Ship of Destiny (The Liveship Traders, Book 3): Harper

Product Information

The first volume of The Farseer Trilogy, first introduced readers to this world readers with the Assassin’s Apprentice publication in 1995. It's true that there are a few intriguing characters: Ronica, in particular, strikes me as a strong female character who wants the best for her family, for her home. She, most of all, considers everyone in Bingtown and pushes for everyone to unite. There are other intriguing characters, too: Amber, and Jek, and Shreever, but... they're often more minor characters, or in Amber's case, have to be slightly separate from the plot so it isn't too obvious who they really are. In the Rain Wilds, Tintaglia, the dragon freed by Reyn and Selden, saves them from the ruins of the underground city. Malta is stranded in a boat with the Satrap floating down the Rain Wild River. They are rescued by a Chalcedean ship. Malta ensures their survivals by influencing the Satrap's behavior. Believing Malta dead, the Vestrits and some Rain Wilders return to Bingtown, where they help negotiate a united Bingtown. Tintaglia is determined to rescue her kind from extinction, but she finds the landscape changed and must appeal to the humans for help. She defeats the Chalcedean warships and proposes an alliance with the Bingtowners. Reyn and Selden are changed by their connection to the dragon, becoming like the ancient Elderlings. Reyn agrees to help Tintaglia on the condition that she helps him find Malta. No.” He contradicted her flatly. “Now I sound like myself. The self I put aside and hid, the self I intended to be again someday, when I was ready. I have stopped intending. I am, now.”

Ship of Destiny marks the conclusion to the Liveship Traders trilogy, the second out of five subseries in Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings series, and this was overall a satisfying conclusion. I really have to give this praise to Robin Hobb. Having read six books and one novella so far, whether I love it or not (mostly love), I found all her stories to be unpredictable. The book is filled with—once again—amazing characters developments, political turmoil, dragons, and a few great nautical battle scenes. In addition to that, there are a lot of revelations to secrets that were hinted ever since the first book; everything was resolved with no loose ends and the book also shed light on what to come in the future series. I almost absolutely loved reading this one, there were a few things I disliked which I’ll get into later but first let me dive talk a bit about the characters in this trilogy. I loved the ending of this because everything was resolved perfectly, and at the same time the events have far, far, reaching consequences. These will no doubt affect the Six Duchies. This made the ending so strong for me because I couldn’t wait to read more. I couldn’t wait to see how far Amber has (and will) shape the world in accordance with her prophecies. Con respecto a los personajes. Esta escritora logra hacerme ver con cada uno de sus trabajos que personas creadas por la imaginación también pueden ser reales. Reales a su manera. Pero reales. Carne de tinta y huesos de papel. Son así, y así deben ser. El desarrollo de los personajes es tan perfecto como sus diálogos. The people in Liveships are like real people, (literally) warts and all. I wonder, though, if it isn't too realistic.Malta is alive, but damaged — a wound to her head is bearing for fruit a disfiguring scar. Her beauty suddenly taken from her, the difficult girl comes into her own as a young woman, finding within herself a burning desire to make the most of her life. Held captive with the petulant figurehead ruler of Jamaillia known as the Magnadon Satrap, she discovers that her worth to their captors is only as high as her erstwhile companion's. When they are taken from the treacherous Chalcedeans by a ship of Kennit's pirate fleet, Malta takes a desperate gambit to not only preserve her own life but to try to salvage her ruined family.

Althea then joins the crew of the liveship Ophelia and becomes the object of the affections of Grag Tenira. She sails home. Overall, The Liveship Traders is still a marvelous and satisfying trilogy to read, it’s so much better than the Farseer trilogy in my opinion. Also, I’m now super eager start Tawny Man, which from what I’ve heard is the most highly praised trilogy written by Robin Hobb and I will definitely do that after one or two book break. I highly recommend this trilogy for anyone who loves epic fantasy with a lot of characters POV and well-written characters’ development. Last but not least Kennit. I hated him but I also could not help myself and pity him. I hated what he did to Wintrow, Etta, and Althea. How he deceived Paragon! I wanted to strangle him in that moment but could not. The story of who he was, who he is now, and what he wanted to be made me tear up. His was the darkest, saddest, and ugliest story. Hobb was not kind when she told us about Kennit. It was at times uncomfortable to read on but I guess that's what made Kennit such a complex character.

Publication Order of Soldier Son Trilogy Books

For those of you who are wondering if you can read this without reading Farseer or not, you absolutely can if you want. There’s one major character from the Farseer trilogy that’s here but if you haven’t read Farseer, you probably won’t know it’s him, that’s all you’ll miss. However, if you’re willing to read Farseer, I strongly recommend to finish the first two book and see how you feel about it first. If you don't like it, just read a summary of the third book, Assassin’s Quest, on Wikipedia. It will save you a HUGE amount of time and believe me, that book deserves to be skip, finishing that one almost made me give up completely on Robin Hobb, and this is coming from someone who actually enjoyed the first and second book in the trilogy. a b Brown, Charles N.; Contento, William G. (2010). "Hobb, Robin". The Locus Index to Science Fiction: 1999. Locus.