I considered calling in sick to work just so I could read this book without any interruptions. That's how good it is.
It is a perfect ending to one of the best trilogies I have ever read.
I didn't even know how attached I was to these characters until the second half of the book when everything went crazy.
The last chapter made me cry and got me hyped for the Tawny Man trilogy.

Edit: I need to write better reviews for these books on my next reread because I do have some issues with them, especially after rereading them. I have issues like paedophiles being presented in a good light for example (there is a character that is 20 and is after - and ends up with - a 13 year old girl). Before people start saying that "it was different in that time" about a fantasy novel, the fact that she is just a child and he is an adult is recognized in the text and other characters have issue with it. It's just sad that discussion went nowhere and was brushed off. I still love the books, but these things are very uncomfortable to read and I wish it had been addressed better. ( )

In the last installment of the Liveship Traders trilogy, Hobb cranks up the heat in this swashbuckling adventure to includes dragons flying around, war brimming on the horizon, and our main cast of characters discovering themselves with harsh lessons that leave them forever changed. 4.5 stars out of 5! ( )

Half-way through this book, I seriously doubted that Hobbs would be able to wrap up the story. Two-thirds of the way through, I started it believe it possible. In the end, she did wrap things up, and quite nicely too. Some of the story lines felt more abruptly finished than others, but for the most part, things were wrapped up pretty reasonably.

There are so many themes in this series that I want to analyze. One is the pain of memory and how it can keep people from being whole. This is represented most literally in Kennit and Paragon, but the pain of the two characters who were raped was also inline with this theme. (I am somewhat disappointed that the second character's handling of that pain was rather rushed and so diluted.) Another theme was the power and lack of power of women in a male dominated world, as demonstrated in different ways by pretty much every female character. While none of the story lines were surprising by the time they reached their culmination, they were all very different from the retrospectively-simplistic stories that I, as a reader, predicted early in the first book.
( )

5 stars and more

My love affair with Robin Hobb continues. This trilogy is massive, the issues I read total close to 2700 pages. Yet, I wanted it to go on and on, I did not want it to end. Hobb is that good. At world building, at characterization and all the other talents needed to pull off something this huge and have it end on such a high note. Every character/plot twist was tied up, yet not all the secrets are revealed. That makes me excited to see where Hobb goes next in this world.

I started this trilogy in January, reading a long with friends in a group of Fantasy lovers. That was the way to read it. To hear someone else verbalize their thoughts and feelings, weigh them with my own. It made the experience all the better. The group will be moving on in January 2021 to the next series in The Realm of The Eldering world. It will be our 3rd trilogy in this world and I cannot wait. These books were built for buddy reads. ( )

The end of the story began in "Ship of Magic", and a reasonably satisfying end. I still don't like a story that relies so heavily on magic and fate to be this dark, but the juxtaposition didn't ruin the book for me. It did have more bleak and unpleasant ends for some of the characters than I wanted, with some failing to deliver on promised character development. However, that frustration allows the happier endings to be more of a surprise. Overall, I was satisfied by the series. ( )