Joe Kessler’s Reviews > Ship of Magic > Status Update

Oh, gross. I forgot all about this sex scene and how they're both drugged, drunk, and concussed for it. Totally unnecessary.

Ugh, Malta. I know she gets better and these early chapters are an important part of her character arc, but it's still a rough read.

With the caveat that I haven't read Fool's Quest or Assassin's Fate, it bugs me that the Chalced States are always presented as some sort of evil empire in these books. I would love to see Hobb shade in some complexity with a novel set there.

This book is both better and worse than I remember. The worldbuilding is outstanding, especially for fleshing out an area that was on the edges of the map for the earlier Farseer books. But there's some really creaky exposition where one character bluntly tells another something they obviously already know, solely for the reader's benefit.