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published 1998; hardback 1998, Bantam Spectra
Ship of Magic is another solid piece of work from Robin Hobb, who vaulted from near obscurity to fantasy superstardom with her trio of Farseer books: Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, and Assassin's Quest. (By the way, I highly recommend that anyone who likes Robin Hobb's work prowl a good used bookstore and pick up some of her earlier works, written under the name Megan Lindholm. Cloven Hooves and Wizard of the Pigeons are two excellent ones.)
Ship of Magic, the first installment of a new series called The Liveship Traders, is set in the same world as the Farseer books, but in a different country and featuring a new, wider range of characters. It also is more ambitious in scope than the Farseer books and is told from many more points of view.
The Vestrits are one of Bingtown's Old Trader families, who made their wealth by settling an inhospitable country and developing exclusive monopolies on magical goods sold by their mysterious kin, the Rain Wild Traders. Like many other Old Trader families, the Vestrits have indebted their family to the Rain Wild Traders for generations to pay for a liveship, a ship made of magical wood that will quicken into life after three generations of Vestrits have died on its decks.
Althea Vestrit is certain that she will inherit the liveship Vivacia after her father's death, which will also be the third death needed to quicken the ship. For the liveship to be content, a Vestrit must always been on it; Althea has sailed on Vivacia since she was a child, and has already developed a bond with the nearly sentient ship. Captain Vestrit instead leaves the ship to Althea's sister Keffria, who promptly turns it over to her non-Vestrit husband Kyle Haven. Kyle, in turn, kicks Althea off the ship and installs his son Wintrow, who has been training to be a priest and doesn't want to be a sailor. This arrangement, which Althea's mother Ronica thought would be for the best, instead tears the family apart as Althea runs away to sea, Wintrow struggles against forming a relationship with the newly quickened Vivacia, Kyle tries to bend both Vivacia and Wintrow to his will, Keffria begins to see that her husband wasn't the man she thought he was, and Ronica tries to stave off the family's creditors.
Meanwhile, out on the ocean, formerly lawless pirates are beginning to get behind a new leader: Captain Kennit, a ruthless, cold-hearted killer who seeks to become as powerful as a king. The only thing he desires to make his life complete is a liveship, but most liveships are too crafty and fast to fall to his pirates. However, Kennit has set his sights on a liveship that might prove vulnerable: the youngest liveship Vivacia, whose heart is in turmoil from the dissension among her crew.
Though some characters are sympathetic and others aren't, even the "evil" characters have texture. Hobb's gift for putting her readers through the emotional wringer also is deployed to great effect here. Ship of Magic is sort of like listening to The Cure for five hours -- if you don't end up sticking your head in the oven, you enjoy it. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
Review by Sara Lipowitz
Reviewed March 29, 1998
ISBN 0-553-10324-5
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