#the mad ship

[mellowthorn]

Malta & Tintaglia for @roostercrowned's Bingtown Homeward Bound -zine

[brbarou]

too late for her. wide wings hang above her

[izzi-illustrates]

My latest RotE obsession: I finally re-read the Liveship Traders after 10+ years.

Design choices and mild series spoilers below the cut!

I had fun making this one! Particularly with playing with family resemblances that are mentioned in the book, like Wintrow looking a lot like Althea. I chose to make them both look like Ronica, but to also give Keffria Ronica's black eyes - and Wintrow Keffria's worried brows. I also wanted Althea to look a lot like her father - she's the only one with his nose and almost exact colouring.

Selden and Reyn were harder to draw - both have basically no description other than Reyn's eyes glowing through his veil, and Selden starting to scale after meeting Tintaglia, so I made Selden look most like his father in colouring, but more like his mother in the eyes and nose. Reyn I just decided to have fun with and ignored Grag describing him as "able to walk among Bingtowners unremarked" and instead went nuts with the sort of scaling he probably has in the Rainwild quartet later on.

Brashen Trell accidentally came out looking an awful lot like a friend of mine, but I like it.

Malta, my beloathed, my beloved, was one of the hardest to draw; I wanted her to look young, but also overly made up and dressed more maturely than her years. I also wanted to give her some of her father's colouring - since he favours her most of his children - but also her mother's nose and those Vestrit brows, since she's so much Ronica's granddaughter/heir by the end of the series.

[floradelisstuff]

Selden Vestrit from

Ship of Magic The Mad Ship Ship of Destiny Golden Fool City of Dragons Blood of Dragons

The first 3 are photos of one particular boy model heavily edited in Photoshop and BeFunky. The last one is a different model and I am honestly not sure perhaps I overdid it on the scaling... He is more monstrous rather than beautiful... but hey, here it is.

[theres-no-fool-like-an-old-fool]

'Not all dreams are important, you know. In fact, I wonder if any dreams are important or significant.'

'Mine are.'

[inthegoodbooks]

The first day of the summer holidays as a teacher means only one thing: a trip to my local library to see what books I can add to the summer TBR. It would be rude to not make use of the cafe facilities too, right?

Hoping to spend an hour or so here to read through more of The Mad Ship, although I must admit it has not been my favourite so far. The first 500 or so pages felt very expositional and I’m not sure the pay off has been worth it so far. I have about 200 pages left to go and I really can feel my eyes start to skim as I get closer to the end.

Let’s hope it picks up soon, but I definitely think a break is in order before I pick up Ship of Destiny…

[springs-hurts]

HALLELUJAH I FINISHED MAD SHIP!!!

That's it. That's the tweet. I've got nothing else to add I just loved them sm😭😭

[mariajamel]

the Vestrit sisters

[theplentynet]

Chapter header illustration for Subterranean Press’ upcoming limited edition of The Mad Ship. Art by John Howe.

[matthewmoorwood]

Everytime I see a man in any of Robin Hobbs books I think: "He can't actually be that bad right?"

And then he turns out to not only be that bad, but worse. And worse. And worse. And worse.

[izzi-illustrates]

The lovely Amber of Bingtown x

The Fool / Lord Golden / Beloved

[lennyjamin]

tfw you try to subtly set up your girl with the teenager who's soul-bonded to your ship in hopes that they'll have a baby but your own unrelenting self-interest causes you to fundamentally misunderstand her. and now they've got a fight club.

[giuliaisreading]

I hate Kyle so much he’s responsible for all this mess with Vivacia but he has the audacity to blame his own son

[deviousbastard1]

Some amber and fool doodles :)

It’s not the first time I’ve been called a fool, and likely not the last…😈

[blinkbones]

Title: Liveship Traders: The Mad Ship // Les aventuriers de la mer, Intg. 2 Author: Robin Hobb Translators: Véronique David-Marescot, Arnaud Mousnier-Lompré Second volume of Hobb's fantasy seafaring epic, in which the plot is continued, and so I cannot say anything that isn't a series spoiler. Thus, spoilers ahead.

* i'll be trying my best with the names, but i read it in french, which changed a few of them

IN WHICH KYLE FINALLY GETS WHAT HE FUCKING DESERVES! hahaha. I was so glad about that. He can rot in his cell, the son of a bitch. Although I imagine miss Tintaglia will probably come get his ass for Malta at some point, but truly, if she forgets, I won't mind.

Once again Hobb's strength is her ability to spin complex and ornate character arcs and to weave a strong, colorful world around them. Nothing here frustrates me; the writing is solid in every way, the translations are bangers (only some disparities in naming which are such a shame because everything else is so excellent!!!!) and I never find myself wishing this work had been done better. It's so complex, with so many threads, yet they meet beautifully and none feel weaker than the rest. Her character work is fabulous, even though I think it'll make me sad (in time).

In which Malta gains in maturity, which was truly a relief. Seeing her understand the depths of her stupidity in the previous events was a highlight. Her romance with Reyn, as age-inappropriate and weighed down by circumstances... also a delight.

Speaking of Reyn, I enjoyed him and Serilla a lot. My little scholars. My beloveds.

Most exciting for me was the beginning of the pirate-owned Vivacia. I really do fear that Kennit is doomed by the narrative, and so I will not get the conclusion I want, which is him being forcefully therapized by connecting with Wintrow, and recognizing his affection for those around him (Etta!!!!). Unfortunately the repeated warnings by the bracelet do suggest that our poor little meow-meow is gonna end badly. Oh Kennit!!! You're so funny, I will miss you. The misunderstandings between his perception and the rest of the world are some true comedy to me lmao

Althea's arc... ah... my girl... I do love her, and Amber as well, since they were together so often in this book. I did struggle, because Althea's struggles in finding her place in a man's world hit too close to home for comfort. For other reasons, they also very closely mimicked my own current worries and ngl that may have given me therapy but it also gave me unwanted emotions lmfao

It's funny how much I did not imagine the Rain Wilds city to look at all like that. I enjoyed the concept a lot. Treehouse cities are always fun.

Once Kyle was gone, Cosgo took his place in my heart as "a bitch id like to see get killed". He really deserves a smart woman to spit on his corpse <3 for my enjoyment.

One thing I truly adored was the depiction of internal family/group politics and the thoughts that go in the characters' heads as they strategize, on how to present, on how to speak, or to manipulate others. Not in a scheming way, just -- the way we all manipulate each other a little bit in daily life. And when it was proper scheming, of course, I loved it too (Malta, Serilla, Kennit). I just think it felt so true to life and that she captured the nuances of communication so well. In Ronica and Jani, especially, you see some top-notch depictions of elders being both loving and keenly conscious of the psychological currents of their flock, and how they might try to channel them. There was a specific thought that Jani had, in which she worried about the compatibility of her sons' characters after her death. I suppose it could be foreshadowing of her eventual death and the challenge the two men might face, but in my mind it also made a perfect line for a mother-leader such as her. It characterized her very well and suggested that the Khuprus' success was built by careful consideration over generations, by her and previous figures of power. It makes me wonder, writing now, if such a line may get axed today if it isn't foreshadowing. I know that many things can be considered superfluous. I also am under the impression that not many 1k chonkers get published these days -- although it may simply be that I haven't seen them.

It's true that it was a long book, and I did really enjoy it for its length, as well. This sort of in-depth character work takes a lot of pages to be deployed, but I found it extremely rewarding. In that sense, book 2 being the direct continuation of book 1 without a real threshold (other than the physical cleaving into 2 volumes), it is even more rewarding than 1 was. The campfire that was lit in book 1 has grown into a bonfire in book 2, and I suppose it may go fully ablaze in book 3. That'd be really cool. Although I'll try to temper my expectations; I'll simply see how it ends.

I will absolutely read the 3rd volume (probably next year, seeing how it took me a year to get to book 2), and honestly, I will probably want to read more Hobb overall. In time, in time. For now, I'll lay hands on tiny little books to reset my head and motivation.