Ship of Magic - (Liveship Traders Trilogy) by Robin Hobb (Paperback)

About the Book

Demonstrating world-building finesse, Robin Hobb begins the climatic story of a seafaring clan and its tangled destiny. Though expected to inherit her family's newly quickened liveship, Althea Vestrit loses the honor to her scheming brother-in-law, who plans to use it as a slave ship. The ruthless pirate Captain Kennit also sees a captured liveship as his key to success. Soon Althea is forced to fight both men to regain the animate, intelligent liveship, her family's most treasured possession.

Book Synopsis

The first book in a seafaring fantasy trilogy that George R. R. Martin has described as "even better than the Farseer Trilogy--I didn't think that was possible." Now in a glorious new edition!

Bingtown is a hub of exotic trade and home to a merchant nobility famed for its liveships--rare vessels carved from wizardwood, which ripens magically into sentient awareness. Now the fortunes of one of Bingtown's oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia.

For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy. For Althea's young nephew, wrenched from his religious studies and forced to serve aboard the Vivacia, the ship is a life sentence. But the fate of the ship--and the Vestrits--may ultimately lie in the hands of an outsider: the ruthless buccaneer captain Kennit, who plans to seize power over the Pirate Isles by capturing a liveship and bending it to his will.

Don't miss the magic of the Liveship Traders Trilogy:
SHIP OF MAGIC - MAD SHIP - SHIP OF DESTINY

From the Back Cover

Bingtown is a hub of exotic trade and home to a merchant nobility famed for its liveships -- rare vessels carved from wizardwood, which ripens magically into sentient awareness. The fortunes of one of Bingtown's oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia. For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy unjustly denied her -- a legacy she will risk anything to reclaim. For Althea's young nephew Wintrow, wrenched from his religious studies and forced to serve aboard ship, the Vivacia is a life sentence. But the fate of the Vestrit family -- and the ship -- may ultimately lie in the hands of an outsider. The ruthless pirate Kennit seeks a way to seize power over all the denizens of the Pirate Isles...and the first step of his plan requires him to capture a liveship of his own and bend it to his will...

Review Quotes

"A colorful beginning to a new series."--Locus

"Hobb gives us her usual marvelously coherent setting and intriguing, multidimensional characters who refuse to be pigeonholed."--Publishers Weekly

"The characterizations are consistently superb, and [Hobb] animates everything with love for and knowledge of the sea. . . . Kudos to the author, and encore!" --Booklist

About the Author

Robin Hobb is the author of the Farseer Trilogy, the Liveship Traders Trilogy, the Tawny Man Trilogy, the Soldier Son Trilogy, and the Rain Wilds Chronicles. She has also written as Megan Lindholm. She is a native of Washington State.