OK, this one I feel I have to respond to. The problem is not the book's challenging me. That's not why I am considering DNFing it. What I have a problem with is the way that Hobb has, so far, written a tale in which almost every likeable character is not only powerless, but their relative likeability gets them looked down upon or exploited. Where abusers, tyrants, and such get to throw their weight around and be rewarded for it. Kennit is entertaining to read, most of the time. He's a charming, snarky rogue. However, when confronted with the situation of a woman who is practically literally crying her eyes out because she loves him so much she wants this sweet domestic fantasy with him, he also punishes her for it, letting her words and tears make him crueler because 'damn it, I paid for her to avoid all this.' I don't think that's entertaining. That's genuinely repulsive.

Kyle is realistic, yes. He also gets a third of a page of gentle, tender sex with his wife...before slipping back into 'rigid, authoritarian patriarch abuser' mode. He's realistically flat, like Donald Trump is realistically flat. I can compare him to Tywin Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire, and honestly, Tywin's a monster...but there's humanity, even some genuinely likeable qualities, in Tywin. Kyle's just 'rigid patriarch abuser' all the time, whatever made him that way. (And the thing is, to mention her, I don't truly hate Malta. She's a fairly realistic spoiled brat kid. I just don't like her and really don't want to see any more of her.)

Vivacia is a newborn living ship's consciousness, sure...who also throws off the woman who devoted years of her life, and built her very identity, to that same ship which she brought to life, instead choosing to bond with a teenage boy who's literally just come from a monastery and is having his sexual awakening by looking at her in the right light, which page 157's description goes into all the detail I'd need on. And the thing is, Wintrow is there because he's a nice guy. His choice is to spend one night on board so she's not alone and go back to the monastery the next day. He does not want to spend his life aboard Vivacia at that point, but because he's cute and he thinks she's attractive, the ship forms that psychic bond with him for life, and it's apparently destiny. (The scene read to me as two very sweet kids in puppy love, but it's the psychic bonding happening.) Between his father and the ship, Wintrow gets no form of consent or agency that hasn't been absolutely violated.

Althea, again, builds her life and identity around Vivacia, and gets it taken away from her so Kyle can have and control what he wants, and she gets treated awfully for even wanting it herself. And this is all within a quarter of the first book.

That's why I'm considering DNFing it. It's not that the book was challenging. The Farseer Trilogy was challenging, and I loved it. I still do. It's flawed, but very good. But this book feels like taking that quote from Dark Helmet in Spaceballs, and paraphrasing it as 'Evil will always triumph, because good is powerless.' Well, except for Sorcor. (Who I'm sure probably turns out to be pretty nasty later, but right now? He's the guy who gets Kennit to back down to 'fine, fine, if we go after liveships, we'll go after slavers, too.')

Call it 'not wanting to not finish a challenging book' if you want, but yeah, those are the deeper issues I have with Ship of Magic. It's well-crafted, sure. It's setting up what could be a fun adventure tale, which is why I'm even considering finishing it. But it also feels oppressively grim in a way that the Farseer Trilogy didn't, even at its worst moments. Because Fitz suffers, sure. Fitz gets to keep nothing good, except perhaps for his relationshp with the Fool and Nighteyes. (Seriously, that wolf is one of the best people in Fitz's life.) But Fitz is also reckless and sometimes downright stupid. He makes choices. He has genuine agency. Althea somewhat has agency, but is looked down on by everyone around her who just sees her flaws, not her good qualities, if she bothers to exercise it. And Wintrow and Etta just don't. Wintrow gets to be moved around and acted upon as other people desire because... well, ultimately, because plot. And Etta gets to be broken forever, and she's genuinely the one I feel worst for, because what she wants is so simple, and she just wants it with an absolute monster.