When three generations of a ship's owners die on board, a liveship 'quickens', meaning that the ship awakens and becomes a sentient being with all the memories of the ancestors who have contributed to the ship's quickening. A liveship is a ship made of Wizardwood, a mystical substance, giving it magical properties. Ship of Magic is the first book of the Liveship Traders series and follows the fortunes of the Vestrit family. But greedy men have designs to restore him, to sail the waters of the Rain River once more. Now he lies, blind, lonely and broken on a deserted beach.

The Paragon, known by many as the Pariah, went mad, turned turtle, and drowned his crews. Only to discover that the Vivacia has been signed away in her father's will to her brutal brother-in-law, Kyle Haven. Althea waits for the ship that she loves more than anything to awaken. The liveship Vivacia is about to undergo her quickening, as Althea Vestrit's father is carried to her deck on his death-throes. Like many other legendary wares, in comes only from the Rain River Wilds.īut how can one trade with the Rain River Traders, when only a liveship, fashioned from wizardwood, can negotiate the perilous waters of the Rain Wild River? Rare and valuable, a liveship will quicken only when three family members, from successive generations, have died on board. The most precious commodity in the world. It is followed by The Mad Ship and Ship of Destiny. Ship of Magic is the first book of The Liveship Traders Trilogy.

Ship of magic