It's hard to stick the landing when writing epic fantasy. The stakes have to get bigger with each book, new information has to be discovered, all the different threads have to be gathered into a single conclusion. Relationships between beloved characters have to change but I always get disappointed if those relationships that I've come to love go sour.

Once again, R.J. Barker proves equal to the task.

For part of this book, Meas and Joron are separated. Joron becomes the Black Pirate and terrorizes the island communities of the Hundred Isles. He wraps himself from head to two in black cloth so that no one can see that he has keeshan's rot (which I picture something like leprosy) riddling his body. I suspect this disease is because of the magic that Joron has used to summon keeshans (the great sea serpents of this ocean world) but this is not stated outright in the book. Keeshans seem to emit radiation and their bodies and bones can poison the people who work with them, even entire cities.

Joron's goal is to find out where Meas has been secreted away so that he can rescue her. He now commands the rebel fleet along with the Tide Child. Joron has grown into command. He's learned from the best and now he understands better the doubts and troubles that Meas kept from him and her crew, because he must do that same thing as captain- hold himself apart while still inspiring loyalty.

Joron and Meas still believe in the goal of peace and wish to stop the destructive arm's race for keeshan bones. In an island world with almost no mining or wood, these giant bones are the only thing hard and durable enough to make a sailing ship. The Hundred Isles and the Gaunt Islands have been at war over these resources ever since they became nations. The atrocities committed in the name of slaughtering sea serpents and harvesting them for resources are horrendous. As a reader I couldn't help but marvel at the great Arakeesian serpents and thought of them similarly to how I see whales in our own world; slaughtering whales is a travesty and tragedy to me.

Joron and Meas plan to keep the nations from being able to hunt the keeshans. However, they end up being hunted themselves and brought to the very brink of extremity. Their friend the Gullaime, part of an avian species that can do weather magic, is also experiencing trials and dangers of their own. Joron puts off helping the Gullaime too long, I thought, and I was very uncomfortable with abuse that the Gullaime endured.

More dear friends are lost along the way, sacrifices are made but all seems lost. The finale of this series brought tears to my eyes, and I'm not a sentimental reader. It opens a new door brought all sort of new possibilities to light. R. J. Barker was keeping his cards close to the vest and when he laid them all on the table I couldn't have been happier to see what he'd created.

What is there to say about The Bone Ship’s Wake without spoiling the entire trilogy? (Don’t worry, I don’t plan on it!) This novel concludes what has earned a place in my all time favourite fantasy trilogies. In an emotional, action-packed finale, RJ Barker sticks one heck of a landing for a series with a lot of plot threads, mysteries, and character arcs to resolve. I laughed, I cried, I messaged the friend whom I buddy read this with strings of incoherent texts—it was an excellent journey.

For anyone who would enjoy an age of sail inspired, grimdark-adjacent fantasy with wonderful worldbuilding, compelling characters, and a unique stylistic voice, look no further than The Tide Child trilogy. Highly and enthusiastically recommended.

Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for an advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

RJ Barker ends this trilogy in unbelievable fashion. If you like Robin Hobb's Liveship Traders series, you should scoop all of these up and read them immediately. Seafaring adventure with a heavy dose of magic, you can't do much better in my opinion if you are looking for a captivating story. Can't wait to see what RJ has up his sleeve next!

One Sentence Summary: Over a year after Meas surrendered herself, Joron still works to find and free her, but it becomes a race to find peace and escape those they crossed.

Overall
The Bone Ship’s Wake is the very fitting conclusion to the Tide Child trilogy. It’s heartbreaking and beautiful, and continued to have everything I love about this series. The world is still so remarkable that I felt like I was stepping into it every time I picked it up. The characters broke me and put me back together and made me cry. Their relationships were so gorgeous throughout the series and this book couldn’t have given them better endings (well, I lie a little as I wish some of them had never happened, but I believe they were appropriate and were the fitting culminations of those particular character arcs). I did feel there was a bit too much good luck and magic going on at the end that broke the spell a little bit for me, but, while caught up in it, I thought it was wonderful and beautifully, achingly, perfect. Overall, an incredible end to an incredible trilogy.

Extended Thoughts
The Bone Ship’s Wake is set over a year since Meas surrendered herself in order to ensure her fleet of blackships would go free. Tortured at the hands of an unknown hagpriest, she longs to be saved, but also desperately wants Joron to stay away. Joron and the blackship fleet, though, need Meas and he will do anything and everything to find and rescue her.

It’s difficult to review the last book in this trilogy without revealing too much both about the series overall and about this book in particular. If I thought the second book broke me, this one did something much worse. It was beautiful and painful, breathtaking and heartwarming. There are so many strong spirits, so many hard choices. I never knew a book could torture me so much, but I also can’t help but see just what a beautiful book this is.

My favorite part of this trilogy has been watching Joron’s journey. From an angry man intent on getting his shipwife hat back to an incredible broken but strong man who has more than earned it back, his journey has been one of pain and hardships, but of also learning and discovering. The Bone Ship’s Wake was an amazing conclusion to his story, even if my heart broke about a million times throughout. I did find it was a bit predictable, but the power behind it was incredible and the way it was written felt so fitting.

If there’s one thing I wasn’t a big fan of, it was actually towards the end when it kind of felt like magic swept in to save the day. Of course, the whole trilogy did heavily hint and lead up to it, but it still felt a bit sudden, almost like the author had written himself into a corner and needed something quick. It was a bit jarring, but also beautifully executed. I do wish more of the magic, more of the power, had been written in to make it feel more natural, but then I think some of the power would have been lost.

While I adored all the characters and had my heart broken over and over by them, I struggled a bit with Meas in this one. She is, understandably, broken to some degree. I did enjoy how conflicted she was, how unsure she was, and how angry and sad she was with not being who she had been. Her struggles felt real and deeply human for someone who had been lauded as such a legend. But she seemed so lost and almost like she was trying too hard. Of course, it makes way for putting Joron on full display and makes his position at the end of the story perfect, but it was a little difficult to get past.

But I absolutely love everything about this world. Every bit of it is carefully thought out, every piece fits, and the mythology behind it is incredible. I love that everything about it has been so consistent from book to book, that, every time I pick up the story, it drops me right back onto a ship. The ships are so detailed, especially when it comes to how they’re run, that I feel like I’m on a ship, flying across the sea. Overall, reading this trilogy has been an exceptionally immersive experience.

As a matter of fact, it was so immersive that, when it came to the end, even if it felt a tad unbelievable, I had to fight to not weep uncontrollably in front of my kids. It’s amazing how near and dear all the characters, human and creature, came to be to my heart. Every word of this series has just wrapped itself around me and it always felt more like I was reading a friend’s story. It’s heartbreaking, but beautiful.

Of course, as a big fan of creature companions, I adored the relationship between Joron and Guillame. What was once one full of animosity became something incredibly beautiful. It helped make hard decisions even harder and definitely heightened the emotional factor for me. All of the relationships felt so precious and every loss was like a blow.

The Bone Ship’s Wake is a beautiful end to the trilogy. It neatly ties up the story while leaving the emotionally invested reader feeling kind of wrung out. I’m so impressed with how each book just pulled so much of me in and took me into they’re pages. Overall, this has absolutely been one of the most emotional roller coasters I’ve been on with a series.

Thank you to Angela Man at Orbit and NetGalley for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

The first two books of R. J. Barker’s The Tide Child trilogy (The Bone Ships and Call of the Bone Ships) blew me away with a sustained level of sheer excitement, inventive detail of a sea-faring world of two archipelagos, a great set of characters and incredible staging of naval battles. These books brought me back to C. S. Forester’s Hornblower series from my boyhood and the more recent Aubrey-Maturin books by Patrick O’Brian. The Bone Ship’s Wake drives the story to an incredible conclusion, though with some plot intricacies and diversions that I thought took away from the powerful main thread of high seas adventure.
.........

At the end of Call of the Bone Ships, Lucky Meas gives herself up to become a prisoner of the Hundred Isles rulers. That is her sacrifice to keep the black bone pirate fleet safe.The concluding volume, The Bone Ship’s Wake, has an equally strong story at its heart as Joron Twiner and his crew set about a long search for Meas that has them raiding port after port to weaken the white bone ships of the Hundred Isles.

But a number of less exciting diversions involving political intrigues and betrayals and overland rescue missions, in my opinion, detracted from the flow of the main story, though each incident was carefully woven into the overall plot. As soon as Barker gets his characters back on shipboard, though, the epic scope of the master narrative overwhelmed any reservations I had about the middle of the book.

The first two chapters of The Bone Ship’s Wake (all Barker’s opening scenes take you right to the heart of the action) bring you first to a torture chamber where Lucky Meas suffers horrible pain to force her to give up secrets she doesn’t possess. Then we switch to a battle in which the Black Pirate raids a fortress city where, as we see from the point of view of a young defender about to be executed, this terrifying figure lines up the officers who refuse to surrender and join the pirates and makes them swing from the gallows.

That’s what Joron Twiner has become – the Black Pirate, having made his own legend as the fearless and brilliant commander of the Tide Child. He refuses to don the shipwife’s hat, reserving it for its rightful owner. His long mission is to free Lucky Meas from prison and restore her to her rightful place.
.......
There are a lot of surprises leading to a powerful climax for the entire series, one that is worth waiting for. The Tide Child trilogy for me is one of the strongest fantasy adventures of recent years. Now I say that as someone whose first love is science fiction, but there are so many amazing fantasy series coming out all the time that I’m rapidly changing my reading habits.

The Bone Ship’s Wake is the amazing conclusion of a sea-faring adventure that’s both dark and hopeful, one that led me through an emotional rollercoaster in whose aftermath I’m still trying to deal with the mixed feelings of wonder and anguish it engendered: hopefully I will be able to convert them into an organic - and spoiler-free! - review…

When we previously left the crew of the Tide Child, they were suffering from many kinds of losses: crew-mates had perished, people had been grievously wounded, and worse still, ship-wife Meas had been taken prisoner, her dream of uniting the folks from the Hundred and Gaunt Isles into a better kind of life apparently doomed. Hurt but not beaten, Meas’ deck-keeper Joron Twiner turns the rebel fleet into a pirate armada, with the double goal of weakening the Hundred Isles’ power and of gaining intelligence on Meas’ fate - and if possible of freeing her. But despite the bloody successes and the dire fame he’s gained as the Black Pirate, Joron knows that his time is running out: the fleet under his command is losing irreplaceable ships, despite the victories; he’s being consumed by the unforgiving Keyshan's Rot, that will ultimately lead him to madness and death; and his hopes of finding Meas alive diminish with every passing day.

As I noted in the previous reviews for this series, there is a perfect balance between plot and characterization here, both halves of the story sustaining and enhancing each other in a perfect blend that offers both impeccable pacing and outstanding character journeys that kept me reading on until all hours: this is the kind of book where you keep promising yourself “just one more chapter”, and before you realize it, it’s 2 a.m. Or even later…

Story-wise there is a definite sensation of both time running out and of impending doom, fueled by the long, suspenseful sea chases that see the crew of Tide Child forced to play a game of wits and endurance with more powerful (but certainly not more cunning!) foes: here is where we can see more than ever the depth and breadth of the author’s imagination as he conceived of this sea-faring world, traveled by ships built out of dragon bones, whose depiction required the creation of a whole new set of naval terms that establish the alienness and the unending wonder of this background while reminding us at the same time of more familiarly sounding shipboard tales. Where the hardships of the situation are described in stark relief, there is still a heart-warming sense of common purpose in the Tide Child’s crew, one that looks even more extraordinary when recalling that they, like all black ships’ complements, are condemned criminals, their service aboard such vessels nothing more than a delayed death sentence: still, through Meas’ past example and Joron’s constantly growing leadership skills, these convicts have turned into a tight crew, one that’s proud of its own accomplishments and is able to work as a single, well-coordinated entity toward their goal.

In this final volume, the secondary characters we have already come to know well come more directly into the light, shining with added depth and pathos as their arcs move along an inexorably established path: people like Cwell, Mevans, Farys, Solemn Muffaz - just to name a few - become more rounded and also more dear to us as the story progresses and we are painfully aware that while this author is hardly tender toward his creations, we are unable to force ourselves not to care for them and their destiny.

But it’s the main characters who keep stealing our hearts and minds, and The Bone Ship’s Wake does its very best to break our hearts as it shows their continuing journey. Meas figures prominently in the very first chapter, one that’s quite hard to read and which sees her stripped of all the strength and assurance that made her such a formidable ship-wife and such an inspirational leader: proud, “lucky” Meas is apparently robbed of all the attributes that made her such a famous and respected captain, only to learn, once she sees herself as vulnerable and diminished, that her legend is still capable of arousing deep loyalty and faith in her crew, even in those who have not met her yet. There is a scene, toward the end, involving a very special flag, that symbolized this earnest devotion and which I found deeply touching.

As for Joron, he continues to grow into a very capable commander, even though he still thinks of himself as a mere caretaker for the rule of Tide Child: for Joron, the one and only worthy ship-wife remains Meas, even as he takes the reins of the rebel fleet and scours the seas in search of information - or vengeance. This is a man who is resigned to his mortality and that of his companions, but still wants every sacrifice to count for something: when I think back to the person he was at the start of the series, of the way the crew ignored him - or worse - I realize he’s done an incredible work on himself, much as he wants to deny it, and this reflects on the people around him, who are ready to sacrifice everything in the name of the esprit de corps that he and Meas have nurtured as a replacement for the careless waste of lives that the cruel laws of the Hundred Isles implemented for so long.

And last but not least - not by a long way - the Gullaime: from the first book I felt an immediate kinship with this birdlike creature capable of summoning the winds, whose fate appears inextricably linked with Joron’s. Their subdued friendship, the way they took to one another beyond the need for words, has so far been one of the brightest lights in this grim background, but here their bond takes on such a poignant depth that I found myself on the verge of tears more than once - and I don’t cry easily… This final book brings about a number of revelations about the Gullaime and the role of the Tide Child’s windtalker in the grand scheme of things, but for me the most touching moment is the one where the Gullaime uses the word friend in addressing Joron: more than the fulfillment of the prophecy that we’ve learned unites the man and the bird, and which carries its own heavy emotional baggage, it’s that moment that will always remain in my mind every time I will think about the Gullaime, one of the best and most “real” fantasy creatures I ever encountered in my bookish travels.

Where the Wounded Kingdom series marked for me the discovery of a new, powerful voice in the fantasy genre, the Tide Child saga confirms its author as an outstanding writer, one capable of beguiling you with his stories as he uses them to break your heart. But that’s all right, nonetheless…

Much like a fireworks show, The Bone Ship’s Wake starts slowly before building in pace and intensity to an epic and explosive finale. It’s a satisfying conclusion to a magnificent seafaring adventure trilogy.

While the first book in this series remains my favorite, the entire saga is worthwhile and this final book is just the cherry on top of a thrilling and bloody pirate sundae. Sounds tasty, right?

It’s been gratifying to watch these characters withstand both literal and figurative storms and come out better for it, but I am certainly sad to see their adventures come to an end. Although this particular saga is at its close, Barker leaves the door cracked open enough should he ever want to return to tell more tales from the Scattered Archipelago. I would happily sign up for another tour of duty in this world.

Fantastic!! I had high expectation but this surpass them all!! Can't say too much to not spoil the previous book, but fantastic world, universe and such an engaging story and cool cast of characters. Truly a series, a book and an author worth reading!