“Ship of Destiny” by Robin Hobb

This is the reason why I haven’t posted a review in a while. I’ve been procrastinating on reviewing Ship of Destiny because I have SOOO many thoughts.

Robin Hobb’s Liveship Traders series was a slog to get through. I enjoyed reading the books, but the pace was slow, burdened down by details of the characters, events, and expansive world in which the story is set. It was also emotionally heavy, which sometimes slowed my reading to a crawl because I had to take breaks.

Despite all that, I liked the story and so did my buddy-reader Emily at Embuhlee liest, with whom I’ve been reading Robin Hobb’s books. We so enjoyed the Liveship Traders series that we’ve decided to plunge into the Tawney Man Trilogy together and see what adventure awaits us there. But first, I must wrap up the last book of the Liveship Traders trilogy: Ship of Destiny.

Note: This will be both a review of Ship of Destiny, the last book in the trilogy, and a wrap up of the entire trilogy. There will be spoilers for this and the earlier books in the trilogy, as well as the Farseer trilogy.

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“Mad Ship” by Robin Hobb

It takes a while for me to wade through Robin Hobb’s books, especially the Liveship Traders trilogy. I started Mad Ship, the second in the trilogy, at the end of February and completed it in early May.

The book is long, at about 850 pages, but my reading was slow because the story is emotionally heavy and emotionally charged scenes are dragged out. It makes me take frequent breaks from the story and thus a longer time to read it. Still, the world and characters Hobb has created are so interesting that I can’t break for long. I keep returning to the story, helped along by my buddy read with Emily at Embuhlee liest.

Goodreads summary:

The Vestritt family’s liveship, Vivacia, has been taken by Kennit, an ambitious pirate. Captain Haven is a prisoner; his son Wintrow, who bears the Vestritt blood, finds himself competing with Kennit for Vivacia’s love as she becomes a pirate ship.

Althea Vestritt, in training to become Vivacia’s captain, arrives home to discover her beloved ship lost. Brashen Trell, her old friend and shipmate, proposes that they sail to Vivacia’s rescue in the liveship Paragon, who has lost two previous crews and is believed mad.