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Ship of Magic
- The Liveship Traders, Book 1
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 35 hrs and 20 mins
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Ship of Magic
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Summary
From the author of the classic Farseer trilogy, Ship of Magic is the first part of the Liveship Traders. Set in a land bordering the Six Duchies, Robin Hobb begins her epic of pirates, talking ships, magic, sea serpents, slave revolts, dashing heroes and bloody battles.
Wizardwood, a sentient wood. The most precious commodity in the world. Like many legendary wares, it comes only from the Rain River Wilds.
But how can one trade with the Rain Wilders, when only a liveship, fashioned from wizardwood, can negotiate the perilous waters of the Rain River? Rare and valuable, a liveship will quicken only when three members, from successive generations, have died on board. The liveship Vivacia is about to undergo her quickening, as Althea Vestrit’s father is carried on deck in his death-throes. Althea waits for the ship that she loves more than anything else in the world to awaken. Only to discover that the Vivacia has been signed away in her father’s will to her brutal brother-in-law, Kyle Haven. . .
Others plot to win, or steal, a liveship. The Paragon, known by many as the Pariah, went mad, turned turtle and drowned his crew. Now he lies, blind, lonely and broken on a deserted beach. But greedy men have designs to restore him, to sail the waters of the Rain Wild River once more.
Critic reviews
"Hobb is one of the great modern fantasy writers…what makes her novels as addictive as morphine is not just their imaginative brilliance but the way her characters are compromised and manipulated by politics." (The Times)
"Hobb is a remarkable storyteller." (Guardian)
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What listeners say about Ship of Magic
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Ms
- 17-11-12
Good book, poor narration
Like the previous reviewer, I like Robin Hobb's books. Her style is flowing and characters accessible. However, the narrator is not a good match. There is little emotion in her reading, which sounds like a newsreader at times. I've not finished yet, and I'm open to her style growing on me, but at the moment it's actually getting in the way of the words. I suggest starting with one of Hobb's other series on this site.
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16 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sally
- 01-04-20
excellent review, annoying narration
really loved the story but found the narration very distracting with odd word pronunciation and tempo.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- MR LEWIS-GEORGE NASH
- 29-06-20
Strong first book in the trilogy.
This book feels like a character and world building tale but beautifully woven into the characters arcs. The seeds of the plot are set but not much seems to happen to progress this in the book. Instead we get to meet our characters at a pivotal point where their lives are about to change. Then we explore these characters, who at present seem separate from each other, grow and mature. This is really well done and I enjoyed the easy pacing and time taking to get us invested in these strongly built characters.
I love the idea of living ships and Robin takes the concept here in a very interesting way. But much like the rest of the story we are teased with much story hidden beneath the story still waiting to be explored.
I started the next book immediately.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Darcy
- 07-07-18
Great book, badly produced reading
Firstly, to get you through the reading on this book, I highly recommend running it at 1.25x speed - trust me, it makes it quite bearable.
On the performance side, it is very challenging to listen to at normal speed. The audio is badly processed, it sounds distinctly like an amateur recording -the voice is frequently cut short, and gaps where audio has been cut/pasted can be heard as clicks. The voice actor's reading is very slow, but I am convinced that this is down to poor instruction by the producer/recordist.
On the book side, I found it to be a captivating and different-enough book to follow the Assassin's trilogy. I'll not deny that you certainly have to stick with it in places, some of the political aspects of the book can feel quite long - but in my view, the plot itself easily makes this worthwhile.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sian M
- 10-08-18
Performance wasn't that bad.
The reader isn't as bad as I expected, I listened to it at 1.15 speed which helped but I think you get used to her. the story is great.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 11-08-22
Narrator isn’t as bad as they say…
Having enjoyed the Assassin’s apprentice trilogy, I was hesitant about trying this trilogy due to the narrator reviews. Now at first, I agree - it takes a while to get used to her style. Speed it up by 1.2, however, and all of the issues said below disappear. I’m now onto book 2 of this series with the same narrator, so it’s kept me hooked!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Filip Kudla
- 22-02-23
Avoid, I'm sorry to say.
Narrator is perfect for reading bed time stories to children. Very nice, clear and warm voice. And Exaltation. Every. Single. Sentence. Robin Hobb deserves better. If i wouldn't know her books already, i wouldn't risk another based on this experience.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- William w Marshall
- 06-09-23
Great books second time around.
Have read all of "Robin Hobbs" books so now going for a 2nd lap but this time using Audible. I was worried about the narrator because if read poorly it can ruin a book. I was very pleased to find that it was excellent. She has a mastery of story telling with very credible different accents and different sexes...and ships of course. Great book, Great story telling.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 23-10-23
speechless
worthy follow up for a fascinating journey,loved the story, the plots and can do nothing but to recommend it
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 05-01-24
Great story, awful narration
Having read the books some years ago I really looked forward to listening to these stories but to begin with the narration was reminiscent of a satnav. Still a great story.
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