The Iron Duke

I've just finished my 8th. book for Carl's Once Upon a Time VII challenge so feel I am going great guns! It finishes in about 2 weeks so whether there will be a 9th. book, I'm not sure. Possibly. Anyway, my book 8 was The Iron Duke, a romantic steampunk novel by American author, Meljean Brook.

The background premise to this Victorian style steampunk fantasy is that Europe was invaded by The Horde, the *Mongol* horde... stupidly it took me a couple of chapters to realise this, I thought they were invaders from space. LOL! But that's just me being thick. Anyway, England was freed from tyranny by Rhys Trahaearn, The Iron Duke, a pirate turned merchant ship owner, and now a National Treasure. The rest of the world is still in chaos, apart from the USA where many of the British aristocracy fled from the danger. They have now returned and are known as 'bounders'. British society is made up of bounders and 'buggers' which is not some kind of derogatory, British swear-word term, but means they were infected with mechanical bugs by The Horde. (I did struggle with the term however...)

Mina Wentworth is a member of an aristocratic family that stayed, a police detective and a 'bugger', but she is also something else, her features resemble that of The Horde and although she has a good job she is reviled wherever she goes because of her Asian looks.

A dead body is dropped from an airship and lands on the doorstep of Rhys Trahaearne's mansion in London. Mina is called in to investigate and immediately attracts Rhys's romantic attentions. Which, despite the mutual attraction, is the last thing she needs. Her family are poor and the attention could rob Mina of her job, her only means of earning a wage to help keep the family afloat.

Eventually Mina finds out who the murdered man was (his face was ruined in the fall): he was the captain of one of Rhys's ships that he has given to the Royal Navy. The ship must be in trouble and an added problem is that Mina's fourteen year old brother, Andrew, is serving aboard her. Mina must do the reverse of what she wants to do and join forces with Rhys Trahaearne to find out where his ship is and what has happened to her brother. How can she do all of these things as a serving police officer and also manage to keep the enigmatic duke at bay?

Well this is a bit of a pot-boiler and no mistake. LOL. I sort of realised that when I saw the cover, but thought it might be a fun read for the OUaT VII challenge when I bought it in Waterstones a couple of months ago. I generally read 'serious' fantasy or purposely comedic authors such as Terry Pratchett for this challenge and just for once I thought it might be nice to have a complete change.

The first thing to say is that this is in no way a Young Adult book. There are many scenes of a sexual nature in the second half of the book that are not suitable for youngsters, in my view. Definitely adults only! At times I did not really like the hero, Rhys Trahaearne. He is overbearing and selfish, but then that's what this Harlequin/Mills and Boon style hero is supposed to be like. If you met someone like him in real life any sane woman would run a mile, but in a novel like this where we all know what to expect, it's fine... if you don't mind that kind of thing.

The thing that saved this book for me... (I say *saved* even though I didn't mind the romantic stuff at all) was the world building. I found this steampunk London quite fascinating with some excellent ideas worked into the plot. The idea of people infected with a 'bug' that mends them if they have an accident or fall ill is an interesting one. Many people who did not go to the US have this inside them and the book is quite intriguing on this aspect and how intolerance works within the framework of a society where some are 'normal' with no implants and some are 'buggers'. For Mina of course it's even worse as her conception came about in a certain way, her looks prove this, and she is ostracised because of it. Although this book is a certain kind of romantic novel it does also have some important things to say and I liked that about it. Truthfully, the book has a lot more in it than I have room to recount, zombies in mainland Europe, metal sharks and krakens in the sea, a mysterious 'blacksmith' who's an expert on mechanics and so on. This world really is absolutely fascinating.

The Iron Duke is book one in the author's 'Iron Seas' series. There are four or five more books but a couple are novellas... plus they're not always about the same people. One of the novellas continues Rhys and Mina's story, the rest don't as far as I can see. I popped the novella onto my Kindle for the princely sum of £2 something, the other novels I will think about as the library only has one. The Iron Duke though was a good, fun read with interesting ideas and a fascinating world: I enjoyed it. But it's not for those who have a low tolerance of Harlequin style romance books and the heroes that inevitably accompany them. You've been warned! LOL.
~~~oOo~~~

Books for May

This last week has been a bit crazy... painters here painting the outside of the house and likely to be here at least another week, maybe two. Also it was half-term and our lovely grand-daughter spent a few days here with us, always a pleasure to have her. But no blog posts done and I was behind before so I'm now 4 books behind and will never catch up so I will do a run-down of the books I read last month and a longer mention of those I haven't had time to review.

Books read in May:

25. Moon Over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch

26. Casting Spells - Barbara Bretton

27. Whispers Underground Ben Aaronovitch

28. Unseen Academicals - Terry Pratchett

29. Postcard Killers - James Patterson and Liza Marklund

30. Gunpowder Plot - Carola Dunn

31. The Various - Steve Augarde

32. The Lovers - John Connolly. Book 8 in the author's Charlie Parker series. This one is about Parker's background and childhood and tells us a lot more about him, explaining quite a few things. Absolutely terrific, read it in a day and a bit... couldn't put it down.

33. Miss Buncle's Book - D.E. Stevenson. A departure from my usual thing... written in the 1930s I think. This recounts how Miss Buncle is hard up for cash and decides to write a book. It's a fictional account of life in a village but based on the village where she lives. Of course when the book is published the villagers recognise themselves and the hunt is on to find out who the author is. This was an absolutely delightful read and I plan to read more of this author's work asap.

34. Cop to Corpse - Peter Lovesey. This is one of the author's Peter Diamond series and not the first... one of the latest in fact, breaking one of my usual rules about starting new series at the beginning. It didn't seem to matter, I enjoyed the book a lot as it's set in Bath, a city I love, and the crime element was excellent. I suspect though that it wouldn't harm me to go the beginning and read from there, though I did pick up another new one in the library the other day.

35. A Morning for Flamingos - James Lee Burke. Book 4 in the author's Dave Robicheaux series. Mafia bosses and hoodlums abound in this book, plus the usual beautiful descriptions of the Louisiana coastline. A good crime tale. Like this series very much indeed.

May is my birthday month and I decided to try and have a good reading month. I think 11 books pretty much achieved that aim. Enjoyed them *all* which is quite good for so many books, there wasn't a duff one amongst them. A favourite? Probably Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett but The Lovers by John Connolly was a close second and Miss Buncle's Book was also terrific and also Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London books were also superb... see... ALL good really.


And as I have no pics to illustrate this post, here're several photos of my garden in Spring:

Primroses of varying shades... over now but lovely back in April.

Lots of apple blossom, forecasters predict a good apple crop this year because of the cold Spring. It certainly looks like it but we shall see.

Bluebells under the apple tree, the photo I'm currently using on my Facebook page.

~~~oOo~~~

Three quick reviews

Somehow or other I've managed to be three books behind again, so this is another of my 'three quick review' posts. Although this is me, so *quick* is of course a relative term...

First up, Postcard Killers By James Patterson and Liza Marklund.

Two psychotic killers are on a tour of Europe, killing attractive young couples, often newly-weds. Jacob Kanon is the father of one of the victims, Kimmy, killed in Rome. He is also an NYPD police detective and has been following their trail around various cities, but never quite catching them. They arrive in Stockholm and journalist, Dessie Larsson, becomes involved in the latest murder case having been sent a postcard by the killers. She and Kanon make an uneasy alliance as they investigate the murders and a game of cat and mouse ensues as they try to outwit these brutal killers.

I think this may be the first book I've read by James Patterson. Thus, it's hard for me to say whether I like him as an author because of course I don't know how much influence his Swedish co-author, Liza Marklund, had on the writing. I did find the style a little simplistic for my taste, I will say that. Having said that the plot sucked me right in, and the simple writing style doesn't half make the book a real roller-coaster of a read. I don't think this is the sort of book you read for good characterisation or deep thinking but as a quick, fun read it's fine and to be honest, I really quite enjoyed it, especially the Swedish element. I've always wanted to visit Stockholm and this book made me want to go even more.


Next, Gunpowder Plot by Carola Dunn.

Daisy is once again on one of her forays to a big country house. This time it's to Edge Manor in the Cotswolds and heavily pregnant Daisy is there to write an article on the impressive firework display they hold every year. As always there is tension in the family, the Tyndalls, and she soon finds herself embroiled in their problems... Daisy being the sort of person people talk to. It's not long before a dead body is discovered, two in fact... the owner of the house and head of the family, Sir Harold Tyndall, and one other. The circumstances are very odd and no-one can make head or tale of how this has happened and why. Enter Daisy's husband, DCI Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard. Between the two of them, and Alec's junior officers, the wonderul Sergeant Tom Tring and DC Ernie Piper, he of the ever sharpened pencils, they eventually manage to sort the mess out.

I don't think there's been a bad instalment of these terrific Daisy Dalrymple books. They're always a fun read but never all that easy to guess whodunnit. I had it down to two and it was one of them but you can never be quite sure. This is book 15 as a matter of fact and Daisy is 6 months pregnant which is a nice development. Interesting to read a realistic account of what it feels like, and how pregnant women were perceived back then. These books are always a treat and I'm glad to still have 5 left to read with a new one out in November.


Lastly, my 7th. book for Carl's Once Upon a Time VII fantasy reading challenge and it's The Various by Steve Augarde.

Twelve year old Midge has been sent to Somerset to spend several weeks with her Uncle Brian. Her mother, a violinist with an orchestra, is off on tour and can't take Midge with her. Midge is resentful that she often comes second to her mother's job, but in actual fact has no problem with spending the summer holidays in such a beautiful area. Uncle Brian is an easy guardian and Midge finds she has the freedom to explore the countryside. On one expedition, to her shock and surprise, she finds an injured creature in an old barn, a creature that shouldn't exist - a miniature white horse, with wings. Midge nurses the magical creature, known as Pegs, back to health and returns him to the Royal Wood from whence he came. Here Midge is in for further shocks. Pegs is just one magical being amongst many. There are tribes of tiny fairy people here, wisps, dangerous flying hunters, farmers, and one tribe that lives underground. Midge has something to tell them. Her uncle is going to sell the land the wood is part of and it will probably be developed. The fairies will lose their home and must move. The tribes don't wish to hear this and most don't believe her anyway. They send her away but reality must be faced and Midge is the one human they know who might be able to help them. Midge knows this too, but there is a mystery to be solved here as well. Who is the mysterious Victorian girl whose photo is on the wall in the farmhouse? Did she also know about the fairies in the wood? Is *she* the key to solving the serious problem of where the tribes will go?

Well, this story is set in an area I know fairly well - that of the Somerset levels and the hills around about - because it's very close to where I live. The author has the area down to a tee; it's beautifully described and the atmosphere of a hot summer is almost tangible. It's worth reading for that alone, in my opinion. Aside from that though this is a story very well told indeed. The fairies in this book are not your cutesie Disney type fairies. They're real people with all kinds of normal traits, nastiness, jealousy, blood-lust, but also kindness and imagination. The children (Midge has two cousins who appear later in the book) are also your average 21st. century kids, not saints but not bad kids either. Although this *is* a fairy story it actually felt like something that could easily happen. I liked it an awful lot. It's book one in a trilogy in fact, the next book being called Celandine, and I've already reserved it from the library.
~~~oOo~~~

Unseen Academicals

I'm waaaaay behind on reviews, three books in fact. No way am I going to be able to do long reviews of all of those so what's going to happen is that I'll talk a little about Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett and give a brief mention of the other two.

Nutt is a candle dribbler, one of the lowest of the low employed in the Unseen University in Ankh Morpork on the Discworld. But he has friends, Trev, a bit of a wide-boy but with a good heart, and Glenda who runs the night kitchen in the university. Employed under Glenda, but also a neighbour and best friend is Juliet. Juliet sets male hearts afluttering wherever she goes because she is, quite frankly, stunningly beautiful... but... thick as two short planks. She needs someone like Glenda, quite ordinary and rather sizeable, to keep an eye out for her, just as Trev does for Nutt.

People look at Nutt and feel uneasy. Their subconscious knows what he is but won't recognise the fact. Possibly he's a goblin? Or possibly not. He looks stupid but is in fact erudite, well read, incredibly practical and very sensible. But still he makes them feel uneasy.

Various teams in the city have been playing foot-the-ball for years. There are no rules and games are chaotic and violent. Vetinari, the Patrician, decides it's time for all that to change. New rules will be formulated and a big match will be held between a team from the Unseen University... it takes Glenda to point out that if they put two huge Us on their shirts it'll look like the men have two big boobs... and another.

The job of training the team is given to Professor Ponder Stibbons who is already holding down half a dozen jobs so he delegates the position... to Nutt. Everyome wants to be in the team but can they play? Not really. Nutt has his work cut out but is more than up the job. More difficult is dealing with people's prejudices and the attitudes of the street gangs. Plus, he has to help Trev with his mission of romancing Juliet. Which is more difficult than it sounds because Juliet is about to be discovered...

Well... I've been avoiding this book for several years. Why? Because I knew it was about football. I am the least likely person to want to read anything whatsoever that involves football. I loathe it, quite frankly, to really quite an obsessive extent. And then I suddenly changed my mind... I've no idea why... and borrowed it from my daughter to read for the Once Upon a Time reading challenge. I had a sudden feeling about it, hard to explain, but it turns out I was right.

As always with Terry Pratchett's books, not all is as it seems. Yes, this is a book about football (shudder). The rules - a scene where the off-side rule is explained is particularly funny and as always makes no sense to me whatsoever - the players, the motivations of those involved with the game, the fans... particularly the fans. How can football fans be such a varied bunch? It's a mystery to me and always has been. I've never seen the attraction but it appeals to all sorts, so there you go. So yes, a book about football and those who love it. But of course it has to be a lot more than that. In reality it's about 30% footie, 70% other stuff. Other stuff such as racial prejudice, and the prejudice that exists about where you were born and brought up. Not just from people born outside your class or area but from within it too - how your people will try to keep you in your place even if it's clear you belong somewhere else because you're clever or have a talent, or are just ambitious and want a better life for yourself.

But best of all, for me, and the reason the book kept me rivetted to the end were the characters. I absolutely loved Nutt, his cleverness was genius, not just the character but in the writing of the character. All his philosophising was hilarious and you could picture people's eyes glazing over as they listened. I loved Glenda, identified very strongly with her to be honest, her size, her love of cooking, her outlook on life. As always there was a strong supporting cast... the wizards at the university, Vetinari (a big favourite with me), Sam Vimes popped up and the chap from The Truth, so many of our favourite Discworld characters were there, including the obligatory scene with DEATH. Terry handles all it brilliantly, making the whole thing fun and thoroughly entertaining.

It all goes to show how you should not be put off by what you think you know about a book. Often it turns out to be very different from what you imagine. I should have known that Terry Pratchett never writes bad books. And here's the embarrassing thing. From being a book I avoided like the plague, Unseen Academicals has turned out to be one of my absolute favourite Discworld books, along with Monstrous Regiment and all of the Sam Vimes books.


The other two books that I've not reviewed are Casting Spells by Barbara Bretton and Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch.

Casting Spells was huge fun, combining as it did knitting, crime and fantasy. It's set in a village in Vermont where everyone is a magical being. They have no crime there so no need of a police presence, until one day... a murder is committed. The village is relying on Chloe Hobbs, who owns the local knitting shop, to keep them safe via an old spell. But she is not magical, her father being human, and runs into trouble when the spell protecting the village begins to unravel. The state sends a policeman, Luke McKenzie to investigate the murder. The plot is pretty obvious and all the better for that as this is pure comfort reading and I liked it very much indeed - book one in a series I believe.

Whispers Under Ground is book three in Ben Aaronovitich's 'Rivers of London' series. This one is, as the title suggests, an underground tale of things living in the sewers and how the new magical policeman, Peter Grant, has to deal with the problem. I'm not going into very much detail as spoilers would be involved and that would be a shame. It was a truly excellent yarn, probably the best of the three so far, in my opinion and they were all good. Looking forward to book four, Broken Homes, which is out next month.

So that's it. Three more books for Carl's Once Upon a Time VII challenge, which brings my total to six now. Very happy with that and I will doubtless read a couple more before the closing date of the 21st. June.
~~~oOo~~~

Moon Over Soho

Carl's Once Upon a Time VII challenge is a week or two short of halfway through now, and I've just finished my third book. It's not brilliant progress but good enough and I'm quite a happy bunny - three out of five is not bad at all. There are other things I want to read so mixing those up with some good fantasy works for me.

Anyway, my book three is Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch.

Detective Constable Peter Grant is the first new wizard apprentice in many years. His boss, Thomas Nightingale, wizard, and also a police detective, was injured in the events of the first book and is still recovering. As is Peter's friend and colleague, Lesley, only her injuries were much worse than Nightingale's in that her face was almost destroyed.

Peter is on the way back from visiting Lesley when he recieves a call from Dr. Walid to come to the hospital and examine a body. Cyrus Wilkinson was a jazz player, as was Peter's father, and Walid suspects suspects that there is something magical and therefore wrong about his death. It doesn't take Peter long to sense a vestiga, an imprint that magic leaves on physical objects, and then he hears a saxophone solo of an old 1930s song coming from the body. It's Body and Soul, a jazz classic and well known to Peter, a bit of a jazz expert. It's not his kind of music but he knows a lot about it having been force-fed it since childhood by his jazz playing father.

The problem is, has someone murdered Cyrus *with* magic or was Cyrus a magic practitioner who accidently killed himself? Peter is also called to join another investigation whereby men are being killed in rather explicit sexual situations. Peter wonders if there might be some connection between the two cases. It's not long before two more jazz players are killed in mysterious circumstances and Peter has to call on his father for help. He has also not been able to avoid getting involved with Cyrus Wilkinson's girlfriend, Simone. He knows he shouldn't be doing it but for some reason is unable to resist. It seems there are monsters stalking Soho and Peter is about to be very deeply involved in some very dubious goings on indeed and stretched to the very limit of his capabilities.

Well, this is only my second book in Ben Aaronovitch's 'Rivers of London' series, but it felt like returning to an old friend. I'm not sure why. I don't feel any particular connection to his hero, Peter Grant, who is young and, to be honest, a trifle shallow. But that's easily made up for by other things. Firstly, the London setting. The author clearly knows the city very well indeed; I don't, but know it well enough to be able to really enjoy the bits I do recognise. It's fun following Peter's footsteps and thinking, 'Ah yes, I can picture that road or that bridge or that landmark'. It greatly adds to the enjoyment.

The humour is also a big plus, the author is a talented comedic writer - Terry Pratchett springs to mind - and I found myself laughing quite a lot. It's great that the book doesn't take itself at all seriously... there's a scene where Peter thinks Nightingale is going to give him a hug but they both remember, just in time, that they're English... small scenarios like this are so perfect and underline the very Englishness of these books. They're full of references to English culture too and I like that a lot.

Aside from this there is a good imagination at work here. I like the introduction of magical beings, some of them rather bizarre, others quite sinister. The sinister aspect seemed to come to the fore towards the end of the book and I wondered if this is the direction in which the books are heading. I hope so, though I still want them to make me laugh of course.

The theme of this book is jazz, something that really doesn't interest me much, but it didn't matter in the slightest. I wanted to continue reading regardless of how little I knew about that type of music and, for me, that's the mark of a good author, if he or she can make you read about something that might normally turn you right off.

I'm going to add just one little warning. These books are not for children or even really young adults. Older teens yes, fine, but not younger ones. There are scenes of a sexual nature, as they say on the TV, nothing offensive if you're an adult, but I wouldn't give them to a child to read.

I'm truly looking forward to the next book in the series, Whispers Underground. I have it on my library pile and will be reading it later in the month for this same challenge.
~~~oOo~~~

Books read in April

It hadn't really clicked that it was the last day of April until I saw that other people had done their April run-down of books. Tomorrow, it seems, is the 1st. of May. Goodness.

Before I go any further I must apologise that I've had to turn the word verification thing back on. The spam was getting out of control again so I'll leave it on for a week or so and then see if I can turn it off.

Anyway, without further ado, the five books I read in April:

20. Black Cherry Blues by James Lee Burke

21. The Gift of Rivers edited by Pamela Michael.

22. The Glass Guardian by Linda Gillard

23. The Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb

And lastly -

24. Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth.

I'm nabbing the synopsis from Amazon for this: Sharp and ambitious, Zach Barrows is on his way up. But when he gets a call from the White House, it's not quite the promotion he expected. Zach is to be the new political liaison officer to America's best kept secret: Nathaniel Cade. The President's vampire. And Cade is the world's only hope against a horrifying new terrorist threat advancing from the Middle East. The fight is deadlier than ever, and time is running out...

This one did exactly what it says on the tin. It was a face paced thriller with a vampire. For me it was a 'so-so' book. Elements of the plot were cleverly devised... the mad scientist who was making mindless, powerful soldiers from body parts of actual dead soldiers was very convincing: I found the idea very scary. I liked the idea that the President has his very own vampire to solve his terrorist problems! How cool would that be? LOL. What was weak about the book, in my opinion, was characterisation. I felt the author could have worked a bit harder on making the vampire, Nathaniel Cade, a lot more interesting. He was a tad boring to be honest and that's quite sad. Other characters were also lacking in depth, a missed opportunity, but there you go, you can't win 'em all. And it could easily be that subsequent books provide more in the way of characterisation and depth.

So, five books this month. Pleased with that, as one of them was very long and could easily have taken me all month to read if I was in the middle of a slow reading period. My two favourite reads were The Glass Guardian by Linda Gillard and The Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb. Just for those two books alone I would consider this a good reading month.

My current book is Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch, book two of his 'Rivers of London' series. It continues on from where it left off with book one, so it was just like meeting up with an old friend. I love the author's wonderful sly sense of humour. Little bits like this take you completely by surprise and have me spluttering with laughter:

'Inside, the mortuary was much the same as the rest of the hospital only with fewer people complaining about the state of the NHS.'

The background to the plot of this one is jazz music. *Not at all* my thing but a good author can make you read about things you never knew you were interested in and make you want more. Quite a talent that.

Happy reading in May.
~~~oOo~~~

The Ship of Magic

At last I've finished my second book for Carl's Once Upon a Time VII fantasy book challenge. It's really no wonder it's taken me this long as this second book was 880 pages long. The length, really, of almost three books. Anyway, the book is The Ship of Magic, book one of Robin Hobb's 'Liveship Trader' trilogy.

Althea Vestrit is a young woman from an Old Trader family of Bingtown on The Cursed Shores. Her family have a Liveship, Vivacia, that has yet to 'quicken', ie. come alive. But the time is close. Althea's father, Ephron, lies dying at home and his death will be the third generation of Vestrits needed to quicken the ship. Althea hopes that when her father dies she will be captain of the ship and supplant the vicious Kyle Haven, her elder sister, Keffria's, husband. Things do not go according to plan. Her father is brought down to die on the ship and Althea discovers that the ship has been given to Keffria and thus Kyle remains captain. Althea is devastated as it is her that her father has been grooming to take over the ship, but in her absence he's been persuaded to change his will.

However, a blood family member must remain on board to 'connect' with the ship. Althea presumes that will be her. But again she is wrong. Kyle and Keffria have brought their elder son, thirteen year old, Wintrow, home from the monastry where he was preparing to be a priest of Sa. He too is devastated as this is not what he wants. Wintrow is a quiet, sensible, steady boy, not adventurous or rowdy. He tries to reason with his parents and grandmother but none of them understand, least of all his violent father.

After Elphron's death and Vivacia's quickening the family is torn assumder. Althea, completely undone by what she considers a family betrayal, walks out. Wintrow is forced against his will to sail on the ship. He's drawn to Vivacia, in the shape of the figurehead of the ship, but hated by his father and the rest of the crew. He has to grow up very quickly and learn how to survive in this adult world that nothing has prepared him for.

Meanwhile things back in the Vestrit family home are going from bad to much worse. The family has lost much of its wealth due to new trader families moving to Bingtown. They bring with them the scourge of slave ownership, something the Old Traders have never approved of. Like all Liveship owners the family made a bargain with a family who live in The Rain Wild, up river, in order to get the wizardwood to build their ship. It's a dangerous, magical area, and the trader families pay a high price for their proximity to it... deformed babies etc. Debts for the ships must be paid. 'Blood or coin'. If the family cannot get together the money, the Rain Wild family will take a member of the Vestrit family. Keffria's daughter, Malta, a spoilt brat, has no idea of the danger she's in by rebelling as she does.

Althea has taken off in the belief that she can turn herself into a proper sailor by sailing on a hunting ship, and thus get Vivacia back from Kyle. Wintrow is in purgatory, unable to please his father whatever he does. A pirate, Kennit, to the south of Bingtown wants to own a Liveship and make himself king of the pirates. A wrecked, 'mad' Liveship on the coast near Bingtown is attracting unwanted attention but gains a friend. And the sea serpents, once very rare, are suddenly too plentiful and, strangely, moving north. What is going on?

It's been several years since I read anything by Robin Hobb and that was the last book in her 'Farseer' trilogy. The Liveship Trader books are set on the same world and connect. I'm not sure how yet but gather all will be made clear eventually. I'd forgotten what a brilliant writer she is. No author could produce a book like this and *not* be brilliant to be honest. There are so many layers, so many different points of view and plot threads to keep an eye on that you'd just have to be some kind of genius otherwise you simply couldn't do it. But it's not just that, it's that her writing is wonderful. It grips you by the throat and doesn't let up. At the end of it you feel like you've been through the mill several times: exhausted and wrung out.

Because here's the thing with these books - they are not a cheerful read. If you want that, choose another author. Robin Hobb is *mean* to her characters. They suffer. The torment is almost unbearable. I have an over-sensitive reaction to injustice so at times this book was pergatory for me. I desperately wanted several people to get their come-uppance, some do but others I fear I will have to wait for subsequent books for that to happen.

Which again proves the quality of Hobb's writing. Because there are no saints in these books. Althea is pig-headed and stubborn, Wintrow is actually 'saintly' but also pig-headed and never takes the straight road when a more diffcult one is available. Brashen Trell, probably my favourite character, is the subject of a 'Will they, won't they?' question all the way through with Althea, but he too is stubborn, inclined to drink too much and enjoy illicit substances.

I think there was only one aspect of the story I found a bit superfluous and that's the scenes with the sea serpents. They were few and far between but didn't feel clear to me, but I fully understand that in later books they may play a much bigger role and it was not a problem. I will say too that this book is not really a stand-alone. It's quite clear the story continues on and many things are not resolved. Not that that is a problem for me as I fully intend to read on once I have my breath back. My head is so full of these characters at the moment, the world of the Bingtown Traders and the seas around them is so real that it almost feels like it must exist somewhere.

To my delight I've discovered that Robin Hobb's latest four books are a continuation of this trilogy. They're called The Rain Wild Chronicles and presumably deal with the magical and dangerous area that we only get glimpses of in The Ship of Magic. I honestly can't wait and plan to continue reading through the year until I get up to date.
~~~oOo~~~