Ship of Magic

3.75 out of 5 stars – see this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

Ship of Magic sheds the traditional high fantasy habitat and fixed perspective employed by the Farseer trilogy to tell a seafaring tale with multiple points-of-view. Moving south from the Six Duchies, we're introduced to the Vestrit family, whose bloodline has been in possession of a Liveship, a sentient vessel who has recently awakened. Such an awakening is a great blessing for a trading family, but the Vestrit's can't anticipate the pirates, sea serpents, and family divisions that come alive, as well.

With the added flexibility of multiple POVs, Robin Hobb deposits her new characters across the map and deftly moves them about to do her bidding. There is no significant forward momentum towards the larger story arc, but each character's individual story was compelling enough to hold my interest. Most plot lines feel rich with potential, but I had hoped for a more complete story to take shape.

Something Hobb does especially well in this new territory is establishing legitimate threats to the characters across several levels. On a personal level (Jerk son-in-law Kyle Haven, Malta the brat), a regional level (the overindulgent Satrap, enterprising pirates), a physical level (pirates and conniving sea serpents), and an unknown level (the mystical Rain Wild river folk) – All combine to form a daunting maze for our heroes to navigate. This was a good start to the trilogy and I suspect the next two installments will build on the foundation that Ship of Magic establishes.

I jumped into this book after finishing the Farseer trilogy. Like that series, Hobb takes her time to set things up. I felt this book started a bit slower than [b:Assassin's Apprentice 45107 Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, #1) Robin Hobb http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320339497s/45107.jpg 171715], but like that book, once it really got going, it was hard to put down.This book uses 3rd person, with multiple perspectives compared to the single first person perspective of Farseer. With all that was going on, I think the change of style was warranted.Hobb introduced an interesting ensemble of characters. The likable characters took me a while to warm up to. However, the unlikable characters of Kyle and his ignorant and arrogant daughter Marta had me screaming at my book. I think that's a great sign of how well she was written. Kennit provides an interesting villain so far.So far there is little connection to the first trilogy, though I have my suspicions about some things that will tie in to the Fool as this trilogy unfolds.Unlike [b:Assassin's Apprentice 45107 Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy, #1) Robin Hobb http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320339497s/45107.jpg 171715], this book's ending left me unfulfilled. I think it was certainly written with the intention of a trilogy. It reached a good stopping point, but nothing was resolved. I feel like should could have easily tacked on “To Be Continued...“Overall I'd say if you like Farseer trilogy, this will be worth your time, before moving on to Tawny man.I'm eagerly looking forward to the next two books, but taking a short break for some other reading.