Search - Ship of Magic (Liveship Traders, Bk 1)

This is one of my ALL time favorite Trilogies! It's a fun book with twists and turns, and tons of realistic characters....Hobb does a great job with them...some you love, and others you wanna slap....^_^
I loved it. It has adventure, coming of age legacies, a tad romance, mystery, magic and pirates...loved it and highly recommend.

“Ship of Magic”
By
Robin Hobb

Althea Vestrit, wrongly denied her inheritance of the beautiful Liveship Vivacia, leaves Bingtown in order to prove herself as the true sailor she is and claim back her beloved ship from her brother-in-law’s greedy grasp.

For Wintrow, Althea’s nephew, Vivacia is nothing more than a slave ship wrenching him away from his religious studies so his father can have his son aboard his ship to inherit and keep Althea from coming into her inheritance.

But no one counted on Captain Kennit, a ruthless pirate captain who will stop at nothing to take control of the Pirate Isles and name himself as King of all Pirates. To do so he must first obtain a liveship, and when his and Vivacia’s paths cross, bloodshed is not far from the horizon.

I was riveted to “Ship of Magic” from the first few pages onward. Robin Hobb has created an old pirate’s tale that is so vivid and realistic that I was loath to wrench my eyes away from its pages for more than a few minutes at a time. Curse sleep, give me more of “The Liveship Traders!”

Hobb’s characters truly came to life for me. Althea is a character that truly did grow throughout the book, someone who started off as a spoiled Capitan’s daughter turned slowly but surely into the courageous young woman she so had the potential to be. Wintrow, the haughty boy finds out that there are more things to life than just the religion he devoted his life to, and finds out that one can see religion in many different ways and lights and truly he comes into being as a man, and finds the person he wishes that he could be.

On the home front, Keffira, Althea’s older sister is finding out how hard her mother actually works and how hard she is going to have to work to keep the family finances together while her husband is out to sea, and her daughter Malta in her rush to become a woman is soon over her head with a suitor that she should treat with caution.

On ever single page, there is drama, adventure, excitement, and suspense. I cannot wait to read the rest of Hobb’s “Liveship Trader” series, and find out what is going to happen to all of my new friends, the Vestrit family and their lovely ship Vivacia.

Five Stars!!!! 

This was the fist book I read by Hobb. Stylistically, she reminded me of Melanie Rawn, but a bit more modern and original. A great mix of nautical/piratical tales with epic fantasy.

took a bit to get into it,but once you do, it was a great read