The Liveship Traders (Liveship Traders Series - Robin Hobb in general)

Name: arsehead

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Product:	Liveship Traders Series - Robin Hobb in general
Date:	12/04/06 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gives fantasy a good name

Disadvantages: Too short!!

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 them fight); we find heroes in housemaids and pirates, and she has a definite skill in allowing you to come to a character judgement only to confound it in the space of a few chapters/pages/words...far from being an inconsistent style, this is what makes the characters 'real'.
If I had to find fault with these books (I'm having difficulty doing so) it would be that at close to 3,000 pages some people might struggle to finish the trilogy, or be put off in the first place. There are also a few plot concessions that are difficult to swallow - a main female character successfully poses as a ship's 'boy' in an all-male crew for a number of long-haul voyages for one. There are other twists you may see coming; but there are many more that will wrong-foot you.
I recommend these books to anyone, even readers who aren't fond of fantasy as a rule.

Summary: These are the best fantasy books I've ever read