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There are books where I instinctively know what rating I will give them once I finish them. Ship of Magic was one of them. The Mad Ship is not, because, quite frankly, I'm somewhat mixed on this book. I really, really enjoyed most of it, and there are so many parts that I loved.
But there are also some things from the first book that I LOVED but felt weren't as strong in this one. The themes were something that kept me gripped the whole way through in SoM, and while I think The Mad Ship does some really interesting things with them, it was nowhere as strong as its predecessor for me- where the themes were one of the aspects that kept me gripped the whole way through. The Mad Ship for the most part, just took the themes of Ship of Magic and strengthened them- WHICH IS A VERY GOOD THING- but it wasn't as compelling to me.
I wanted more Wintrow going into the book than I got, but honestly, I'm happy with how he and his plotline were handled the whole way through. I completely got why we had less of him, and everything that took more of a focus was still great.
And I loved so much else about this book, Kennit is such a ridiculously well written character that it baffles me, and seeing his interactions with other characters just makes me appreciate him all the more.
From that thread, the character dynamics and relationships in this book were just as strong as ever (Because Queen Hobb). So many moments between the characters were ones I loved, and got as strong emotions as every previous book in RotE.
There was a stretch of 100 pages right before the last 100 that I loved every scene of, and was genuinely amazing the whole way through.
But the real reason I'm a bit more mixed is just because of the final stretch, and... well I felt nothing during them. Which is weird, because Hobb has become an author who can get the strongest emotions out of me the most consistently- and this book, for the most part, was no exception. I think part of that might be tied to my mood while reading it. I have no idea what to think because it might be a product of just... my mood. Which is why I'm refraining from giving it a rating right now, and why my thoughts on this book are so all over the place.
I have so many more thoughts, and I just think I need more time to sort out everything, since just because the end of this book left me off with zero emotion, doesn't mean the rest of the book should suffer my ratings for it.
Still one of the best books I've read this year so far. An amazing debut, from three amazing authors. Extremely atmospheric book, a very efficient book in terms of characterisation. Most characters you only spend about a 100 pages with, but they all feel extremely distinct and real. The moments of the different threads coming together are amazingly written, and I can't wait for the rest of this series. Exciting to see the progress on their channel
