Anna [Bran. San. Stan]'s Reviews > Ship of Magic

I can barely contain my excitement about what an amazing writer Hobb is. I have a feeling she’ll make my list of favorite fantasy authors. Truth be told, I dreaded having to abandon Fitz, the MC of the previous trilogy, for a new cast of characters, knowing I would miss him terribly. While I still need to know what happens to Fitz next, I am so on board with the Liveship Traders. Honestly, I did not expect to love this book so much. And here I am, mind blown by Hobbs’s writing genius.

At the heart of this second trilogy in the Realm of the Elderlings are the eponymous liveships – ships made out of the rare and valuable wizardwood, sentient from the beginning but only awakened after family members of three successive generations have died on board. The Vivacia is such a ship, which but awaits the third and final death to quicken. Althea, Captain Ephron Vestrit’s daughter, mostly raised on the ship and thus sailor at heart, hopes to inherit it after her father’s death but is passed over in favor of her elder sister and her sister’s husband, who now captains the Vivacia, leaving Althea bitter, resentful, and heartbroken.

Althea, however is not the only protagonist. After the Farseer Trilogy and its single viewpoint character, it took some getting used to the plethora of viewpoint characters here. Beyond Althea, there’s Wintrow, Althea’s 13-year-old nephew and priest-in-training; Brashen, a 24-year-old sailor, erstwhile heir of a wealthy Trader family and former first mate on Althea’s father’s ship; and the unscrupulous pirate Captain Kennit. But beyond these four protagonists, minor characters like Keffria (Althea’s sister) and her husband Kyle; Ronica, her mother; or Malta, her daughtertwo liveships are also viewpoint characters.

Of all these characters I expected to dislike Kennit, the cold-hearted pirate with ambitions to become a pirate king, the most, but strangely enough it was Althea – at least in the first half. She seemed selfish and spoiled and I could actually understand why her family made the decision to not pass the ship to her. That’s not to say that Kyle, her brother-in-law and the new captain, endeared himself to me with his behavior and reasoning – on the contrary, he is an ass and a dangerously vindictive one at that –, but Althea had a long way to go. But she did and I’m excited to see where her journey will lead her.

Other characters have also shown themselves in need of personal growth, most notably Wintrow, with his holier-than-thou attitude, who just can’t accept his fate, and Malta, his younger sister, who is beyond spoiled and self-centered. The two of them drove me up the wall.

The only character who didn’t annoy me at some point was Brashen, probably because he has already left his wildest days behind him, which had led to him being disowned by his family. However, at the outset of the book, he has already made his own way and is a capable sailor, which is not to say he doesn’t have some more growing to do, but he seems most grounded in who he is, despite his regrets. And I really SHIP him and Althea. Pun intended.

I am again left to marvel at how brilliantly Hobb creates her characters. They all feel like real people, with all their desires, motivations, flaws, and issues. Just don’t expect to love all of them; like people, they are capable of great shit. So much so that I honestly can’t say I have a favorite character here. I mean I like Captain Kennit the pirate – which probably says a lot about me – and I am rooting for Brashen, Althea and Wintrow. But do I love them like I do Fitz? Nope. And yet I LOVED this book. Goes to show what a brilliant writer Hobb is. I am so hooked and I need to continue with the Mad Ship right away!

Note: This trilogy can be read as a stand-alone if you don’t want to read the Farseer trilogy, the first trilogy in the Realm of the Elderlings, for some reason; I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to though. But if this sounds more up your alley, go for it!