Some thoughts on "The Ship of Magic"

It surprises me how much I hate this. I hate going to bed at 11pm, thinking I'll read a book a bit before I sleep. And the next thing I know I look at the clock, and it's 5am. And the damnable birds are singing outside, and the sky is beginning to lighten. I hate it. *le sigh* But a good book does that to you.

So I'm almost half way through "The Ship of Magic" by Robin Hobb. I though I'd make a few notes on that. There are a few thing I don't quite like about the book.

Item A.: It drags on a bit. At least it feels like it drags on. I'm not sure I'm correct. I haven't been bored by any part of it yet. Nor have I wanted to skip over anything. It seems like the pace should pick up though.

Item B.: The book is set 2/3 years after the events in the "Farseer" books wrap up, yet it feels like the whole time period has shifted forward by a century. I half expect to see muskets. It may just bee the pirate theme though. You've got to have muskets when you have pirats.

And finally... This sounds like blasphemy even to me, but Amber feels out of place here. It seems like Hobb just dropped the Fool - female attire and all - into the plot just fot the hell of it. I know I'll change my mind later. I know that Amber is a vital character in the story. At the moment though, she/he doesn't seem to fit into the story quite so well as he did in the "Farseer". Oh well.


Amber byA6A7