Her prose is vivid and colourful, but it’s clear that her talent truly shines when she’s deep inside a characters head, experiencing the world through their eyes. The opening of the novel, featuring pirate protagonist Captain Kennit traversing a beach full of curiosities, is an awkward affair as the reader adjusts to the change in Hobb’s writing style. His aunt, Althea, has spent years preparing for the quickening of the family Liveship, but fate deals her a tough blow and she is forced to rethink her life in another of the stronger narratives. His journey toward acceptance is a long and cruel one, but one of the plot highlights. Wintrow, one of the more engaging protagonists, is taken from his monastic home and forced into a life on the sea, a life that he has not prepared for. The interrelationships that shift and shape as the novel progresses are well handled by Hobb, such as the father-son dynamic between Wintrow Vestrit and his father, Kyle Haven. The viewpoints shift many times across a chapter, and though the characters are well-rounded and realistic, it can be difficult to empathise with them when they feel so distanced. Hobb’s talent at characterisation continues to shine though the novel suffers from a number of characters that are downright dislikeable, such as the criminally selfish Malta Vestrit and her weak-willed mother, Keffria. It’s longer, more expansive and features more characters to track. It’s a far more complicated story than the Farseers. Much of the plot revolves around the Vestrit family Liveship, Vivacia, who after a twist in events not long after her animation, is forced into the slave trade despite her youth and the Vestrit’s general aversion to the trade. It is said that “if a man can imagine a thing, he can buy it in Bingtown.” Even more interesting are the Liveships, ships with animated figureheads that quicken after three generations of the owning family die on deck. The story revolves around the southern city of Bingtown, renowned for its trade in rare and magical items. Differing from the Farseer Trilogy through a range of viewpoint characters, a third-person narrative and a whole new setting, it challenges many things that we thought we knew about Hobb’s carefully crafted world. Ship of Magic, the first instalment, was first published in 1998. Though it doesn’t have the same accessibility or emotional impact as Fitzchivalry’s story, it remains wonderfully plotted with plenty of deeply created characters. Miles (literally) away from the medieval workings of the Six Duchies, Hobb undertakes sea serpents, pirates, talking ships and a host of new mysteries in her nautical themed second trilogy. Credit goes to Robin Hobb for doing something new and challenging.

Ship of destiny by robin hobb