Kennit, a pirate captain with aspirations to kingship, visits an island to receive a prophecy. Fleeing captivityĪfter Althea leaves Bingtown, Kyle has the ship fitted out to be a slaveship, breaking all convention and causing great suffering to the ship who is now alive. Althea’s goal is to prove her worth so she can reclaim the Vivacia. Althea flees the family home with nothing but the clothes on her back and what’s in her pockets.Īmber, a wood carver with powers of prophecy, befriends Althea and helps her procure clothing so she can ship out as a teenage boy on another vessel. Kyle’s abuse alienates Althea his intent to control her in the future causes a family rift.

Instead of allowing Althea to inherit, her mother has connived against Althea because she believes Althea should behave like a ‘respectable (new) Bingtown woman’ and be married, live on shore and share Rona’s hardships instead of having the life she loves. The Vivacia returns to Bingtown just in time for Ephron to die on the Vivacia‘s deck, bringing her to life. She expects to inherit Vivacia upon her father’s death but, for the Vivacia‘s last trip, her father stays at home, ill, while her sister’s husband, Kyle Haven, captains the ship. Ephron took Althea to sea with him, teaching her how to run the business and how to captain a ship. (There’s no mention of the 1950s solution: Valium.)Īlthea rebels, her heart being with her father, Ephron, and their ship, the Vivacia. Although Bingtown women used to be equals, newfound wealth of the town coupled with Jamailian constructs of gender and wealth (Jamailia being the capital of the empire to which they defer), women are becoming part Victorian-era, part 1950s-era bits of fluff who ‘do not work’. She defies the relatively new conventions of women staying at home, removing themselves from business and not sailing. In the beginning…Īlthea Vestrit is the younger daughter of Bingtown Liveship Traders. The books are a dim memory after the past 2 years of hell. With uni, disability discrimination and assaults, this review of the Liveship Traders Trilogy was forgotten until now. I wrote this review in 2016 and left it in drafts.

Robin hobb liveship traders