Hobb-A-Long Read-A-Long discussion

Not much happening in this section except setting up what everyone will be doing in the seasons to come (autumn and winter).

I'm pretty sure Kennit is going to encounter and try to capture the Vivacia at some point in the travel with the slaves aboard, as it would be a 2 for 1, a live ship which is what Kennit wants and a slaver which is what Sorcor wants, and Althea is gonna have a different problem on her hands then or maybe it works out for her and she will try and steal it back somehow. They could try and sail the Paragon, but I'm not sure if they will do it to recapture the Vivacia or Kennit will sail it, which I doubt since he wants to steal the live ship to rally everyone to his side, so sailing the Paragon wouldn't be a feat.

Kennit captured a slaver's vessel and became the hero of the town without intending to, he will still be a villain but somehow I think his means will be cleaner than I anticipated (or he anticipated).

We start to see that Kyle doesn't respect anyone, not even his own wife, he will do whatever he wants because he's the man, with the excuse that he wants his wife to have a peaceful and comfortable life, free of stress from running the family finances, he maintains control over everyone, Ronica realized this only too late to do anything about it as Kyle has her under his rule also.

There's new people settling in Bingtown and getting a hold on more land, soon they will take over the council and make slavery legal, and I think this is Davad's goal, so they can salvage whatever lands they have and make them profitable again, and I think Kyle is the key to make this a reality, if Davad can convince Keffria to yield her vote to Kyle, Davad would have knocked out most slavery opposers on the council.

Like I said before, I think Davad knew that Ephron couldn't be convinced and deleted him from the picture, maybe Kyle knew of his plan, maybe not, still it's a win-win for both Davad can get slaves to work his lands and make them profitable, Kyle gets his own lands and live-ship and would be the main/biggest slave trader in Bingtown.

Also Chalced states are threatening Bingtown, it sounds like war wasn't the answer and they are doing a silent coup d'etat to turn Bingtwon in Chalced 2.0

I really don't understand what happened in Keffria's birth of her 3rd offspring?

Althea is just running around confirming with everyone that Kyle said that is a captain would vouch for her he will give her the Vivacia, she needs to pull her head out of her ass it ain't gonna happen.

Samantha said to keep our eyes peeled for details on Amber so:
Observations on amber:
1. She wants to guide Althea on her fate
2. Shes not from Bingtown
3. She is a master wood worker/carver
4. She has honey skin and golden eyes

Abner wrote: "Not much happening in this section except setting up what everyone will be doing in the seasons to come (autumn and winter).

I'm pretty sure Kennit is going to encounter and try to capture the Viv..."

About Keffria's third pregnancy: back in Ch.3 (pg.75 in my edition) , Ronica refers to the early troubles of the pioneering Bingtown Traders and speaks of"diseases unknown before" and " the doom that half our children are born not quite human" although I'm not sure that "half" is supposed to be taken as literal or is just an exaggeration, given the instances she recounts.

Then she talks about how pregnant women generally don't know if they will give birth to a child, or "if it's a malformed monster that her husband must strangle with his own hands". That is likely what happened with Keffria's birthing, excepting that with Kyle at sea at the time, Ephron must have destroyed the mutated creature.

John wrote: "Ronica refers to the early troubles of the pioneering Bingtown Traders and speaks of"diseases unknown before" and " the doom that half our children are born not quite human"

Exactly my thoughts. It will be interesting if the cause gets explained later, maybe some sort of magic imbalance, disease, maybe a biological weapon used against Bingtown? IDK it was an interesting tidbit.

One of the threads running through Ship of Magic is the sense of rejection and alienation the youthful characters have with their families.

Althea, after the disappointment of losing access to the Vivacia, has struck out on her own, and is now unemployed and homeless.

Brashen, who was ostracized and disowned by his own family before the events of this book, is in the same predicament as Althea.

Wintrow feels completely alienated from his father, and only serves on his ship out of bitter coercion.

When you think about it, even the old mad ship Paragon counts as an alienated youth because his quickening process incorporated the young cabin boy/son of the family that owned him, and Paragon has subsumed this child's personality into his own( this is why when he is upset, Paragon easily falls into childish tantrums); but now that family has completely rejected him because of the atrocities against the family and others that he has been attached blame for committing.

You can feel the sense of common loneliness in the conversations Althea and Brashen have with Paragon( particularly the one Brashen has, which has sort of a Thornton Wilder's "Ourtown" quality to it ).

We have seen this notion of youth being rejected and alienated before, with Fitz in the Farseers Trilogy, first by his never having the acknowledgement of his father, and in fact being abandoned by him; then being given away by his mother's family. So trust, alienation and rejection issues of children seem to resonate in the author's work.

I think that Ronica and Keffria tend to be compliant and orderly people by nature, and this has put them at a considerable disadvantage when confronted by situations and people who are competitive by nature or have the advantage over them in some way.

Keffria is dominated by Kyle's forceful personality, and she's seems incapable of resisting his initiative to take Wintrow to sea with him, or getting Kyle to side with her as a united parental front in disciplining Malta; to say nothing of stopping Kyle from outfitting the ship to be a slaver. Maybe if she can get away from Kyle's sphere of influence she might begin to think and act for herself independently, but by the time Kyle returns from the next voyage, all the disagreeable things she wanted to prevent will have taken place.

Ronica is in an awkward position hosting her creditor Caolwn Festrew, with whom the Vestrits are indebted for the liveship; and she is short on the payment installment.

After offering Festrew an additional interest payment to compensate for this shortfall of funds, she is countered with a retort( politely delivered) that " blood for gold" is the appropriate legal remedy here( clearly Festrew has her eyes on obtaining either Althea or Malta as a marriageable woman back to her Rain Wild Trader family).

As a naturally cooperative, non-competitive person, unused to such a hardball negotiating tactic, Ronica becomes "rattled", and ends up giving Festrew eight times the interest payment she had originally offered, and reiterated that the most obscene stipulation of the contract negotiated by her great grandmother-in-law: the tendering of a Vestrit offspring if the payment could not be met; would be honored.

And Festrew couldn't get her hot little hand out fast enough to shake on it!

So intent was Ronica on getting an "honorable" conclusion to an uncomfortable meeting that she made a terrible bargain( although I believe, based on what she is thinking earlier regarding" sacrificing her honor" that she has no intention of giving up one of her children or grandchildren to effective slavery in order to honor a contract)!

Of course, it has to be said that Ronica is perfectly correct in thinking that had Kyle negotiated with Festrew instead of her, his natural combativeness might have made things a lot worse!

The question of whether Kyle's oath is legally binding, and that Althea can claim the ship if she can get a captain to vouch for her seamanship may turn on who decides the case.

Originally I had thought that as Kyle was in an informal setting when he made the oath, and was in a fit of anger when he said it, it wouldn't meet a standard of legitimacy in most real world settings, or in legal theory generally. Additionally, although Keffria has ceded control of the ship to Kyle, she is still the owner, and can't be compelled to honor his oath, as the ship is not his to barter.

However this case is not going to be tried in front of an impartial jury, but a "conservative" Bingtown Trader's Council, that is frankly a political body that has a strong bias in that political climate against anything that may support aims of the Chalced States or slavery, which is illegal in Bingtown.

Kyle is both of Chalcedean origin and an advocate for legalizing slavery( and in fact is turning the liveship into a slaver), so the council would be highly motivated to rule in favor of Althea, who is of an old Bingtown Trader family.

What I find really interesting about this setting so far is that we have a fairly typical setting of the Old Families and the New People at loggerheads with each other, but in this case we are supposed to be rooting for the old Trader families (when considering that the new traders want to do things like legalize the slave trade).

I'm just glad that Keffria realized how bad a person Kyle is and how she still has power despite his overbearing personality. I'm also really coming to like Wintrow, but I hope he can realize that the lessons he learned in the monastery don't always apply to the real world.

Additionally, I can't get over how Kennit accidentally made himself a hero, what a wonderful twist of fate and (his) luck!

I love Kennit he is an unapologetic evil character and hei luck really is amazing :D

I wonder if Keffira would be able to take the ship away from Kyle again. It is her's by right so she could technically make anyone her Captain. Everybod finally notices what a horrible person Kyle is bit I am still really frustrated because nobody can do anything about him.
The Rain Wild Woman was so interesting. I want to know more abaut that whole story.

Overall I started liking most of the characters a bit more:)

Sarah wrote: "I love Kennit he is an unapologetic evil character and hei luck really is amazing :D

I wonder if Keffira would be able to take the ship away from Kyle again. It is her's by right so she could tech..."

I really hope Keffria could take her inheritance back but Ronica has made me wonder. When she told Keffria she could give her vote on the council to Kyle, but that she couldn't take it back once given, that might be the law for all inheritances as well.

Samantha wrote: "Michelle wrote: "What I find really interesting about this setting so far is that we have a fairly typical setting of the Old Families and the New People at loggerheads with each other, but in this..."
Exactly! It just seems like the real societal conflict is between the Old Families and the new folk from Jamaillia. It doesn't seem like there's any bad blood between the Three Ships families and the Traders, which is another interesting worldbuilding fact!

I'm really interested to see how Vivacia changes and is influenced by all the hostilities and soon to be slaves on-board her. I've grown to like Wintrow a lot more and really feel for him being at Kyle's mercy.
I wonder if Brashen and Althea will sail on paragon? I would like to find out more about Paragon and what happened to him.