Ship of Magic (Liveship Traders Trilogy Book 1)

It’s hard not to give 5/5 and truthfully I don’t give such a score often. You can clearly recognize the mastery of this book, it can’t be denied. This is a huge book for starters. It has multiple narrators and the ones we spend more time on, we get to like for sure. I can’t say I didn’t want to read a specific story even though I was more anxious to see what would happen to another protagonist. If I could describe the essence of this book in a word I would say “grey”. The morality and the choices here are hard. Sometimes hardships look inevitable, other times wrongness feels so injust and so hard to fight against. This is not a funny, carefree, happy story, but one with jagged turns, painful and cathartic. This is what makes it unique. There is a lot of philosophy, you can find real life dilemmas and you can ponder on them for long, as there is no easy answer. If you are a parent, the pages speak to you louder I must say. This roller coaster of a story grabs you and doesn’t let go. There is not so much raw action, as expected by Hobb, but the pacing is good and the protagonists evolve themselves. Hardships or destiny forge them and we are eager for more. If you like magic, well, there isn’t much, not meaningful at least. Don’t expect fireball shooting mages, magic in this story comes in more subtle flavor, mainly though liveships. I must say, other than the course of our protagonists, that I must admit feels a bit pre determined early on (I’m pretty sure I will be caught off guard as with the first Hobb series I picked), we also have a backstory about the serpents and the origins of live ships. That’s good. This book shouts “masterpiece”. The story is very deep, with writing that will wake up your brain and your conscience. If you like deep books with a taste of magic, don’t think about it twice, read it!!!

This is my first Hobb book. I tried Farseer but I couldn't get into it. I thought I'd give her another try since so many people seem to like her so much. I'm glad I did, and I'll have to give Farseer another try. Possibly spoilers here... First the good stuff. The magic was really kool. The whole system was very intricate and believable. The wizardwood was really intriguing and even though the liveships do kind of have a cheese factor, I still liked it. The story was really a pageturner, I looked forward to picking up the book everyday ( I read it on breaks at work mostly). A lot of the characters broke out of the stereotypes of pirates and such although Althea...I dunno she kind of seemed too much the spunky heroine ya know? I liked her and all...but she wasn't the most interesting of the bunch. The most I liked her was when she did something I didn't expect, which was only a couple times...the plot point of her dressing up as a boy could be seen a mile away. But it doesn't put a damper on it, I think she still has potential in the rest of the story esp with Brashen. I also liked her thing with the woodworking girl Amber...which wasn't as much as I wish it would have been. The world was nice, and I liked the family dynamics and the contract with the Creepy Traders...although Malta was a bore. Kyle...who can say why Ephrom ever trusted him for a moment? Now for some of the not so good stuff... Paragon...I don't know, he was interesting but just a bit too blank sometimes characterwise. I can see why that could be since he lost his memories...but some of the stuff with him and Amber I didn't think added much to the story. Interminable setting details...could have been A LOT shorter and tighter if some of that stuff was left out. While I really liked Kennit and his whore...I wish there were more background information about what made him the way he is...hopefully that will be brought out in the next two books...but I would have liked more in this one! It would have made him less of just a villain. Wintrow...was interesting and everything it's just I didn't find myself liking him very much at all. That's not all bad...I realize not every character has to be likable...but I had to read a lot about him and I thought he was spiteful and pompous...but I do see room for him to grow and I hope he does I think the worst aspect of the book was the serpents...it did not go anywhere and was just a muddle. I know we'll see more...but bring it somewhere in the first book! Most of this stuff is probably nitpicking...but I gave the book four stars and overall it is a really good book...just a few things that maybe will be resolved over the course of the trilogy but I wished were brought to a better tantalizing crescendo in the first book. Happy reading!

This is so well written. The story is interesting, thought provoking, and innovative. I am hooked. THIS IS A MUST READ!

Ship of Magic is the first book in the Liveship Traders trilogy. It is set in the same world as the Farseer trilogy, although the setting and characters are almost completely different. This is the series that made me a huge fan of Robin Hobb. Although I liked the Farseer trilogy, the ending left me a bit confused and I really wanted to see the world sketched out a bit more. Hobb certainly does that and a lot more. The story begins in the port city of Bingtown, a heavily taxed but otherwise neglected exclave of the nation of Jamallia. Bingtown Trader families are famous for their liveships - vessels carved from a special type of wood that ripens into sentience after three people in the family die aboard. Althea Vestrit has been waiting all her life for their ship Vivacia to quicken - even with the sadness of her father's death accompanying it. She has grown up on board the ship and fully expects to inherit it, but when it actually happens, she's in for a nasty shock - the ship instead goes to her greedy brother-in-law Kyle. Althea's gentle cousin Wintrow is training to be a priest and greatly enjoying it, but his father Kyle is determined to make a sailor out of him - by force if necessary. The newly awakened and confused Vivacia needs someone with Vestrit blood aboard her, but all she has is Wintrow, imprisoned upon her against his will. And there's Kennit who is not satisfied with being the most successful pirate of his time, and his plans will lead him directly into Vivacia's path. Hobb is never unduly kind to her characters - she makes them work really hard and go through a lot (it's almost physically painful to read about sometimes, but at least it pays off in the end, unlike say, with Joe Abercrombie.) They are not Chosen Ones - they are just fairly ordinary people that only become heroes because they care about something very much, and will cross any obstacles for it. Althea is no exception - she's stubborn, spirited and impertinent. I found myself alternating between cheering for her and being exasperated at her obstinate sense of entitlement. She loves Vivacia and after a few days of utter despair, makes up her mind that she will do anything to get her back - including proving her seamanship by enlisting on a dangerous whaling ship. Wintrow is also very well written, especially his relationship to Vivacia. He resents her because her need for Vestrit blood has chained him to her, but he also recognises that she's sad and confused and needs his help. Another thing I love about Hobb's fantasy is that there are no straight up villains. Everyone is complex and changeable, and Kennit is no exception. He's got some backstory behind his desire to capture a liveship, and he prides himself on being just and practical, and he's even kind most of the time. He also manipulates people for his own ends, but Hobb never portrays it as evil - he's just the product of his circumstances. The supporting cast is also really well envisioned - especially other Vestrit women (Ronica, Keffria and Malta.) The plot is really just a function of the characters' natural actions - although there is the lingering issue of the sea serpents. Hobb's descriptive writing and the complex history of Bingtown and the Rain Wilds really brings the setting to life. Highly recommended, even if you've never read anything else by Hobb.

As I absolutely adored Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, I hardly saw what a trilogy about traders of a magical living ship had to do with it all...I am glad I gave it a shot because it surprised me greatly! It's not about ships at all, they are but a few characters in this world. It's building on the world that began in Farseer and expanding it with Liveship. It's family, coming into your own and figuring out who you are and what you truly want from life! The characters are rich and already you see the development of many of them into something more. I enjoyed this and didn't expect to, I love surprises like this!

I tore into this immediately after finishing the Farseer Trilogy. I loved it and can’t wait for the rest. I’d say I only had one complaint and that would be the audio. I read the physical book as well but also listened to the audio when I was driving, etc. either the narrators accent was so thick at times o heard it wrong every single time but she says “grandfather” when referring to Ronica. It’s confusing since Ephron isn’t alive after a quarter of the book. Otherwise, great first book in this trilogy.

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb was a fascinating read for me. On the one hand the prose is beautiful, the world building deep, and the characters incredibly well crafted. On the other, that beautiful prose is sometimes a little on the verbose side and those well-crafted characters make incredibly stupid decisions at every turn to move along a fairly predictable plot. It’s almost a tale of two books, making this a very hard one to rate. The parts of Ship of Magic that really worked for me are numerous. For starters, Hobb’s prose is just beautiful. It’s the kind of book that I want to read aloud simply to hear the words come alive. I’ve had this feeling when reading some of Hobb’s other works, and it was one of the most enjoyable things about Ship of Magic for me. The world is also amazingly detailed. I loved the magic of the liveships, and the questions of where they come from and their connection to the Rain Wilds trader families kept the pages turning. That’s to say nothing about the culture of the Bingtown traders, their satrap, the pirate islands, and all the rest that Hobb crams into this book. She drops tantalizing hints for what may come next in the trilogy. From a mad liveship, who may be hiding important truths, to the threat of revolt from a satrap who refuses to abide by the promises his forefathers made, there is a great deal of depth to the world that this novel portrays. I haven’t even touched on the way Hobb makes sailing come alive here, crafting truly evocative scenes aboard ships. It’s dazzling at times. Then, of course, there are the characters. Most of our viewpoint characters are members of or otherwise associated with the Vestrit family, a family of Bingtown Traders who are struggling to stay financially solvent in a changing world. Althea is rash and overconfident, but also the most knowledgeable of liveships and the most passionate about sailing. Her sister, Keffria, on the other hand, lacks all assertiveness and is thrust into a position as the head of the family that she seems quite ill-suited for. Althea’s nephew, Wintrow, has been in training and wants nothing more than to be a priest. He’s in some ways the most balanced and relatable of the characters, even if he does share the family penchant for utter stupidity (see below), he has less of a share of it than the other characters. Then there is Kyle Haven, Keffria’s husband, who is quite high on my list of most hated characters ever. Hobb deserves heavy accolades for shaping not only a character that I hate so much, but also characters that feel quite human in the midst of a rather bleak world. Those characters, while lovingly crafted, were also one of the things I found most frustrating about the novel. As mentioned above, nearly all the characters make stupid decisions. Repeatedly. It’s fun the first time or two a character is an idiot, but eventually I like my characters to grow from that experience. Instead, time and time again, the characters in Ship of Magic return to the same well and do things that obviously aren’t going to work out well for them. From the opening pages, when Kyle Haven is given command of the liveship Vivacia, it seems obvious that his command will achieve nothing other than destruction. Somehow the family manages to completely miss the fact that Kyle is actually a conniving, self-serving fool. While this tendency for characters to continually make poor decisions became frustrating as the book went on, far worse was the fact that it made the plot entirely predictable. By the time we’re about 15% of the way into the book you know exactly how it’s going to end, leaving only questions of small details and the exact timing. It would have been nice to see some more character growth in this book, some sort of realization that poor decisions beget poor results and an attempt to right things. In fairness to Hobb, this is a trilogy, and by the end of Ship of Magic at least a couple of the characters appear to realize their poor decisions. Hopefully this will allow for more character growth and less predictability in subsequent books of the series. I’m in the minority with this one. There’s obviously a lot to love in the prose and the world and the characters, even if the characters ended up not working very well for me. For whatever reason, this one didn’t engage me, but I’m confident others will have a different experience. 3.25/5 stars. 5 – I loved this, couldn’t put it down, move it to the top of your TBR pile 4 – I really enjoyed this, add it to the TBR pile 3 – It was ok, depending on your preferences it may be worth your time 2 – I didn’t like this book, it has significant flaws and I can’t recommend it 1 – I loathe this book with a most loathsome loathing

This series is addicting there is no other way to describe it. Legitimately cannot get enough. Immediately starting the next book like right now.

The Liveship Traders Trilogyの一冊目。世界設定が同じだけでファーシーアとは無関係かと思っていたが、そうではなかった。フィッツはでてこないがファーシーアの登場人物もひとり登場するし、時間的にはファーシーアとTawny Manの間におきたことが描かれている。海洋冒険ファンタジィ。 舞台は六公国以南、パイレーツ諸島やビングタウンが主な舞台となっている。ビングタウンにはライブシップという、意思を持つ船が存在しており、その船には必ず船を所有する貿易商一族の血縁者が乗船しなければならない。ヴェストリット家の次女アリシアは、女ながらも父親と共に何年もこの船に乗っていたが、父親の死後船長となった姉の夫カイルによって船を追われる。父だけでなく船を失うアリシアと、父カイルに無理やり乗船させられるウィントロー、海賊王になることともくろむケニット、さまよう大海蛇の群れなどを中心に物語が展開するのだが、場面がころころ変わり、しかも何人もの視点で語られるので、歯がゆいことこのうえない。２巻になれば登場人物同士が出会い、それによって場面転換も減り、物語も回転し始めるが、１巻目は舞台と状況の説明にかなり費やされているので、とにかく我慢の一冊。 わたしの場合はファーシーア、Tawny Man 、Liveship Traderの順番で読んだが、Tawny Manで多少疑問に思った点も、このシリーズを読んで納得がいった。正直いうとファーシーアやTawny Manのよりおもしろさは落ちるので、フィッツのその後が気になる人はTawny Manに直行することをお勧めする。それでも読み足らないくらいこの世界が気に入ったなら、やはり読む価値は十分にあると思う

O livro nos trás de volta ao universo criado pela autora na Saga do Assassino. As semelhanças são pequenas no começo, mas aos poucos o leitor mais atento consegue fazer conexões entre as duas séries. Fortemente recomendado para quem gostou de um trabalho anterior de Hobb

Ursprünglich hatte ich nur nach etwas gesucht, das mir die Zeit bis zum Erscheinen von George R. R. Martin’s neuem Buch der "Song of Ice & Fire“-Saga vertreiben würde, dabei bin ich jedoch (via Amazon-Empfehlungen) über die "Liveship"-Trilogie gestolpert. Ich bin nun inzwischen –viel zu schnell, wie mir scheint- in der Mitte des 3. Bandes angelangt, und ich liebe es noch genauso wie von der ersten Seite an! Robin Hobb's Tempo ist nach wie vor unvermindert hoch, dennoch nimmt sie sich genug Zeit, um ihren vielen Charakteren (es dürften so um die 10 Hauptcharaktere sein) diese wunderbare Tiefe zu geben. Diese sind durch die Bank vielschichtig und interessant, und sie entwickeln sich weiter- es ist vollkommen unmöglich, sie in "Gut“ und "Böse“ zu unterteilen, und gerade dies macht sie so realistisch. "Ship of Magic", Buch 1, ist sozusagen die Einleitung, in der die Charaktere vorgestellt werden und die Story aufgebaut wird, "Mad Ship" ist Buch 2 und das Buch der Wendepunkte, nach dem nichts mehr so sein kann wie es einmal war, und "Ship of Destiny" ist das Buch der Auflösungen, in dem sich die Schicksale der einzelnen Charaktere erfüllen- sowohl in die eine als auch in die andere Richtung. Daß ich solch eine reiche Fantasy-Welt vorfinden würde, damit hatte ich trotz der positiven Bewertungen wirklich nicht gerechnet. Die Handlungsfäden ziehen sich im Laufe der Reihe immer weiter auseinander, sind aber dennoch miteinander verbunden, so daß es einem nicht schwerfällt, den einzelnen Charakteren auf ihren Abenteuern zu folgen. Besonders gefällt mir, wie nach und nach das Geheimnis um die Liveships gelüftet wird- das ist einfach wunderbar gelungen. Lebensnahe Charaktere, faszinierende Fantasy-Welten, und das alles auch noch mitreißend geschrieben- Fantasy-Fans kommen um diese Bücher nicht herum. Nachdem ich jahrelang aus Mangel an interessantem, originellem Lesestoff der Fantasy-Sparte ferngeblieben bin, bin ich nun wirklich begeistert, zuerst George R. R. Martin und nun auch noch Robin Hobb entdeckt zu haben. Und das Beste ist: die "Farseer“-, "Tawny Man“- und die neue "Soldier Son“-Trilogien liegen alle noch vor mir! Ein Wort noch zu Martin (da die beiden ja oft zusammen genannt werden): im direkten Vergleich zur "Ice & Fire"-Saga würde ich sagen, daß die "Liveship Traders"-Reihe genauso reich und interessant, allerdings weniger dunkel und negativ ist. Während Martin's Hauptcharaktere seit 3 Büchern ständig vom Regen in die Traufe kommen, gibt es bei Robin Hobb hin und wieder auch mal kleinere Lichtblicke. Qualitativ stehen sich beide Autoren in nichts nach.

It's a lot of fun to read this book. It's all so wide open of possibilities for her characters in the other two books, that it keeps you engaged all the time reading it. And yes, it is characterdriven as they say everywhere, but that is totally okay, because they all read like in a movie in my head. Thank you for a good book!

After reading the Farseer triology, I just wanted more of Fitz and his adventure, so I was skeptical about reading a totally orthogonal story in the realm. I am glad I listened to advise online not to skip the live ship traders. This series is just another masterpiece. The characters are all so well thought out. Robin Hobb knows how to develop a character through the story. The character journey portrayed here is the spine of the story, from Kennit to Malta, to Althea or Brashan. Add that to the intricately thought out world. I can't wait to gobble up rest of the books in the Elderling Saga.