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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, Trafficking, Domestic abuse, Gore, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse
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: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug use, Grief, Misogyny, Slavery, Trafficking, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexism, Murder, Physical abuse, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide attempt, Torture, Abortion, Suicide, and Child death
Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, War, Excrement, and Fatphobia
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.kaziaroo's review
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: Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Gore, Slavery, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Trafficking, Violence, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Murder, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Excrement, Confinement, Vomit, Sexual content, and Rape
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: Grief, Emotional abuse, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Slavery
Moderate: Death of parent, Xenophobia, Child abuse, Blood, Abandonment, Bullying, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Trafficking
Minor: Abandonment, Toxic friendship, Rape, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Torture, and Sexual assault
natalie_davies's review against another edition
4.75
What with the web of names, places and plotlines to keep up with - not to mention the glacial pace - it took me a while to get into this. But I was rewarded with some of the best character work I've ever read! The "villains" are all really fun to hate, the underdogs (Especially Wintrow and Althea) are absolutely put upon, and even characters I found annoying (I'm looking at you Malta) got more interesting towards the end.
I'm really looking forward to picking up the next in the trilogy now, even though this one took me nearly a month to get through.
I'm really looking forward to picking up the next in the trilogy now, even though this one took me nearly a month to get through.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Violence, Drug use, Rape, Animal death, and Slavery
Moderate: Sexual content, Misogyny, and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Torture and Miscarriage
bluejay21's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Slavery
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Drug use
snowhite197's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Death of parent, Violence, and Slavery
tythebooknerd's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, and Slavery
Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, and Drug use
gladiolus17's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I listened to this on audiobook so sorry for any misspellings!
Writing style
Writing style
I could’ve done without the overt dialog tags, but other than that, no problems here.
Plot
Plot feels almost like a drama, each with their own character arc. I think the book blurb did the book a disservice, because the only arc that was completed was Kennet’s and Wintrow’s, which makes me feel like they are the main characters. The other characters’ arcs ended with a section foreshadowing the future with them. Because of this, I felt like Althea was overshadowed by Kennet and Wintrow.
Kyle was such an asshole and a believable villain. They say everyone is the hero of their own story, and I Kyle believed he was doing the right thing.
As well, I wasn’t sure why Althea and Brashen started having sex, maybe it was just animalistic passion? I didn’t feel any love or chemistry between them, so I felt this was a weak part of the story.
Characters
Captain Kennet.
My first impression was that he’s very toxically masculine, and has an interesting way of handling his crew by showing no weakness. I like his wrist charm, especially since he doesn’t ward magic, but just alerts Kennet to any danger. It’s also quite entertaining the way it makes jabs at Kennet.
After I read the scene with Etta and the sex workers, I thought he is such an asshole! And it’s because he’s depressed and needs to fill the void with his ambition!
Deep inside I feel like there’s a chance for him to be good, but it’s overshadowed by his depression and assholery.
Wintrow
My first impression was that he is a kinda passive character, but compelling in a quiet way. He does stand up for himself, which I like.
In the end he stole my heart. He finally became a man and figured out who he was.
Althea
I admire her ambition for becoming a sailor and was gripped by the way she stood up to Kyle. I was rooting for her to get back the Vivacia the whole time. I did feel like her arc paled against Wintrow’s, but I was happy to see her turn into the sailor she’s always dreamed of.
Molta
Although I understand her reasoning, I hate this little girl with a passion. Rotten to the core. I hoped she’d get better.
Liveships
I love each and every liveship, and, just like the other characters, was fascinated and fearful of them. I felt so sorry for the horrible things done to Vivacia and Paragon, and I was tickled with Ophelia and her personality.
Not sure if we needed the sea serpents’ POV, I would’ve rather it been explored in a successive novel.
Setting
I liked how the mention of the slave trade affected the locals with morals. They just can’t compete with free labor, and that’s why they’re having financial troubles. I never considered how hard it would be to be morally good in a capitalistic society when if you don’t accept slavery, your family will die.
Bingtown itself was such a mysterious place, along with their neighbors the Rainwilds.
Dialog
Wintrow’s dialog seems too old for him, but maybe that’s on purpose.
I adored all the liveships’ dialog. They’re all a little off-kilter and mysterious.
Intellectual value
I never read a book that explored slavery and the effects it had on people in this way, so my mind felt broadened and I enjoyed the ride this story gave me.
Personal enjoyment
I personally enjoy more compact books and I needed a little more tie up in the end to feel satisfied. I’d be okay with a few loose threads, but I feel there were too many with Amber, Paragon, Althea’s egg necklace, the sea serpents, and Brashen’s arc.
Overall, I was entertained because each character had a goal and reasoning behind what they wanted and were ambitious to get it. As well, the world in the story nearly never gave them what they wanted.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Slavery
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: Blood, Bullying, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Slavery
Moderate: Addiction, Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Drug use
Minor: Alcohol, Death, Excrement, Gore, Physical abuse, and Violence