Rating: 
Summary: what a perfectly awful book!
Review: whiny, uninteresting characters. I was hoping for a lot. Great cover art, great blurb, simply amazing plot idea. but the story was so awful and the characters so irritating i had to quit reading after 1 1/2 chapters. flipped through the rest, only got worse. Got my money back.I wouldn't take this as a gift. Other people seem to like her other books, so maybe I'll give them a try.
Rating: 
Summary: Very impressive and impressively different
Review: Ship of Magic and the Liveship Trader series are one of the most innovative fantasy series I have read in a long time. Robin Hobb's choice of a maritime setting for her work (a setting that feels vaguely like the Caribbean, with an immigrant-type history) is very unusual and extremely well-rendered. She obviously knows a lot about ships and shipboard life and renders the day to day minutiae of life on board a sailing ship extremely well. She also does a good job of portraying the Bingtown society as a society in flux, with a clash and struggle between the old-time, established residents and the newcomers who are unfamiliar with the old ways of doing things. Her depiction of the Vestrit family's struggles at home to make ends meet is very well-rendered and believable, and I was struck by the realism and thought put into her society (one example might be the fact that a lot of the old families are having problems making ends meet, caused by cheap Chalcedonian grain produced with slave labor being dumped on the market--an unusually realistic problem and explanation). Her characterization feels excellent too--watching the Vestrit family essentially hit the wall in the first hundred or so pages, the people feel like real characters, and one is forced to admit that really, things couldn't have been done much differently, given the character make-up of the people involved. The liveships are a great concept, and Paragon, the mad ship, is one of the most interesting characters in the whole series; his history is unexpectedly pitiable and touching. Some people have considered this similar to Anne McCaffery's brain/brawn ships (The Ship who Sang, etc.) and while I guess I can see the resemblance, for some reason they didn't seem at all similar to me; perhaps it's just because her liveships seem so heavily to come out of a maritime tradition where sailing ships are regarded as living things, where Anne McCaffery is drawing more from a science fiction milieu involving cybernetics etc. She does a remarkable job with the character of the pirate captain Kennit as well, I thought, with a character who is totally loathsome and utterly amoral and without any human feeling at all, but who is able to be ascribed these qualities by people around him who wish to see him as a symbol. While I never liked Kennit, I was very impressed by what she was doing with him. Wintrow's spiritual strength and strength of conviction were impressively done, and Malta the spoiled daughter is an impressive character also. I was particularly interested in Malta because I have seen others try to create this type of character and fail to make him/her convincing; however, Malta was convincing. Obviously her source of power is her knowledge of human relationships and her ability to manipulate people and use diplomacy. However, unlike some other characters of this type I have seen, there is never any doubt in my mind (and I mean that in a good way) that Malta can manifest such power. Right from the start she displays herself as extremely good at spotting people's actual motivations and using her knowledge to manipulate them, and while at first she uses her power for evil instead of good, because she doesn't know any better, by the end of the series she has matured and grown into a sympathetic and formidable character.
On the negative side, the series has a few too many plotlines--the plotline with the serpents, for example, was one that I honestly felt I could have done without--and the prose style seemed a little thin at times. However, for a truly different and interesting story, this is extremely well done.
Rating: 
Summary: A real character-driven story, even better than Farseer.
Review: First, I'd like to say that I haven't read the next two books in this series yet so I will talk just about this one.
I have read that this series is weaker than the Farseer (which is one of my all time favorite fantasy series) but judging from the first book only I beg to disagree. Rarely, especially in the fantasy genre, I have found myself unwilling to go on reading, fearing that something bad would happen to some of the characters, the book is really emotional. They are so real, not the two-dimensional superheroes so often seen in this genre. Everyone in this book has its own flaws and virtues (although I have yet to find any virtues in Malta, I guess that will change:)). Character developement is really well done and the changes in their personalities evident and logical after their experiences.
Social topics like slavery and emancipation of women are also strong in this book. The world is changing and the characters are struggling to find their place in it while in most fantasy books I have read the people changing the world are the main characters themselves and I find myself thinking that whatever goes wrong they would have the power to make it right. In Ship of Magic the sense of doom is very strong which some people won't like but I really apreciate. The realism of the world may not be to the taste of the fans of Eddings and the likes but I find it refreshing to read a book with no immortal superheroes, powerful wizards, elves etc.
At first I thought that reading a book about ships would be a bit boring but sailing is described so well that sometimes I found myself wanting to sail and I have never liked the sea too much. Not in some romantic manner - the dark side of sailors' life is shown too - cruel captains, the hard work, the bullies, the dirty ships and bad food etc. The concept of the liveships is both original and very intriguing and they as the other characters struggle to find their true identity.
Hobb's writing style is not one of the best I have seen but clearly better than 90% of the fantasy writers I have read.
People prefering more action-packed fantasy will surely dislkie this book as its main focus is not flashy magic and clashes of vast armies with the few battles mentioned only briefly, kind of in the background of things. Also the book seems a bit too long but if you like original, well written books with fully realised and developed characters you should read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Thank You, No. Two attempts are enough.
Review: I'm afraid I'm yet another disappointed "Farseer" reader. In fact I may be one of the originals. I purchased both, the first book in the Farseer trilogy, Assassin's Apprentice and Ship of Magic the 1st Live Ship Trader book shortly after they were each released. In spite of an uncertain jacket synopsis on Ship of Magic,I'd hoped for a continuation of the well tempered, 1st person character driven action I'd found in the Farseer books. In discovered a potentially good, remotely "Farseer" related story shuddering under the weight of too much inconsequential 3rd person prose and unappealing characters. I put the book aside after only a few chapters. That time. Fortunately Robin Hobb (apparently AKA Megan Lindholm) who I genuinely think to be a fine writer, continued her Farseer Trilogy. She then drew some of the same engaging characters and quickened pace of "Farseer" into the Tawny Man series, (soon to release it's third book). The 1st book, The Tawny Man, centers on an adult version of the mysterious "Fool" an important secondary "Farseer" protagonist. With the second Tawny Man book, The Golden Fool, I became aware that the this same character makes a revealing appearance, in the too slow, too thickly character-ed and plot vacant Live Ship Traders books. What's an avid reader to do? I tried again. This time I pushed on through this minutely font-ed book to the "quickening " of the Living ship, Vivacia, a pivotal character herself. If that couldn't engage me as a reader all was lost! And so it was. I set the book down for the evening at page 162 and felt disinclined to start the effort again in the morning. I concluded that one might expect the set up of an epic adventure to be some what dispiriting at the outset as the challanges ahead are exposed, but Ship of Magic failed to offer what all good adventure send-offs must: impetus for the reader to read on. I think this impetus might have been achieved with fewer characters each offering more interest and dimension in themselves, a possibility of future excitement and just-plain-fun-dammit- it! I have to admit, I find Hobb to be such an imaginative story teller, that I'm sure there is something good in this book. Somewhere. But it has taken far too much wading through Dreck and Drear with too little gratifying adventure to continue through the next 647 pages of the Ship of Magic and the subsequent books in the Live Ship Traders series. While I am regretful that I can't glean enough interest in these characters to troll through and find that good. I've abandoned ship. To learn more about the mysterious "Tawny man" as I await the third book in that series, I've taken the expedient of reading AMAZON reviews of the Live Ship Traders for synopsis, hints & spoilers. (Thank you, all who've provided clues to the "Amber" charecter.)
Having read those reviews, I know other, happier readers will chide me; "if you'd just read on, you'd have found the appealing charters, mystery's clues and 'just- plain- fun -dammit- it!' you sought." To them and Robin Hobb, I say - Thank You, No. Two attempts are enough.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Wonderful!
Review: I learned about Robin Hobb just recently and this is the first book I've read of her. What a great treat. It is a superb novel. I can't wait to get and read the next one in this great series. About the Verasit family and their liveship Veracia, this book keeps you turning its pages. A strange mix between real life and science fiction. A very good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Seems to be setting up the plot - but not much plot here yet
Review: Just finished Ship of Magic, and thought I would share my reaction. Many people have compared this to Hobb's Farseer trilogy, and the differences are interesting. I felt Hobb writing in the first person was much stronger than her third person work here. It may be that working from one point of focus is a strength she's developed, and many points weakens her writing. There is some potential for very interesting plot lines here, but it isn't realized in this book. As an example, Wintrow's decisions make for interesting reading, but not as much as I had hoped when we were introduced to him. The serpents are also confusing and underdeveloped (at least when you consider the length of the book). I got a hint of where the serpents fit in from reading book one of the Tawny Man series, and so I'll try the remaining books to see how that connects. I'm hopeful that the launch found here will result in a better story line in the next book. More direction and less rambling would be great, and if Hobb knows where she's going with this one, it will be interesting to see how things turn out.
Rating:
Summary: awesome book
Review: one of the best fantasy series out there ...dont miss
Rating:
Summary: awesome, plot and characters
Review: i don't often read such books, but after the assassins series, i knew that this would be a good series. i was not disappointed. it was a pageturner until the end of the last book. it was a little darker than the assassins series, but all the threads were neatly tied and i really learned/enjoyed myself reading it. awesome, just read it.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting.
Review: This is the first book in The Liveship Traders trilogy (before The Mad Ship and Ship of Destiny). Althea Vestrit is the 19-year-old daughter of a family of Bingtown Traders, the only community who can possess a Liveship, a magic vessel made of wizardwood, a precious and legendary ware. Always her father's favourite, she spent all her childhood on board the family's Liveship, the Vivacia, whom she's come to love more than anything. Alas, the captain is very ill and is going to die soon. He has to be taken on board the Vivacia so that with his death, the third of a family member on the ship's deck, the latter can undergo her quickening. Althea knows that when the Vivacia awakens, she'll become hers to sail. Only at the last moment, she discovers that her mother and sister have convinced her father to leave the ship to Althea's brother-in-law, an execrable and authoritative Chalcedean, Kyle Haven. And as the Vestrits are crippled with debt, it won't be long until Kyle starts trading in the most profitable of goods, slaves. Banned from her own deck, desperate to have to leave the only recently quickened and emotionally fragile ship to such a horrid fate, she decides to run away. Disguised as a boy, she'll work on a slaughter ship and try to gain a ship ticket, a token to prove Kyle she's tough enough to become the rightful captain of the Vivacia. Knowing the ship has to be comforted to sail safely, Kyle drags his 13-year-old son Wintrow from his monastery where he's studying to become a Priest of Sa, and forces him to work as deck hand. Soon though, Wintrow reluctantly admits his bond with the Vivacia. Kennit, captain of the Marietta, is a pirate whose dearest dream is to become King of the Pirates. He knows that if he helps freeing slaves, he'll gain the reconaissance of their families and friends, the people of the Pirate Islands. With his first mate Sorcor, he decides to stop looting merchant ships and start chasing Liveships and attacking Slavers instead... I read Robin Hobb's astounding Farseer Trilogy more than a year ago, and it instantly became my favourite series, the one to which I've compared everything I've read since. Knowing that the third and last book of The Tawny Man, the sequel to the Farseer, will only come out in paperback in more than a year from now, I have forced myself to wait until now to read Robin Hobb's other trilogy, The Liveship Traders. So you can imagine how much I expected, how much hope I'd placed in these books, how much I feared I wouldn't like them as much. But the only thing I can tell after reading the first volume is that it didn't disappoint me. At all. The story is tremendouly gripping, the descriptions fascinating, the characterization flawless. Everything Robin Hobb touches is gold. Don't overlook her!
Rating:
Summary: Start to a Fantastic Series
Review: This series comes on the tail of the Farseer trilogy, and while it's true that Amber's presence as a character makes no sense if you haven't read the previous books, you don't need to. I didn't. This series stands on its own, fascinating and brilliant in a sea of [weak] fantasy. She brings epics and politics back to the fantasy genre in meaningful ways reminiscent of the American Revolution. It's romance, it's adventure, it's magic all rolled into one. This is a fantastic series, and this book lays all the cards on the table for you in fascinating detail. You'll love her female characters. You'll even love the villain--perhaps too much. Fantastic!
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