do I need to read liveship traders

[Jason_Taverner]

I love the farseer trilogy to me its beautiful, now I haven't read anything else by robin hood because I reading me back log so I can start reading tawny man in peace but should I read liveship first will it effect tawny man are they connected. If I don't read liveship will i not enjoy tawny man as much, the reason I ask is living boats don't really interest me but I will read it and more than likely enjoy it if it is going to impact my return to fitz and the fool

 

[Adasunshine]

Robin Hood? I didn't know he wrote any books

As for Liveships trilogy and it's relationship with Tawny trilogy...


******************SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT***************************


Well, I for one would recommend you read them as you do learn more about the Fool in Liveships, he/she is one of the main characters! They are also wonderful books and I love them dearly.

Also, you will learn why the ships are live... all is not what it seems young warrior!

So if it's my advice you're after then yes, read Liveships before Tawny as the story slots together nicely and well, that's reason enough really!!!

xx

 

[nixie]

It's not really necessary to read Liveships but I'd strongly recommend you do there is some connection and it helps tie the series together.Give the first book ago and if you enjoy read the other two

 

[Teir]

Liveship traders was a wonderfuly concieved story but I didnt really hold my interest for some reason. I went and read the first in that series - 'ship of magic' and then left them and went stright to Tawney man without even getting right to the end of it. Half way through the 'Golden Fool' (second book in the tawney man) the connection suddenly became VERY clear and I quickly grabbed the liveship traders and skimmed through to read only the bits and pieces which were relevant

Sounds a bit all over the place and broken up but it really worked! Because Id read the first Liveship traders I was able to stop I the middle of the golden Fool and go -
"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" "OMG! WHAH? HUH? AH! THATS SO COOL! NOW I GET IT! WOW!"

hehee or something like that

the point of story is that its not strictly needed, but once you read the Tawny man and you have that information, it becomes more relevant and interesting. So if you are not really keen on Liveship Traders, read Tawny first and then give them a go afterwards, when there is something to hold you to the story

 

[Jason_Taverner]

hahahah robin hood what a tool I am sometimes, yeah well I think I'll buy the 1st one c how it goes

 

[Rahl Windsong]

Well I have read Farseer and Tawny Man but I have yet to read any of Live Ship and I count Farseer and Tawny Man as 6 of the best books I ever read. So there you have it. Aye and I do plan to read Live Ship at some point.

Rahl

 

[Stenevor]

I dont think its strictly necessary but I would read Liveship Traders first, I finished it last week and moved straight onto the Tawny Man trilogy. I can imagine if I had started reading Fools Errand before Liveships a lot of
little things wouldnt have made as much sense. Its like If you had read Liveship Traders before the Assasin books, whenever Six Duchies dragons or Ambers earing gets a mention it wouldnt mean anything. Just little details really.
Anyway, I enjoyed Liveships, It all falls together nicely in the last book. Although I did feel that some of the characters completely changed personalities over the series. Its set over a few years though so I suppose thats possible. To me it was much more a straight adventure story, when I finished it I put it down and havent really given it a thought whereas when I finished the Assasin books they left more of an impression.
One thing that has stuck in my mind about Liveships is Serilla, a character who I couldn't see the point of. Or did I miss something.

 

[the_faery_queen]

did i not reply to this? that's odd!
i read tawnyman before liveships cos i couldn't stand liveships when i tried to read it. some stuff came up in tawny man that does mean you need liveships to understand it, BUT its so minor its really not that big a deal. i read liveships after, though oh, and still hated the series.

and strenevor, does a character really have to ahve a point? i never saw that much use for starling, in all reality! ok she gave fitz his adopted kid person, but i am sure fitz could have fuond the kid some other way. perhaps serilla was just to show how awful the satrap was? tho that was fairly clear in other ways! and i agree, i think that some of the characters had forced changes put upon them or at least, we were told they had changed, while i saw no real evidence of it personally.

just hated that series.

 

[Stenevor]

No I suppose a character doesn't need a point. I just had a funny feeling with Serilla that something wasnt quite right. As though she was going to play a bigger part in the book and then she was brushed to the side and explained away in 5 pages near the end.

 

[Drachir]

You're wondering whether to read the Liveship trilogy? Do it. I regard the Liveship series as Hobb's most imaginative work and certainly her best in terms of characterization. In this series she actually handles eight major characters and manages to make all of them interesting and believable. Most authors have trouble dealing with more than two. In addition, the twists and turns and interweaving of the various plots and subplots is intriguing. It is quite incredible how it all comes together at the conclusion of the series.

 

[Fortuna]

*********** Some Minor Spoilers ***********









I read the Liveship books first. It probably wasn’t the best thing to do because when I read the Assassin trilogy there seemed to be bits that I didn’t quite seem to be able to piece together. It all became very apparent though when I read the The Tawny Man trilogy. I agree with Tier, reading the Golden Fool you do suddenly think to yourself ‘Oh my God! Why didn't I see that coming?’

The Liveship books are probably the most challenging fantasy books I have read so far. There isn't an awful lot to like about the characters in the books (other than Brashen who I thought was a total hero) There is a lot of struggle and odd twists and turns. But Hobb herself admits that she wanted to write with an air of reality instead of using a tested formula like - the princess gets kidnapped, the princess gets saved, they live happily ever after with one major character being killed in the process.

In the Farseer stories, I sort of like that Hobbs’ characters get bashed about, wounded and tortured and take time to heal physically and mentally (although you have to feel a bit sorry for Fitz). I found myself really drawn into the story because you weren’t able to relax in the knowledge that the hero would make it to the next book. Miss (or Mrs) Hobb is edgy in her writing and I really love it.

 

[the_faery_queen]

im glad it wasn't just me who didn't like the characters but i didn't find it that challenging, just annoying. but then, for me, i am a character reader. if they don't interest me, the plot doens't. and other than pargon, no one interested me.

ok i could find kennit interesting. a lot of stuff went on for him that made him tragtic, which helps. and i felt bad for kyle, being so unable to understand or adapt to anything, but overall, it wasn't enough because, for me, the main characters were SO selfish and boring and irratating it just didn't work as a novel to make me care.

serilla, yeah, in a way her story did end up rather short. someone told me the whole cabin/ship affair was just to set her up as paranoid and effect the way she behaved on land, which was fair enough, but i diodn't see her affairs on land as really being that important to anything in the longrun for her to be in anyway neccessary. other than to show how vile teh satrap was.

 

[Fortuna]

I have to say I wanted Malta to fall over the side and drown even when she did become a nice person

 

[HiddenTiger]

Which character was the Fool in the Liveship series?

I read the Liveship series when it was first released and I never 'saw' the Fool in any of the characters. It was only when I read the first few chapters of Fools Errand that I thought he may have been in it.

 

[Adasunshine]

Which character was the Fool in the Liveship series?

I read the Liveship series when it was first released and I never 'saw' the Fool in any of the characters. It was only when I read the first few chapters of Fools Errand that I thought he may have been in it.

Hello HiddenTiger and welcome to Chronicles.

**********************SPOILER ALERT************************

The Fool's character in Liveships was Amber! Remember, she/he carved Paragon's face into a likeness of Fitz???

xx

 

[HiddenTiger]

Thanks for the quick reply and welcome. Amber what a surprise that is to me!
Now I'm really going to have to re-read that series, although I think I remember Amber's earring which was Burrichs', Chivalry’s' then Fitz's Am I right? - I always thought the Fool a male and Amber a female though....

 

[nixie]

Don't worry too much about it, I didn't make the connection till I started the Tawny Man series.As for the fool I don't think he/she really has gender but can project whatever gender he/she wants to be at the time

 

[Adasunshine]

I did catch onto it rather quickly but I read the books in very quick succession and in record time (for me anyway) so all the events and little titbits from the Farseer trilogy were still very fresh in my mind when I started Liveships!

I have seen on other forums that people didn't catch onto it until Tawny Man though so neither of you are alone, I think maybe I'm the one that's alone in these stakes, I do tend to be good at working things out though - I get hunches more than anything else and I tend to follow those hunches...

BTW HiddenTiger - I LOVE your avatar! Am a big Tiger fan myself!

xx

 

[the_faery_queen]

i read liveships after tawny man, so i already knew in fact i ONLY read them because of amber/fool and even that didn't make me like them

 

[HiddenTiger]

I enjoyed the liveship series, however, some of the characters were quite insufferable to me, A lot of them needed a good kick up the butt. I guess that is what made it so realistic.