The opening novel of the Liveship Traders Trilogy introduces the Vestrit family of Bingtown and their liveship Vivacia - a ship built from wizardwood that awakens into sentience when enough family members die aboard her. Hobb shifts register considerably from the Farseer Trilogy, expanding her cast and moving from the intimate first-person of Fitz's narration to a multi-perspective structure that encompasses merchant families, pirates, enslaved people, and the sea serpents gathering in the coastal waters. The novel establishes Bingtown and the Rain Wilds as a distinct and richly realised society, and introduces Althea Vestrit, Malta Vestrit, and the pirate Kennit as major characters. Broader in scope than the Farseer books, it sacrifices some intimacy for a more politically complex portrait of a world in transition.