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A review by afittingdistraction
The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart
4.25
It's a bit hard to review the last book in a trilogy since so much of what I want to mention would be considered spoilers. So heres what I can say...
I really enjoyed the Bone Shard War and overall thought it was a good and satisfying ending to a trilogy I'd definitely recommend.
I was a bit apprehensive about this book because although I adored book 1, when I read book 2 back when it came out, I was a little bit disappointed. That being said, I did reread the first two via audiobook immediately before starting book 3 which helped a lot.
When I read Bone Shard Emperor the first go round it was with my eyes, we all know my eyes aren't great so it took me quite a while to read it, which looking back definitely took me out of the story a lot and made the middle part feel like it went on forever so breezing through the audio definitely smoothed out some of the issues I originally had with it.
Have to say the main gripe I had with The Bone Shard War—apart from just not feeling the main romantic relationship which I know is personal preference—was the constant internal monologues the mc Lin (and Jovis at times) had, especially during battle sequences and hey its called the Bone Shard WAR, a good majority of this book is fighting.
There's a lot of "omg what if I'm not a good person anymore? Does that matter. Am I my fathers daughter? I've never claimed to be a hero, but maybe I can do heroic things!"
And I get that the repetition is probably supposed to hammer home the idea that the cycle of history is doomed to repeat itself, and meant to make you question things like can an empire ever be a good thing even if the emperor themselves is good.
I do think those themes work and are executed well in other characters' chapters like Ramani but while I love examining character morals and motives, especially when they're grey 1. Being stuck inside a characters head all the time like that mid battle, kills any sort of tension for me, and 2. Lin seemed to have these moral dilemmas and rediscover that not only does she have power but that now means she has the power to change things every single time she encountered any sort of setback or challenge which got kind of annoying tbh.
That being said, I do like these characters, and I LOVE the worldbuilding and magic in these books. It's so unique. I've never read anything like it!
Moving islands, strange mythical beasts for companions (Mephi continues to be the best character), magic that relies on the empire tithing not money but shards of its citizens bones, taken from right behind the ear, to power weird frankenstein-esque constructs. Amazing!
There's a reveal in this book about the worldbuilding that was SO GOOD! I can't say more without huge spoilers, obviously, but man, I love it when everything finally clicks into place!
Personal preference but I do wish Andrea Stewart had dipped more into the dark side/ethics of the bone shard magic—can you have body autonomy if you're a 'made thing' etc because the times she did were some of my favourites throughtout the whole series.
All in all, I would highly recommend this series to anyone who's even slightly interested in it. As someone whos now read all three as audiobooks, I can also highly recommend the audios as well, as all three narrators did such a great job!
Thanks to Netgalley for the audio arc in exchange for an honest review
I really enjoyed the Bone Shard War and overall thought it was a good and satisfying ending to a trilogy I'd definitely recommend.
I was a bit apprehensive about this book because although I adored book 1, when I read book 2 back when it came out, I was a little bit disappointed. That being said, I did reread the first two via audiobook immediately before starting book 3 which helped a lot.
When I read Bone Shard Emperor the first go round it was with my eyes, we all know my eyes aren't great so it took me quite a while to read it, which looking back definitely took me out of the story a lot and made the middle part feel like it went on forever so breezing through the audio definitely smoothed out some of the issues I originally had with it.
Have to say the main gripe I had with The Bone Shard War—apart from just not feeling the main romantic relationship which I know is personal preference—was the constant internal monologues the mc Lin (and Jovis at times) had, especially during battle sequences and hey its called the Bone Shard WAR, a good majority of this book is fighting.
There's a lot of "omg what if I'm not a good person anymore? Does that matter. Am I my fathers daughter? I've never claimed to be a hero, but maybe I can do heroic things!"
And I get that the repetition is probably supposed to hammer home the idea that the cycle of history is doomed to repeat itself, and meant to make you question things like can an empire ever be a good thing even if the emperor themselves is good.
I do think those themes work and are executed well in other characters' chapters like Ramani but while I love examining character morals and motives, especially when they're grey 1. Being stuck inside a characters head all the time like that mid battle, kills any sort of tension for me, and 2. Lin seemed to have these moral dilemmas and rediscover that not only does she have power but that now means she has the power to change things every single time she encountered any sort of setback or challenge which got kind of annoying tbh.
That being said, I do like these characters, and I LOVE the worldbuilding and magic in these books. It's so unique. I've never read anything like it!
Moving islands, strange mythical beasts for companions (Mephi continues to be the best character), magic that relies on the empire tithing not money but shards of its citizens bones, taken from right behind the ear, to power weird frankenstein-esque constructs. Amazing!
There's a reveal in this book about the worldbuilding that was SO GOOD! I can't say more without huge spoilers, obviously, but man, I love it when everything finally clicks into place!
Personal preference but I do wish Andrea Stewart had dipped more into the dark side/ethics of the bone shard magic—can you have body autonomy if you're a 'made thing' etc because the times she did were some of my favourites throughtout the whole series.
All in all, I would highly recommend this series to anyone who's even slightly interested in it. As someone whos now read all three as audiobooks, I can also highly recommend the audios as well, as all three narrators did such a great job!
Thanks to Netgalley for the audio arc in exchange for an honest review