Will I or won't I? Yes I will.

Done

Finished the "Liveship Traders" trilogy last night (well, actually, this morning at 5). I dragged out the last 50 pages over a few night, reading a bit here and there and setting it aside. I really didn't want the book to end. As I finished it I had a sudden sense of loss, and then, a just as sudden feeling of freedom. Surfacing from underwater and taking a deep breath. The books had an astonishing hold on me. Hardly a minute past without my thoughts drifting to the story. Now I feel somewhat liberated and content.

I certainly didn't feel content last yesterday when I was some 50 pages away from the end. Too many things bothered me and seemed forced and unnatural. Like Kennit's death, the fact that what he did to Althea didn't seem to matter in the end, Kyle's death. On the last few pages the loose bits finally came together and the story was completely complete. Hobb was amazingly subtle in tying up loose ends. No major action or revelation, just the plot flowing it's natural course.

So how do "Liveship Traders" compare to the "Farseer"? They don't. For me at least, the two series are very different and can't be easily compared. I still feel stronger about the "Farseer" books, but only marginally so, than "Liveship Tradres".
The two series are great in their own way. I think, however, that I favor the "Farseer" because of the sentimental value. "Liveship Traders" have more action, the many points of view from many different characters make the story more rich and interesting. The epic scale of the "Liveship Tradres" leaves the "Farseer" in the mud. I suppose the plot did drag at a few points, but ultimately it was entertaining and had me staying up till 4am reading for longer than I care to admit.

Liveship Traders /Farseer character sketches by me. Top: Davad Restart. Middle: Wintrow Vestrit. Bottom: Kettricken and the Fool

Favorite character
Paragon

The most effing amazing moments in the books
Kennit’s Mother - I bow my head to Robin Hobb, go on my knees and kiss the ground she walks on. I completely forgot about Kennit's mother and even though I suspected she will play some role eventually, I never expected what actually happened.

Amber begging for her life - I felt some strange satisfaction watching a scalded Amber crawling in soot and water, crying the begging for her life.

The launching of Paragon

Vivacia's "death" - it was hear-wrenching and powerful. I could clearly see her wooden futures frozen in anguish and despair. Her eyes empty.

Wintrow, the pirate king and the epic battle

A whore and a priest. AKA Etta and Wintrow. By me.

Biggest WTF moments

Amber to Paragon: I have to keep my secrets to myself. My secrets are my armor.
Amber to a crowd of slaves: I’m a prophet. I’ve been sent to save the world.

Kennit's death. I'm still divided on that. Unlike Igrot, Kennit died as a hero, or at least he gave his life defending someone else. Granted he didn't do it out of love or loyalty, but his own interest, but still. He's achieved what he wanted, he made life better for the people of the Pirate Isles, he creaeted a kingdom and became a loved and solute king (even if it was in his death). So that combined with the fact that he's gone through unimaginable abuse as a child at the hands of Igrot somehow makes the fact that he raped Althea less significant. I know there's deep meaning in there somewhere, and i almost understand Hobb's message in this, but still. It just doesn't feel right.

Wintrow's tattoo being removed. Didn't seem right. He was supposed to wear it for the rest of his life. Somehow I always imagined Amber giving him Fitz's Chalcedean freedom earring in the end, so he could move around freely without fearing being recaptured into slavery.

Amber missing all the major action. I just though it was funny. She obviously was where she was supposed to be and did what she was meant to do, but she still missed the nine-fingered slave boy :)

The languages of Jamallia, Cursed Shores, Pirate Isles and Six Duchies
I'm not quite clear on this. What I really want to know is if the Six Duchies language is different to the Jamallia, Cursed Shores, Pirate Isles region (which obviously has one language, since everyone there originally comes from Jamallia). Chalced obviously has a different language. The few Six Duchies characters speak with an obvious accent, but Hobb doesn't specify if it's just their pronunciation that's different or the whole language. another thing. Noone suspected that Amber spent most of her life in Six Duchies. Does that mean that she speaks without an accent?

Inconsistencies and possible mistakes
How come Jek is blonde? Jek is from a coastal duchy of the Six Duchies. Probably not from Buck, or she would've recognized Paragon's new visage as the bastard. Hobb has always described the people of the six Duchies (particularly coastal) as dark-haired and dark-eyed. So how come Jek is blonder than a Mountain Kingdom's chick.

Skill river / Rain river. So it turns out that the skill river Verity took a dip in at the end of "Assassin's Quest" is actually the Rain river running down from the Rain Wilds. So how come Verity wasn't itching all over and shedding skin and hair after frolicking in the supposedly acidic waters of the Rain river? We can assume that the river only becomes a Skill river in the Elderling city - the city being magical and all. So why didn't Tintaglia feel that she landed in a goddamn pool of magic when she flew to the ruins a few years later?

Malta Vestrit by me

Malta Vestrit by me

Kennit's homecoming. By me

Amber is sad I didn't like her as much as the Fool. By me


So what's next?

A note from 5am, 30/01/2010:
It's amazing how merely looking at the book (Fool's Errand) fills me with absolute dread. I'm afraid to open it and start reading, but I fear I won't be able to resist much longer.

I started reading the "Liveship Traders" after the "Farseer" because I was afraid to rush into the "Tawny Man". I was distraught after finishing the "Farseer", and I though that since I needed a distraction I might as well read the books chronologically. However, now I'm dreading reading the books more than ever. Go figure. I dawned on me today that I, quite simply, don't want to read the "Tawny Man" trilogy. Why? I feel like I'm setting myself up more a major disappointment, that this trilogy will fall short, juts like many critics said it had, that the rest of the books will be ruined for me (sounds meticulous, I know, but still). I roughly know how the "Tawny Man" ends, and I don't approve.

All these thing considered, I want to see how long I can go without succumbing to my duty and starting "Fool's Errand" which is sitting accusingly on my shelf right now. I want some time to maul over the "Liveship Traders" and do some art. Perhaps I'll read something else...

Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb

Here we go. Last night I started reading the last book of the Liveship Traders trilogy. I'm torn between being upset that I'm about to finish this incredible series and elated that I'm going to find out what happens in the end. At the moment I have no clue how the plot is going to unravel, but in Hobb I trust.

I have to admit, however, that the trilogy lacks something that the Assassin books had. I can't put my finger on it. Nevertheless, I bow my head to Hobb. There isn't a fantasy author out there who comes even close to doing what she does with the genre.

The truly amazing thing is that with so many characters and so many branches of the plot intertwined together, the story works as smoothly as clockwork. No mater how complicated the plot gets, how many new characters are added, the whole thing comes together as crystal clear as is possibly imaginable.

I still have my reservations about Amber, though. I hang on to her every word and do a climb up the walls with excitement every time she mentions her past, and yet she makes me miss the Fool with an intensity that is heartwrenching.

Another thing that bothers me a little is the fact that "Mad Ship" and "Ship of Magic" have more fantasy elements to them then any other of Hobb's books. As much as I like dragons, the feel of a historical epic is what I value most about Hobb's work. "Mad Ship" and "Ship of Magic" are no longer dominated by that feel.

Everyone thinks that courage is about facing death without flinching.

But almost anyone can do that. Anyone can hold their breath and not scream for as long as it takes to die. True courage is facing life without flinching. I don’t mean times when the right path is hard, but glorious in the end. I’m talking about enduring the boredom, and the messiness, and the inconvenience of doing what is right.

~Amber,
The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb

The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb

I'm reading book 2 of the Liveship Traders at the moment. Took me a week to finish "The Ship of Magic" even though I was reading practically non-stop. As I had expected, I changed my mind about a lot of "faults" I found with the book. Having finished it, I can honestly say that it's absolutely brilliant. The complex, intricately detailed plot runs as smoothly as clockwork, gradually picking up the pace. As always, Robb's characters are vivid and alive. The scale of the story surpasses that of the Farseer novels. I think the only reason I love the Assassin books more is because I read them first, and then re-read them. The character from the Farseer are much dearer to me because of that.

So, I loved "The Ship of Magic" and expected "The Mad Ship" to be just as good... Instead the second book blew my brains out with the first few chapters. This is SO BLOODY GOOD! It's not just the fact Hobb can turn and twist the plot until you're wriggling on the floor in ecstasy, drooling all over the carpet. The way she touches upon the subject of spirituality and religion is something I haven't seen done so well by any other writer but Paulo Coelho. The book is amazing!

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

Book to Film adaptations that didn't blow.

Perfume. The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind.
Surprisingly, I liked the film more than the book. That's a first. Ben Whishaw was able to convey the incredible talent of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille - the power of smell - in a convincing and beautiful way I didn't think anyone capable of. The whole film is beautifully made.

Ben Wishaw as Grenouille


Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
Trainspotting is the first novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. It is written in the form of short chapters narrated in the first person by various residents of Leith, Edinburgh who either use heroin, are friends of the core group of heroin users, or engage in destructive activities that are implicitly portrayed as addictions that serve the same function as heroin addiction. The novel is set in the mid to late 1980s.

The novel has since achieved a cult status, added to by the global success of the film based on it, Trainspotting (1996), directed by Danny Boyle.[1] Welsh later wrote a sequel, Porno, in 2002. Skagboys, a novella that will serve as a prequel, was expected for publication in 2009.



Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby, Jr.
Requiem for a Dream is a 1978 novel by Hubert Selby, Jr., that concerns four New York individuals whose lives spiral out of control as they succumb to their addictions. It's written without quotation marks or apostrophes, and some of the characters have heavy accents.

This story follows the lives of four people: Harry, Marion, Tyrone, and Sara. Harry and Marion are in love and Tyrone is their friend. Sara is Harry’s lonely, widowed mother. They are all searching for the key to their dreams, and in the process, they get flung into a devastating life of addiction. Sara’s dream is to be on television, and when a phone call from a television casting company gets her hopes up, she spends the next months of her life binging on diet pills to lose weight. She becomes delirious and ends up in the hospital, but it only gets worse from there. Harry, Marion and Tyrone decide that they want to make money by buying some uncut heroin and selling it.

The novel was later adapted into the critically-acclaimed film of the same name.



Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
The book follows the experiences of an unnamed protagonist struggling with insomnia. Inspired by his doctor's exasperated remark that insomnia is not suffering, he finds relief by impersonating a seriously ill person in several support groups. An encounter with a fellow "tourist" Marla drives him back into insomnia until he meets a mysterious man named Tyler Durden and establishes an underground fighting club as radical psychotherapy.[1]

In 1999, director David Fincher adapted the novel into a film of the same name, which received positive critical response and acquired a cult following despite lower than expected box-office results.The film's notoriety heightened the profile of the novel and that of its author. This feature film was rated "R" by the America Film Association for disturbing images, language, violence and alcohol references.




Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
And I don't mean that eyerape with Robert Downey Jr. Dear God that movie is an embarrassment. I'm talking about the Russian adaptations with Vasily Livanov as Holmes (universally acknowledged as the best on-screen Holmes) and Vitaly Solomin as Watson.

Livanov as Holmes

Livanov as Holmes and Solomin as Watson
From Wiki:
Between 1979 and 1986, Soviet television produced a series of five films at the Lenfilm movie studio, split into eleven episodes, starring Vasily Livanov as Sherlock Holmes and Vitaly Solomin as Dr. Watson. Later, a cinematic adaptation was made based on the 1986 episodes. This film was called The Twentieth Century Approaches. The series ran as follows:

1979 Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
1st episode: "Acquaintance" (based on A Study in Scarlet and The Adventure of the Speckled Band).
2nd episode: "Bloody Inscription" (based on A Study in Scarlet, with a scene from The Sign of the Four at the beginning).
1980 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson
1st episode: "The Master-Blackmailer" (based on The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton)
2nd episode: "Deadly Fight" (based on The Adventure of the Final Problem)
3rd episode: "Hunt for the Tiger" (based on The Adventure of the Empty House)
1981 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Hound of the Baskervilles. Two episodes based on The Hound of the Baskervilles.
1983 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Treasures of Agra. Two episodes based on The Sign of the Four and A Scandal in Bohemia.
1986 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Twentieth Century Approaches. Two episodes based on The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb, The Adventure of the Second Stain, His Last Bow and The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans.


The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Once again, I'm talking about the Soviet adaptation. This one will be hard for foreigners to digest because it's a musical. However, it's stay s very true to the original story, and, damnit, the Soviet Union had some amazing actors! I grew up watching the film, and it's hard for me to imagine any other adaptation work quite as well.

The film starred Mikhail Boyarsky as d'Artagnan, Veniamin Smekhov as Athos, Igor Starygin as Aramis, Valentin Smirnitsky as Porthos, Margarita Terekhova as Milady de Winter, Oleg Tabakov as King Louis XIII, Alisa Freindlich as Anne of Austria, and Alexander Trofimov as Cardinal Richelieu. The film, and its numerous songs became extremely popular in the Soviet Union throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, and are now considered a classic.

Three sequels were made: Musketeers Twenty Years After (1992), The Secret of Queen Anne or Musketeers Thirty Years After (1993) and The Return of the Musketeers, or The Treasures of Cardinal Mazarin (2007). The latter is a piece of shit that should never have been allowed to see the light of day.


Valentin Smirnitsky as Porthos

Veniamin Smekhov as Athos

Mikhail Boyarsky as d'Artagnan

Igor Starygin as Aramis (sadly passed away recently)


The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Let's face it, Peter Jackson went all out on this one. The sheer scale of the movies is incredible, the great effort behind them is obvious, and the casting is close to perfect. There will always be the rabid fans dissatisfied with the adaptation, but I believe the movies as worthy of the title "The Lord of the Rings".

Liveship Traders trilogy

...which I'm reading right now.

The Liveship Trader's Trilogy takes place in Jamaillia, Bingtown and the Pirate Isles, on the coast far to the south of the Six Duchies. The war in the north has interrupted the trade that is the lifeblood of Bingtown, and the Liveship Traders have fallen on hard times despite their magic sentient ships. At one time, possession of a Liveship, constructed of magical wizard wood, guaranteed a Trader's family prosperity. Only a Liveship can brave the dangers of the Rain Wild River and trade with the legendary Rain Wild Traders and their mysterious magical goods, plundered from the enigmatic Elderling ruins. Althea Vestrit expects her families to adhere to tradition, and pass the family Liveship on to her when it quickens at the death of her father. Instead, the Vivacia goes to her sister Keffria and her scheming Chalcedean husband Kyle. The proud Liveship becomes a transport vessel for the despised but highly profitable slave trade.

Althea, cast out on her own, resolves to make her own way in the world and somehow regain control of her family's living ship. Her old shipmate Brashen Trell, the enigmatic woodcarver Amber and the Paragon, the notorious mad Liveship are the only allies she can rally to her cause. Pirates, a slave rebellion, migrating sea serpents and a newly hatched dragon are but a few of the obstacles she must face on her way to discovering that Liveships are not, perhaps, what they seem to be, and may have dreams of their own to follow.

A review of the series from RPG.net


Anyone who read and loved Robin Hobb's "Farseer Trilogy" (Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassin's Quest) will delight in this first book of "The Liveship Traders." Ship of Magic showcases Hobb's impressive ability to blur the lines between the good guys and the bad, creating flawed protagonists and sympathetic antagonists. Such rich characterization coupled with a unique milieu makes this novel a must-read for fantasy fans who want more than business-as-usual in their personal libraries.

Althea Vestrit has waited her whole life to become captain of the liveship Vivacia, a vessel constructed in the magical but dangerous Rain Wilds near Bingtown. Built specifically for her Old Trader family several generations back, Vivacia will become completely sentient when three Vestrits have died upon her decks. But a dying Ephron Vestrit, Althea's beloved father whose own death is that necessary third, stuns his younger daughter by willing her inheritance, the captaincy of Vivacia, to his newcomer son-in-law Kyle. A hard man determined to pull the family out of debt, Kyle banishes Althea from the liveship and brings aboard his son Wintrow to develop the Vestrit bond with Vivacia. The adolescent boy despairs when he is torn from his studies to become a priest of Sa, but his father is relentless in pushing him to become a passable sailor.

Althea, desperate to regain the Vivacia, signs on as a ship's boy on a slaughter vessel to get at least one other captain to vouch for her abilities. With her is her father's first mate Brashen, the disinherited older son of another Old Trader family whom Kyle also dismissed from the Vivacia. A budding intimacy between the two could be Althea's undoing. While at home Kyle's daughter Malta vexes her grandmother with reckless behavior, endangering the Vestrit family's standing back in Bingtown, Vivacia's new captain threatens the newly quickened liveship's sanity by preparing to haul the surest money-making cargo available: human slaves. Althea's hope to reclaim Vivacia, and Wintrow's longing to return to his devotion to Sa, ultimately lies in the hands of the ambitious pirate Kennit. The man's two highest aspirations? To become King of the Pirate Isles and to procure a liveship.

Ship of Magic teems with magic, mystery and heartbreak. Teasing glimpses of deeper secrets and profound revelations ensure that readers, despite this first book's length, will be eager to jump headfirst into the second volume of "The Liveship Traders." Hobb proves once again (as if there were any doubt after "The Farseer" books) that hers is one of the most original voices in contemporary fantasy.
From Curled Up with a Book


Robin Hobb's second "Liveship Traders" installment builds richly upon the foundations laid in the first, adding layered nuances of character, political climate and ancient history. Mad Ship, like Ship of Magic before it, is at the very least a ripping-good sea yarn. A look at a different part of the "Farseer Trilogy" world, this series exhibits the author's deft hand with both characterization and world-building. As the scope of the story broadens, Hobb's editorial discipline slips a bit. The prose occasionally seems distracted, as if the author were looking out a window daydreaming while composing. Fortunately the imperfections are far too few to detract appreciably from an engrossing tale.

The women of the Vestrit Trader family wait in vain for the return of the liveship Vivacia. Her cargo of slaves, normally taboo for one of the sentient vessels, may be the family's last chance to hoist themselves out of crushing debt. Althea Vestrit, courted by Trader heir Grag Tenira but longing for the disgraced Brashen Trell, has proved her shipboard mettle on the Tenira's liveship Ophelia. She hopes to lay claim to her former inheritance from her domineering brother-in-law when the Vivacia returns to the Bingtown harbor. Althea's niece, Malta, waits longingly for her father's return, busying herself with Bingtown flirtations and her courtship with a young Rain Wild man.

Kennit, the pirate who would be king, has captured the Vivacia, along with Captain Kyle Haven and his studious son Wintrow. Kennit promises Wintrow and his father that they will live if Wintrow can heal the festering remains of the pirate's leg, a wound taken in an attack on the ship by increasingly bold sea serpents. Wintrow agrees, and as time passes he becomes more convinced of the importance of Kennit's destiny. The pirate is carefully wooing the liveship, and Vivacia may not be so willing to be reclaimed by Althea Vestrit if that comes to pass.

Althea, Brashen Trell and the enigmatic wood-carver Amber manage to acquire the abandoned liveship Paragon, a beached hulk left by his Trader family after a series of disastrous journeys. Most of Bingtown believes that Paragon is mad, but he is the last hope of the Vestrits for regaining the Vivacia. While the three friends and a motley crew of drunks and layabouts take to sea to rescue the family liveship, Bingtown becomes embroiled in a violent political upheaval against the corrupt Jamaillian leader and his rapacious Chalcedean allies. Malta is spirited away to the Rain Wilds by her fiance Reyn as the docks and warehouses on Bingtown harbor burn. There, she will become a part of something greater than she ever imagined: the release of the last dragon from her wizardwood cocoon.

With an unfolding story as rich as that of "The Liveship Traders," Hobb's latest series cannot fail. The depths to which she plumbs her characters' psyches ensure the author's place among the greats of contemporary high fantasy -- few can match her in that arena. Mad Ship may not be the pinnacle of Robin Hobb's achievements, but it still tops much of what shares shelf space with it.
From Curled Up with a Book


With the concluding volume of her "Liveship Traders" trilogy, Robin Hobb is once again at the top of her form; in fact, she's right on top of the whole sf/f heap. Ship of Destiny shines, its dual themes of self-realization and selflessness twined throughout and binding a profusion of plot lines with surprising elegance.

Bingtown lies smoldering, the strata of its citizens as embattled with one another as they are against the invading Chaldedeans. Ronica Vestrit, the matriarch of a once-proud Trader family, finds herself destitute and labeled a traitor. She is the last of her line in the fiercely independent port city, and with nothing to lose but her life, resolves to remove the blight from the Vestrit name. As battles rage and infighting eats away at the heart of Bingtown, Ronica desperately tries to bring Old and New Traders, Three Ships folk and the ex-slave Tattooed together to save their city and themselves from being apportioned out to the greedy outsiders intent on destroying and looting their livelihoods.

While Ronica's heastrong younger daughter Althea sails on the mad liveship Paragon in hopes of retrieving the family liveship, Vivacia, from the would-be pirate king Kennit, the other Vestrits find themselves in equally untenable positions. Althea's sister Keffria, still grieving over the disappearance of her seafaring husband and their eldest son, now mourns the apparent death of her daughter Malta, last seen in the bowels of a huge underground city as a massive earthquake struck the strange and wonderful Rain Wilds. With the sudden emergence from the ruined subterranean city of a single legendary dragon, Malta's betrothed, the native Rain Wilder Reyn, dares hope that he might yet find his love alive. The haughty Tintaglia, an arrogant and magnificent creature, has only one goal, and only one use for the otherwise insignificant humans: to keep her kind from extinction.

Malta is alive, but damaged -- a wound to her head is bearing for fruit a disfiguring scar. Her beauty suddenly taken from her, the difficult girl comes into her own as a young woman, finding withing herself a burning desire to make the most of her life. Held captive with the petulant figurehead ruler of Jamaillia known as the Magnadon Satrap, she discovers that her worth to their captors is only as high as her erstwhile companion's. When they are taken from the treacherous Chalcedeans by a ship of Kennit's pirate fleet, Malta takes a desperate gambit to not only preserve her own life but to try to salvage her ruined family.

Wintrow, forcibly bound to the Vivacia by his father, has grown to love her. He's also grown to respect the destiny of her new captain, the pirate Kennit, and to secretly love Kennit's woman Etta. He stands behind Kennit in his quest to become King of the Pirate Isles, but when Vivacia learns the secret of her origins, the ship flees to a secret part of herself and Wintrow finds himself suddenly shut out of the most important relationship of his life. As the destinies of the Vestrit family members converge asea, escorted by a roiling tangle of monstrous sea serpents, the secrets of the liveships and of their humans collide, leaving the fate of their future teetering precariously in the balance.

Robin Hobb weaves a daunting mob of plot lines expertly into one of the best stories seen recently in the genre. The characters living the tale throw the weight of their secret shames and their driving passions against what holds them back, and the complexities of their fears and hopes are what really drive Ship of Destiny to the heights of near perfection it attains. Hobb is well on her way to inclusion in the genre pantheon, and Destiny's stunning conclusion only leaves readers hungry for more from her pen. Indeed, a few well-placed references to the Six Duchies of the "Farseer Trilogy" whets eager appetites for the rumored continuance of FitzChivalry Farseer's tale.
From Curled Up with a Book


Ship of Magic (John Howe)

The Mad Ship (John Howe)
This is my favorite Hobb cover. Amber and Paragon.

Ship of Destiny (John Howe)