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A review by laelyn
The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart
3.0
Andrea Stewart's The Drowning Empire series started off with one of my favourite fantasy reads of the last few years. "The Bone Shard Daughter" blew me away, and I was so invested in the characters involved that I couldn't wait for the rest of the trilogy. It now stands proudly on my shelves, completed and beloved, and while I still think the first book is the strongest overall, it's a trilogy I can wholeheartedly recommend.
"The Bone Shard War", the big series finale, is just as wonderfully written as its predecessors. Stewart just knows her craft and her writing sucks me in immediately from page 1. Now, I still don't entirely understand how boneshard magic works and what it is Lin's doing with her hands there, but honestly, I don't really care that much. Plotwise, the final book picks up two years after the events of book 1 and the change and development our characters have gone through is palpable. The book answers all the questions posed by the previous ones and ends in a mostly satisfying, although pretty predictable way. It's bittersweet and fitting, there are just some things that you can see coming miles away.
The characters are still solid and loveable, though I did feel like Jovis, especially, did not really shine in this one because it takes him way too long to figure certain things out or look for proper solutions at least. His whole storyline felt a bit forced due to that, and it was my least favourite one because of it. There were other parts I didn't enjoy that much, like Ranami's point of view which doesn't add all too much to the overall story but introduce a concept that I then immediately knew would play out a certain way in the ending (and it did). I think I would have preferred condensing the pov characters. Lin, Jovis and Sand would have sufficed to tell this story, as much as I love Phalue and Ranami's cute family. Stewart also made the decision to turn Ragan into a rather deranged, one-dimensional evil villain that is later set up to be much more concerning than the antagonist introduced in the previous books, Dione, who kind of... doesn't play that vital a role and ends up exactly where most of us probably predicted him ending up. I never cared much for Ragan as a villain so he just didn't work for me.
The pacing is also not as strong as it used to be. Personally, I feel like the actual content, the story this final book wants to tell, did not need almost 650 pages. The first half of the book is almost boring at times, with the politics in play not complex and engaging enough to warrant so much time spent on them. The plot picks up speed in the second half of the book, at least.
These are really all the complaints I have, and they don't take away from the fact that this is a really good fantasy trilogy. The last book is the weakest of them, but I still enjoyed my time with it and the ending is a satisfying one. I definitely recommend picking up this series - it's unique, it's emotional, it's exciting and wonderfully written. Thje final book itself is a 3,5 star read for me.
Many thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for the arc!
"The Bone Shard War", the big series finale, is just as wonderfully written as its predecessors. Stewart just knows her craft and her writing sucks me in immediately from page 1. Now, I still don't entirely understand how boneshard magic works and what it is Lin's doing with her hands there, but honestly, I don't really care that much. Plotwise, the final book picks up two years after the events of book 1 and the change and development our characters have gone through is palpable. The book answers all the questions posed by the previous ones and ends in a mostly satisfying, although pretty predictable way. It's bittersweet and fitting, there are just some things that you can see coming miles away.
The characters are still solid and loveable, though I did feel like Jovis, especially, did not really shine in this one because it takes him way too long to figure certain things out or look for proper solutions at least. His whole storyline felt a bit forced due to that, and it was my least favourite one because of it. There were other parts I didn't enjoy that much, like Ranami's point of view which doesn't add all too much to the overall story but introduce a concept that I then immediately knew would play out a certain way in the ending (and it did). I think I would have preferred condensing the pov characters. Lin, Jovis and Sand would have sufficed to tell this story, as much as I love Phalue and Ranami's cute family. Stewart also made the decision to turn Ragan into a rather deranged, one-dimensional evil villain that is later set up to be much more concerning than the antagonist introduced in the previous books, Dione, who kind of... doesn't play that vital a role and ends up exactly where most of us probably predicted him ending up. I never cared much for Ragan as a villain so he just didn't work for me.
The pacing is also not as strong as it used to be. Personally, I feel like the actual content, the story this final book wants to tell, did not need almost 650 pages. The first half of the book is almost boring at times, with the politics in play not complex and engaging enough to warrant so much time spent on them. The plot picks up speed in the second half of the book, at least.
These are really all the complaints I have, and they don't take away from the fact that this is a really good fantasy trilogy. The last book is the weakest of them, but I still enjoyed my time with it and the ending is a satisfying one. I definitely recommend picking up this series - it's unique, it's emotional, it's exciting and wonderfully written. Thje final book itself is a 3,5 star read for me.
Many thanks to Orbit and Netgalley for the arc!