Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5954 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 912 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Robin Hobb's books combine heroic adventures by land and sea with a passionate urgency about the morality which underlies her character's deeds. Ship of Destiny, the third in The Liveship Traders trilogy, involves us further with the efforts of the Vestrit family to reclaim the fortunes which war and piracy have cost them, raising interesting questions about the sources of even an attractive family's wealth. It is clear that the liveships Vivacia and Paragon were carved from husks which should have hatched dragons; that the attractive personalities of the figureheads are only pale shadows of the autonomous beings they might have been. Malta Vestrit has freed the last of the real dragons from an underground prison, and he is not especially grateful. The slave-liberating pirate Kennit, one of Hobb's richest creations, is ever more drawn to the darker side of his flawed nature in an attempt to hide from the secrets of his past.

This is one of the most satisfying heroic fantasies of recent years, simply because it is about difficult choices and complex emotions, while Hobb's tight plotting and fast-moving storytelling are fascinating in their own right.--Roz Kaveney

Amazon.co.uk Review
Robin Hobb's books combine heroic adventures by land and sea with a passionate urgency about the morality which underlies her character's deeds. Ship of Destiny the third of the Liveship Trilogy, involves us further with the efforts of the Vestrit family to reclaim the fortunes which war and piracy have cost them, and raises interesting questions about the sources of even an attractive family's wealth. It is clear that the live ships Vivacia and Paragon were carved from husks which should have hatched dragons, that the attractive personalities of the figureheads are only pale shadows of the autonomous beings they might have been. Malta has freed the last of the real dragons from an underground prison, and he is not especially grateful. And the slave-liberating pirate Kennit, one of Hobb's richest creations, is ever more drawn to the darker side of his flawed nature in an attempt to hide from the secrets of his past. This is one of the most satisfying heroic fantasies of recent years, simply because it is about difficult choices and complex emotions. Hobb's tight plotting and fast-moving story-telling are fascinating in their own right, but are all the more so because they are actually about something. --Roz Kaveney

Synopsis
The triumphant conclusion to the magnificent Liveship Traders series. The dragon, Tintaglia, has been released from her wizardwood coffin, only to find that the glories of her kingdom have passed into ancient memory. Meanwhile, Malta Vestrit navigates the acid flow of the Rain Wild River in a decomposing boat, accompanied by the Satrap Cosgo and his Companion Kekki. Against hope, a ship appears in the alien waters, but does it mean rescue, or a further nightmare, for Malta? In ruined Bingtown, the citizens are at war, against the Chalcedean mercenaries besieging the harbour, and also among themselves. If the city is to survive, Ronica Vestrit must unite all its peoples -- both Trader and Tattooed -- and liberate the city once and for all; but Companion Serilla has a different agenda, and is seeking to establish her own power base. Althea and Brashen are finally at sea together, sailing the liveship Paragon into pirate waters in a last-ditch effort to rescue the Vestrit family liveship, Vivacia, stolen by the Pirate king, Kennit; but there is mutiny brewing in their rag-tag crew; and in the mind of the mad ship itself!Wintrow has liberated She Who Remembers and she can at last fulfil her ancient purpose, but in doing so he has been terribly injured.

If Wintrow dies, Kennit fears that Vivacia will lose her fragile sanity: a loss that will also threaten his dreams of power and glory. So he strikes a deal with the ship. And soon the waters around the Vivacia are seething with giant serpents, following the liveship as it sails to its destiny. Majestic and sweeping, Ship of Destiny concludes the tale of the Vestrit family and their part in the history of The Liveship Traders with a soaring and triumphant finale to this unique series of epic fantasy.

Customer Reviews

Pirates, liveships, dragons
Robin Hobb is one of the fantasy genre's Good Guys. She may not be doing anything vastly original or profound - but, man, she does it so well. For pure entertainment, there's none better: intricate plotting, knife-edge tension, a sense of place so real you can smell it, and emotional engagement in spades with characters well worth caring about. I haven't turned 900 more enjoyable pages since ... (you can see this one coming, can't you?) the previous instalment.

The setting, slightly outside the normal run of high fantasy, is clearly inspired by colonial America. The pioneer Trader families have prospered for several generations in the bustling entrepot of Bingtown, thanks in large part to commerce undertaken with the Liveships - magical, self-aware vessels built of a particular wood only found upriver from Bingtown, crafted for the Traders by their mysterious kin who live there. But theirs is, naturally, a precarious existence in a frontier land. They are dependent upon trade for much of their food and other supplies, and remain politically subordinate to their former homeland; the society that has developed in response to the challenges is a deeply conservative one; and there are other opportunists who desire the same chance at making their fortune, who are willing to use slave labour to get it.

The concerns, then, are familiar ones; this is all about a society in the painful throes of transition, forced to confront issues of privilege, hierarchy, and access to power. This is played out in a number of ways, one of the most pointed and nuanced being the status of women, as expressed through a diverse range of major characters. There is Althea, who dreams of captaining her family's new Liveship, but finds herself out in the cold when the inheritance goes to her brother-in-law, the new man of the house; her sister Keffria, torn between being a good Trader wife and the desire to protect her children; her mother Ronica, struggling with the loss of status brought on by widowhood; Etta, a former whore who finds a whole new world opening up to her as she learns to read; and many others. All of them are beautifully-drawn, fully-rounded individuals, filled with dreams but mired in mistakes; they are individuals with their own compelling stories who each embody a facet of who women are and can become in this world.

Leaving aside the specifics of the plot, the third and final volume is a more than worthy conclusion to a complex, magical, multi-layered saga - and confirms again my belief that nothing can quite make my heart and my imagination soar like well-written fantasy!

Butterfly or Dragon!!
Robin Hobb seems to take the characters within her books and breath life into them making them seem as if they are in the room with you while reading, as opposed to just words on a page. This trend flows through all three books, although at times I wanted her to stop telling the story of one character and move to another as I wanted to know what had been happening to them, we all have our favourites!!

The multiple storylines that began with the first book are brought together in the final few pages of this, which does lead to some frantic reading. I only hope we are to see the return of these characters in future books as I felt that their possible futures were dangled tantilising before me. What of the dragons??

The comedy that is written within these books will bring a smirk to your face, this element of fantasy fiction is often forgotten as I am sure comedy exists everywhere, including the unforgiving seas of the Pirate Isles.

Great epic, I will never look at a snake the same way again.

Fantasy Rocks!
I have to say, Robin Hobb is a genius. Just like the Farseer Trilogy, I soon became enchanted with the Liveship Traders Trilogy and I read the books in a record time for me, I just couldn't put them down.

Robin Hobb is highly intelligent and I think this is illustrated in how there are many 'Main' characters and the way their lives intertwine together.
I loved all the characters, even the spoilt and selfish Malta, who soon won my heart.

The Ship of Destiny concludes this inspiring Trilogy, and brings all the snipets of information Hobb has cunningly delivered to their purposes. We learn more and more about the 'Realm of the Elerings' and of the 'Truth' Behind the Wizardwood ships. It's not just the characters who won my heart, but also the misunderstood Pirah Paragon and the confused Vivacia who show they are as intelligant and have just as many feeling as their human counterparts.

Within this book we learn the Tragedy of Kennit's past, Althea's and Brashens future as well as Malta's, Wintrow's and Little Seldens.

Anyone who enjoyed these books, I would strongly recomend Buying Leagends 2, this has a short story by Hobb, in which we learn more of the history of the mysterious Rain Wild Traders.
Enjoy !