Ship of Magic is a book by Robin Hobb, the first in her Liveship Traders Trilogy.

Editions

• A British English paperback edition was issued in London by Voyager/HarperCollins in 1998 with ISBN 000649885X. This edition's cover is illustrated by John Howe.

Plot

Wizardwood. A sentient wood.

The most precious commodity in the world.

Like many other legendary wares, it comes only from the Rain River Wilds.

But how can one trade with the Rain River Traders, when only a liveship, fashioned from wizardwood can negotiate the perilous waters of the Rain River? Rare and valuable, a liveship will quicken only when three family members, from successive generations, have died onboard. The liveship Vivacia is about to undergo her quickening, as Althea Vestrit's father is carried to her deck in his death-throes. Althea waits for the ship that she loves more than anything in the world to awaken. Only to discover that the Vivacia has been signed away in her father's will to her brutal brother-in-law, Kyle Haven...

Others plot to win, or steal, a liveship. The Paragon, known by many as the Pariah, went mad, turned turtle and drowned his crews. Now he lies, blind, lonely and broken in a deserted beach. But greedy men have designs to restore him, to sail the waters of the Rain River once more.