Ship Of Magic. Book One, The Liveship Traders

'As addictive as morphine' THE TIMES From the author of the classic Farseer trilogy, SHIP OF MAGIC is the first part of the Liveship Traders. Set in a land bordering the Six Duchies, Robin Hobb begins her epic tale of pirates, talking ships, magic, sea serpents, slave revolts, dashing heroes and bloody battles. On the northernmost point of the Cursed Shores lies Bingtown, a bustling hub of exotic trade and home to a proud merchant nobility famed for its extraordinary vessels. Only Bingtown liveships can negotiate the perilous waters of the Rain Wild River and plunder the riches found upstream, but such vessels are made from the most precious commodity in the world - a material with the ability to become sentient - and so are extremely rare. The fortunes of one of Bingtown's oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia.
For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy. But the fate of Vivacia - and the Vestrits - may ultimately lie in the hands of the dark and charming pirate, Kennit, who lusts after such a ship and has plans of his own .