Hi,
Certain farseer books or should I say books with fitz in them have appearances by characters from the liveships and other books, however you won't miss key points or anything like that if you don't read those other books. I have read a bit of liveship traders myself, and none of the dragon books if that is what they are called,but I was able to keep up just fine with all the farseer books.
Heh, slightly ot but now that I have started reading A song of ice and fire series, I see that robin hobb has adopted the same style as grrm in her latest book the fools assassin. I.E different point of views and such.
grryf

Hi Guitarman.

I disagree with Grryf here. I personaly read them all in the order Hobbs intended, and am glad I did so.

The order is the farseer trilogy, ie assassin's apprentice, royal assassin and then assassin's quest. Then the liveship traders, that is ship of magic, the mad ship, and ship of destiny. Then the three Taunyman books, that is fool's errand, the golden fool, and fool's fate.

Then there are the rainwild chronicles series, Dragon keeper, Dragon haven, city of dragons, and blood of dragons. Then  finally hobb has started another series (I believe it's a trilogy though am not sure), with Fool's assassin.

I read the farseer Assassin books first that begin with Fitz as a child. These were very good, albeit pretty grim. The liveship books I read later, but though they don't feature fitz they are set in the same world and continue the plot, and there are various hints back to Farseer, though it would probably be possible to read them alone, albiet they do shed some light on the ending to Farseer. Liveship was my favourite series thus far I think, sinse it had several characters not just fitz, very unique stories and a highly interesting setting being themed around sea faring with pirates, trading, and even sea serpents.

I then most recently read the Taunyman books which took up with Fitz again about 15 years after the end of Farseer. I'm glad I did read liveship there, sinse the connections between liveship and taumyman were far more serious than those between farseer and liveship, in particular one very major event that is part of the conclusion of liveships plays a huge part in Taunyman, and needless to say Taunyman would be impossible to read without knowing the events of farseer.

I've not started Rainwild's yet, apparently it is set in the same part of the world as Liveships and has connections back to that series more than Taunyman, though after Taunyman I wanted a slight break, indeed I give Hobb creddit for telling specific stories in a complete world rather than just rambling on forever, so that you get to distinct stopping points and something conclusive, albeit it's nice to go back and revisit the consequences. I have heard Rainwilds is less good than her other stuff, or at least the first book is, but I'll read it and judge for myself, (heck there are people who hate Liveships just because it was third person, had multiple characters, was set somewhere very different and din't involve fitz).

In a way I'm sorry hobb is writing more books about Fitz, though apparently fool's assassin is set 10 years later than Taunyman sinse I thought where he ended was just right. It's not that I don't like Fitz as a character, it's just that I thought at the end of taunyman he deserved a break.

Eitherway Guitarman, as I said, I'd personally recommend reading the Assassin trilogy then going on to liveship, then finishing with Taunyman as I did, however I'd also recommend leaving some space between the end of each series, sinse as each is sort of a change, you don't want to be expecting a direct sequel too closely. I think had I read liveship the second I finished Assassin's quest, I probably would've liked it less just for being set somewhere so different and involving different people, where as by leaving a gap I was able to be a tad more objective while still remembering the Farseer books, and as I said, thus far Liveships has been my favourite series of Hobb's, though we'll see what I make of Rainwild when I start on those.

Btw, speaking of martin vs Hobb, one thing I loved in Liveship is that there is a character who is quite similar to Sansa stark, a teenaged girl who goes as far as screwing over her relations for her own romantic ideals, then winds up over her head and just tries to get by on her "oh I'm so innocent" act. However where as Sansa I wanted to repeatedly hit (really the way she treats Tyrion is vile), Molta in Liveship changes, grows, comes to some major realizations and turned from a character I found a total annoyance, to someone I was actively cheering to succeed, someone who took control over her own destiny, ---- and no, she didn't do this by becoming an awsome sword fighter or magician or something, she just did so by changing her outlook and being willing to learn from how she dealt with others.

Much credit to Hobb for that, and just another reason why I really enjoyed Liveships. Hobbs other books were still fantastic, but Liveships is imho the best thus far. This has nothing to do with Fitz, I just really thought Liveships was well done, plus Pirates are cool! .