For example, I’ve noticed an increasing number of scenes and motifs which echo elements of The Farseer, very subtly and playfully, but enough to underscore the fact that both trilogies (and The Tawny Man) come from the same historical roots and are driven by the same ancient forces.

The middle section of a trilogy seems to be a good place to take a step back and look at various unfurling themes. Rather than do the usual summary of the book, I wanted to focus on some of the things that particularly struck me in this instalment. Sometimes, however, a trove falls into your hands all at once… Such were the dragons on the wing. Sometimes they are tiny glistening jewels: a flower blooming in the shelter of a fallen tree, the arch of a small child’s brow combined with the curve of her cheek. All one’s life, one gathers treasures to fill it. I think there is in the heart of man a place made for wonder. Where does the boundary between liberation and rebellion lie? Is there really such a boundary at all, except in the minds of those doing the oppressing? And all the time, as the characters wrestle with these human problems, there is something greater, more ancient and much more powerful coming to awareness around them, finding its way into their dreams and demanding a form of release that will have consequences more radical than anyone can imagine. Then there are questions about how freedom can be reconciled with being the subject of a higher power – whether that’s Kennit, as king of the pirate isles, or the Satrap of Jamaillia whose taxes are throttling Bingtown’s Trader families. One can be trapped just as easily by the frivolities of a petty, unfulfilling life, as by being locked in a cabin on a ship and being limited by one’s own fear of the unknown is just as effective as the physical constraints of a wooden chrysalis. There are many different forms of imprisonment, of course.

The dramatic force of the novel seems to come from the juxtaposition between freedom and imprisonment, and how the characters deal with this.

These offer some answers to questions arising from the first book, about serpents and dragons and wizardwood and these answers in turn give rise to questions of their own. Along the way, Hobb eventually allows us to see the Rain Wild Traders at first hand and begins to reveal their secrets. The second volume of The Liveship Traders trilogy kicks off with a bloody amateur amputation on board ship and the drama barely lets up until the climax 800 pages later.

The mad ship robin hobb