1. Ship of Magic

Gripping first instalment of a new series from the author of The Farseer Trilogy.Amazon.co.uk ReviewRobin Hobb; author of the Farseer trilogy; has returned to that world for a new series. Ship of Magic is a sea tale; reminiscent of Moby Dick and Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series in its details of shipboard life. It is also a fantasy adventure with sea serpents; pirates and all sorts of magic. The 'liveships' have distinct personalities and partner with specific people; somewhat like Anne McCaffrey's Brain ships and their Brawns; though these are trading ships and have full crews.

2. Ship of Destiny

The triumphant conclusion to the magnificent Liveship Traders 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.

3. The Mad Ship

The magic and mayhem continue in this thrilling second instalment of Hobb's new series. High heroic fantasy has rarely paid enough attention to ships and sailors; the lifeblood; after all; of trade and survival in a non-technological world. In her Liveship Traders series; Robin Hobb more than makes up for this with a sequence in which economic survival is the principal objective of the merchant family; the Vestrits; who provide most of her viewpoint characters. The Mad Ship takes up their adventures where Ship of Magic left off; with young would-be priest Wintrow the captive of the pirate Kennit and bonded to the living figurehead of the family ship Vivacia.