Title: Mad Ship
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 1999 by Voyager
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 906
Second book in the Liveship Traders trilogy! As if the first book wasn't a ride already, the story kicks up a notch as... well, spoilers. I'm having some trouble what to say because spoilers. Actually, the blurb at the back of book 3 is like one big spoiler, and I had to go and read it before I'd finished this!
Speaking of covers, these paperback editions have lovely covers by my old favourite Mr John Howe. I remember buying the whole trilogy on a school trip to London back in 2003, and so many summer evenings reading them on the balcony of the student house I lived in. Good times. Eleven fucking years...
Anyway. I'm afraid this and what I wrote about the first book don't do them justice. There are so many characters running and sailing around, so many point-of-views, and nothing's black and white. So Malta is an annoying, spoiled kid but you know what? She is a spoiled kid! Kennit wants to rule the pirates as a king and he has some damn fine points, but he's also plenty messed in the head. The nominal mad ship Paragon is, well, mad and dangerous, but hey, his family did dump him alone on the beach for decades. Wintrow is stuck between his own passion for priesthood and peace and the commitment to his family and Liveship that's in his blood. There are no easy choises, and sometimes there just aren't any right ones, either. The characters grow and develop as the pages turn, and sometimes even learn from their mistakes.
A sour smile twisted Althea's mouth. 'No. I do not want to be the wind in his sails. That's what I want someone else to do for me.' She sat up straight suddenly. 'That is... that didn't come out right. I'm not explaining this very well.'
Amber looked up from her work to grin at her. 'On the contrary, I think you are uncomfortable only because you have stated it so plainly. You want a mate who will follow your dream. You don't want to give up your own ambitions to make someone else's life possible.'
'I suppose that's true,' Althea admitted reluctantly. An instant later she demanded, 'Why is that so wrong?'
'It isn't,' Amber assured her. A moment later she added wickedly, 'As long as you're male.'
Althea leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms stubbornly. 'I can't help it. That's what I want.' When Amber said nothing, Althea asked, almost angrily, 'Don't try to tell me that that is what love is, giving it all up for someone else!'
'But for some people, it is,' Amber pointed out inexorably. She bound another bead into the necklace, then held it up to look at it critically. 'Others are like two horses in harness, pulling together towards a goal.'
'I suppose that wouldn't be so bad,' Althea conceded. Her knitted brows said she did not entirely believe it. 'Why can't people love one another and still remain free?' she demanded suddenly.
sunnuntai 15. kesäkuuta 2014
Ship of Magic
Title: Ship of Magic
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 1998 by Voyager
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 880
First book in Hobb's Liveship Traders -trilogy! Yay! Let me tell you: these books are bricks. 800-900 pages, but they go down so fast! Like I wrote in the Assassin's Quest, page 200 just suddenly jumped at me. And the following ~600 pages went by as fast.
So what are these about? Set in the same world as the Farseer Trilogy, the Liveship Traders are some damn elite traders from Bingtown (a bit southwards from the Six Duchies of the Farseers). They're different from other traders in so that they have Liveships. As you may have guessed. Liveships are made of wizardwood, which comes alive, or quickens, after three generations of the owner's family (not whole generations; one peep per suffices) have died on its deck. And #3 of the Vestrit family is about to kick the bucket.
Meanwhile, pirate captain Kennit has large dreams of becoming the king of pirates. The other pirates aren't too impressed, but Kennit's figured that once he has one of the legendary liveships underneath his feet, it'll be smooth sailing for him.Y'all see where this is going?
But since this is Robin Hobb, things don't go down as they've been planned. There are plenty of other characters stirring the pot with their own spoons, debts to be paid, oracles, destinies and sea serpents! I love these books, and not just because I've lived by the sea most of my life and more than 50% of my blood is seawater. They're written beautifully, the characters are not made of cardboard, and the world around them is built to the tiniest detail.
He waited there, in the stinging rain. When he heard her speak again, he did not start. He did turn his head slowly, to hear her better.
'Ship? Ship, may I come closer?'
'My name is Paragon.'
'Paragon, may I come closer?'
He considered it. 'Aren't you going to tell me your name?' he finally countered.
A short hesitation. 'I am called Amber.'
'But that is not your name.'
'I've had a number of names,' she said after a time. 'This is the one that suits me best, here and now.'
She could, he reflected, simply have lied to him and said it was her name. But she had not. He extended an open hand toward the sound of her voice. 'Amber,' he accepted her. It was a challenge, too. He knew how huge his hand was in comparison to a human's. Once his fingers closed around her hand, he'd be able to jerk her arm out of its socket. If he chose to.
He listened to her breathe, to the sound of the rain pocking the packed sand of the beach. Abruptly she took two quick steps towards him and set her gloved left hand in his. He closed his immense fingers over her small ones. 'Paragon,' she said breathlessly.
Author: Robin Hobb
Published: 1998 by Voyager
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 880
First book in Hobb's Liveship Traders -trilogy! Yay! Let me tell you: these books are bricks. 800-900 pages, but they go down so fast! Like I wrote in the Assassin's Quest, page 200 just suddenly jumped at me. And the following ~600 pages went by as fast.
So what are these about? Set in the same world as the Farseer Trilogy, the Liveship Traders are some damn elite traders from Bingtown (a bit southwards from the Six Duchies of the Farseers). They're different from other traders in so that they have Liveships. As you may have guessed. Liveships are made of wizardwood, which comes alive, or quickens, after three generations of the owner's family (not whole generations; one peep per suffices) have died on its deck. And #3 of the Vestrit family is about to kick the bucket.
Meanwhile, pirate captain Kennit has large dreams of becoming the king of pirates. The other pirates aren't too impressed, but Kennit's figured that once he has one of the legendary liveships underneath his feet, it'll be smooth sailing for him.Y'all see where this is going?
But since this is Robin Hobb, things don't go down as they've been planned. There are plenty of other characters stirring the pot with their own spoons, debts to be paid, oracles, destinies and sea serpents! I love these books, and not just because I've lived by the sea most of my life and more than 50% of my blood is seawater. They're written beautifully, the characters are not made of cardboard, and the world around them is built to the tiniest detail.
He waited there, in the stinging rain. When he heard her speak again, he did not start. He did turn his head slowly, to hear her better.
'Ship? Ship, may I come closer?'
'My name is Paragon.'
'Paragon, may I come closer?'
He considered it. 'Aren't you going to tell me your name?' he finally countered.
A short hesitation. 'I am called Amber.'
'But that is not your name.'
'I've had a number of names,' she said after a time. 'This is the one that suits me best, here and now.'
She could, he reflected, simply have lied to him and said it was her name. But she had not. He extended an open hand toward the sound of her voice. 'Amber,' he accepted her. It was a challenge, too. He knew how huge his hand was in comparison to a human's. Once his fingers closed around her hand, he'd be able to jerk her arm out of its socket. If he chose to.
He listened to her breathe, to the sound of the rain pocking the packed sand of the beach. Abruptly she took two quick steps towards him and set her gloved left hand in his. He closed his immense fingers over her small ones. 'Paragon,' she said breathlessly.
Breakfast on Pluto
Title: Breakfast on Pluto
Author: Patrick McCabe
Published: 1998
Genre: Humorous drama with some history!
Pages: 2190 on the mobile Kindle app, 208 in book form
Wow, I read this ages ago, but have been very lazy with updating. Or, you know, being any kind of social. That includes writing things on the net that no-one reads. Anyhoo, best get to it! First, Breakfast on Pluto!
I love the movie, and bought this Kindle edition as soon as I heard that there was a book before there was a movie. Breakfast is the story of Patrick 'Pussy' Braden (Kitten in the movie), living in Ireland and London during the worst IRA era. She's obsessed with finding her mother, who abandoned her and ran away from their small hometown. Pussy knows that her father is the local priest Father Bernard, and entertains us with plenty of fantasies on just how the Father fathered her!
While the main story and ingredients are the same in both book and movie, there were a lot of changes as well. For one, our main character's name. For another, Pussy's hypersexuality and Kitten's almost chaste ways. I think I like both, on their own and together. And I adore Cillian Murphy, who plays Kitten in the movie. I ended up reading the book in short bits again, and it was often confusing, so it was good to have seen the movie already, I could keep up a little better.
No quote since, for some reason, the little Kindle app has decided to lose all my bookmarks. What.
Author: Patrick McCabe
Published: 1998
Genre: Humorous drama with some history!
Pages: 2190 on the mobile Kindle app, 208 in book form
Wow, I read this ages ago, but have been very lazy with updating. Or, you know, being any kind of social. That includes writing things on the net that no-one reads. Anyhoo, best get to it! First, Breakfast on Pluto!
I love the movie, and bought this Kindle edition as soon as I heard that there was a book before there was a movie. Breakfast is the story of Patrick 'Pussy' Braden (Kitten in the movie), living in Ireland and London during the worst IRA era. She's obsessed with finding her mother, who abandoned her and ran away from their small hometown. Pussy knows that her father is the local priest Father Bernard, and entertains us with plenty of fantasies on just how the Father fathered her!
While the main story and ingredients are the same in both book and movie, there were a lot of changes as well. For one, our main character's name. For another, Pussy's hypersexuality and Kitten's almost chaste ways. I think I like both, on their own and together. And I adore Cillian Murphy, who plays Kitten in the movie. I ended up reading the book in short bits again, and it was often confusing, so it was good to have seen the movie already, I could keep up a little better.
No quote since, for some reason, the little Kindle app has decided to lose all my bookmarks. What.
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