Sadly I got this book not realizing it was not the first in the series so I will not be reviewing it at this time until I read the other books in the series because I don't want to give myself spoilers! I think the cover art and the blurb are very beautiful and interesting though and thank you to the author for approving it for me. I'm sorry for not reviewing it right now but I did want to provide this feedback so It would not negatively reflect on me

It was so bittersweet having to say goodbye to such a beloved series. I fell in love with 'The Bone Shard Daughter' years ago, and it has been both a pain and a joy to go along the ride with these characters with each installment in the series. 'The Bone Shard Daughter' became one of my favourites when I read it back in 2020, as I loved the world, its magic, and of course, our characters (Mephi is always my favourite!).

The ending was emotional and impactful, and I adored the many new characters we were able to glimpse into through perspective. I'm in love with the resolution all the main characters received, especially the ollassen (Thrana, Mephi and Lozhi). This series will forever hold a precious place in my heart.

I have mixed feelings about this final installment, The end kind of fell flat for me. Overall it felt repetitive and predictable even if I still enjoyed being back in the world and seeing the story through. I thought the time jump was a great way to further the story, but it got confusing with so many POVs and many of them were not consistent or well-spaced.
However, so many loose ends were tied and questions were answered from the previous books. The magic system is still one of my favorites. Lin's development saved a lot of the other shortcomings I had with the book!

High stakes fantasy and a stunning conclusion to the Bone Shard trilogy. Rich characters, fantastic magic system, this series is difficult to put down.

i didn't make it through the first couple of chapters. I just want not captivated like the first two books in the series. I will try again later to pick this up.

Unfortunately this was an ending that only sort of stuck the landing for me. My biggest issue was how bloated this felt, where earlier in the series I would say a strength of the work was how tightly plotted everything was. I am also not a quest driven reader so the whole "go to a place to get a thing" repetitive plot arcs where never going to be to my taste. This could have probably still been a four star with all of that for me if it weren't for the new antagonist that we got in book 2, I think he completely detracted from the larger conversation we could have had with Dione and added to the bloat. I do see how this arc allows us to see the development of another character but I think there were other ways we could have done that. I also was noticing holes in the magic/world building that really bothered me with one of our character's situations that he was stuck in, and it felt like he was stuck in it longer than made sense logically so there would be this emotional pay off scene but that didn't land for me cause I was already pretty annoyed that he was still stuck in that situation. There is still a lot of good in this series, the ideas are fascinating and I generally like the themes but I do think a lot of these little things added up to just make me feel bummed and exhausted by the end of the experience.

I probably should not have continued with this series, as I found book two to be pretty bad, and I didn't love book one. However, I was really determined to figure out why this wasn't clicking, because on paper I should like this series. It just wasn't working.

And I had a random thought while reading this book, and then I searched the book for a phrase. And once I did, it allowed my issues with this series to coalesce. Bear with me here: this book says the phrase "The Shardless Few" 307 times.

The Shardless Few is the name of the organization/rebellion trying to overthrow the government. And their name is said CONSTANTLY. Why is this the problem? It's not. It's a symptom of the problem. My issue with this series is that none of it feels believable, none of the characters act like real people, none of the political stakes feel like real stakes. Everything is extraordinarily hollow to me.

I first realized this because we are presented this story through five POV characters from various backgrounds, and each of them interacts with many others, and every single one of these characters say "The Shardless Few X. The Shardless Few Y. We can't ignore the Shardless Few. The Shardless Few are here. Whose here? The Shardless Few." and I just don't think everyone would always talk like this. That's a long phrase and especially people who have to interact with the group daily would shorten it. The Shardless. The Few. The SFs, dammit. Can you imagine if every single time a person in the FBI referred to the FBI, they said "Federal Bureau of Investigation"? They would sound absurd. Their vocal cords would rebel. People just don't do this.

And that's a silly nitpick, that was just taking me out of it a little. But once I realized that, I was aware of how every character felt like that. They talked as if they were being written. The scheming was written as if they were being told to pretend to scheme, like an acting workshop without the instructor's presence. The political aspects were like if a child just said "hey in my story, these are the bad guys. Why? They do bad stuff I guess." Most of the high stakes drama boils down to someone being like:

"We must stop the abuse! The Shardless Few want to stop the abuse! We will not ignore The Shardless Fee's desires. We agree with the Shardless Few."
"Okay I will work with the Shardless Few, because I also don't like abuse and stuff."
"Thank you for helping the Shardless Few! The Shardless Few will appreciate it! The Shardless Few will fill help the children. With the orphanages and stuff."
"The children? Oh yeah, children. Orphanages. Yes, this is a big problem. I will help the Shardless Few with the orphanages"

Like what is this series even about? Why do any of these people do the things they do? There are all these islands and we are supposed to care about rebellions on each island and various injustices on these islands but each island's personality is "island". There's "island X" and "Island Y" and everyone has the same thoughts and opinions; they want the children to be taken care of and for the abuses to stop. Down with the emperor! Long live the Shardless Few!

K.

I will also say that the audiobook narrators were mostly really good, and got me through this entire series.

This was one of the best fantasy trilogies I've read in a while. The world building. The characters. The plot development. Epic. It takes about the first 20% of The Bone Shard Daughter to pick up steam. However, once immersed in the character’s lives, the book and the sequels were a joy to read. While not a page turner throughout, the story sat with me for much longer than expected after I completed the series.

Jovis is a such well written love interest. As a flawed character, his journey throughout the book was unexpected. The same could be said about Lin, though her stoicism is more of a constant. Mephi is likely to be everyone’s favorite character, as the comic relief, he was a true balance of innocence and wisdom. My only wish was that there was more of a goodbye from Mephi at the end. This last book, The Bone Shard War, wraps up the story thoroughly, with a strong finality that left me feeling satisfied (we should hope after 600+ pages!). I would definitely read more in if this world continued, but I was very pleased with the ending nevertheless.

Hmmm. It’s difficult to write a review for the third and final book of a series without giving spoilers.

As always, the world and magic system in this series is fascinating and very unique. I really enjoyed the setting.

I felt that the pacing of this book was odd. The beginning, about the first third or so, was incredibly slow and took me a while to get through. Then the rest kind of felt repetitive and disjointed. Too much separation (distance wise) between the POV characters. I would’ve liked to see them come together at some point.

Thank you for the arc!

Unfortunately I was disappointed by this trilogy. There is a large time skip from the end of the second novel, and it was hard to adjust to the characters in their new positions when there was so much pining. Perhaps this is a "me" problem due to the amount of time that had passed since I read the other books, both of which I enjoyed.

One of the best fantasies I’ve read since LOTR…

This series has a split plot between several POVs. Through the eyes of the emperor, we see a privileged person trying to rule the masses. Lin has been through a lot in previous books, but she’s also grown up in a palace and is disconnected from her people. The nuance and dichotomy is on point.

Jovis is a slave to the smugglers he’s spent the last two books running from. He was a smuggler, a hero, and is now an unwilling smuggler who hurts people to survive the situation he’s in. Again, the author showing that two opposing things can exist together.

Phalue has come a long way, but Ranami was the big surprise in this book. Her personal growth was the biggest surprise for me here.

This plot is so nuanced and complex, but I was never lost for a second. That takes some serious skills, and I can’t wait to see what else Andrea Stewart has up her sleeve.

An absolutely incredible end to one of the best fantasy series I’ve read in recent years.
I don’t want to go further into detail bc spoilers, but it is worth the wait

The Short: The Bone Shard War was a great end to a fantastic trilogy! I honestly loved all of the twists and turns that Andrea weaved into this final installment. And the ending was perfect, in my own opinion.

The Long: This is one of those series that intrigued me from the beginning. I binged the first two and had to patiently wait for the third to publish. I was so happy when the ARC hit my kindle because I needed to find out what happened next. I never even would’ve guessed what was causing the islands to sink. I enjoyed every minute of this book.

I will always highly recommend this series.

This is the finale to one of my favorite fantasy trilogies and this one went in a very different direction than the first 2, all of our characters are separated and they each are on there own personal journey which I really enjoyed. I think for an ending, it gave each character to almost say goodbye in a way. It is much slower in my opinion than the first 2 which is different than you’re typical epic finale. I liked the slower paced feel especially for a series that I don’t want to end. Throughout this series Andrea slowly builds a rich fantasy world with cute animal companions, ancient elemental magic wielders, and bone magic and in this final book, she answers all of the questions that us readers had,
Full review on YouTube

I very much enjoyed the first two books in this series, so I was very excited to read this finale! I did enjoy returning to this world and getting to spend time with some of the characters. Other characters were frustrating, or I felt I didn't need POV chapters for them. This one is very relationship heavy, which I felt took away from the plot and wasn't necessary. The climax felt a bit underwhelming. Mephi is still my favorite.

Book 1 is my favorite out of the trilogy, and I think it works as a standalone, which made the second and third book pale in comparison. I still recommend this series, but this wasn't as strong of a book as I was hoping.

A great conclusion to a great series!

It took a bit to get back into this world, primarily due to the unexpected time skip we encounter between the second installment and this one. Due to the trauma one of our characters experiences during that time, I found the skip to be a good decision, though it did mean it took me a little longer than I was anticipating to feel engrossed in the story. Still, the book as a whole was an engaging, exciting, edge-of-your seat page turner. I read whole thing in a day, simply because I had to know what happened next.

There are a few world-building details and villain motivations that I think will become clearer upon reread, as I'll have pieced together some of the mysteries, and will thus be able to focus on the foreshadowing and character work being established. Given how abstract of a start the series had, it made it a little difficult to take in some of those side details. This isn't necessarily a negative, as I love when a story is already gripping the first time through, yet still has so much left to uncover upon a second read through.

Overall, a great conclusion to a great series! I can't wait to see what Stewart writes next.

Also, I love Mephi.

4.25 round up to 5

I was very much looking forward to this book. I read the first two installments in the series as audiobooks last summer and was eagerly anticipating the conclusion despite some plot holes and weird worldbuilding choices.

Unfortunately, I think that a lot of my enjoyment came from the audiobook format and the wonderful narrators because book three was so much less interesting to me. I noticed flaws here that I didn't notice when the story was being told to me by talented voice actors.

I didn't care about Lin or Jovis. Phalue and Ranami were barely present. The main conflict had become boring. The fun spookiness of the first two books was largely gone because so many mysteries had been revealed.

I might pick this one back up on audio at some point and see if I can get through it with the help of the wonderful narrators, but until then, The Bone Shard War is unfortunately a DNF.

To provide context for this review, I liked the first Drowning Empire book (though not a full five stars looking back, as with most of my ratings I was too generous at the time), had some issues with the second, and was a bit trepidatious about the third going in as it could make or break the way I feel about the trilogy.

The Bone Shard War is longer than it needs to be, but overalled I enjoyed my time with it and thankfully had all of my outstanding vital questions answered. The worldbuilding stands out as my favorite part of this entire trilogy, even if the molasses slow pace at which it unfolded was at times frustrating. In this installment, I relished catching a few reveals before the characters but not (as in the last) so far ahead of time that I got bored and annoyed waiting for them to catch up.

Our characters all experience a lot of growth both throughout this book and between it and the last, another factor I appreciated. Especially some of our side characters I was pleasantly surprised to see fleshed out further and become more complex/sympathetic. There were certainly times when I wished Linn could hurry up and make up her mind, or Jovis could be a little less stubborn, but in the end I'm happy with how most of our characters changed and where they ended up. Relatedly, I'm pleased to report that this novel didn't fall into the trap of too tragic or too easy an ending, but - for my taste at least - maintained approximately the same tone as the series as a whole, doling out appropriate consequences while leaving readers satisfied.

My primary disappointment with the book is also something I'm glad was attempted at all - the question of a disintegrating and transitioning monarchy was not pushed off to the wayside for the finale as I had begun to fear. At the same time, however, this subject still wasn't explored with as much nuance as I would have hoped, considering how fundamental of a thread it was throughout the trilogy. We got to the turning point (which arguably could have come much sooner, if not for some impressively stubborn thinking, perhaps one of the most realistic parts of the novel), made the vital decision, and then only received a hint at the full outcome. Which, of course, is a common end to books of this genre, but I still wished for a bit more.

It's difficult to satisfactorily review a final book without hinting towards too many spoilers; I'm not sure if I've done a great job. Regardless, I would be remiss though in closing this out without mentioning the stars of the show: Mephi, Thala, and the rest of our faithful ossalen companions. Their presence brought me much joy without them the Drowning Empire would be nothing.

In the end, I'm very glad to have picked up The Bone Shard Daughter a few years ago and to have seen the trilogy all the way through. Andrea Stewart's writing and pacing - though still not a perfect match for me - has become much more polished throughout this series, and I'm excited to see what she'll publish next.

Words cannot describe how much this series means to me. The first book was one of the very first ARCs I was approved for so the fact that the final book is here makes me low-key emotional. Going into this, I wasn't sure if I wanted to completely devour the entire book in a day or to savor it to make it last longer, so I did a little bit of both. And reader, when I tell you this was the perfect ending to the series, I mean it. The beginning starts off with a time skip, so that was a little confusing but once the action started and things picked up momentum, I was hooked until the very last page. And now I need a spin off of Lin and Jovis and co hunting for Alanga artifacts like non-colonialistic Indiana Joneses.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book! I just realized that I forgot to post this review for the ebook copy that I was given in addition to the audiobook I was granted. This review is just a copy of the one I submitted already since I switched back and forth from audio and ebook while reading this.

I marathoned this series this month in preparation for a special edition going on sale next month and in honor of the final book in the trilogy's release. Because this is the third book in the series, I don't want to talk about any of what happened in any sort of detail because of potential spoilers in the other two books, but this was a decent enough conclusion of the story.

Take my opinion lightly because I went into this book a bit jaded.

First of all, it starts two years after the second book. For me already, that was a miss because a lot had occurred in those two years, and it just left me feeling a bit distanced from some characters that I had grown to care for. Another thing I loathe is when main characters are separated in a book following one where they are finally united (think The Final Strife for example). Additionally, I can't stand insta-love and connections that I don't believe in, and maybe small spoiler here, but for two characters to kiss ONE TIME and profess that they "love" one another, only to be separated for two years and NEITHER OF THEM MOVE ON AND STILL BE OBSESSED? Seems weird to me personally. I thought they were strong and great characters on their own, and they didn't need all of the pining that ensued on their adventures to keep their story fresh and interesting. Lastly, I made it quite known how much I couldn't stand Ranami in the other two books, and this is no exception. For someone who had nothing to be that entitled from the very beginning just because she slept with a governor's daughter? She's conniving and manipulative and I hate her more than any of the multitude of villains in this series.

But overall, I did like this book. I think that the second book is still the best in the series and the ending was my least favorite, but overall, I would definitely recommend.