I bought a book about three years ago and finished it just the other week. That’s not because I’m a particularly slow reader (in fact, generally the opposite), but because the book was the first book in a trilogy, and I didn’t want to start reading it until I’d got the other two books.

The problem was that I wasn’t sure that I wanted to buy the other two books. It was a fantasy trilogy (by which I mean a sword-and-sorcery sort of epic, as opposed to ‘adult fantasy’ which generally has a rather different meaning). I’d initially come across the trilogy — “The Liveship Traders” — because I’d read the ‘Assassin’ / ‘Farseer’ trilogy by the same author, Robin Hobb, and had liked it.

Except for some reason, these ones with a nautical theme didn’t quite appeal so much. So much so that even when I got the other two books in the trilogy for Christmas, it has taken me until now to actually get round to reading them.

But I am glad I did.

The first book, Ship of Magic, introduces the scenario.

The story follows the fortunes of the Vestrit family: Ephron, the aging and ill patriach; Kyle Haven, (married to Ephron’s daughter Keffria) who has been commanding the family’s liveship while Ephron is ill; Althea, Ephron’s other daughter, who hopes one day to command the liveship; Wintrow, Kyle’s son and Ephron’s grandson, who has been studying to be a priest.

And then the Althea’s and Wintrow’s worlds are plunged into turmoil when Ephron dies, having left his liveship ‘Vivacia’ to Keffria — leading to Kyle becoming the captain, Althea unwelcome and Wintrow forced to give up his ambitions for the priesthood because a liveship will not sail without someone of that family on board (and relations by marriage don’t count).

Liveships themselves are introduced: carved from a special substance known as Wizardwood, the ships figurehead comes to life once three members of the family have breathed their last on the ship’s deck, and the figurehead can then affect the passage of the ship: it can make it move faster, slower, and it is also even rumoured that one liveship, the beached and unwanted Paragon, deliberately killed his entire crew by letting the ship sink…

Sounds a bit weird, doesn’t it?

But I gave it a few chapters, and I found that I really started to care about the characters; watching Althea plan, scheme and plot to try and win her ship back, watching Ephron’s widow, Ronica Vestrit try to hold the family together as the family arguments really began to bite. And then of course there was the remarkably unpleasant and spoiled child Malta Vestrit, who simply appeared to be there to be unpleasant to everyone.

And while I had enjoyed the Farseer Trilogy by the same author, I’d never cared about the characters as much as these. It surprised me because prior to picking up these books, I’d never so much as heard of ‘The Liveship Traders’, whereas I’d heard of “the Assassin series” and the “Farseer Trilogy” being menioned by several other people.

But as enjoyable as the Farseer Trilogy was, the Liveship Trilogy was plainly better.

The next book, The Mad Ship, I read in pretty much a single sitting.

This saw the major development of the character ‘Amber’ (whom, if I’m reading this right, is actually also a character from the Farseer trilogy, only under a different name) and the Mad Ship itself, the beached and blinded liveship Paragon.

All three books in the series are somewhere between 600 and 800 pages long, but the extent to which they gripped me can be illustrated by the fact that I was up until 3 a.m. for about three nights in a row in order to finish them (yes, I can read 1200+ pages in 3 days). Gripped is the word.

By the time we get to the final instalment in the trilogy (Ship of Destiny
), we’re finding out an awful lot more about the strange sea-serpents that follow liveships and basically attempt to eat anyone who falls over the side; we’ve met the Pirate ‘King’ Kennit and watched his capture of a liveship…

Not only this, but in addition to following the fortunes of the Vestrits across the trilogy, we’re also watching the unfolding political intrigue, as Bingtown (the home of the Liveship Traders) struggles against the economic pressures of the ‘New Traders’ granted land by the Satrap (ruler) of Jamailia, against the initial treaty between Bingtown and Jamailia. Will Bingtown claim independence? Will the Satrap be assassinated by members of his own court, or by the Chalcedeans he considers to be his allies? Will the Pirate King Kennit’s desire to see slavery stamped out also be followed by Bingtown taking a stand against slavery? Or will brutal economics prevail…?

…these threads have all begun to be developed in the earlier books but in Ship of Destiny the tangle starts to come together as we are given more clues to piece together Paragon’s history, Kennit’s history, and Althea and Wintrow’s future. Robin also deserves great credit at this point by having managed to gradually transform the unpleasant and completely unsympathetic character Malta Vestrit into one of the pivotal characters of the book who you really care about by this point — because you’ve watched her grow from the spoiled brat of book 1 into the responsible and intelligent woman of book 3.

The way these clues unfold before you is fantastically well done: little clues appear here and there, and gradually are layered on top of one another until you begin to arrive at certain conclusions which are then confirmed (or not) as the plot continues to unfold.

I’m quite a fan of Terry Pratchett and the whole ‘comedy fantasy’ genre, but it has been a long time since I enjoyed any ’straight’ fantasy fiction anywhere near as much as I have enjoyed The Liveship Traders. Obviously, if Fantasy isn’t your thang then you probably won’t like it.

But if you do like fantasy, and haven’t read any Robin Hobb — and even if you read the Farseer trilogy but didn’t like it — then I’d recommend giving The Liveship Traders a go. It isn’t always pleasant, as Robin is quite prepared to make her characters suffer… but it is an extremely compelling story.