So, the story as a whole was not necessarily my cup of tea.

Yet that did not stop me from continuing to read the story. Even if the plot sucked, Barker's writing and use of language is phenomenal. Even with the made up words, I found it fairly easy to follow along and figure out what it is he was talking about. Not only that, but Barker's descriptive writing is simple yet vivid; I had no issue at any part of the story to imagine this great ship sailing the seas, what the crew looked like while in the middle of a storm or a sea battle.

The plot itself I found simple; though I will say that Barker was able to surprise me with a plot point.

While I didn't see much character development with Meas, I saw a lot with Joron. Meas is written in a way to be a mentor to Joron, pushing him to be better, to learn how to be around the crew and gain respect and feel like he earned it. Besides Barker's writing, I think this was the other strong point of the story.

I was drawn to this book because of the title. Bone? Ships? It sounded dark, weird, and fascinating. And the mythology of the book is really interesting, and definitely lived up to my dark expectations. The sea is always a good subject for a fantasy novel because there's so much to explore there.
I particularly enjoyed the world view toward women, because it wasn't trying to say "hey look how different the world could be" the world just *was* different. The biggest example that hit me the first time I came across it very early on was "women and men." That's the way it's written, and it's so outside the norm of our society which nearly always says "men and women" and I loved it. It wasn't drastic, it wasn't trying to be in your face, it's just the way people talk. Women and men. And yet it blew my mind.
Praise aside, this book has a slow pace. We get a lot of inner monologue from Twiner, which is fine because it's his perspective, but it made the book feel really dense and long. Maybe I've just been reading too many novellas lately, but the pacing felt like it was dragging.
Overall, this is an interesting book and the bone ships are fascinating, but if you pick this up be prepared to settle in.

When I heard about this book I was excited. Ships made from dragon bones sign me up. I’ve never read anything like this before. The story is very unique. The world building was amazing. I’d recommend this book to people.

I received a free copy of this book through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

As always I was very excited to read a book, I mean that's why I requested it in the first place, because of the very intriguing premise. Unfortunately, this book didn't work for me and here is why.
There is nothing really wrong with it, I just couldn't get into it. I was bored.
The writing was pretty good actually. But not the dialogue. Oh gosh, I cringed when reading dialogues in this book. They were just so over the top and just cringey, there is no other way to say it.
Characters were also so very over the top and so cliche. Joron is a spineless man who is the most boring character ever, like common dude, do something and stop complaining and being stupid.
Meas was just a tough mean woman killing and threatening everyone because she is so tough. I honestly hate her.
Where are the dragons? I was promised epic battles and dragons. (I was honestly so bored I skipped through, but I don't think there are any dragons in the first half of the story).
Another thing that bothered me (and it's just a person thing) is that ships were referred to as "he". As a former sailor I was just shouting no!! Vessel, ship should be referred to as "she". Just a minor thing that bugged me.
Overall, this book was just not for me, but I can see how a lot of people will enjoy it.

As a longtime fantasy reader, few things annoy me as much as writers who needlessly invent words. I don't mean words for new concepts, new animals, new magical elements, things like that; I mean word substitutions that serve no logical purpose. Saying "sither" instead of sister. (Still using "brother", though!) Saying "Skearith's Eye" instead of "the sun". An endless slew of Those Dreaded Compound Words---we all know and fear them!---when the author slaps two or more unrelated words together to describe an object that probably doesn't need a name to begin with, attempting to dazzle us with their worldbuilding skills while only succeeding in ripping us out of the story.

The Bone Ships sins greatly in this regard, and it sins right from the start. The sheer quantity of unnecessary invented words operates like the story version of a speed bump; just as you start getting into the story, whoops! Here's another string of nonsense words whose only purpose is to force you to stop and figure out what the hell is being described. By the time you return to the story proper, all sense of pacing and plot and character development has metaphorically tumbled off the cliff. (The fact that most of this story takes place on a ship, which already has lots of unfamiliar elements, does not help matters.)

The story is uncomplicated. Ship captain ('shipwife', all ships here being dubbed as male) Joron Twiner loses a fight (and command of his ship of condemned criminals) to the famous Meas Gilbryn, and ends up serving as her second-in-command on a quest to save the last known arakeesian (a sort of sea dragon, a long-thought-extinct race whose bones are used to make ships), hopefully bringing peace between two warring seafaring nations in the process. Many and sundry things happen along the way, few of which held my attention for any length, leading to a somewhat anticlimactic ending and a setup for Book 2.

Part of me wonders if I'd have enjoyed this more had the story been centered on the island archipelago, not on a ship. Because the politics of this society are, if not always the most logical, certainly more enthralling than the action on the open seas: in this world, much of the population is born deformed in some way, and political power is held by women who prove their 'strength' by giving birth to unblemished children and surviving the births, (and by the men who service them sexually). Each firstborn child is sacrificed to the ships, creating magical 'corpselights' that the population believes are necessary to power the ships, even though ships exist that have no corpselights and everyone knows those work just fine. They also seem to assign jobs to the malformed based on what they've lost: lose a foot, you become a cobbler. Lose a hand, you have to sew. Like I said, this is not the most logical society in the fantasy genre, but I think you really can't go wrong with human sacrifice and a fertility-based political system, at least when it comes to the entertainment factors.

Overall, this was just not my cup of tea.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for sending me this arc. I will be reviewing this book in the near future with an honest rating and review.

With amazing world building, The Bone Ships follows a small cast of characters as they encounter war, famine, and the struggle for survival. With sympathetic characters, the journey is action packed and perfect for fans of Game of Thrones!

A special thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Having read The Bone Ships, I can admit that I was expecting a different kind of story. While there is a certain amount of world building, the focus clearly lies on a fairly linear plot line with only a hand full of characters. But don’t let that discourage you, fewer main character mean that the people you do encounter are described and portrayed more elaborately. Instead of blunt generic characters you get a sense of their motives and aspirations.

The author also took a jib at some traditional maritime terms. For example: Captains are called shipwife or the gender of a ship is assumed to be male. That did confuse me a little bit in the beginning, but after a while it felt natural. It’s interesting to see authors break with established terms and show us what could have possible.

Overall I enjoyed The Bone Ships a lot and I’m eager to see where the story will lead us next.

For generations, the Hundred Isles and the Gaunt Islands have been at war, frequently raiding each other's islands and stealing children. Both sides depend on ships crafted from the bones of the long dead sea dragons, but, as they have been hunted to extinction, the resources for crafting new ships have been dwindling. Inexplicably, a single sea dragon has been spotted. Lucky Meas Gilbryn sees this as an opportunity to end the war, but her second in command, Joron Twiner, fears it might be treason. Still, the crew of Tide Child find themselves sailing towards the sea dragon, and certain death.

This is the first book in The Tide Child Trilogy and I can't wait to read the rest of the series. This is an amazing fantasy with a well-imagined world and wonderful characters that feel real and add color to the story. I enjoy fantasies that involve a journey, but I think this is the first I've ever read where most of the story takes place on water. As someone who gets sea sick and can't even enjoy a cruise ship, I loved that I could enjoy a sea adventure without throwing up.

I loved the world building. So much of the story takes place on a single ship, the black ship Tide Child, where the crew have been condemned to death for one crime or another. It was its own microcosm, had its own culture that was both a part of and different from the larger world's culture. It was almost like it was a floating nation. It made sense and worked well in the greater scheme of things. I'm not sure if I'd want to live in this world, but it was vividly imagined with a rich history and mythology that ran through the story flawlessly. There were no sun or moon, but Skearith's Eye and Skearith's Blind Eye instead. I can't tell you how many mornings I woke up and thought of the sun as Skearith's Eye instead of the sun.

But as much as I loved the world and the culture, it's also the things I had a problem with. This book comes with a map. I love books with maps and will often study them to memorization. I noticed that the world seemed to be comprised of two nations: the Hundred Isles and the Gaunt Islands. I don't know how plausible it is for a world to be wholly comprised of islands, but it worked for the story. But, throughout the story, the narrator, Joron, couldn't help but see how similar the two nations were, which made me think the whole world was really very homogeneous with little variation in culture. I also noticed that the cold was emphasized the further north the ship traveled, but the main island in the Hundred Isles lies along the same general latitudes, so I expected to read that some of the crew might not have been as afflicted as they were used to a colder climate, but that wasn't mentioned.

The characters were exceptionally well-done. They felt like real people with histories, secrets, and motivations. They had individual personalities that played off of each other and contributed to the larger personality of the crew. Despite their varied backgrounds, they managed to mesh and work well together, coming together to work towards the same cause. I loved the complexity of Meas's character. She seemed to be both lucky and cursed, but was absolutely brilliant as a leader and tactician. She's an amazing character, one I wouldn't mind calling my leader. My favorite character was the gullaime, a creature that can control the winds and is feared by the crew it's forced to serve. Tide Child's was no exception, but I loved how it became more than just a creature. It had its own personality and I loved getting to know it just as Joron did.

My other complaint is that Joron's character bothered me. I was a little disappointed in him as the story is told from his perspective. He felt a little hard to pin down for most of the story. Fearful, yet brave. Dutiful, yet vengeful. He had an interesting history that kept popping up, which explained his fears really well, but the fact that he was able to put that aside and take up his duties so well kind of astounded me. Since the story's told from his viewpoint, I hoped for a little about how he was able to do it and what was going through his mind. There is some of that, but not enough to convince me of all the growth he made. Perhaps it's just me, but I almost felt like he was a victim of the story, like his growth served the story more than it served him.

The Bone Ships tells a fascinating story. It's not just about three ships, one from the Hundred Isles and two from the Gaunt Islands, seeking to end the war, but also about the formation of a group. It's a beautiful story of mismatched souls coming together to form a cohesive whole where each person can depend on the others and work like a well-oiled machine. It's a lovely read and surprisingly heartwarming.

Overall, this is a great adventure book hinting at underlying politics, but mainly focusing on the formation of a trustworthy crew trying to do the right thing for the people of the world. This was great book with an interesting setting, fascinating characters that change over time, and an intriguing story that had me wondering what the crew was going to do at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for a free e-copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
Link to post: https://thelilycafe.com/2019/09/19/book-review-the-bone-ships-by-r-j-barker/

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

Immediately fascinating with its unorthodox boarding of Joron Twiner and Lucky Meas, only to flounder for a while in seemingly directionless seas, The Bone Ships does find its sea-legs in the second half, sailing into a satisfying conclusion.

The first half of this book is, for the most part, character introductions and world-building. RJ Barker throws the reader right into the deepest seas of information and then douses us with words, terms, names, and details that often lack any clear meaning until context comes along later. It’s a fascinating word, both from a cultural and geological perspective, and the the approach to dragons is excitingly original, but there is a lot to take in. It’s an ugly world, dangerous and full of dirty people with dirty ideas, and the crew of the Tide Child are its unwanted, unloved, forgotten outcasts. It’s the kind of crew where a strange woman can walk in, claim a hat, yell at a few people, knock a few heads, and simply assume command because, with one exception, nobody else wants it.

The narrative here is a bit odd, reminiscent of a few grimdark sagas I’ve enjoyed, in that the hero, the protagonist, the main character is not the narrative point-of-view. Instead, it’s the deposed shipwife, Joron, who tells the tale, and its through his eyes that we witness the bold, brash, ballsy actions of Lucky Meas. He’s a decent character with some reasonable growth, who becomes less annoying as he becomes more familiar, but it was Lucky Meas who captained my imagination. She is so much fun to watch, a force of nature stronger than any sea-borne tempest, and as unrelenting as the storm-tossed waves. She’s a leader, through and through, and you can either accept it or get the hell out of her way.

The other characters who intrigued me here were the monstrous, once-feathered, gullaime windtalker, the only member of the crew to give Lucky Meas serious pause; and the courser, Aelerin, neither woman nor man, and regarded with superstitious dread, although their role in the story comes largely in the second half.

As for the story, what we have is a black ship of doomed souls in search of a legendary dragon – once commonplace enough to form the hulls of the bone ships, but hunted to near-extinction – hoping to redeem themselves with an act of heroic bravery. Of course, they are not the only ship in search of the legendary arakeesian, which makes for some suitably epic scenes of naval warfare between bone ships, especially since the Tide Child is the only ship looking to save the dragon. It’s exhilarating stuff, like the best scenes of a pirate tale, only with a little more magic and mayhem . . . and some terrifying beasts of the deep, just to keep everyone on their toes.

For my first literary voyage with RJ Barker, The Bone Ships was a great one, and I’ll definitely be booking berth on the next tale to set sail.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book is available September 24th.

If you like a book with excellent story building, this one is for you! While never boring, this does have a slower start. Barker takes the time to create and explain an amazingly detailed world, one that is both stark yet inventive, much like the book itself.

I’ve enjoyed Barker’s previous books, so I was very excited to read this book. The fact that it’s so ship-heavy caused a bit of trepidation since, for some unknown reason, I don’t usually like books that take place mainly on ships. It could be because it often makes the book feel stifled to me. However, this book never felt small. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

The characters were so well developed that I really didn’t have one that I liked all the time. Just like real people, they all had strengths and weaknesses. The writing was superb in that way. In fact, I can only compare it to the incredible Tad Williams’ To Green Angel Tower as far as writing skill goes.

This is not a book to miss.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for sending me a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Bone Ships, is a magnificent seafaring epic fantasy best-suited for readers who really enjoy world building. The first book in a new fantasy series, The Bone Ships was a story I wanted to savor and read slowly. The world building pulled me in, and even if parts of the culture were extremely disturbing, they were offset by the sheer wonder and uniqueness of this strange world.

Barker offsets the bleakness of the society in The Bone Ships by creating an incredibly colorful and vivid world - the plant life is no color you would expect to find (such as bright purple leaves and bright pink vines), and color is used to signify status in the characters. Meas is described as having long, grey hair that is dyed with streaks of bright reds and blues, signifying she is a shipwife and therefore captain of a ship. I wish there had been a few color illustrations to go with the sketches at the beginning of each chapter so I could have grasped the full depth of the world.

In terms of characters, I wasn’t a huge fan of Joron at the beginning of the story (he really wasn’t that likable), but he did eventually grow on me, as did several of the other characters. My favorite character was definitely Meas, with Black Orris and the gulliame (both the Tide Child’s and the race in general) taking close seconds. I loved Meas’ character: she’s intelligent, inspires incredibly loyalty from her former (and future) crew, and takes control of her future whenever she is able, usually without much outward consideration for others (but, since I didn’t like Joron that much at the beginning I didn’t really care). While The Bone Ships is told from Joron’s point of view, I’m not sure if it was the best choice. However, it could be because I’m such a fan of multi-POV narratives and preferred Meas’ character so much more than Joron’s.

The Bone Ships also includes a chapter index, a world map, sketches at the beginning of each chapter, a glossary, and in the acknowledgements the author gives a brief mention of some of the music that inspired this story (a cool touch that I hope stays in the final version).

However, the story doesn’t really seem to kick off until the 25% mark, which for some is too slow of a start. If you like jumping into the story in the middle of the action, this book may not be for you. However, since it’s an entirely unique and vastly different world than the one I’m used to, I appreciated the long beginning to acclimatize to the world and lingo. The dialogue and terminology were especially difficult at first, but the glossary in the back did help and sometimes I just needed to be content with not fully understanding an unfamiliar term before continuing.

In all, The Bone Ships was a magnificent adventure and I was completely enthralled with this tale, giving it a 4.5/5 stars. It releases September 24th and I’m already looking forward to reading the next book in the series! Thank you again to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the privilege of reviewing an ARC.

2 out of 5 stars.

Couldn't get into it. Didn't understand the world or the characters, didn't seem like anything was explained until halfway through the book, at which point I was over it. I think it was an interesting concept, but could have used a lot more world-building in the beginning.

RJ Barker’s world in The Bone Ships is a rich, vibrant tapestry. The reader is immersed from the start, drowned in the sheer audacity of the writing. Each sentence had a lot of love poured into it, and it comes across clear as a clarion. The prose is dense with strong slice-of-life elements and creates a sense of “otherness” without crossing over into inaccessible. The use of vernacular is masterful, neither too extreme nor too campy, contributing to the je ne sais quoi that pervades the novel as a whole. The world is strange, disturbing, and filled with dangers the characters must navigate at every step… yet which is entirely normal to them in context.

The book opens with Joron Twiner, son of a poor fisher, drunk on a beach. Joron is Shipwife (captain) to Tide Child – a black, dead ship manned with a crew of men and women condemned to die for their crimes. They live according to the Bernlaw, a set of rules for those at sea, as enforced by the Shipwife. Joron, however, is not fated to remain Shipwife for long when Lucky Meas, daughter of Thirteenbern Gilbryn, ruler of the Hundred Isles, appears before him in his drunken stupor and challenges him to a duel for the two-tailed hat he wears as symbol of his station.

Lucky Meas, in a thoroughly unshocking twist, wins their duel… but breaks tradition by sparing Joron’s life and keeping him on Tide Child as her Deckkeeper (second in command). He’s a proud ship, Tide Child, made of Arakeesian bones – one of the last of the titular bone ships – but he’s been neglected through Joron’s inexperience and incompetence. Meas quickly and immediately assumes command, cleaning and organizing Tide Child as Joron never could. Meas was made for the sea and takes to command with a firm and steady hand. She balances the various factions aboard with competence and grace, viewing each as pieces on a gameboard ready to be put into play – Joron included.

“Clean this deck,” she said, “coil the ropes, stack the shot and tie down the gallowbows. Get Tide Child ready to fly and fight, for that is what we will be doing, make no mistake about it. And I know you are a rough lot, so when the time comes” – her eyes roved around, settled on Kanvey, settled on Cwel, settled on Barlay – “that you feel the need to test me. Then do it like deckchilder, do it to my face.” She rested her hand on the hilt of her sword. “Because the Bern sought to give me to the ships as a light when I was a babe, even after the sea returned me. And in the ceremony the Mother came upon them, and she said I would not die then as sacrifice and I would not die in treachery, you hear? She said I’d die fighting. So unless you question the will of the Maiden or the Mother or the Hag, you’ll pull your blade to my face, ey?” Again her roving eye, her fierce, bird-of-prey features waiting for a reply that never came. Only silence faced her. “Well, to it then! Move!” And they did, and inside Joron something twisted, and he learned – in a moment of shock and revelation – how much he desired what she had, that easy command, the way she barely seemed to feel the weight of the two-tailed hat on her head. “Twiner” – she spat on the deck – “come with me to the great cabin.”

Meas does not leave Joron to flounder and fail in his new role. Although she is a harsh taskmaster and will brook no incompetence, she is excellent at spotting potential. While Joron doesn’t have the skills of a leader yet, she knows how to foster the seed she sees in him. By placing Joron into situations where he must make a choice, by dropping small tidbits of advice, and by orchestrating favorable outcomes, she allows him to grow into the role of Deckkeeper and earn his place aboard the ship.

In the beginning, Meas is focusing on developing the small crew she took from Joron as well as on getting them safely to land where she can augment their numbers. I’ve seen a few people mention this slow pace bothered them, and while that is understandable… I was so drawn in by the gorgeous prose and the fresh feel of the world that I would have happily devoured the full novel even if nothing of particular importance occurred in the whole thing. Even after the plot picks up in the second half, the writing continues to be wonderful. It is a style of writing which lends very well to slice of life, as showcased in the first half of the book. The Bone Ships is carried on the characters, the atmosphere, and the world the reader is thrust into with little explanation or hand-holding. It’s brilliant.

While there is enough familiarity in the world for a reader to latch onto and avoid feeling completely adrift, it’s still a joy to discover more and more of the culture through small hints and off-hand comments throughout the books. It is a fundamentally different world with just enough parallels to echo our own conception of sea and society. Some passages are musing, commenting on aspects of the world from someone who lives in it. Some passages mention a new title, creature, or idea which hasn’t been touched on previously. I often felt as though I was watching the dust and grime of a long-interred fossil being slowly brushed away, word by word, revealing the shape beneath.

We learn about the horrors of the sea – a writhing, fearsome thing in The Bone Ships. It is filled to the seething brim with faceless serpents, longthresh ready to devour you, stinging jellies, bone borers. Our own ocean is more of a threat than it is a death sentence. The sea of The Bone Ships is the more than a threat – it is a promise. To go into the water is to go to a terrible, painful death. That is the Sea Hag’s promise, and the only mercy she might show is that your death be quick.

"The sea was full of ugly creatures but beakwyrms were famously among the worst. They looked like the intestine of a kivelly when it was cut from the bird to make sausage: pink, glistening and shot through with blood. The creatures surfed the waves of foam that the boneships kicked up. Each was as thick as a big woman or man and about ten or fifteen paces long, not as big as he had seen but big enough. The wyrms ended bluntly, like fingers, and they had no eyes or nose or any way Joron could see for them to sense the world around them, but Hag knew they had teeth. When attacking, the whole end of a beakwyrm would draw back and reveal it was little more than mouth, row upon row of serrated teeth right back into the darkness of its throat, teeth that could chew through flesh and bone and so noisy to work few. Iridescent frills spiralled around the wyrms’ sickly pallid-pink flesh, propelling them forward in a twisting, shimmering dance through water and wave before the ship. They spun around one another as if they were lovers dancing."

Even the friendlier beasts are strange and awful; the people of the Hundred Isles enslave the Gullaime, a race of bird-like creatures capable of controlling the wind. I am deeply curious about the origins of the Gullaime, which are hinted at but not revealed. Their magic exacts a high price and functions on somewhat mysterious principles, but I question whether even the Gullaime themselves truly understand what they are capable of or if they still have true knowledge of their history.

“The closer Tide Child came to the creature, the more of it he could make out: the filth of its once-white robes, the bright colours of the leaf mask that covered the pits where its eyes had once been, the sharp and predatory curve of its beak. Underneath the robes was an inhuman body, three-toed feet with sharp claws, puckered pink skin tented against brittle bones and punctuated by the white quills of broken feathers. He did not know why the gullaime lost their feathers, only that they did, and he guessed it was due to the filth they chose to live in. The source of all lice and biting creatures on any ship was the windtalker, as any deckchild knew.”

In addition to these more beastly touches, it’s always interesting to see matriarchies represented in SFF – especially ones which are flawed and gritty (a la Kameron Hurley’s Del Dame Apocrypha). The Bone Ships does not disappoint in this regard. Birth defects are common and passed down genetically, so when a child is born perfectly it’s a cause for celebration. Babes who are marked, missing limbs, or with other problems are called the Berncast, and occupy the lowest echelon of society. Women who are able to give birth successfully to children who are without flaw may be raised from the Berncast and to the Bern, their rank dictated by the number of successful, perfect births they’ve had. Thirteenbern Gilbryn has brought forth 13 children, more than any other woman, and by virtue of it rules all the Hundred Isles. She has men around her, the Kept, who were born perfect and give her a greater chance of bearing more perfect children. This is also reflected in the gods they revere. The Maiden, the Hag, and the Mother. This is a society ruled by fertility.

“Beneath this web, bathed in light, sat Thirteenbern Gilbryn, proud of what she was. Her hair was grey now, and she wore no colour in it – a break with tradition, but she was a woman who did not feel the need to advertise her authority. She wore a skirt, and her flat breasts hung down to her navel, almost covering the stretch marks across her belly, which had been painted in bright colours, the scars of her battles there for all to see: the marks of her power. There was no denying the strength in the Thirteenbern’s body, and that was why she showed it. She flaunted her fertility. This woman was the bringer of thirteen perfect children to the isles and claimed title as mother of all. Her skirts were of iron, laced together with birdgut and enamelled with stylised fish which danced across her lap. Like Meas she wore long boots. Unlike Meas, who stood upon a ship of shame, she sat upon on the throne of tears, a seat of polished and bonded varisk carved into the semblance of firstborn children, each child weeping as they held up the weight of the Thirteenbern and through her carried the weight of the entire Hundred Isles.”

This book was deeply impressive on all fronts. I can’t wait for the sequels, and I am incredibly excited to dive into RJ’s earlier books – how is it possible that I’ve been missing out on so much great writing for so long? Fortunately, that will no longer be the case! The Tide Child Trilogy is looking to be one of my favorite recent series, and it is one I fully intend to shout about long and hard. Highly, highly recommended.

The Bone Ships are ships made from actual dragons from days long gone. The Tide Child is a ship.. but, crazily also a main character!! Truly fascinating what RJ Barker has accomplished with this amazing tale! An amazing set of characters that will leave the readers reeling with anticipation of how they will react in various scenarios from sea battles to pirates. The story falls into a genre of its own.. as the author has created a world that exists only in his mind and the minds of his readers! Not an easy feat in today's world. Could easily become the next generations Lord of the Rings! Five stars ALL THE WAY!!!

I was press-ganged by this book for three days… taken into the hull of a ship with bilge water, murderers, and thieves. The Bone Ships is an awesome escape that feels at times a cross between Mad Max and Master and Commander.

Built of the bones of great sea dragons and armed with gallowbows to defend the Hundred Isles, these boats are deadly weapons against raiders of the Gaunt Isles and other enemies… but the Tide Child is not one of the best. It is a blackboat, crewed by the dregs. Populated by a foul-mouthed bird, a man-sized avian supernatural windmaker, and surrounded by any number of sea creatures to snatch them off decks… sabotage and misdeeds abound.

The leaders of this expedition: Lucky Meas and Joron Tiller. Both cursed and demoted to the scourge of the fleet, the Tide Child. Captain Joron is quickly usurped by Lucky in the first couple pages of the book, yet she installs him as her second.

A plan to take out a newly discovered dragon, an arakeesian… to take the corpse, the bones for the Hundred Isles, and quite possibly turn the sway of the war.

Barker combines the known criminality crew with their unknown and mysterious backgrounds… a treacherous channel between the motivations of the vaulted rulers and the peons in the hull. I loved the training scenes to get the sailors into shape: to get it ready for voyage and prepare to shoot the grand bows.

I love the building of the exposition: the crew, the mythos of the setting, the sea and all that rides above and swims below. Take this adventure. You won’t regret it!

5 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to Orbit Books and the author for an advanced copy for review.

Thank you Orbit and NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. It was truly a pleasure to read this book. It had everything an epic fantasy novel should have: fantastic world building, intriguing characters without them being an eclectic mix (i. e. a band of misfits), an epic quest, politics, backstabbing, new vocabulary (without needing a dictionary) and weirdness. This world (the One Hundred Islands and the Gaunt Islands) is utterly different than ours. It is mostly open ocean filled with creatures that want to kill everything.

The book is exclusively told from the perspective of Joron the Shipwife (captain) of Tide Child, a black ship (those of the One Hundred Islands condemned to death but must serve on a fleet ship and under fleet orders). Joron comes under immediate pressure from Lucky Meas who speaks the phrase "Give me your hat". A phrase that they say started a legend.

I won't go into much more of the plot but the story follows Joron and Meas as they embark on a mission that could end the war between the One Hundred Islands and the Gaunt Islands. A war to control the dwindling supply of Arakeesian bone (from beasts that have disappeared) that they use to build the Bone Ships. There is an expansive group of characters that come in and out of the story that come in and out of the story.

The book is a literary seafaring epic with great pacing and intense action. The story arc wraps up nicely for being the first book in a new series. I cannot wait for more.

OK. Now that I have your attention. I’m just going to jump right in because no matter how many times I tried to cut down my review of The Bone Ships, book 1 of The Tide Child Trilogy? I couldn’t get it shorter than it is now.

The bone ships are exactly what they are called, ships made of ancient dragon bones, and manned by crews of the damned, criminals sentenced to fight a war with no end, by lands with little natural resources due to toxic land and a dwindling population.

Fertile women rule the caste system and have full courts of fertile men at their disposal while all the rest are sent out to fight this endless war. They have no choice, are given no other purpose. If they can produce children, they must stay in service of the women to fertilize women at the will of the women that rule. If not, they are sent to fight the wars. Criminals on bone ships painted black, infertile men on bone ships of white.
The Tide Child’s fleet only means of redemption being a great heroic act that has pretty much never come to pass. But when it becomes rumored that the ancient dragons long since thought extinct may be near, the fleet of The Tide Child sees a shot at redemption by capturing one of these lured beasts.

Barker immediately hooked me by literally breathing life into the Tide Child. It could have been just a ship, a vessel in which the fleet was sailing. However, it was both built as a character and a world. Whether it was the significance of the bones, which grew even more in weight with the realization that the dragons are not extinct, after all or the center piece of action-packed duels on the seas, the Tide Child was handled brilliantly on both fronts.

Barker is deftly able to create a world around The Tide Child that lends itself to combat with others seeking the capture of these magnificent ancient dragons, fighting the wills of mother nature, and magnificent sea creatures. One such creature, Gullaime, is a windtalker that assists ships by controlling the winds. Despite the crucial part it can play in the journey of a ship, its unnatural demeanor restricts many from calling upon it unless the fleet is in dire straits.

The fleet manning the Tide Child equally jump off the page. Uniquely written from a third person point of view, Joron, a man whose hopelessness and despair have sent him straight to the drink. Joron’s character arc is one of the most compelling in The Bone Ships.

Having quite enough of Joron’s letting The Tide Child rot, stuck in a bay, dilapidated by rot, covered in human foul, he is challenged by Lucky Meas and she easily beats him to take over as Captain, “Shipwife,” of The Tide Child- and not a moment too soon.

Lucky Meas is swashbuckling sonofabitch with all the force and might one would need to get the Tide Child to resemble a ship more than sewage. Then there are the boarders. I say boarders because it is no fleet. A fleet works together. A fleet has each other’s back. Hell, a fleet doesn’t take room and board on a ship and just dock it in a bay to rot.

To make these pirates an actual fleet, sparing Joron’s life, which she did not have to do, would be her last show of mercy. From then on it would be, direction given, direction followed. And Joron would learn, too. He would not just find his voice as a leader with men he didn’t even know but strength from the people of his lineage.
Lastly, it is impossible to talk about The Bone Ships without discussing the Goddesses worshiped in The Bone Ships. Of the mother, the Maiden and the Sea Hag, it is the Sea Hag that is most feared. Being the darkest and most violent of them, she is believed to grasp the dead in the sea.

Within the first 80 pages or so of The Bone Ships there are a lot of characters and terms thrown at you, but the glossary at the back easily guides you through it. Once that passes everything comes together with great ease and the story takes off. It is impossible to put down. The characters are larger than life, the world is one to get lost in and despite being a fantasy, the action never stops.

Barker’s take on dragons was both unique and evoking of an array of emotions. It truly pissed me off that an ancient creature’s bones were used for ships (thinking also of elephants and ivory, for example), and don’t get me wrong- not mad in terms of not liking the book, but that it brought an evil aspect to the society, and new lens to how the dragons were treated that I hadn’t encountered before. And then when they became hunted, to ultimately what happens upon encountering them.

As remarkable a read as The Bone Ships is, I would be shocked if the next installment didn’t build on and continue the high bar set by its predecessor.

Thank you so much to Orbit Books via NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own!

Honestly I just want to start by saying that The Bone Ships is one of the best books I have read all year, and I can't wait to have it in a hard copy with the rest of the trilogy!! I KNOW I will be re-reading this! I was swept away by all 500+ pages and never felt bored, never skimmed, and definitely can't wait for the sequel.

*description omitted*

I will start by saying that the cover and internal map are both really awesome designs, and I think the map adds a lot to the story. It is helpful to be able to visualize the ship's route and have some sense of scale to the journey they are on.

The story itself is completely unique to anything I have ever read before, and very dark as well. The entire war at this point is based on stealing children from the other side to sacrifice their souls as corpse lights on their ships. Additionally, each healthy first born of the Hundred Isles' women is sacrificed in the same regard. These souls seem to make the ships literally alive, as when the ships take damage, the corpse lights go out. This doesn't seem like an intelligent way of life to some people, which may or may not be one of the many sources of intrigue, treason, and subplotting within the empire.

There are also black ships of the dead, where the brilliant white ship is painted black to signify that those on board are condemned to death as criminals. They sail to their deaths.... Good lord what an amazing cast of characters as well. Meas, the ship's captain, or shipwife, is one of those morally grey characters that I wanted to hate but ended up loving. She is known as the best shipwife in the isles, if not the world, and stole command of the black ship Tide Child from the other main character, Joron Twiner, who had an arc of growth and leadership that made me proud of him. My favorite character was probably the Guillaime, I wanted to set the book down and clap when he finally did his thing but I really can't talk about him without spoilers, but trust me. The same concept kind of goes for the sea dragon, an amazing being but too full of spoilers. The ship's crew was such a rag tag bunch but they faced soooooo many things together including learning discipline, enemy ships, inclement weather, traitors in their midst, and becoming unsung heroes... Watching the crew come together was a huge strong point for me.

I also can't get over how well Barker describes, well, pretty much everything. The flora and fauna as the crew discovers new places, I felt like I was there. The ships themselves felt so visible in my mind as well, even the clothes and uniforms and weather. The language and ship slang is done impeccably as well, right down to Black Orris! The one other thing that really had my spine tingling were the naval battles, holy cripe does this book describe a naval battle or two!!

So long story short, I absolutely 100% recommend this book to anyone with any slight interest whatsoever in fantasy, dragons, pirates, sea life, old gods and legends, treason, morally grey characters, women in charge, snarky animals....basically read it. Thank you again to Orbit Books and NetGalley for this early read! The book comes out September 24th so be sure to preorder if it sounds up your alley!