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Bantam Spectra, copyright 1999, 850 pages.
ISBN 0-553-57564-3
Read:
October 2011 (age 33)
Re-read.
Originally read sometime around 2000-2002
A merchant marine family tries to stay
solvent through civil war and rampant piracy, while dragons try to survive as
a species.
Don’t even think about starting with this
book. At the very least, read Ship of
Magic first, although the Farseer
Trilogy would be a better place to start.
The Liveship Traders trilogy
is essentially a book in three parts, and there’d be a lot missing if you
wanted to rely on the plot summary in the early chapters of this book.
From the back cover:
As
the ancient tradition of Bingtown’s Old Traders slowly erodes under the cold
new order of a corrupt ruler, the Vestrits anxiously await the return of their
liveship – a rare magic ship carved from sentient wizardwood, which bonds the
ships mystically with those who sail them.
And Althea Vestrit waits even more avidly, living only to reclaim the
ship as her lost inheritance and captain her on the high seas. But the Vivacia has been seized by the ruthless pirate
captain Kennit, who holds Althea’s nephew and his father hostage. Althea and her onetime sea mate Brashen
resolve to liberate the liveship – but their plan may prove more dangerous than
leaving the Vivacia in Kennit’s
ambitious grasp.
I guess that’s a decent situational
summary, but it completely leaves out the whole “save the dragons” storyline,
which becomes quite a large part of the book.
That last sentence is terrible, though.
Of course it’s safer to give up on a ship rather than try and get her
back from a “ruthless pirate captian”.
Reactions after the break.
Overall:
This book continued the excellent
characterization, intricate plotting, and fascinating setting from “Ship of Magic”. The beginning was slow-paced, and rather
clumsily re-capped the first book. After
that, though, it sped up, and became much more interesting. Again, it kept me up much too late, just
reading.
One rant:
The beginning was terrible. It
felt tacked in just in case you hadn’t read the first book, (I’m sure it was)
but... this is epic fantasy. You don’t
just jump into book two. And even if you
do, there’s got to be a better way.
One rave:
This book took characters that I liked, and had them continue on their
story lines. It also took the characters
that I didn’t really like, and made them and their storylines even more
interesting than the ones that I originally liked. It retroactively made the first book better.
Rating: 5
Setting:
Bingtown is an interesting town to start
with – it’s a mix of hide-bound tradition in a parochial setting along with a
cosmopolitan trading town. Add that to
the far-flung Pirate Isles, the various neighboring kingdoms, and the gigantic
swampy archaeology dig that is the Rain Wilds, and there’s plenty of interest
just as a travelogue. A lot of the story
leads naturally from the conflict built in to the setting.
Characters:
The characters that I liked from the first
book (Althea and Brashen) continued to be well described, but their story felt
more inevitable than interesting for this book.
The characters suffered as a result.
The ones that I was ambivalent about (Wintrow and Kennit) grew significantly
as characters. I’m still somewhat
ambivalent about them, but they continue to be interesting. The biggest change was on the home front
(Keffria, Ronica, and Malta Malta
The supporting characters, any of which
might actually turn into a primary character along the way, were generally
well-described, with even the most one-dimensional characters (I’m looking at
you, Satrap!) showing glints of personhood.
Plot:
The plot continued to twist and turn,
bringing in bits from before, adding in new paths, and intertwining the various
paths. There was less intertwining, and
the balance wasn’t so perfectly done as in the first book , but it was still
well done. There are a few more small
triumphs, and they aren’t all taken away in the other plot lines, so that was
nice.
The main plotlines:
Dragons!
- The dragon plotline was necessary, and grew to fill a lot of the
book. It wasn’t my favorite storyline,
but it’s an interesting one. This is
also the storyline that I skipped back from the Tawny Man trilogy to brush up on.
Pirates! – Not my favorite, either, but
certainly good – the liveship Vivacia is more than enough of a character to
pull the story along, and Wintrow and Etta are becoming much more interesting
characters, as well. Kennit is supposed
to be all dark and mysterious, but he falls somewhat flat to me.
Sailors! – Althea and Brashen are my
favorite characters in the series – I identify with either/both better than the
rest – but in this book, they were just sort of along for the ride. By midway through book 1, I knew they’d
eventually be sailing the Paragon together, and it just took a long time to
make it reasonable that they would.
Althea’s little romance arc wasn’t going anywhere, and the journey was
forgettable, so… yeah. I expect that
they’ll be back with some interest in the third book. The character triumphs were good, though.
Merchants!
- This is where the meat of the story happens – swirling around Malta,
we have civil war, the dragon trying to get hatched, the Satrap (king,
essentially) getting kidnapped, an overly strained melodramatic high-school
romance, insolvency, and a brand new setting in the Rain Wilds. She grows as a character, becoming a
reasonable human being, and is just stuck in the middle of the best stuff in
this book.
Of course, there’s also Amber – I’m
becoming convinced that she’s the main character in the whole saga. She just has her finger in every storyline –
not always as a main driver, but a little nudge here and there. She’s as inscrutable as ever.
Premise:
This book follows from Ship of Magic. There were a
few more stretches to make it work, but it was generally tight.
Readability:
It was very readable – nothing fancy, just
a good story told effectively.
Some Other Opinions:
A succinct and somewhat snarky plot
summary.
Very positive review.
Never let it be said that I only link
reviews with similar takes as mine. I
disagree with almost every point.
Another very positive review.
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