Promotional Information

The magic and mayhem continue in this thrilling second instalment of Hobb's new series. / Second title in the new series from the bestselling author of the Farseer Trilogy / The Farseer Trilogy is selling strongly, with well over 50k for each pb title / Major lead title for Voyager with national advertising campaign, full-scale POS and internet features / Advertising nationwide in women's and genre magazines / Published simultaneously with the hardback of Ship of Destiny / Competition: J V Jones, Maggie Furey, Anne McCaffrey, Tad Williams

About the Author

Robin Hobb was born in California in 1952 and majored in Communications at Denver University, Colorado. Assassin’s Apprentice was her first novel, and was followed by the equally successful Royal Assassin and Assassin’s Quest. She lives outside Seattle, Washington.

Robin Hobb is the author of the Farseer Trilogy, the Liveship Traders Trilogy, the Tawny Man Trilogy, the Soldier Son Trilogy, and the Rain Wilds Chronicles. She has also written as Megan Lindholm. She is a native of Washington State.

Reviews

'Hobb is one of the great modern fantasy writers! what makes her novels as addictive as morphine is not just their imaginative brilliance but the way her characters are compromised and manipulated by politics.' The Times Assassin's Apprentice: 'A gleaming debut' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY Assassin's Quest: 'Assassin's Quest achieves a bittersweet, powerful complexity rare in fantasy' LOCUS 'Robin Hobb writes achingly well' SFX Praise for The Liveship Traders series: 'Even better than the Assassin books. I didn't think that was possible' George R R Martin 'Hobb is a remarkable storyteller.' Guardian.

The second book (after Ship of Magic) in Hobbs's Liveship Traders trilogy solidifies the series's promise as a major work of high fantasy, reading like a cross between Tolkein and Patrick O'Brian. Protagonist Althea Vestrit is neither unrealistically beautiful nor mindlessly dauntless. She is a very human character who has her share of doubts as she undertakes to assemble a motley crew of allies (including her former lover, Brashen Trell) to take the blind, insane liveship Paragone to sea in search of the Vestrit family's liveship Vivacia. Meanwhile, Vivacia is enjoying a prosperous career as the flagship of pirate Captain Kennit. In spite of his peg leg, Kennit is a charismatic leader, with a genius for manipulation that his mistress Etta and his prisoner Wintrow Vestrit (Althea's nephew) seem ready to mistake for virtue. And in Bingtown, Wintrow's bratty sister, Malta, finally starts growing up when her family and town face ruin and she must take refuge in the Rain Wild forests. This second installment in the trilogy reveals the connections among liveships, the wizardwood used to build them, the sea serpents and the legendary Rain dragons. Apart from an overly long subplot concerning the feckless young Satrap, the novel is tightly written, with few passages not devoted to characterization, world building or action. Again, Hobb gives high fantasy a salty nautical spin that will please a great many readers. (Apr.) FYI: Robin Hobb is a pseudonym for Megan Lindholm.

Praise for Robin Hobb and the Liveship Traders Trilogy "Fantasy as it ought to be written . . . Robin Hobb's books are diamonds in a sea of zircons."--George R. R. Martin "A truly extraordinary saga . . . The characterizations are consistently superb, and [Hobb] animates everything with love for and knowledge of the sea."--Booklist "A major work of high fantasy, reading like a cross between Tolkien and Patrick O'Brian . . . one of the finest fantasy sagas to bridge the millennium."--Publishers Weekly "Rich, complex . . . [Hobb's] plotting is complex but tightly controlled, and her descriptive powers match her excellent visual imagination. But her chief virtue is that she delineates character extremely well."--Interzone