Ship of Magic cover art

Ship of Magic

The Liveship Traders, Book 1

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Ship of Magic

Written by: Robin Hobb
Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
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About this listen

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
Classics Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Pirate

What the critics say

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

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The story isn't very tight, but there is some interesting works building and good characters. The narrator is a little annoying but I got used to her.

Decent

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Having read and enjoyed the Farseer trilogy, and knowing that all these stories take place in the same world, I was surprised by how much this book departs from the previous storyline. Initially this was a bit of a disappointment for me, but soon I was caught up with the world-building in this first instalment of the Liveship series. As seems to be the case for all the books, the author does not rush things and the occasional dry spell is offset by complex characters and unexpected plot developments. I found myself pausing the narrative a few times to come to terms, and I'm not sure I've ever hated a character more than Kyle Haven. At first I wasn't sure about the narrator, but she has a surprising repertoire of voices that really add to the performance. Looking forward to the next book!

Robin Hobb delivers!

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

it grew on me

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First off, this narrator is awful. She was a major part of why it took me so long to get I got he book. I've been enjoying Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings series so I pushed though.

took a while, but pretty good

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The author has a way of making you like and then dislike a character in equal measure or vice versa. It’s not with every character but True to life they show you that people can be kind, cruel, selfish or altruistic. That even a vile person can do good things and even a good person can do horrid things.

Complex characters.

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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.

Started slow but was worth it in the end.

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This book and narrator take much longer to get into than those of the previous trilogy in Robin Hobb's Realms of the Elderlings series. The first ~10hrs feel like a bit of a slog. I enjoyed the second half far more than the first - when things were finally happening. Glad I stuck with it and I'll be continuing the series, but it is not nearly as enjoyable as any of the books in the Farseer trilogy were. Hoping now that the stage is set, the next two books in this trilogy will be good enough to excuse the slow start to Ship of Magic. If you try listening to a sample of this audiobook and the narrator irritates you, you probably won't enjoy this. Her delivery is fairly consistent throughout, so if it's not to your liking, the first 10+hrs will be a very difficult listen.

There are a lot more characters than in the Farseer trilogy, to a point that it's hard to be invested in all their storylines, especially before things start picking up in the second half. Really enjoyed when we start getting Malta's perspective (maybe 2/3rds in) since it's so different from all the others. Looking forward to the variety I can expect in books 2 and 3 now that all the characters have been well-established in this one.

Much slower than Farseer Trilogy

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Not a super big fan of the narrator, but love the story. the characters are great and as annoying as Malta is, she is probably an accurate representation of a self centered teenage girl

love the story but not the narrator

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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!

Slow start, gets way better!!

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While it’s a bit slow in the beginning, the development and depth of the characters is one of my favourite parts of this book. The narrator is pretty awful, particularly in the first half of the book (emphasis on the wrong words and drawn out last word in every sentence) and it was very distracting; however, she improves a lot as the audiobook goes on (why I gave 3 stars for performance) and the story itself makes up for the sub-par performance.

Amazing Story, Not-so-great narrator

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