Ship of Magic

The Liveship Traders, Book 1

By: Robin Hobb

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

Length: 35 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Bingtown is a hub of exotic trade and home to a merchant nobility famed for its liveships---rare vessels carved from wizardwood, which ripens magically into sentient awareness. The fortunes of one of Bingtown's oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia. For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy unjustly denied her---a legacy she will risk anything to reclaim.

For Althea's young nephew Wintrow, wrenched from his religious studies and forced to serve aboard ship, Vivacia is a life sentence. But the fate of the Vestrit family---and the ship---may ultimately lie in the hands of an outsider. The ruthless pirate Kennit seeks a way to seize power over all the denizens of the Pirate Isles...and the first step of his plan requires him to capture his own liveship and bend it to his will.

©1999 Robin Hobb (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

“The characterizations are consistently superb.... Kudos to the author and encore!” ( Booklist, Starred Review)

Horrible Narrator

I normally love Robin Hobb books, but this is by far the worst narrator I've ever listened to. I'd only make it 3-4 sentences before I'd be spacing out. I've started and given up on this book about 10 times... She draws out her words, speaks with NO emotion, completely monotone. This is definitely a book to read not listen to.

Very enjoyable

I loved this book when I read it years ago and I love it now. I am looking forward to hearing the rest of the trilogy. I'll just have to satisfy my self with listening to her other selections offered here. I really like the narrator. Her voice is lovely.

Enjoyable story...but

If I'd known it was going to end so abruptly, I would have waited to see the rest BEFORE downloading. Also, I disliked the 'purrrrr' of the narrator. It was unnecessary and annoying. Hopefully the next parts will have a different narrator. I WILL continue with the story because it is a good one apart from these points.

Overly Long

There seems to be a notion among current fantasy writers that as long as it is well written, longer is better. There were times as I was reading this that I was thinking, can’t we just get on with it? Now Hobb isn’t as bad as Martin who had one whole book that didn’t really move the story, but there were just times. Example, was it necessary for bratty girl Malta to do three thing to encourage the Rain Wild trader? And it took her forever to get the inappropriate dress made. This author does go for the overkill. And as I think of it, why would they then take the child to a big meeting without keeping a tight leash on her with a chaperone? And would you just giver to the Rain Wild people already? Or beat, or something? She’s annoying!

Don’t get me wrong, she is a skilled writer. I like her world building. But perhaps keeping four stories going at the same time was a bit much to keep up with

And do all her main characters have to through sooo manyyyy trials? One book series seriously in need of some comic relief, and a forceful editor.

I did rate the narration down because of her style of constantly drawing out the last word of the sentence, and the seasawish reading style. It just seemed, strange. Reminded me of some real old fashioned performers. Overdone.

I am going to read the next one. But I hope it is faster paced!

Entertaining, but maybe too wordy?

I enjoyed the story but perhaps the author has a Stephen king-esque attention detail, that is writing more than needs to be written to describe the scene perfectly too perfectly. The narration is good however there's no pause between changes in the characters narratives so they run together. She need to take a breath or two for talking about the next character Arc.

Great Story, Grating Performance

As always, great story and writing by Robin Hobb. Unfortunately, the narrator has a horrible habit of drawing out the pronunciation of random words in a way that begins to irritate very quickly and only deepens during the course of the book.

Good story, distracting narration.

What aspect of Anne Flosnik’s performance would you have changed?

The irritatingly drawn out vowels at the ends of sentences. "He watched heeeeeerrrrrrrrr." So distracting.

Any additional comments?

A good story, well written. I particularly like the element of live ships and wizard wood. I look forward to reading the rest in the series to find out about the serpent/dragon element.

Great story, narrator is good at 1.3x speed

Excellent story. Narration greatly improves at accelerated listening speeds. I started at 1.15x and eventually got to 1.3x, and will probably go faster in the next two books. Can't wait to listen to them.

Great story.... but

I love this world and stories. For me it took me half the book to get used to the reader. Trying to do different voices didn't work for me and to me her cadence was to methodical but in second half I didn't notice it... but the story was great

The story is good, the characters better. G.I.A.L.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

It needed a male narrator for some of the parts.

What did you like best about this story?

The action is evenly mixed between dialog, and the characters adventures.

What didn’t you like about Anne Flosnik’s performance?

She did an excellent job on the female parts.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

I do not think so. I would rent it, if I felt it was going to have good Cinematography, and I believable cast.

Any additional comments?

The action is evenly mixed between dialog, and the characters adventures. The characters are well developed, interesting, and introduced in all the right places. What I like most about the story is the characters are unpredictable but always consistently true to their character.