Sentient sailing ships, pirates and dragons - an excellent combination.

 

The interactions surrounding Paragon were irritating. For people who spend generations centered on their liveships they sure treat him disdainfully without even trying to figure out why he is the way is. Especially coming from Althea - for someone who supposedly understands liveships so well, she treats them more as objects than beings with feelings.

 

This is the first time I've encountered dragons written as such self centered, egotistical assholes.  LOL

 

The wrap up felt a bit rushed, but most of the loose ends were tied up.

Admittedly, mine cuppeth hast been overflowing on the first part from very early on this series—and trilogy—nor am I qualified to analyse all the ways Hobb fails in writing about the tattooed slaves, so this is going to be a short review. Again.

 

This trilogy has all the melodrama and angsty plot twists I usually love in my reading, but execution matters. Boy, does it matter.

 

Hobb touches on serious matters and then promptly glosses over the aftermath. Instead of confronting their issues, her characters—and the author—like to take the easy way out and act as if the briefest acknowledgement of their issues is a victory worthy of an Olympic medal, or a HEA.

 

The only reason I kept reading and will keep reading Hobb is Amber. She's on a ship that sails no matter what. If you know what I mean. *wink wink nudge nudge*

I can understand why *this* rape scene would anger readers, but for me it was the rotten cherry on top of a piss ice cream in a shit cup. This trilogy has been nothing but misogyny heaped over rape culture and flavoured with paedophilia sometimes confused with homophobia.

Ship of Destiny was a perfect ending to a perfect story, a truly grand finale to the grand Liveship Traders trilogy.

 

The writing, the characters, the story--brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. The dragons, the battles, the love stories, the mysteries, the magic--all thrilling, all beautiful. All lose ends were tied up nicely. Everyone got what they deserved.

 

Perfect.

 

The Value of a Star: Ratings Explained

56. SHIP OF DESTINY, BY ROBIN HOBB (Book 3 of The Liveship Traders, Book 6 of the Realm of the Elderlings)

The final installment in The Liveship Traders trilogy. I was looking forward to this one... And it didn’t disappoint. The only bad feeling I have is that, because of the challenge, I can’t read more than 3 books by the same author this year, so this is the last I’ll read of Robin Hobb for a while. I’ll go back to her, and the Realm of the Elderlings, next year.

Synopsis: Althea and Brashen go on their expedition to save Vivacia. Bingtown and the Rain Wilds face civil war and war with Chalced and Jamailia, with Ronica, Keffria and the rest of the Vestrits involved. All of this will be solved when the secret of serpents and dragons is revealed.

Overall enjoyment: LOVED IT. I don’t even know what to say. She’s definitely one of my favorite authors right now.

Plot: It could be said that the conclusion is too perfect. Just like she did with the Farseer trilogy, she ties all that happens in a very neat little bow, and everyone gets a happy ending. As much as I criticize it now, though, while I was reading I was whooping in happiness. Plus, you really have to admire how she does it; the story was so complex and convoluted I never imagined she would be able to tie all loose ends so neatly.

Characters: Amazing, as always. The characterization is flawless.

World/setting: It’s the Realm of the Elderlings. Need I say more?

Writing style: Easy to read and captivating. I couldn’t put the book down.

Representation: Same as the first two; could’ve been a lot better. But many people have reassured me that that she improves representation A LOT in the subsequent instances of this series.

Political correctness: Well. Because the characterization is so good, she doesn’t commit any big blunders. Also, in this whole series, there are a lot more female characters than in Farseer, and they take a much more central role. She doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects; she tackles them with as much honesty and mastery as anything else. BUT. I, personally, don’t think she handled Althea’s rape very well. Having Paragon magically take her pain away felt like cheating, a cheap solution to a very complicated problem. Especially since she portrays the act and the trauma so vividly, from Althea’s point of view, and then switching to Kennit, and then having everybody else not believe her when she accused him. It felt too real for such an artificial solution. I was already frowning at how she handled Serrilla’s rape, especially having Ronica basically tell her to “snap out of it”, but that was very in character for Ronica to say, especially since she didn’t know what really happened, so I let it pass. But even then, Serrilla does kind of recover from it, with the help of Ronica and Keffria, but there is no true solution, either. As that famous quote goes, “fairy tales are important to teach children that dragons do exist, and can be slayed”, but there is no slaying of this particular dragon in here. The men responsible for these acts of violence go on unpunished and, most importantly, unrepentant; they do not see the error of their ways, don’t try to make amends or anything, there isn’t even an understanding that they won’t do it again (well, Kennit won’t, because he died, but if he had stayed alive he most certainly would, and his death is no punishment). So, this particular dragon cannot be slayed? We just have to learn how to deal with it? That made me very uncomfortable, and it was a note of bleakness amidst all the happiness of the ending. I truly believe it could have been handled better.

Up next: Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier