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  • Ship of Magic

  • The Liveship Traders, Book 1
  • Written by: Robin Hobb
  • Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
  • Length: 35 hrs and 20 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (170 ratings)

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Ship of Magic cover art

Ship of Magic

Written by: Robin Hobb
Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
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Publisher's Summary

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, 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 his own liveship and bend it to his will.

©1999 Robin Hobb (P)2010 Tantor

What the critics say

“The characterizations are consistently superb.... Kudos to the author and encore!” ( Booklist, Starred Review)

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What listeners say about Ship of Magic

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Slow start, gets way better!!

Definitely a bit of a slow start, but start the second chapter, I was thoroughly into it.
The narrator is a little too slow for me, so I sped it up to 1.15 and then it was perfect for me!

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5 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

unbearable reading

great author but woman reading is barely understandable. I couldn't even get through two minutes

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

book would be good if it wasn't for the reader

the book would have been good but the reader is absolutely horrendous. She keeps making exaggerated awful voices for the ships and the men and makes it absolutely painful to listen to. I will actually finish this book series if they come up with a different reader.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

it grew on me

I struggle to get used to each new narrator. then suddenly I'm so deep in the story I don't notice it anymore.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good set up.

The story was good, a lot of character development and introduction. Slower in pace and a lot of despair but for a set up book did a good job of setting up the life and politics of the region. Looking forward to the next book in the series.
The narration was not my favourite... most reasons seemed to have been discussed, the Lich pin for me on why I'm debating getting the next audiobook is the seemingly endless drawn out cadence of the last word in sentences... the word 'her' is still ringing in my head read, 'heerrrrrr'.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A Just Effort

I may be a little biased since I based my thesis on this series...lol. So it goes without saying that I LOVE the story. That said, the narrator, though interesting with her voicework, doesn't emphasize the right words in the sentences at times, which leads to confusion over the tone the author portrays. Other than that, it's a fine recording. A story for all to enjoy!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

the voice performance gets much better!

Don't be discouraged by the performance of the voice actor in the beginning. I was also very off put by it at first and almost stopped listening to it. But the narrator gets much better as the story goes along and by a few chapters in I stopped thinking about the performance at all.

Sooooo glad I kept listening!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

listen at 1.15-1.25 speed

Amazing book, and really cool concept. Diifferent from the first books, but same world! the narrator was a little slow, but listening at a faster speed helped

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

good story

this is my second time listening to this book and I enjoyed it more than the first time as I caught things I missed. Looking forward to listening to the next book in the series

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Started slow but was worth it in the end.

I had trouble getting connected to the characters for quite a while but eventually fell in love with them. I will continue listening to the series for sure.

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1 person found this helpful