Author: Robin Hobb
Rating: 2/5
Wintrow Vestrit is scared he’ll be replaced in Vivacia’s eyes by Kennit and Althea is still hellbent on getting Vivacia back. Bingtown is not doing well and there’s a lot of conflict between the old and new traders.
Spoilers ahead.
Detailed Summary
On Vivacia, Kennit is dying because of his infected leg. Wintrow finally cuts the infected part off. Kennit starts to bond with Vivacia and Vivacia believes in Kennit. Kennit leaves Kyle Haven on an island where his mother lives. Kennit was imprisoned by Igrot the pirate, who cut off his mother’s tongue and killed his father. Kennit and his crew go to Divvytown which has been attacked. Wintrow convinces the people not to kill Kennit. Kennit decides Wintrow needs to go to the Other’s Isle for a prophecy. There, Wintrow finds a trapped serpent and breaks her free. She helps Wintrow, Etta and Kennit go back to Vivacia. The serpent is She Who Remembers. The Others used her as an Oracle. Althea is first mate on Ophelia the liveship. Grag Tenira (the captain’s son and the actual first mate feigning an injury) proposes to Althea but she refuses. Captain Tenira realises that the Satrap’s customs officials want to be bribed. They refuse to let him offload his goods. Althea tries to convince her family to stand by the Tenira family’s side during the council meeting. Brashen has been serving on a pirate ship. He recognises a painting that Althea had commissioned of Vivacia and learns that Kennit had the liveship. Brashen returns to Bingtown to inform the Vestrit family of this. Brashen, Althea and Amber decide to fix Paragon the liveship up and operate a rescue mission. Davad Restrat had been handling negotiations but they manage to convince him to convince the Ludlucks (who own Paragon) to sell.
Malta plays with the hearts of both Reyn and Cerwin Trell. She only wants the one who can give her the most goods. She finds Reyn > Cerwin and learns about the dragon that keeps pestering Reyn to free her. At her presentation, she’s introduced to the Satrap who promises to rescue her father. Serilla, one of the Satrap’s companions, talks to Reyn and Grag about a coup. The Satrap is going to be killed and Bingtown will be blamed. THe Vestrits are sent home in Davad’s coach but are attacked. Davad is killed, the Satrap kidnapped. Keffria and Malta flee to the Rain Wild while Ronica stays in Bingtown. Malta sneaks off with Selden, her brother, to see the city. She goes into the dragon’s prison, then finds the Satrap in a room filling with mud. The dragon is freed after Reyn intervenes too.
Meanwhile, the serpents find the liveship Ringgold and obtain its memories. It was a dragon named Draquius. Turns out the Rain Wilders have been using the cocoons of dormant dragons as “wizardwood logs” to make liveships. The dragon who’s freed at the end is She Who Remembers, aka Tintaglia, and she wants to find the serpents and protect them.
Plot and Pacing
Oh, dear, this book could and should have been cut down to at least a third of its current size. I really thought things would pick up in the second book but I found myself skimming a LOT.
This meme summarises Althea’s plot pretty aptly:
And honestly, I’m getting a little tired of it. I liked how Althea, Amber and Brashen banded together to refit Paragon–I saw that coming MILES away, by the way–but the romance between Brashen and Althea makes me want to fling myself offboard a liveship.
There are a lot of hints to the biGGeR pIcTUrE, especially with the reveal that liveships are actually (*gasp*) dead dragons! Plus everything goes to shit on Divvytown and Bingtown and I couldn’t care less about either. To my surprise, I found Malta’s POV quite entertaining. Don’t get me wrong, I thought she was whiny as hell and I hated how she kept playing with the boys’ feelings. However, I thought it was quite interesting to see how manipulative and devious she truly was. Also, I suspect that she does care for Reyn more than she lets on so reading little tidbits showing that was quite cute.
I found Wintrow, Kennit and Etta all very disturbing, particularly how Kennit wanted Wintrow to impregnate Etta so he’d be able to get rid of Wintrow for good. But then he’s also fond of the boy? So it’s like what the fuck, Kennit?
Characters
I don’t understand why everyone loves Kennit so much. He was, frankly, appalling. I hated the way he treated Etta and I hated how Etta liked being treated that way. Then Althea had a VERY unhealthy relationship with men which was a bit disturbing to read about. At one point, it sounded like she wanted to be kissed by Grag without consent. She kept thinking about how Brashen wouldn’t have asked her permission and I was blown away by that. Surely consent is the most important thing when it comes to romantic relationships?! I mean, for the physical bits at least! Malta seemed to be the same way although the whole point of her character was to show how brash and impulsive youth are. She’s meant to be naive and have stupid expectations about love (a lot of which were proven wrong by Cerwin and Reyn). I liked Reyn though it was weird for a twenty-something-year-old to be dating a fourteen-year-old.
The only character I really liked was Amber. I thought she was made of wizardwood too but I spoiled the series for myself (intentionally) and turns out she’s the Fool so no wonder I liked her so much.
Writing Style
I skimmed so much it’s not even funny. Skimmed to the point where I considered DNFing the book SEVERAL times because what’s the point of “reading” a book that you’re really just skimming? No point, that’s what! I persevered though because I was told things got better after the second half. They did not. I was very disappointed and now I feel like I shouldn’t read the third book. But I also really love the Fool so maybe I’ll read it just for him?
Ugh.
Earnestly Eccentric 