Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic Fantasy
Review: Robin Hobb is a creative genious! I have become sooo addicted to the stories of Trader Bay! I HIGHLY recommend this book! It should be 10 stars!
Rating:
Summary: Fantasy trip of a life time!
Review: This book blew me away! Most books this size have at least one boring spot in them right,? or a place were they go on and on about nothing. But Robin Hobb made every word, every paragraph something to savour!The character developement in this book is the best i've seen yet, (except from Lord of the Rings, but even then i'm not to sure). Wintrow and his miserable situation was heartbreaking, but it was reality and thats what most Fantasy writers forget about. I know your thinking "well there's a magic ship and pirates involved in the plot, how realistic can it really be?" But those aspects just give this book some interesting details, yet give you situations that are enlightening and entirely life like. The good guys don't have pure hearts or any of that junk, but they do have very human motivations and ideas. PLEASE and i mean this sincerly!, read this book, its a page turner and will give you something to read on those warm summer nights, sitting on the deck listening to the crickets perform.
Rating: 
Summary: Annoying
Review: Read this book if you like it when every character behaves like a seven year old whining brat. There is absolutely no one to root for. The story goes on and on and nothing happens(except people complaining how miserable their life is). Save your time and money and read something else.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, One of My Favorites
Review: This was the first Robin Hobb book I read. What a great story. The characters and world were so three dimensional that they almost seemed real. Bingtown is alive with the stories of its inhabitants. Kennit and Althea are definitly strong characters, as is Vivacia. I recommend this novel to any dedicated reader of fantasy, or anyone who isn't familiar with the multitudes of fantasy writers available.
Rating:
Summary: BEST book almost EVER ~
Review: This book is brilliant. That was all I was gonna say but heck who cares? A friend recommended this book to me and I was reluctant to read it at first cos it was about ships on the open sea and I wasn't really into all that... BUT this book has totally converted me. It's absoloutly brilliant and you end up with a real connection to the characters. There are a few different bits to the plot and all twist and turn making you wonder what's gonna happen next. One of the best books I've ever read. Although the problems aren't resolved at the end of the book - I'd definetely recommend this book to anyone. READ IT and that's an order.
Rating:
Summary: For the extremely imaginative only !
Review: After reading The Farseer Trilogy which was very promising, I decided to take another chance with the author and try The Ship of Magic series. This first book is very silly. The concept of a liveship which speaks to it's occupants was intriguing but it loses it's appeal as the characters were very annoying, and the magic was very unsophisticated. I tried very hard to find some good in this novel but it falls short of anything spectacular. Only for the extreemely imaginative and open minded. If you have your feet planted firmly on the ground, this fantasy novel is not for you. Goodkind fans will find this novel a hard read. The Farseer trilogy is far better.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable sea-going fantasy
Review: I been a fan of Hobbs since I read her assasin series so I was thrilled that she was going back to her fabulous world but in a different area.This novel introduces us sentinent ships made by wizardwood,terrifying sea serpents and bloodthirsty pirates.Hobb's world-building skills are execellent as usual and her characters are fully described like charismatic but ruthless pirate named Kennit.Great start to a series.
Rating:
Summary: Enchantingly Captivating!
Review: Absolutely GREAT! Hobb has once again proved herself in this excellent work! Dragons and serpents are never the same as any you have seen in other fantasies as Hobb weaves an enchanting tale of the species. Like Assassins, Hobb's characters in the Liveship Traders are flawed, like any real life person. Brashen is undisciplined, rough and a cindin addict. Althea is headstrong, feministic, stubborn yet conservative in her values. Martha is selfish yet honorable in her loyalty to her family and father. I find myself loving and hating each of the characters in turn at some point in the story (both Ship of Magic and Mad Ship) because they are just so human. They are not goody good like "heroes" are supposed to be, not all bad either. Hobb captivates us in a story of very real, relatable characters trapped and turned by circumstance, something that modern authors don't do very often. I don't know about others but the last time I saw another author do the same was in Thomas Hardy's novels. Robin Hobb has created a niche of her own in the world of fantasy novels. A truly great, worthy read that you wouldn't want to put down for anything in the world.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: This book grabs you and flings you head first into the lives of brilliantly-written characters. The plot is intriguing and solid, no missing links or loose ends in sight. Before long, the coastline between Jamaillia City and Bingtown will be your world - as real as the town you live in. Completely intoxicating - I couldn't put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Compulsive reading-but a bit 'thick'
Review: Good points: SHIP OF MAGIC is superior to any of the Farseer Trilogy books for one main reason, it is not 1st person. This gives most of the characters more depth than in the Farseer Trilogy where everything was seen through the lens of FitzChivalry's perceptions. So, 'evil' and 'good' are less clear cut, and the characters are much more human. I believe you really do feel for these people simply because of their complusive ordinariness in the midst of their fantastic setting...and so you keep reading until you finish Bad points: I see now reason the book needed to be as long as it was. I think 500 pages would have been easy to manage, the plot is rather thin (another criticism) and the characterization was extremely good so you wouldn't lose much. On the plot, it doesn't get moving that much in this book. This IS NOT a stand alone book, and it suffers. Most of the loose ends are left hanging at the book, and what does get resolve is telegraphed by the blurb on the jacket of the book and the direction of the book. One disturbing trend as well in the 4 books I've read from this author (Farseer trilogy + SHIP OF MAGIC) is the petulence of her characters on occassion. I think she is trying to make a sublte nuanced point about the fact that her characters are not noble to the core, but regular people with good intentions. But I think Hobb does it just a little too much, and I found that I quite sympathized with one of the 'evil' characters, Kennit, more than the 'good' ones, simply due to the fact that he seems 'more the man' so to speak. I hope that Hobb adds a touch more nobility in the future...it's nice to have someone to cheer for Sum: I will probably end up giving the series 5 stars if this book is a judge, it just doesn't do as well when examined alone because it's missing a leg or two.
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