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Review
'Hobb is one of the great modern fantasy writers… what makes her novels as addictive as morphine is not just their imaginative brilliance but the way her characters are compromised and manipulated by politics.'
The Times
Praise for The Liveship Traders series:
‘Even better than the Assassin books. I didn’t think that was possible’
George R R Martin
A truly extraordinary saga… the characterizations are consistently superb, and [Hobb] animates everything with love for and knowledge of the sea. If Patrick O’Brian were to turn to writing high fantasy, he might produce something like this.’
BOOKLIST
‘A wonderful book, by a writer at the height of her abilities’
J V Jones
Book Description
Book One of the Soldier Son Trilogy
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Will Robin Hobb ever surpass her amazing Farseer novels? Perhaps not, but Shaman's Crossing is still a very good book. It is difficult to read her very distinctive prose and not hear more about Fitz, the fool, Nighteyes, but this novel has the potential to really go somewhere.
Her characterisation is at first, a little one dimensional. For a comprehensive book without a heavy plotline I expected much more vivid and alive characters - they didn't occur, but, seeds have definitely been set for development.
This novel seems more ambitious than her others. The books she wrote under the pen name Meghan Lindholm weren't hugely great, but showed some real promise. This book seems to fit perfectly between those and the Farseer novels - but lacks the real passion I felt whilst reading the latter. Still, I shall persevere, mainly because I know how talented Ms Hobbs is, but also because she had the courtesy to reply to an email I sent her many moons ago.
Some books are awful - some are hard work and take some time to get into - I genuinely believe this novel is the latter.
I found this book the hardest of them all to read. The first half is very long and boring, nothing interesting really happens until at least half way though the book. The writing style is different than all her previous books, it lacks the flow and interesting twists and turns of previous titles. My copy contains numerous spelling mistakes!
This book isn't a patch on the assassin or farseer books. I do want to read the next installment but I may just borrow it from the library rather than buy my own copy to see if it is worth owning!
Like in the Farseer trilogy, she writes in the first person; her protagonist, Nevare, is the second son of a newly appointed noble who was a colonial style trooper. Nevare can be likened to her Farseer hero's shadow, being restrained where Fitz was passionate; willingly constrained by authority and tradition where Fitz was not. There are essentially three peoples in his world - the Gernian, who can almost be likened to the British colonials, the plainspeople who are an allegory for the Native Americans, and the Speck, a people more alien and wild. The way Hobb sets up the interaction between these three cultures is thought provoking in a way that typical fantasy writing is not; the theme of cross cultural segregation shapes the people in this world and significantly directs their fate. Within this context, Nevare himself wrestles with a class divide that echoes the cultural segregration.
One of the most pleasing aspects about this book is how well it can be read as a stand alone novel, despite it being the first in a trilogy. The ending is satisfying, although it is a happy fact that there are another two books to come. Her hero is a sympathetic one, and her usual deft touch ensures that the reader feels some sympathy for the her antagonists as well. Above all, what I liked most about this novel was how little it resembled any of Hobb's previous novels; in this genre it is all too easy to churn out pulp fiction.
Hobb does an excellent job of evoking Nevare's world; her writing is sound, if not overly lyrical. The book does flag slightly in the first few chapters in that Nevare initially seems more a cipher than a real person, but once her groundwork is set firmly in place, the story rapidly gains a page-turning tangibility, and Nevare becomes a very likeable hero indeed.
The plot is not at all easy to predict: Hobb leads the reader to predict the outcome of many events in the novel, and then neatly turns events on their head with a light-fingered touch, with not a hint of contrivance.
Thoroughly recommended. More please!
I get a very strong sense that this writer is being indulged to the extent that they are getting paid by the word. Read more
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