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Ship of Magic The Liveship Traders, Book I
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Ship of Magic The Liveship Traders, Book I Hardcover - 1998

by Hobb, Robin.


About this book

Ship of Magic is a 1998 fantasy novel by Robin Hobb. It is the first in her Liveship Traders Trilogy, followed by The Mad Ship and Ship of Destiny. Hobb started the series after her successful The Farseer Trilogy, also set in the Realm of the Elderlings. The Liveship Traders takes place in the sea and island around Bingtown, a hub for Liveship Traders whose ships made of wizardwood were known to ensure prosperity to their owners. As Althea Vestrit fights to regain control of her legacy via the liveship Vivacia, pirates, sea serpents and other obstacles get in her way.

Hobb has been praised for her subversion of gender identities within her series, and her presentation of women’s stories in particular. 


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....From the Paperback edition.

First Edition Identification

The first edition of Ship of Magic was published in the UK by Harper Collins in 1998. First edition has a full number line beginning with a 1 and a dust jacket stamped £17.99. First US edition printed by Spectra, with John Howe illustration on dust jacket. 


Details

  • Title Ship of Magic The Liveship Traders, Book I
  • Author Hobb, Robin.
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First Edition
  • Pages 656
  • Publisher Bantam Books, London, United Kingdom
  • Date 1998
  • ISBN 9780002254786