Althea Vestrit feels that the liveship is more than just a vessel Althea considers the Vivacia to be a living member of her family that she has bonded with for life. When the family patriarch dies upon the deck of the Vestrit liveship, the Vivacia, it quickens to life in the midst of a family power struggle. Their changing fortunes reflect those of all the other old trader families in Bingtown.
Talk of revolution is in the air, and it is against the backdrop of this tumultuous political maelstrom that the story of the Vestrit family is told. Pirating is becoming more prominent and more successful, sightings of the mysterious sea serpents are increasing, and slavery, though illegal in Bingtown, is flourishing. But a corrupt new ruler in Jamaillia is setting Bingtown's grants and privileges aside. Sailing on ships, made of wizardwood, which ripen into sentient awareness, the Traders helped Bingtown become a thriving city featuring exotic trade and robust traditions. In exchange for their bravery and the risks they took in taming the land, they were awarded grants and trade monopolies that helped them to rise into the merchant nobility class. The swashbuckling epic begins in Bingtown, where the oldest and most distinguished families were once hardy pioneers who braved the seas and settled the dangerous coast of Trader Bay to found a colony for the monarchy of Jamaillia. That the story takes place within a magical world where ships come to life, sea-serpents terrorize the oceans, and enchanted trinkets of a lost Elderling race are regularly discovered, makes the story more than compelling - it makes it an extraordinary high fantasy saga. Hearkening back to the political and environmental challenges faced by the founding fathers of the American Revolution, Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders series tells a story of family grit and emerging nationhood that would be compelling even if it were lifted out of its fantasy setting.
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