Ship of Magic

How it reads

Ship of Magic is fantasy (epic fantasy, specifically), and its dominant mood is adventurous. It's driven by momentum, discovery and getting into trouble. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in the wilderness or at sea, in no single period, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are family, power and politics and survival. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It opens a series. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. At 880 pages it's a real commitment. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.