Ship of Magic Audiobook By Robin Hobb cover art

Ship of Magic

The Liveship Traders, Book 1

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Ship of Magic

By: Robin Hobb
Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
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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

Critic reviews

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

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I did not dislike this book or hate the narrator as some of the other reviewers do, but I can see why many people would not stick this one out to the end. If your daily life is full of whining kids, family disagreements, and unfair decisions by those around you with power then you better be in the mood for more of the same if you plan to read Ship of Magic.

I really enjoyed Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy and that is what led me to Ship of Magic. In this series many of the main characters are female and thus it makes sense to use a female narrator. Anne Flosnik does take some time to get used to and her pace is slow. Combine her narration style with bratty kids, over-bearing parents, and a heavy dose of family squabbles and I can see why some readers walk away from this book before they finish.

I did not walk away and although there was little payoff by the time it ended, I can see how things are primed to come together in the subsequent books. Events towards the end of Ship of Magic start to tie together some of the story lines and the last couple hours of the book were definitely the most enjoyable. I did find myself wanting more at the end.

There are certainly interesting fantasy concepts in this book – liveships, wizardwood, and the mysterious Rainwilds all make you want to learn more about them. While this book takes place in the same mythos as the Farseer Trilogy, the Six Duchies are just minor references and this trilogy stands on its own.

Most people have enough parent/child arguing in their lives and although some may deem it “realistic” for a book to contain such strife throughout, I felt like it went on for too long. I read fantasy to get away from the doldrums of everyday life and Ship of Magic didn’t really take me that far away. This book is 80% set-up and 20% interesting fantasy; however, I do feel like the investment will pay off in the rest of the trilogy.

Lots of family drama with some interesting fantasy

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I had never heard of this trilogy, but I like it so far. The reader is really bad. Her inflection is enough to drive you batty, but the book itself is REALLY GOOD.
I hope that they put the rest of these books on audible ... WITH A DIFFERENT READER!!!!!!!

Ship of Magic

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Very well written story that is easy to get into. Gets very interesting early on in the story and keeps you wanting more. That's the only problem. None of the story lines are resolved in this book so you have to wait until audible puts up book 2&3. Which is a difficult wait if you enjoy the story as much as I did!

Fantastic Read!

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Although she has a fine British accent, her slow, artificially lowered, whispery-sounding voice is hard to take. And why do some Brit narrators use an inflection that goes down at the end of every sentence, as though delivering a newscast? Really monotonous. I am halfway through and intend to struggle to the end, but she's ruining a good part of the experience.

What's with this narrator?

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What did you like best about Ship of Magic? What did you like least?

Story and characters are developed well and quickly. Narration was awful.

What did you like best about this story?

The story is well written and the characters well developed. I like the hidden surprise if you read the Tawny Man series.

How could the performance have been better?

Use a different narrator.

Do you think Ship of Magic needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

It obviously has and and I'm looking forward to it, other than having to listen to the same narrator again. Might just read the rest of this series.

Story rocks, Narration leaves much to be desired.

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