Ship of Magic

Ship of Magic
Robin Hobb

‘As addictive as morphine’ THE TIMESFrom the author of the classic Farseer trilogy, Ship of Magic begins an epic tale of pirates, sentient ships, magic, sea serpents, slave revolts, dashing heroes and bloody battles.On the northernmost point of the Cursed Shores lies Bingtown, a bustling hub of exotic trade and home to a proud merchant nobility famed for its extraordinary vessels.Only Bingtown liveships can negotiate the perilous waters of the Rain Wild River and plunder the riches found upstream, but such vessels are made from the most precious commodity in the world – a material with the ability to become sentient – and so are extremely rare.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. But the fate of Vivacia – and the Vestrits – may ultimately lie in the hands of the dark and charming pirate, Kennit, who lusts after such a ship and has plans of his own . . .

Ship of Magic

Book One of The Liveship Traders

Robin Hobb

Copyright (#ulink_b1fab006-7fa6-5fba-a155-b19cd493c135)

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

HarperVoyager An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by Voyager 1998

Copyright © Robin Hobb 1998

Cover Layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015. Illustrations © Jackie Morris. Calligraphy by Stephen Raw. Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com (http://www.shutterstock.com/) (background)

Robin Hobb asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content or written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in place at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780006498858

Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2011 ISBN: 9780007383467

Version: 2018-08-16

Contents

Title Page (#u57d0c2ea-93dd-5437-a947-56552d769f38)

Copyright (#ub362e9f6-0478-57c7-a1cd-b764f4fe6b02)

Map (#u8edf5397-5651-5708-92d0-8acc1edb6140)

Prologue (#u1914e857-6c7d-5138-a153-ee5b76816477)

1 - OF PRIESTS AND PIRATES (#ub638a33d-7d71-5c03-a10d-206df4447289)

2 - LIVESHIPS (#ub4787b31-f4fd-5ffc-8f7b-f54bfb6f9951)

3 - EPHRON VESTRIT (#uf7af45cb-12ea-5e9a-99a9-4d2c18fd4d74)

4 - DIVVYTOWN (#uc9fc8e44-3eee-5c90-828c-fbe42b7bed20)

5 - BINGTOWN (#u6ea77a89-a356-536d-a76a-e66ddd78dcb8)

6 - THE QUICKENING OF THE VIVACIA (#u9aa31a7a-6007-54f7-91ed-a7ae074994dc)

7 - LOYALTIES (#u4d174f86-d1d6-5c47-82ff-7cd971d11853)

8 - NIGHT CONVERSATIONS (#uc0cba695-965d-51f3-86af-b25d76f2005e)

9 - A CHANGE OF FORTUNES (#litres_trial_promo)

10 - CONFRONTATIONS (#litres_trial_promo)

11 - CONSEQUENCES AND REFLECTIONS (#litres_trial_promo)

12 - OF DERELICTS AND SLAVESHIPS (#litres_trial_promo)

13 - TRANSITIONS (#litres_trial_promo)

14 - FAMILY MATTERS (#litres_trial_promo)

15 - NEGOTIATIONS (#litres_trial_promo)

AUTUMN (#litres_trial_promo)

16 - NEW ROLES (#litres_trial_promo)

17 - KENNIT'S WHORE (#litres_trial_promo)

18 - MALTA (#litres_trial_promo)

19 - TESTIMONIES (#litres_trial_promo)

WINTER (#litres_trial_promo)

20 - CRIMPERS (#litres_trial_promo)

21 - VISITORS (#litres_trial_promo)

22 - PLOTS AND PERILS (#litres_trial_promo)

23 - JAMAILLIA SLAVERS (#litres_trial_promo)

24 - RAIN WILD TRADERS (#litres_trial_promo)