cbr17bingo: green
This book took me on an emotional ride that was worth every moment. We continue to spend time with the same characters as the first book—the Vestrit and Haven families, Kennit, and Brashen—plus one of the Rain Wilders and a Companion of the Satrap. We also get more time with Amber and Paragon, which I loved. The characters are adjusting to the new and evolving situations in which they find themselves. Malta remained intensely frustrating for a large chunk of the book, as did Davad Restart, and I nearly came to dread mention of them. But then Malta is forced to grow up, and we see a new maturity in her even as we can empathize with Keffria’s sense of loss of the young girl Malta was. (Well, almost empathize; Malta really is just so aggravating). The other characters also grow as they confront or adapt to their own challenges.
I’ve been reading the Realm of the Elderlings as part of a book club on Fable, and someone commented on how she wasn’t expecting Ship of Magic to start with a chapter from serpents’ perspective. In this book we learn why Hobb made that choice, what the serpents mean to this world, and it is almost a gut punch. It also comes with a bit of an expansion of the lore related to the Elderlings.
As I read, I felt angry, tense, sad, worried, stressed, excited—all the feelings, basically. These books are so engaging, and this one moves at a faster pace than the previous one. I can’t wait to start Ship of Destiny next month to see how the characters react to information that readers now have and hopefully find out more about what happened to Paragon that led to his being beached in Bingtown.
CW for sexual assault