It's been a while since I concluded reading The Liveship Traders Trilogy. My enthusiastic feelings have been lessened somewhat by the time that has passed. Still, I heartily recommend this trilogy.
Some notes: the trilogy is tightly woven together and thus, I review the three parts together. The three books are: Ship Of Magic (ISBN 0-00-649885-X), The Mad Ship (ISBN 0-00-649886-8) and Ship Of Destiny (ISBN 0-00-649887-6).
Although I've taken pains to avoid spoilers, some are bound to be found in this review. Continue at your own peril!
Physical presentation
The edition of the books I read were the British paperbacks, published by Voyager Books. They have excellent covers by John Howe, that actually have something to do with the contents of the books. (For those of you who can't place Howe's name immediately: you probably know him through the multitude of Tolkien-inspired paintings he made.)
The paperbacks are far too vulnerable to carry so many pages, however. After only two readings, they've already taken quite a beating.
The text is easily readable through the simple font (Goudy, for those who care and know about such things), and there were very few textual errors that I could detect.
The setting
The Liveship Traders trilogy is set on the same world as Robin Hobb's The Farseer Trilogy and The Tawny Man Trilogy, although in another area. There are a few references to the Six Duchies (the land The Farseer Trilogy is set in). They're easily ignored if you haven't read those books, yet add a sense of continuity for those who have.
For those of you not familiar with this world: it's a pseudo-medieval / Renaissance setting. However, it's much more gritty than, for example, Salvatore's Forgotten Realms books and much less epic in scale. And if you're thinking of Warhammer now, you're still not there... It's less dark, less sarcastic and most importantly: it's got far less magic. There are no wizards nor magi here: magic is a mostly unknown and often dangerous thing, which is mostly inherent in some locales and materials. Some select few hold more knowledge of magic, but even these tread lightly, as magic is poorly understood and a legacy of the past.
Whereas the Farseer books where set mostly on land, The Liveship Traders Trilogy is set on and around the seas. There are hardy pioneers, a decadent empire, pirates and ancient legacies. This sounds rather swashbucklery, but that's not the way Hobb chose to write this story. More on that later.
The story
I won't be able to tell much of the story. This has two reasons: the first being that I don't want to spoil too much. The second cause is much more important: the plots and subplots are far too many and too intricate to do them justice in this review. I'll mention some threads.
The pivotal characters all come from the same traders' family, the Vestrits. Ephron, the paterfamilias, dies somewhere in the first few pages, and the liveship (a kind of living ship, which is the family's main way of earning a livelihood) is expected to go to his youngest daughter, the spirited Althea. Or that's what she thinks, anyways. Her brother-in-law inherits the ship, and foolishly decides to make the ship a slaver. Althea sets out to prove his wrong and to prove herself. Meanwhile, an extraordinary pirate, captain Kennit, sets out to confront his past and become the 'pirate king' he always wanted to be. Other subthreads include the mysterious sea serpents, the remains of a great civilization in the jungles of the Rain Wilds and the visions of an unlikely prophet (or actually, two prophets). Add to that trials of, in random order: the first mate of the paterfamilias, Ephron's wife and his other (grand-)children, a spoiled emperor letting his realm slip into decline and his female advisor, and I'm just beginning to approach a complete listing.
The style
So far, so good — it looks like this trilogy has all the standard trappings of a good fantasy story. Although it's low fantasy, it still has lots of recognizable elements with some swashbucklery, Age-of-Sail coating on top: unlikely heroes, unwilling prophets, terrible legacies, struggles between kingdoms and pirates. Oh my! But, as I hinted at above, these things don't result in a run-of-the-mill work.
The cause of this is that that Hobb doesn't focus on these trappings. Moreover, it took a good while before I even discerned these elements. Rather, Hobb focuses on the characters. These are introduced very slowly. One can even go as far as to say that the whole first book, Ship Of Magic, is one great, elaborate introduction. But even after that, new characters are introduced and old ones are given more depth. This lack of speed can be frustrating to readers as many pages are turned without detailing great, exciting events.
Now that I think about it, one of the reasons that the embellishments of the fantasy genre aren't just that, superficial characteristics, is that they follow from the setting. There are pirates because there are traders, waters that are difficult to navigate, and men that didn't have much luck in an honest business. Likewise, the honest people don't go to sea just because it's such an exiting life and a chance to 'scramble through the rigging'. No, it's a way to make a living, clear and simple.
Hobb also doesn't take an omniscient viewpoint to tell the tale. Each and every event is seen through a character's eyes. This character's perception is coloured by her feelings, experiences, motivations and expectations. This makes the world much more grounded in realism. While reading one section you're thinking: "Yes, what this man is doing is entirely reasonable." During the next section, after you've switched perspective, you're beginning to doubt the wisdom and even sincerity of his actions.
An important result of this is that there are no clearly defined good or bad guys. Later on in the narrative, the boundaries between black and white are more defined along with a better knowledge of background and character, but in the first book especially it's sometimes difficult to judge an individual.
Some drawbacks
Having described the style, I've also described most of what makes The Liveship Traders stand out, and that is largely positive. On the other hand, there are some drawbacks. First and foremost is the lack of grounding in the first book. Readers are dropped into the story without any reference or clue. This is certainly not for anyone. A second drawback is that some characters aren't as likeable as others, and sometimes the sections that are told through their perceptions can be quite long. This can make reading those sections a drag. Another possible problem is the sheer number of characters. I counted fifteen major characters in a hurry, from memory. Lastly, as I mentioned above, readers may be annoyed by the slow pace of the narrative.
Wrapping it up
There you have it: a fantasy trilogy, with familiar elements that is told in a refreshingly different style. There are some problems with it (slow introduction, many major characters) but the change of style is mostly positive. Perhaps it's still not great literature, but it certainly is a nice move up from the run-of-the-mill novel. Do yourself a favour and buy these books.
Review Summary