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A review by deedireads
The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
The Bone Shard War is a good conclusion to a pretty strong epic fantasy trilogy, although it felt a bit too drawn out to blow me away. Still, I recommend the series overall!
For you if: You like fantasy books set in fully fleshed-out worlds with multiple POV characters.
FULL REVIEW:
The Bone Shard War is the third book in the Drowning Empire trilogy, which starts with The Bone Shard Daughter and The Bone Shard Emperor. I’m going to do my best here to write a review without spoilers, so this will really be more of a review of the trilogy overall.
The Drowning Empire is an epic fantasy series, with a world that resembles but doesn’t belong to ours and a cast of characters with POVs. The main character is Lin, daughter of the Emperor, who practices what’s called bone shard magic (carved pieces of bone can be used to animate and control “constructs”). The second character is Jovis, a smuggler who witnesses one of the Empire’s islands sink into the sea. And third we have Sand/Nisong, a woman on a remote island with no memories.
This third book picks up two years after the end of the second, which in execution was a little disappointing for me. All the tension at the end of book two was popped, the characters almost reset. Then we spend a lot longer than I would have liked with Lin and Jovis (and, for that matter, Jovis and his companion Mephi) separated from one another. So I felt like I spent a lot of this book just waiting for that to get resolved, and that made it drag a bit. I also thought our two villains became less interesting, though for different reasons. In fact, I was pretty actively disappointed in Nisong’s arc.
But enough of the not-so-good! I still landed on the side of liking the book overall, and I recommend this trilogy if epic fantasy is your thing. The world is lush and inventive, the magic system is unique and interesting, the central mystery is compelling, and the characters are lovable. No regrets!
TL;DR REVIEW:
The Bone Shard War is a good conclusion to a pretty strong epic fantasy trilogy, although it felt a bit too drawn out to blow me away. Still, I recommend the series overall!
For you if: You like fantasy books set in fully fleshed-out worlds with multiple POV characters.
FULL REVIEW:
The Bone Shard War is the third book in the Drowning Empire trilogy, which starts with The Bone Shard Daughter and The Bone Shard Emperor. I’m going to do my best here to write a review without spoilers, so this will really be more of a review of the trilogy overall.
The Drowning Empire is an epic fantasy series, with a world that resembles but doesn’t belong to ours and a cast of characters with POVs. The main character is Lin, daughter of the Emperor, who practices what’s called bone shard magic (carved pieces of bone can be used to animate and control “constructs”). The second character is Jovis, a smuggler who witnesses one of the Empire’s islands sink into the sea. And third we have Sand/Nisong, a woman on a remote island with no memories.
This third book picks up two years after the end of the second, which in execution was a little disappointing for me. All the tension at the end of book two was popped, the characters almost reset. Then we spend a lot longer than I would have liked with Lin and Jovis (and, for that matter, Jovis and his companion Mephi) separated from one another. So I felt like I spent a lot of this book just waiting for that to get resolved, and that made it drag a bit. I also thought our two villains became less interesting, though for different reasons. In fact, I was pretty actively disappointed in Nisong’s arc.
But enough of the not-so-good! I still landed on the side of liking the book overall, and I recommend this trilogy if epic fantasy is your thing. The world is lush and inventive, the magic system is unique and interesting, the central mystery is compelling, and the characters are lovable. No regrets!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, War, Death, and Animal death
Moderate: Murder and Violence
Minor: Sexual content