The Liveship Traders Trilogy

Introduction
The Liveship Traders is a trilogy of books (Ship of Magic, The Mad Ship, Ship of Destiny) by Robin Hobb, set in the same world as some of her other works. It follows the trials and tribulations of the Vestrit family – Liveship Traders from the title – a family with the privilege to own a liveship, a living, magical vessel that is swifter and more capable than any other ship and, with time, becomes quickened and alive, manifesting through the figurehead thanks to the magical properties of wizardwood and the lives of the captains who die, generation after generation, to bring the ships to life. There’s a greater secret behind the wizardwood and the liveships and this all comes out with the fall in fortunes of the Vestrit family and the events that they get caught up in, including the fate of dragons and empires. Generally speaking, I avoid what I call ‘generic fantasy’ with a ten-foot pole if a book has pastel colours and a picture of a dragon on it I run screaming into the nearest Peter F Hamilton book to cleanse myself ritually with antimatter bombs and cybernetics. However my missus was quite enthusiastic about this series, as was a friend’s mother, as were reviews and, technically, sea serpents don’t count as dragons, so I risked it.

Review
This is a review of all three books which I read directly one after the other in quick succession. Overall I was quite happy with the books, other than dragons there are very few of the conceits of generic fantasy and the books – taken as a whole – are an engaging and lively read. Subgenre-wise I would place the books firmly in the Romantic Fantasy area and close to the Feminist SF/Fantasy area as well.

The first book does a good job of introducing us to the main elements and characters of the story, including the places. Bingtown is the major setting here and the hook around which the rest is built, a largely independent trader port in hostile territory and close to a dangerous rival it pays lip service to its putative ‘owner’ Jamaillia and the Satrap who commands it. Bingtown is under assault however from many new forces, the New Traders – outsiders granted land there by the Satrap – and Chalced, their hostile neighbour, which has made overtures to Jamaillia through the Satrap and is taking advantage of its newfound authority in the area.

Bingtown owes its fortune in no small part to its relationship with the people of the Rain Wilds, a strange place upriver from Bingtown where there are ruined and overgrown cities and where the river can run white with acid. The people there wear veils to hide their deformities, caused by their living in such strange and magic-suffused places and old and secret covenants bind together Rain Wild traders and Bingtown traders, riches dug from the ruins providing both with great wealth.

As the story starts the old captain of the Vestrit liveship Vivacia (liveships are another key prize to come from the Rain Wilds) is dying, his daughter Althea expects to inherit the ship and become its next captain but the changing situation in Bingtown (including increasing misogyny from Chalcedean influence) makes this a political and social impossibility and instead her sister’s husband – a man of Chalced himself – is installed as captain and his son dragged away from his monastery to be the familial link the newly awakened ship requires.

Outraged Althea runs away to seek confirmation of her capabilities as a sailor, something that should win her back the family liveship Vivacia due to a rash oath sworn by the new captain.

And so the story begins, across the three books we find out the truth about live ships, dragons, sea serpents and the Rain Wilds and all are interconnected, we meet other characters, empires clash and nothing turns out quite as anyone expects.

The first book sets all of this out and in place ready for the remaining books in the trilogy but, because of this, it is rather slow and poorly paced and tends to drag and become boring. The second book describes the downfall of the Vestrit fortunes and the pacing is much better, rapid – but not too rapid – and it ends on a note of hope for the main characters as well as introducing a new power, the newly united pirate isles. The last book is too fast towards its end, cramming a great deal into the last few chapters things begin to feel a little glossed over and while there is a conclusion it lacks that final ‘bang’ for your buck, the emotional payoff that you might expect. A longer epilogue would have gone a long way towards fixing this but as it was I was left feeling a little bit cheated at the end of the complete trilogy.

That said, the only major problem I had with the book was that it almost completely lacked sympathetic male characters. I know fantasy is awash with shallow or unsympathetic portrayals of women (Conan, Gor, and so on…) but it doesn’t seem to me that going the opposite direction really addresses the problem. The male characters in this trilogy are simpering buffoons, rapists, puppy dogs trailing after the women or otherwise ineffectual almost in their entirety. Even the main love interest for Althea seems defined only in relation to her, mooning around and the overall feel of the book because of all this nigh-relentless undermining of men got quite offputting by the third book.

Conclusion
A good yarn that avoids many genetic fantasy pitfalls with engaging (female) characters and some good twists and turns of plot. Let down by the pacing of the first and third book and the deeply unsympathetic portrayals of the men throughout the story. A good story of self discovery and change, these being the running themes for all the major characters.

Score
Style: 3
Substance: 4
Overall: 3.5