Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
Wizardwood, the most precious commodity in the world, comes only from the Rain Wilds. But only a liveship can negotiate the perilous waters of the Rain Wild River, and liveships are hard to come by. They quicken only when three family members from successive generations have died upon their deck. The liveship Vivacia is about to undergo her quickening: Althea Vestrit waits for the ship that she loves more than anything in the world to awaken. But her dream of taking her father’s place at Vivacia’s helm is not to be, for her family have other plans. And the dark, charming pirate Kennit also lusts after such a ship; he well knows the power of wizardwood and has plans of his own.
I’ve had this book on my TBR pile for years, after finally finishing – and falling in love with – the nine books in Robin Hobb’s Farseer series. For some reason, every time I picked up Ship of Magic I couldn’t get past the first couple of chapters. But I thought what better time than an actual lockdown to get stuck into this nearly 900 page tome? All this free time gave me the push I needed to finish Ship of Magic.
And I loved it. I love the world Hobb has created, I love the cast of characters, the descriptive writing, the action and adventure, the humour, the magic and the family dynamics.
There are lots of different characters in this story and each one is given a depth of characterisation that makes them leap from the page. From cunning pirates to priests-in-training searching for god, from teenage girls caught in their family’s machinations to a newly quickened liveship struggling to adapt to her awakening, there is so much to enjoy here and so much potential for development in the next two books of the series.
This is a very character-driven story, so the plot does move at a slow pace. But Hobb does something that few fantasy authors dare to try. Too often in fantasy fiction the characters come up with a plan, go through with that plan, and it either goes perfectly or they are saved by a magical wizard/object/spell. But in Ship of Magic the characters’ plans almost always go wrong, and as such they have to think on their feet to adapt to their changing circumstances. It also means that you never know what’s going to happen next.
There’s lots of introspection but also plenty of action, with ships battling on stormy seas and fist fights in dim portside taverns. No one thread of the plot is allowed to overtake the others, meaning they each get an equal amount of attention and you are given equal time to get to know the characters in each thread.
This is the kind of escapist fiction that transports you to a completely different place and makes you reluctant even to look up from the page. Highly recommended for fantasy lovers.
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