The Liveship Traders

by Robin Hobb

Set in the Bingtown Trader city and the Rain Wilds to the south, the Liveship Traders follows the Vestrit family and their living ship Vivacia across a story of pirates, slavery, sea serpents, and the awakening of something ancient in the Rain Wild River. Structurally and tonally distinct from the Farseer Trilogy - larger in cast, more politically complex, and centred on a world of commerce and family obligation rather than royal courts - it nonetheless deepens the universe's mythology considerably and introduces characters whose paths will eventually intersect with Fitz's own.

Part of Realm of the Elderlings

The Realm of the Elderlings is the creation of Robin Hobb, a secondary world fantasy universe built across five trilogies and a standalone novel published between 1995 and 2017. Set primarily in the Six Duchies, the Bingtown Trader coast, and the Rain Wilds, it is a universe defined less by its world-building than by the depth and honesty of its character work - Hobb's sustained examination of what it costs to live an exceptional life in a world that does not reward exceptionalism cleanly. Magic in this universe takes several forms - the Skill, a telepathic ability used by the Farseer royal line; the Wit, a bond between humans and animals regarded with suspicion and fear; and the mysterious transformative power of the Rain Wilds that shapes both its human inhabitants and the living ships of the Bingtown Traders. Dragons, Elderlings, and the ancient civilisation that preceded the current world provide a mythological depth that reveals itself gradually across the full sequence.

Publication Order

1
Ship of Magic
1998
2
The Mad Ship
1999
3
Ship of Destiny
2000