Mad Ship

The Liveship Traders, Book 2

By: Robin Hobb

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

Length: 33 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Spend some more time with the Liveship Traders.

©1999 Robin Hobb (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

"The novel is tightly written, with few passages not devoted to characterization, world building or action. Again, Hobb gives high fantasy a salty nautical spin that will please a great many [listeners]." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Each volume in this series is a major undertaking, but those who enjoy original, epic fantasy, characters who grow and change believably, and fine writing will not want to miss The Liveship Traders. (Amazon.com review)

A long sequel but great 2nd installment

The serpent chapters are tedious and seemingly unrelated to the story at large....until the latter half of the book. We FINALLY start seeing some semblance of tie-in that makes any sense. I literally can't wait for the serpent chapters to end. They don't make much sense, and there feels like a direct influence of Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky with the boring spider chapters in their zoological ramblings. Now having finished book 2, I SEE the tie-in but I feel like the serpents were a late-add after the brunt of the story was built and the author felt like there needed to be some sort of subplot development there in the 1st and 2nd books to build up to the 3rd. I dunno, it just feels long and tiring.

The story is really starting to pick up the pace with all the other subplots and characters however. You're starting to feel some stirrings of care and concern and empathy for Malta, but just barely. She's still a jerk with her plotting and scheming but she's finally growing up a bit and seeing past her own selfish bubble

. Wintrow....now there's a character evolution you didn't necessarily see coming. He's really having some conflict of character and his moral compass. His faith is truly being tested in ways he never saw coming. And the trials he faces...man the kid has panache.

This has been a great setup for the finale in book 3 to come. I'm really looking forward to seeing where the story concludes with the Rainwild folk and the Liveships and ok fine, the serpents.

This 2nd book was great and the narrator improved

I was very glad that the narrator improved her reading of the story from how she narrated the first book. I was also less frustrated with some of the characters who were written as so stupid in certain cases in the first book, but showed more common sense in this one. I’m looking forward to listening to the third book. Finally, I’m glad to finally have the backstory that was alluded to in the Farseer books.

Creation of this world and the characters was great. I'm going to get the next book now.

Creation of this world and the characters was great. I'm going to get the next book now.

Loved it as much as the first

The first thing I am going to say is everything in the book relates to something else. There are no tangents or unrelated details. The characters you maybe did not enjoy so much in the first book both get worse and redeem themselves to some degree. I enjoyed the added focus on Paragon, and Amber. Anne Flosnick continued to do a wonderful job narrating.

good

a wonderful addition to the series. beautiful character growth to already well rounded characters. great lore additions to a well built world

favorite

mad ship trilogy is my favorite of the series. love love love. highly recommend. get tissues

one of the best by one of the best

great book, made into a great audiobook but this is book 5 in a 16 book series who is really reading reviews this deep in?

Robin Hobb series after series

I love that her trilogies meld together in a cohesive, yet sometimes mysterious series. it begs for the trilogies to be listened to over and over since it's rare I don't come away with new understanding into the later books.

very good

loved the book its a very good series looking forward to the next book. great

Excellent

Loved the story, the writing, and the narration! Can’t wait to start the next in the series!