The Robin Hobb Collection discussion

If my calendar is correct... tomorrow is the 15th!
Time to find out what happens next to our favorite ships.

Who is the mad ship?
There's one we know already, there's one who had a very rough time...

I'll be starting this a week or so late this time :)

no problem, you read like at TGV-speed anyway :)
i think i'll be a day late - today will be crazy!

Spoiler: I'm the mad ship! o.O

yes... and Snape kills Dumbledore :p

prologue - it's funny how the serpents think the slaveships are some sort of religious providers of food for them.

they're still following She Who Remembers.
How do the rainwild traders make wizardwood? maybe serpent -skin is all the fashion there too!

oh, on my cover it has an image of Paragon, so i guess he is still the mad ship, and not Vivacia.

ch1 - i don't want paragon chopped up!

ch2 - god that priest is annoying. (Sa'dar or something)
can anyone throw him as a religious bait to the serpents?

ch3 - interesting!
so it appears that the rainwild traders cannot "make" wizardwood, they seem to find it hidden in their old cities.
there's also an interesting comment about what happens when you break wizardwood

(it's all written a bit hazy so i'm not fully clear yet)

You know the properties of wizardwood. A log, broken free of its contents, becomes free to take on the memories and thoughts of those in daily contact with it. That does not mean the wood is alive. You put your hands on it, and you listen to the trapped memories of a dead creature from another time. That is all they are."

I'm not sure Kennit would like to know that! His charm might not be all that charming (although he might just have discovered that last bit

Ch4 - vivacia admitting that the serpents can hear her and the other way round, that somehow they feel like family too.
The options on how to go from serpent to hardwood are endless. Is it like coal, and do old serpent bodies become wood, or do you need serpent blood to make it?

It also answers Vivacia's own question to what she is without Vestrits, these are her own serpent memories i guess, she is the one who remembers after all

Ch5- i am absolutely loving Ophelia, the way she dealt with that Satrap galley was a lotof fun to read.
Also like the combination of Ophelia with Althea, i hope she stays on that ship a bit longer and not just until Bingtown

Ophelia is rather amusing. Each of the ships we meet have very different personalities.

She's amazing, like a fabulous and proud grandmother!

I've gotten behind in my reading this last week. I probably won't be able to start this till Monday. Looking forward to it.

Fnally started. Interesting to note that the serpents in the prologue remember being dragons? And being greeted in a city by the "Elderkind." This reminds me of Fitz' vision in that abandoned city when he's searching for Verity

good catch - i kind of forgot about that. i knew it came up in Farseer but i didn't really remember more than that.

i didn't have a chance to read a lot the past days so i put this one a bit on the back-burner that will give you a chance to catch up!

Hanne wrote: "ch1 - i don't want paragon chopped up!"

He doesn't seem to care less - except chopping him might still leave him alive. I felt sorry for him when for a minute there he thought his old owners still cared about him. Until he finds out they were planning to sell him after all.

Hanne wrote: "here's also an interesting comment about what happens when you break wizardwood
(it's all written a bit hazy so i'm not fully clear yet)"

Well it looks like the "contents" are dragons - and there is only one left which Reyn seems to think is a dragon queen

‘If you are so sure of that, why do not we test your theory? Let us expose this log to light and air. If no dragon queen hatches from within it, then I shall concede I was wrong. I will no longer oppose it being cut into timber to build a great ship for the Khuprus family.’


And this

‘Coffins. That was what you told me they were when I was young. But they are not. Cradles would be a truer name for them. Moreover, if knowing what I know now, I long to awaken and release the only one that is left, that does not mean I have fallen under her sway.

So the Rainwild traders believed the dragonwood contained dead dragons and the wood retained some of the memories. But Reyn believes they all contained live dragons and perhaps they inadvertently killed by the way they emptied the contents. I think

it seems i read those first chapters too fast!
the cradle remark is interesting. would it be like an egg? or a waiting hold for reincarnation?

He uses the term "hatches" so that is kinda egg like I suppose. And they were emptying the contents to use the wizard wood.

The other interesting thing is how Vivacia describes her connection to the white serpent in Ch4

‘He is family,’ she said simply. At Wintrow’s astounded look, she shrugged one bare shoulder at him. ‘That is how it feels to me. I get the same sense of connection. Not as strong as you and I have now, but undeniable.’
‘That makes no sense.’

But it does make sense if the serpents were once dragons, and the wizardwood that makes up Vivacia retains some memory of dragons.

Hanne wrote: "Ch5- i am absolutely loving Ophelia, the way she dealt with that Satrap galley was a lotof fun to read. "

Yes, I felt like cheering then.

Great start to the book, really liking Ophelia as a ship also Althea is more mature and getting more and more capable to handle a ship by herself.

Paragon is the mad ship I think, but Amber giving him choices, Amber is another mystery.

The rain wild perspective is fabulous.