Ship of Magic lays a good foundation for this series. Introducing you to Bingtown, which is a hub of exotic trade and home to a merchant nobility famed for it's Liveships-Rare vessels carved from Wizard Wood, which ripens magically into a sentient awareness. The fortune of one of Bingtown's oldest and proudest families, the Vestrits, rests on the shoulders of it's newly awakened Liveship, the Vivacia. For Althea Vestrit, the second born child to Ephron and Ronica Vestrit, this ship is her rightful legacy which was unjustly denied to her. But she will risk it all to reclaim it. For Althea's young nephew, Wintrow, who was wrenched from his religious studies by his cruel father to serve aboard the ship, Vivacia is a life sentence. But the fate of this family and of their beloved ship might rest in the hands of an outsider. The ruthless pirate Kennit dreams of owning his own Liveship to use in gaining control over all the Pirate Isles. His goal, to capture a Liveship and bend it to his will!



Book 2, Mad Ship, introduces you to a new Liveship, Paragon. Twice he has drowned all who crewed him. The family who owns him has him beached. And all of Bingtown is forbidden to speak to him or of him. But is he the only answer the Vestrits have of rescuing Vivacia? The second books sees the Ancient Traditions of Bingtown's oldest traders slowly eroding under the cold new rulership of the Satrap Cosgo. This book asks more questions than it answers. Who is Amber? And whom is it her visions are leading her to aid? Will the romance that once existed between the dashing Brashen Trell and Althea Vestrit hinder their rescue mission of the Vivacia? What is the tangle and what does it mean for Bingtown? Who are the Rain Wild Traders, and what other secrets are they hiding from Bingtown?



Book 3 Ship of Destiny, finally reveals all the answers. Bingtown is crumbling. Accusations of conspiracies are flying between old Bingtown Traders and new. Invaders are attacking the harbor trying to take the city for themselves. The time has come for the Vestrit woman to show what they are made of. But the Liveship Vivacia will face the most terrible confrontation of all as the secret of the Liveships is finally revealed! This is a truth so horrifying and so shattering it may destroy the Liveships and all who hold them dear.

Robin Hobb is an entrancing artist, weaving her way through the web of mysteries she has set on course. This is the kind of series you fall into and start reading slower as you get to the end, because you just don't want it to stop. The characters are intriguing, and delightful. At times I noticed myself gripping the pages and holding my breath waiting to see what would happen next. Hobb's plotting is complex but tightly controlled, and her descriptive powers match her excellent visual imagination.


This is science fiction and fantasy as it should be written.

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