armandnolastname's reviews
263 reviews

i don't love nor dislike it. the story is slow-paced but entertaining, and is obviously a really long prologue for the other two books. i'm okay with that. this felt like an introduction, and maybe that's why i'm a bit confused with the plot and what i should expect, as a reader, from the next part of the trilogy. there seems to be a big story, big event, big conflict going on but in this book i was barely able to scratch the surface of it. i mean, i get why jezal is so lost at the end because i, too, don't know what the fuck is going on. that doesn't mean i didn't have a great time, though, so i hope the plot and backstory of this world gets a nice, comprehensible development soon.

i felt the same towards the characters. they're defined as morally grey, but to me they were almost pitch black. it is really hard to empathize with them and justify some of their actions (and i would be concerned if you do because...), but that is kind of their charm. a character doesn't have to be nice and make the best decisions for them to be able to tell a story. i do think logen was my favorite, i'm intrigued by his past the most.
if i had to say something else about the cast of characters it would be: WHERE are the women? i can name only three, and none of them have a specially big role in the plot. perhaps ferro can be labelled as a main character (i think she is, actually), even if she appears already halfway through the book and i can count her pov chapters with my two hands. she is the most unknown 'main' character of all of them, if we compare the information we get about her to what we get about logen, glokta and jezal.

but i liked the narrative style, i think the author does a great job of choosing the right words for his descriptions. there were some scenes (gross ones, i have to say, but i have to appreciate the way the author is able to make me a bit sick too) that i visualized in my mind just as if i was watching a film.

i have high hopes for this series nevertheless.

in my opinion this was the best book of the trilogy. it. was. so. good. fast-paced and engaging, the tension and surprises and twists last until the very last page, there was conflict after conflict. it was like watching every little piece of a chess game fall into place, revealing the hidden truths and the big reveal that has been developing since the beginning.

i didn't think i was very much invested in the first law until now. yes, i've enjoyed every book (if i didn't i wouldn't have continued with it after the first one). even if they didn't change my life i had fun, and i liked the characters and the overall concept of the series. but this one sealed the deal for me and now i find myself being forced to read the other 7 books of the first law world. one step at a time, that is.

there truly are no happy endings for any of the characters and honestly i expected no less. some got what they deserved and some didn't... but what any of the main characters 'deserve' is a complex topic itself. i have to admit that i grew attached to logen, glokta and jezal. how did this man convince me to love terrible characters, some of them objectively evil people, is something i don't understand but i won't question it anymore. to be honest, it's my own fault. the characters are never painted as simply good or bad, nor the author tells you who to love and who to hate because it isn't that simple. yes they're awful people, full of flaws, making questionable actions and driven by their even more questionable morals. yes, i love them. yes, i will be reading every single first law book.

25/4 update increased my original 4-star rating to 5 because i think it's well deserved. liveship traders you will always be famous.

really good and fast-paced if you compare ship of magic to the first one of the farseer trilogy. robin hobb’s improvement in her writing and characterisation is obvious, and reading a book written by her in 3rd person narrator with multi-povs was exactly what i wanted. ship of magic is an amazing introduction for the new trilogy, establishing the main cast (which you get to know very well) and the plot that is going to be expanded in the next ones. there is a lot going on since the very beginning, we follow many members of the same family of merchants and a pirate, each one with their own individual conflicts and goals. the worldbuilding is great and unique, and very interesting.

apart from the narrative style, the thing that is evidently different from farseer is the introduction of a large cast of characters, each of them with their own point of view chapters and we, as readers, get to be in their heads, listen to their thoughts, and see through their eyes for a while. this is one thing i wished was done in farseer (i would have paid to have kettricken, verity and patience povs in certain points of the story). because of this, you get to know their motivations very quickly, you get familiar with them and can easily imagine how they are going to react to a certain situation, or how they feel towards the conflicts they are facing. i like this a lot, and i like it even more that in this trilogy we follow characters that end up meeting in the end, crossing paths and having to work together.

overall, i liked it a lot! maybe it is because i felt more connected to fitz and his life story, but i kind of still like assassin’s apprentice better, which i think is a bit of an unpopular opinion. i think liveship traders is very promising and the ending has opened so many questions and interesting plotlines that i can hardly wait to pick up the next book. 

trying to assimilate that logen's character arc has come to an end and that i'm never going to read about him again i need to sit down.

out of the standalones, i think this is the weakest one. it was good, overall entertaining, but it is true some moments were a bit tedious and i felt the characters were going around in circles. however, this book made me love logen in a way the original first law trilogy couldn't, and this is why this book is still worth-reading. it was bittersweet emotions wise, especially because of the last few pages.

i consider best served cold and the heroes a much more well-developed and structured books, but i'm glad to have read red country because, in a way, it was the ending some of the characters deserved, both already known to the readers and others we have been newly introduced.
it is a closure, as well as a beginning for the stories to come.