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missgarceau's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
nostoat's review against another edition
DNF'd for now because the controlling abusive character got too physically abusive to children for my current tolerance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Physical abuse
barry_x's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
I really enjoyed this. After quite a slow start where I thought I wasn't going to stick with this I am so glad I did.
I picked up 'Ship of Magic' as a freebie in some online giveaway years ago but never got round to reading it before now.
It's the first book in the second trilogy set in Hobb's 'Realm of the Elderlings' setting and the focus is on seafaring, familial and generational drama with lots of piracy and a fair bit of my favourite word in the world- SWASHBUCKLING! Oh yeah, and living, talking ships - known as liveships.
I think I had only read a couple of Hobb's short fiction set in this universe, probably in one of the G.R.R Martin short story collections and to be honest I wasn't over enamoured, but I have changed my mind and hope one day to read more in this series.
The basic concept of a Liveship is that it is a living ship made of wizardwood which grants the ship sentience. They are intimately bound to their owners who are known as Old Traders - a form of settler colonial merchant class. They purchase the ships from Rain Wild Traders, a class of people afflicted by mutations and magic which take generations to pay back. The ships are immediately knowing to a degree but only truly gain sentience when they 'quicken', an act that only occurs once three generations of the owner's family die on ship. The ship then 'belongs' to a member of the owning family and their thoughts and feelings are inextricably entwined.
I loved the approach to this and the questions it poses. To what degree are the ships sentient? Are they a person and do they have rights? Bound to their owners to what degree can they consent to be built, to sail? Are they a slave to their owner or are they one and the same? What is the nature of love bonded through blood and familial love? It's very clever, it asks the reader to think and consider these thoughts. A ship can be viewed as a tool, a slave, a pet, a lover, a friend, a child and I can't help but feel reading this about how we treat our families and also non-human companions. That the liveships are sentient, well-formed characters in the story is beyond doubt, but the nature of them stayed with me long after reading.
The basic theme of the book is a patriarch dies, hands his liveship over to his son in law, bypassing his daughter who loves the ship. Needing a blood relative on the ship he installs his son, a priest who doesn't want to be there on the ship. The family are suffering financially so, 'hard, economic decisions' take place which impact on the family’s values.
So in effect the son-in-law is painted as a right bastard who sees the ship as a tool, he wants his son to man up and follow in his footsteps. His son has a deep bond with the ship but feels the pull of his profession more. Wintrow the son makes a lot of choices, all logically and morally correct for him, but none of which give him an easier life. I hurt for him, seeing how much trauma he endures, and his deep feelings for the ship is heart-breaking. Imagine loving someone so much with your core being, but knowing it isn't right for you and you need to be someone and somewhere else. It really got to me, pushing them buttons!
His Dad is a right shitbag and every decision he takes is wrong, but he's written so well, every decision he takes makes sense in his eye. I am not saying I have sympathy for him - he's a slaver, he rules with violence and his patriarchal authority in the family shouldn't be challenged, and yet it felt quite uncomfortable when I realised that this horrible villain is consistently doing what he feels is right. That's excellent characterisation because it would be so easy to portray him as an evil villain to be foiled.
Althea, the daughter is so much fun as a character. She's in her late teens, loves her ship intently and goes on a bunch of adventures essentially impersonating a ship's boy to prove her worth as a sailor to get her ship back. A little part of me loved her, and wanted her to succeed, although for such a large part of the book her quest seems to be filler to another story. I really appreciated her control over her sexuality too – whilst the threat of sexual violence is never far away disguised as a boy in a man’s world there is also an unashamed awareness of her sexual needs and desires, but also her control. There is a love interest, but she is not treated as a swooning damsel waiting to be swept off her feet and I loved the maturity in how this relationship was handled. I guess there are a few rather familiar ‘young girl on ship’ tropes in a man’s world but it’s done rather well and with a certain spirit that is really fun and easy to engage with.
I picked up 'Ship of Magic' as a freebie in some online giveaway years ago but never got round to reading it before now.
It's the first book in the second trilogy set in Hobb's 'Realm of the Elderlings' setting and the focus is on seafaring, familial and generational drama with lots of piracy and a fair bit of my favourite word in the world- SWASHBUCKLING! Oh yeah, and living, talking ships - known as liveships.
I think I had only read a couple of Hobb's short fiction set in this universe, probably in one of the G.R.R Martin short story collections and to be honest I wasn't over enamoured, but I have changed my mind and hope one day to read more in this series.
The basic concept of a Liveship is that it is a living ship made of wizardwood which grants the ship sentience. They are intimately bound to their owners who are known as Old Traders - a form of settler colonial merchant class. They purchase the ships from Rain Wild Traders, a class of people afflicted by mutations and magic which take generations to pay back. The ships are immediately knowing to a degree but only truly gain sentience when they 'quicken', an act that only occurs once three generations of the owner's family die on ship. The ship then 'belongs' to a member of the owning family and their thoughts and feelings are inextricably entwined.
I loved the approach to this and the questions it poses. To what degree are the ships sentient? Are they a person and do they have rights? Bound to their owners to what degree can they consent to be built, to sail? Are they a slave to their owner or are they one and the same? What is the nature of love bonded through blood and familial love? It's very clever, it asks the reader to think and consider these thoughts. A ship can be viewed as a tool, a slave, a pet, a lover, a friend, a child and I can't help but feel reading this about how we treat our families and also non-human companions. That the liveships are sentient, well-formed characters in the story is beyond doubt, but the nature of them stayed with me long after reading.
The basic theme of the book is a patriarch dies, hands his liveship over to his son in law, bypassing his daughter who loves the ship. Needing a blood relative on the ship he installs his son, a priest who doesn't want to be there on the ship. The family are suffering financially so, 'hard, economic decisions' take place which impact on the family’s values.
So in effect the son-in-law is painted as a right bastard who sees the ship as a tool, he wants his son to man up and follow in his footsteps. His son has a deep bond with the ship but feels the pull of his profession more. Wintrow the son makes a lot of choices, all logically and morally correct for him, but none of which give him an easier life. I hurt for him, seeing how much trauma he endures, and his deep feelings for the ship is heart-breaking. Imagine loving someone so much with your core being, but knowing it isn't right for you and you need to be someone and somewhere else. It really got to me, pushing them buttons!
His Dad is a right shitbag and every decision he takes is wrong, but he's written so well, every decision he takes makes sense in his eye. I am not saying I have sympathy for him - he's a slaver, he rules with violence and his patriarchal authority in the family shouldn't be challenged, and yet it felt quite uncomfortable when I realised that this horrible villain is consistently doing what he feels is right. That's excellent characterisation because it would be so easy to portray him as an evil villain to be foiled.
Althea, the daughter is so much fun as a character. She's in her late teens, loves her ship intently and goes on a bunch of adventures essentially impersonating a ship's boy to prove her worth as a sailor to get her ship back. A little part of me loved her, and wanted her to succeed, although for such a large part of the book her quest seems to be filler to another story. I really appreciated her control over her sexuality too – whilst the threat of sexual violence is never far away disguised as a boy in a man’s world there is also an unashamed awareness of her sexual needs and desires, but also her control. There is a love interest, but she is not treated as a swooning damsel waiting to be swept off her feet and I loved the maturity in how this relationship was handled. I guess there are a few rather familiar ‘young girl on ship’ tropes in a man’s world but it’s done rather well and with a certain spirit that is really fun and easy to engage with.
Back home Althea’s estranged family have drama of their own to deal with. Her mother is trying to hold the families fortunes together according to the traditions of their Trader family status. Althea’s sister, and wife of the man who ‘stole’ her ship is trying to balance the wishes of her husband, her own needs and her rather appalling daughter reaching womanhood. I really liked the character progression of Althea’s sister throughout the novel and she’s another character who I think has such a depth to her one can really feel all the different forces she is trying to manage. Her daughter makes choice after choice which seem designed to torment her mother. In some ways it mirrors some of those well-known themes of teenage girls pushing back against their mother that feel very familiar.
There are a couple of other sub-plots that feed into the main story. There’s a liveship which has had its eyes cut out, which is deemed bad luck and is grounded and their story kind of has that, ‘we’ll sort this in the next book’ vibe. There’s also a rather delicious villainous pirate who seems to have an awful lot of luck. There’s a plot where he thinks he is getting one over on his crew but is accidentally becoming a hero to the people freeing them from slavery. He’s a horrible character but he kind of screams danger and excitement. He’s a massive caricature of a typical SWASHBUCKLING pirate but honestly these chapters are so much fun.
So, it felt like quite a while for the different plots to form and for the characters to become established, and in a big book like this it did require a bit of perseverance to hook me in. Once I bought into the book, I really began to love it, and the last third or so was brilliant! The reader can clearly see the different plot threads coming together and you can see it all coming to a conclusion, all the stories that seemed different sailing the seas to the same place. As a reader you can’t wait to see the inevitable happen and there is a sense that you are in on the story with the author, observing the characters come together. I really enjoyed it.
The world is rich, the cultures well developed and understood as part of a consistent world. The plot is brilliant interwoven with the characters and by the time I reached the end I was pretty determined that I’ll read the rest of the series one day.
Really glad I went back to this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery
Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Trafficking, and Death of parent
Minor: Pedophilia and Sexual content
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Excrement, and War
Needles (tattooing). Illness, unsanitary. Hunting and skinning. Slut shaming, discrimination against sex workers (frequent use of "whore"). Sexual/romantic relationships between pre-teen/teenage girls and adult men, with some victim blaming attitudes toward this. Forced abortion, stillbirth.magis1105's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is the second time I read the story. And it was such a fun ride, I enjoyed it a lot more this time around not sure why.
We follow a few different people:
Trader families, the Velstrit mostly, their family feuds and their economic struggles. One of the struggles is to pay off their liveship. Altea has grown up in the ship, her father taking her along his trips. Once the ship wakes, things fall apart around Altea.
WE see a lot of Malta, she is capricious, self-centered, and childish. But she so wishes to be seen as an adult. she keeps making the wrong choices, but to be honest, she doesn't know the reasoning behind her mother and grandmother's choices. The truth is not told to her she is expected to simply listen to her family and obey, they should know that's not going to work. Malta is not easy to work with, when her elders try to talk sense into her, she refuses to believe and ignores what's told to her if it doesn't fit with her opinion. The first time I read this book, oh I disliked her so much I could barely force myself to read the parts where she was the main focus. Now I still think her childish but my dislike is less.
I still hate Kyle, he is such a bad example of a father, husband, son-in-law. I just hate him.
We have pirates, a very ambitious one who wishes to become the King Pirates. And he has a big shining star on his side. Thanks to luck, things start to fall into place for him.
We follow the POV of the sea serpents, who are drawn to the liveships and are seeking one specific creature, but so far we get only a few snippets and not enough for us to guess the significance unless you already know the big reveal.
So yeah rereading allows me to value these clues a lot more than the first time around.
I can't wait to get to the next installment of the series.
We follow a few different people:
Trader families, the Velstrit mostly, their family feuds and their economic struggles. One of the struggles is to pay off their liveship. Altea has grown up in the ship, her father taking her along his trips. Once the ship wakes, things fall apart around Altea.
WE see a lot of Malta, she is capricious, self-centered, and childish. But she so wishes to be seen as an adult. she keeps making the wrong choices, but to be honest, she doesn't know the reasoning behind her mother and grandmother's choices. The truth is not told to her she is expected to simply listen to her family and obey, they should know that's not going to work. Malta is not easy to work with, when her elders try to talk sense into her, she refuses to believe and ignores what's told to her if it doesn't fit with her opinion. The first time I read this book, oh I disliked her so much I could barely force myself to read the parts where she was the main focus. Now I still think her childish but my dislike is less.
I still hate Kyle, he is such a bad example of a father, husband, son-in-law. I just hate him.
We have pirates, a very ambitious one who wishes to become the King Pirates. And he has a big shining star on his side. Thanks to luck, things start to fall into place for him.
We follow the POV of the sea serpents, who are drawn to the liveships and are seeking one specific creature, but so far we get only a few snippets and not enough for us to guess the significance unless you already know the big reveal.
So yeah rereading allows me to value these clues a lot more than the first time around.
I can't wait to get to the next installment of the series.
Content Warnings
Minor: Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
kaziaroo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Confinement, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Excrement, and Vomit
Multiple graphic limb amputationskfox's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment
kabrahams's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
5.0
Going into this knowing we wouldn't be following Fitz, I wasn't sure how much I'd like it. But as soon as I started reading, I started asking myself, "Is this the best Robin Hobb book yet?" The characters, the many interweaving plots, the new types of magic--amazing! My heart broke so many times for Wintrow and Althea. I hated Kyle more than I've hated many a villain. And after being disappointed by my pirate books I now know that THIS is exactly what I'm looking for in a pirate book. Can't wait to read more of liveships, sea serpents, pirates, traders, wizard wood, arranged marriage, ancient pacts, and whatever other goodness Robin has in store for us in the rest of this trilogy!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Bullying
Minor: Sexual assault
rayreyes's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery
Moderate: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Excrement, Murder, Gaslighting, and Colonisation
Minor: Bullying, Blood, Excrement, and Alcohol
wolfthorn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
It's taken me 19 days, but I've finally finished this book. All 897 pages of it. It wouldn't have taken me so long if I'd not switched to reading something else part-way through! I am rather glad to be done with it, it is so incredibly grim. The entire book is full of misfortune and there's only one truly happy moment that I can think of. There are so many irritating characters, even the main two - Althea and Wintrop - are annoying. I think possibly the Vivacia is about the best character in the whole book. But the most infuriating bit was the fact that the book just stopped. It didn't finish with some parts of the storyline resolved, no, it just ended. Grrr. I don't know if I will read the second book. Part of me wants to see Althea get her ship and Kyle get the comeuppance he truly deserves, but I don't know if I can deal with any more misery. Especially not another 850 pages of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug use, and Death of parent
Minor: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Excrement, and Alcohol