Ship of Magic

The Liveship Traders, Book 1

By: Robin Hobb

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

Length: 35 hrs and 20 mins

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

Critic reviews

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

Annoying Narrator Solution - 1.5 Speed!

If you could sum up Ship of Magic in three words, what would they be?

Creative, Different, Intriging

Would you be willing to try another one of Anne Flosnik’s performances?

Unfortunately, I will have to. I will listen to books that she does because I like the authors

Any additional comments?

The narrator is slow, hurts words, and can be incredibly annoying in her style. I found a solution though. If you listen at 1.5 speed, her long drawn out words are normal and you can stand to get through the book and it's like listening to it at normal speed.

Speed up the playback... 1.2 - 1.3 is way better.

the playback speed is adjustable. speed it up some and the narration is way better and more exciting during the suspenseful parts. over 1.3 and I feel like it's just too fast. But may be she should do more children's fantasy, great for that. Love the story. So great my family has started the Elderlings series based solely on my expressions listening.

Beware

Watch out. None of the character story lines are resolved (even partially) until the end of the trilogy. I would never have started it if I had known, but the series was recommended to me and I bought it without reading the reviews. A mistake I rarely make.

Plus the narrator, as most reviews have stated, is horrendous. She will drive you crazy, so maybe just read the book.

That said, Robin has created a great world and good characters. I will now have to read all three novels to find out what happens, which really irks me. It's so sad that SciFi readers nowadays are willing to put up with that sort of writing. There's no reason at least some of the story lines can't be written to end in the first book in order to give the reader some satisfaction.

FREAKIN AWESOME!!!

If your personality doesn't clash with the narrators (i think she's awesome) and your an audio fantasy book junky (like me) you WILL love this book.

Good but not Great

Predictable plot and once you learn a character they become predictable in every other scene. Narration was excellent. Good characters and an interesting world to explore along with Althea are what kept me reading until the conclusion of the predictable conclusion with the pirates. Will read the next book as I like how the book is opening up to expand on the characters and hopefully it won't be as predictable and the characters will be more entertaining. 7/10

Far cry from the Farseer Trilogy but compelling

This was a difficult story to get started with after Hobb's first 3 in the series; The Farseer Trilogy. Echoing the sentiments of many other reviewers, the narration was really hard to adapt to after the wonderful narrator of that first trilogy. I was hoping throughout this Book 1 that there would be some tie-in to those first 3 since its part of a greater series- Realms of the Elderlings but I was disappointed in that. There were some minor references to towns and places that were familiar but that was about it. From what I can gather by other reviews, there won't be any major tie-ins in the 2nd and 3rd installments unfortunately.

The serpent chapters were extremely hard to listen to and understand. And the flipflop way in which Hobb weaves them in is disorientating to say the least. I really wanted to fast forward through those parts but decided against it because I feel like those details will matter at some point later (they didn't appear to in this Book 1 however). Honestly I thought the whole book could have benefited from the removal of that sub-story entirely. But, I'll wait patiently for that plot line to become pertinent and interesting.

One thing Hobb is great at is creating discomfort. You're made uncomfortable by all the intimate family details and squabbles between Althea and her mother and Kyle. But also within the Vestrit household after the various ships set sail. Althea's bratty niece is just terrible to "read" about. I was so disgusted by her behavior I didn't want to listen to details about her anymore. I have a bit of a hard time suspending disbelief assuming a 13yr old could be this knowledgeable and conniving. Sure, they're bratty, and manipulative but she seems wiser than her age.

The presence of liveships is a really unique concept. It really takes you onboard a seafaring journey with the trials and tribulations of sealife. I hoped that wouldn't become boring or tedious but it really didn't.

You have some clear protagonists to root for and some clear antagonists to hope come upon their just deserves. I'm intrigued enough to carry on. The narrator has become far more tolerable as you get into the meat of the story and timeline (35hrs is a big investment). For Hobb lovers I'd suggest just powering through the narration complaints. You'll miss out on a good story otherwise. This was a good balance of actual story content and build up for the greater plotlines to unfold in books 2 and 3. You're left with enough loose ends to pick up book 2 to see where they continue.

GoT Vibe: Hating it and loving at the same time!

It started simply and then spun out of control adding twists and new plot lines making me look forward to the next and backward to a prequal. SO GOOD!

great writing, bad story teller.

Narration is lacking. it feels like only 3 voices are used. the Male voice is used to show anger for any character while the child voice is also the under-40 women voice.

Flosnik's reading makes a great book even better

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely - Robin Hobb is a master of the fantasy genre, and Anne Flosnik's narration is maybe the best I've ever heard. The depth of emotion and range of characters she displays is truly astonishing. Highly recommended.

Loved it!

I already listened to Robin Hobb's dragon series and I wish I listened to this first as it takes place before and gives a bigger history to the story. It is fun to learn more about some of the characters that were in the dragon series. I love Anne Flosnik. She does an amazing job. Some people think she talks too slow or draws out her words too much but I think she reads with emotion and really gets the characters. I especially like it when she reads the drunk characters. It is so funny.