Liveship Traders Series - Robin Hobb in general

THE LIVESHIP TRADERS is Robin Hobb's second high-fantasy trilogy and is once again set in the world of The Six Duchies though further down the coast than in her previous novels in an area that has only really been hinted at and briefly mentioned in The FARSEER trilogy that precedes it. The story is rather a long and complicated one that is nonetheless addictive and compelling reading. Though it is probably my least favourite of her four trilogies so far, it is still better than most of the standard sword and sorcery fare that is normally associated with this genre. In fact I think the ideas portrayed here are all original and there is nothing that you might ...

I have just read these books after a self-imposed fantasy fast, and they are probably the best books of that genre I have ever read. 'High-fantasy' as a sub-genre has sadly come to mean 'tedious, over-complicated and gruelling', but these books totally buck that trend. They are effortlessly written, funny in places, the story is convoluted without being complicated, most importantly they are never a chore to read. I won't give away any of the plot, suffice to say it is based around the fates of a variety of sea-faring folk. With one or two exceptions, the moral lines are nicely blurred (as opposed to LOTR: these guys are all good, these guys are all bad, watch ...