High heroic fantasy has rarely paid enough attention to ships and sailors, the lifeblood, after all, of trade and survival in a non-technological world. In her Liveship Traders series, Robin Hobb more than makes up for this with a sequence in which economic survival is the principal objective of the merchant family, the Vestrits, who provide most of her viewpoint characters. The Mad Ship takes up their adventures where Ship of Magic left off, with young would-be priest Wintrow the captive of the pirate Kennit and bonded to the living figurehead of the family ship Vivacia; and his sister Malta caught up in the affairs of the changeling traders of the Rain Wild. Their aunt Althea, who feels she should have had command of Vivacia, is off having adventures as a sailor, and the mysterious Amber is trying to heal and repair the shattered mad hulk Paragon, who killed his crew and lies abandoned in the sand dunes. All this and war and conspiracy too--Hobb gives us a rich portrait of a world and a family in turmoil and raises some interesting questions about what it is to be used and make use of. --Roz Kaveney
"A truly extraordinary saga...the characterizations are consistently superb, and [Hobb] animates everything with the love for and knowledge of the sea. If Patrick O'Brian were to turn to writing high fantasy, he might produce something like this. Kudos to the author, and encore!"
--"Booklist"
Praise for Robin Hobb and the Liveship Traders Trilogy
Fantasy as it ought to be written . . . Robin Hobb s books are diamonds in a sea of zircons. George R. R. Martin
A truly extraordinary saga . . . The characterizations are consistently superb, and [Hobb] animates everything with love for and knowledge of the sea. "Booklist"
A major work of high fantasy, reading like a cross between Tolkien and Patrick O Brian . . . one of the finest fantasy sagas to bridge the millennium. "Publishers Weekly"
Rich, complex . . . [Hobb s] plotting is complex but tightly controlled, and her descriptive powers match her excellent visual imagination. But her chief virtue is that she delineates character extremely well. "Interzone""
Praise for Robin Hobb and the Liveship Traders Trilogy "Fantasy as it ought to be written . . . Robin Hobb's books are diamonds in a sea of zircons."
--George R. R. Martin "A truly extraordinary saga . . . The characterizations are consistently superb, and [Hobb] animates everything with love for and knowledge of the sea."
--Booklist "A major work of high fantasy, reading like a cross between Tolkien and Patrick O'Brian . . . one of the finest fantasy sagas to bridge the millennium."
--Publishers Weekly "Rich, complex . . . [Hobb's] plotting is complex but tightly controlled, and her descriptive powers match her excellent visual imagination. But her chief virtue is that she delineates character extremely well."
--Interzone