I have had very little to write about in the last few weeks, but today has sparked me in making a new journal entry. A couple of weeks ago, I started reading a new book, Ship of Magic. It’s the first book in The Liveship Traders trilogy. I picked up the book because I had read The Farseer trilogy and had simply loved it. I figured another three books of the same writer must be good as well!

At first, when I started reading Ship of Magic, I was surprised to find the book vastly different from any of the books about Fitz Farseer. I was a little disappointed when I realized the vast difference between the life of an Assassin in the previous trilogy and the life aboard a ship in this new book. I had no solid grounds for my disappointment and so I kept on reading. After all, I found the beginning of Assassin’s Apprentice a little dubious as well!

I’m about three quarters of the way though the book now and still I have no clear idea where the story is going. There are many different story-lines following different characters that are somehow related to each other. It tells about their lives and the adventures and hardships they are having.

So where do the Serpents and Dragons come in then?

Serpents are playing a large part in the story so far. They are mostly seen through the character’s eyes as dreadful sea monsters who attack their ships and devour their crews. However, occasionally there are (dreadfully short) paragraphs where the story shifts to the view of a group of Serpents. They appear to be chasing a memory that most of the Serpents have forgotten, but some of them still remember.

I’m guessing the storyline of the Serpents is the underlying part that will make all the other story-lines come together. Also a paragraph clearly hints that the memory of the Serpents is of times long past, when they were soaring through the sky on wings, instead of slithering through the oceans. I wish I could find the passage to quote it, but the reference of the Serpent remembering a time where the Lack was the Plenty and the Plenty was the Lack is clearly another way of saying that once they were creature of the Lack (air) while now they are living in the Plenty (ocean).

I can’t wait to find out at which point the Dragons will come into the story and whether my assumption about the Serpents is correct. I just hope I don’t need to wait until the last book of the trilogy, as was the case with The Farseer books. For now, I will conclude that I can agree to George R.R. Martin’s acclaim to Ship of Magic: “Even better than the Assassin books. I didn’t think that was possible.”