The Liveship Traders 2: Mad Ship (Taschenbuch)

Well....As I said, the book has some good points. The storyline is compelling, and the plot ideas are original--it's certainly not typical Sword & Sorcery. The fact that I managed to read it all the way through, despite my lack of enthusiasm, can attest to the fact that Hobb knows how to plant her hooks to keep you reading.

Hobb also deserves credit, as she proved in the 'Farseer' trilogy, for being willing to deal with harsh realities most authors will steer clear of. True, many authors kill off characters, but seldom do they subject them to the living traumas that Hobb's characters are forced to experience. When the unthinkable can happen, it lends an unprecedented realism and suspense to what might otherwise be typical fantasy.

However....Let's take the dialogue, first of all. Am I the only one who noticed the characters' propensity to lecture one another? Anything that could have been said in one line is said in four. This makes for rambling conversations that sound anything but natural and are dull, besides. Tension or other strong emotions are normally expressed with rapid-fire dialogue, which is missing here. One can almost picture the characters, in parody of a Shakespeare play, stepping up to the microphone to recite. The effect is forced and contrived.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons the characters never took off for me. One thing is certain: I don't care about *anybody*. It's impossible to truly care about them--they remain so distant from the reader, either engaged in Deep Thought or in Deep Angst. They never display any spontaneous bursts of genuine personality--everything is planned and rather flat. Althea is annoying and predictable (Is there anyone who didn't guess she'd make a fuss at the Trader's meeting?) and the love triangle is as worn-out and trite as a dishrag--and equally as predictable. The Vestrit family, for which the reader is supposed to have a deep affection, engenders only the barest sympathy. Kennit is interesting, but emotional attachment to him as a character is well-nigh impossible.

Of course, I found any kind of attachment to these characters to be extremely difficult, and often it was hard to summon up even simple interest. The fact that so many characters crowd under the spotlight contributes to this, and gives them short shrift for development.

This can be illustrated by the transitions the characters go through. One minute Malta is a cold, shallow, and sadistic little horror. The next minute--before one can even say 'Huh?'--she morphs into someone we are supposed to think of as thoughtful, passionate, and destined for greatness. At this point she casts back and recalls 'the girl she had been last year'--but as far as I, the poor reader remembered, it was 'the girl she had been in the last chapter'. Suddenly I am supposed to take Malta seriously? Admire her? Huh? A more realistic transition was in order.

Then there's Wintrow--ah, Wintrow. I can't help but wonder if Hobb has any idea of the personality she wants for him. In any case, he is also an example of a weird transition. First he questions Kennit's views, then a second later he is *totally* and utterly brainwashed to his cause. That was fast.

And the worst part is that one would think, with all these glaring ommissions, that the book would at the very least be cleanly written and fast-paced. Not a chance. It wallows and trudges along in pages of useless dialogue, Deep Thoughts and Angst which ultimately go nowhere. If ever a book needed an editor, this is it. 300 pages could have probably been cut out without making a dent. I usually love nice long books (ala Tad Williams and Guy Kay) but only when length is justified by the quality of the content. Here most of the content is filler.

My last pet peeve is the serpents. I skipped those sections after a while, because I just couldn't take it anymore. The humans are hard enough to care about--we're supposed to care about *snakes*? And *ships*? I think the author needs to get her people straight before she expects us to sympathize with reptiles and talking inanimate objects.

To sum up, this book gets three stars from me for the good points listed above, and because the story still has potential. That said, I would recommend this either if (1) you loved the first. By all means, dig in! (2) You need a filler book while your favorite author is writing a sequel. Otherwise, don't bother.

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