I'm sorry to say that my most anticipated read of the year was kind of a flop for me. I LOVED Bone Shard Daughter and Bone Shard Emperor, and after that book 2 cliffhanger I could not wait to read what happened to my favs. However, book 3 opens to a time jump... all the angst and cliffhanger feelings are erased, while the reader is left to try and piece together just what has been happening since the end of book 2. The answer? not really that much. Lin thinks Jovis is dead, and all the islands are still being difficult. Jovis' actually alive and well though, and being controlled by Kaphra with bone shard magic. Somehow with all of Jovis' past experience with getting around bone shard magic rules when it comes to constructs, he's not sure how to apply that same strategy when he, himself is the one being controlled. This leads to not nearly enough Mephi and Jovis banter/hijinks because Kaphra is using Mephi as an incentive to make Jovis do his bidding without a fight. (did I mention that Jovis and Lin are separated for at least 75% of this book?!?)
Also, for some reason Nisong hooks up with the crazy asshole monk Ragan, which kind of made sense until they became romantically involved for no reason ... bleh.
As for the Shardless Few -their leader Dione (the secret ancient Alanga guy) still refuses to work with Lin for what amounts to literally mindless prejudice, to the point of idiocy - like he was never dumb in the first 2 books, but now he's just made difficult to be difficult. It just felt like the author didn't know how to tie together all these characters and their ideals together within the world she built. As a result this conclusion was clunky and all over the place. This series just deserved a better ending, and where the characters ended up at the end? ughhh I just don't know how to feel about it. Will I read Stewart's next series? yes. Am I still bummed that this was a flop read for me? (hint I'm devastated)

The end of a very decent trilogy that should not disappoint those who have read the previous books in the series. Characters remained for the most part the same and will be liked or disliked for who they are hopefully. I would say Jovis and Lin are the two best characters of the series but other characters and that includes the animal companions are possibly favorites of others. They were not really animals but people as much as the human characters were I think. Certainly more could have done with them and their stories if given time. This ending of the trilogy brought into focus in some of the political and ethical battles that can occur when trying to change a government or a society. It also in some parts felt like a romance considering the couples in the book. The journey they took was.one that should have been one hope, joy, sadness and many other emotions. I did enjoy reading this bok and the previous books in the series but after reading The Bone Shard Emperor again I still liked it but it wasn't as good the first time. I think the same may hold true for this book however that's just for me that could be true. For a debut writer Andrea Stewart has certainly done a very well with this trilogy and will be interesting to see what comes next from her. Thanks to the author and her publishers for not just one good book but a well done trilogy.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2023. I love this series so much, and this finale met all of my expectations. It had plenty of action, insightful commentary on timely themes, fascinating world-building, and emotional character moments. The writing was excellent and easy to read, as always with Stewart, and the pace constantly pulled me forward, restless to see what would happen next. I finished this 600+ page chonker in less than two days because I just could not put it down.

I'm at somewhat of a loss for what else to say... After the end of the second book, the empire was a bit of a mess with several different factions vying for control. They all seemed to want meaningful change in how the empire treats its people, but each of them had very different motivations and ideas about what the change should look like. Some wanted the people to have more power. Others wanted power for themselves. Many wanted revenge for the history of imperial oppression and genocide. It created a hotbed of compelling conflict that was fascinating to read. That being said, I really could have used a recap of the first two books at the beginning of this one. I definitely recommend re-reading the previous stories before this one because it took me a while to remember all the major players and past conflicts that set up the tensions in this one.

I enjoyed the world-building quite a bit. It brought everything together in ways that made sense and tied up the loose ends really well. I liked that the magical focus shifted to a melding of the Alanga and bone shard magic rather than one or the other as in previous books, and the connection between the two was interesting to learn. Of course, there were plenty of ossalen in this story, as well. So, if you were wanting to meet even more of these adorable creatures, you're in luck, and I loved getting more info about them.

As I mentioned above, the story itself was expansive with tons of moving parts. It utilized multiple POVs, just as in the previous books, to get a window into each of the various factions of the conflict. All of it came together very well, but it did feel bloated at times, especially during the middle of the book. The race for the magical swords, while interesting, ran on a bit too long before coming to the point, and it felt like it took too long to come back to certain POVs at times. For example, Jovis and Mephi seemed largely sidelined for the first half of the book, and Ranami's story felt abandoned at times because of the gaps between her chapters. It also made the timeline feel weird because so much happened in the other POVs while Ranami's story seemed like it barely moved forward at all. That being said, I commend the author for her ability to weave together all the disparate story threads, from this book and the others, into a cohesive and compelling narrative. It was wild seeing all of it pay off in deeply satisfying ways. I'll definitely miss this story now that it is over, but I absolutely loved the journey and its resolution.

There's so much to say about the characters that I'm just not even going to try. lol. Instead, I'm going to give you my brief reaction to each POV, and you'll just have to read the book to find out more. I was super proud of Lin and the decisions she made, especially at the end. Ranami's story ended in a way that I really wasn't expecting but probably should have known was coming because it was perfect for her. Nisong/Sand was surprising and made me both sad and hopeful. Speaking of sad, Jovis and Mephi had me BAWLING my eyes out. I love them and their relationship so much, and there were so many moments that hurt so bad.

There were several great themes in this story. One of the most prominent in this installment was the focus on learning from the past without being consumed by it. This was explored on both a societal and individual level, as many of the characters struggled with coming to terms with their past and how it impacted their actions and motivations in the present. The story also explored how best to implement change to a broken system. Each of the main players had a different take on revolution, and it was interesting to see the various approaches battle it out in real time. Should they burn the empire to the ground? Should they try to fix the system from within? Should one person wield the power to make efficient changes or should all the people have a say? These are timeless questions, and the story really made me stop to think about them.

I had the absolute pleasure of listening to the audiobook while following along with the text. If you have the opportunity to do the same, I highly recommend it. The narrators were fantastic and added so much personality to these characters that I already loved so much. The male narrator for Jovis was probably my favorite just because of the way he did Mephi's voice. It was perfect, and he captured the essence of Mephi so well. Overall, this was a phenomenal conclusion to a fantastic trilogy. It felt truly epic and provided a satisfying resolution to the over-arching story and each character's personal journey. Therefore, I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Introduction

This is a difficult review to write.

When The Bone Shard Daughter came out in 2020, I picked it up because this sub was hyping it up. I read The Bone Shard Daughter, and had a great time. I didn't love the book, but I damn well liked it; today, I would rate it 4 stars. Between The Bone Shard Daughter and The Bone Shard Emperor I got a lot of people to read the series on discord who I became good friends with. In that same time, I became friendly with the author, Andrea Stewart, on Twitter, and eventually because we weren't able to meet up at World Fantasy Con where she would give me a physical ARC of The Bone Shard Emperor, she mailed me one instead. That was an amazing act of kindness that I won't forget. So I read The Bone Shard Emperor in all its early physical glory and it was fantastic. I had my criticisms but I loved the book, and that was sort of the green light for those members of my discord communities who hadn't yet read the series but were interested in it to pick it up and read it. Even today, I would give BSE 5 stars.

I tell you all this because nobody wanted to like The Bone Shard War more than me. When it was delayed, I was a little sad that I'd have to wait a bit longer for the conclusion to one of my favorite series (though the reason it was delayed was a good one: children). I'd loved the first two books, made friends and built communities out of them, and loved the author as a person. I would probably still give BSW a 5 star even if it wasn't as good as BSE just for those reasons.

Unfortunately, this was not the exciting conclusion I was expecting, but a more disappointing ending to the series for me. Some of my feelings might be explained by my tastes changing over time, but I think this book has some major flaws that make it a weak and unfulfilling conclusion. I still like enough parts of it that I'd give it 3 stars (which for me means that it's middle of the road, not bad but not good either, though it tends to lean more negative for me since I give most books 4-5 stars). But I do want to state clearly here: this series and this ending is still worth reading. There's a lot of good in this series, and I will get into that.

What I Like

Let me talk about a few things I like, first. Every single character relationship in this book is brilliant. Every single last one of them. If there's one thing that Andrea Stewart nailed 100% it is the fucking relationships. Lin and Phalue's tenuous alliance and friendship. The ironclad loyal friendship of Jovis and Mephi. The yearning romance of Lin and Jovis and the quietly mature relationship of Phalue and Ranami. The parent-child relationship of Ranami and Ayesh, the horribly abusive dynamics of Kaphra and Jovis and Sand/Nisong and Ragan, and the hero-villain dynamics between our protagonists and Dione and Ragan. Every moment regarding any of these relationships or more landed, and landed hard. This book did make me cry, though admittedly I kind of cry easily these days lol.

I'm also still a really big fan of the way this world feels. While the world obviously has both Asian and Polynesian influences, it doesn't really feel like either of them; it feels quite unique. While I could've used more description of the world throughout the series so that I could see it better, I definitely got a strong sense of what it felt like, especially the islands of Imperial and Nephilanu where most of our action takes place. At the end of the series, I might even want to live here, if they solved the whole "islands are sinking" problem.

I also really really liked the final scenes and denouement of the book. I don't like the climax, but everything after the climax is brilliant.

So that's where the things I wholly love come to an end. There's more I do love, but those two things together make up most of the 3 stars the book earns from me.

Structure Critiques

1. The biggest single problem with The Bone Shard War is that there is no war until the last 20-25% of the book (I double-checked). In fact, the entire first half of the book features one pair of characters setting out on what feels like a big side quest to fetch magical swords featured in a subplot of BSE, rather than focusing on progressing the political or war plots. This is a six hundred page book, and three hundred of them feature something that feels so irrelevant that at one point even Lin herself remarks "hmm, maybe I should have stayed on Imperial and focused on solving the main problem rather than hoping the swords would solve problems for me." Like the swords are important magical devices for sure, but even in the end they aren't that important to the plot. They play a somewhat important role but you could write them out and it wouldn't feel like you are missing something.
Something one of my friends said to me feels relevant here: the magic became uninteresting in this book. It was one of the most interesting parts of the first book, and even somewhat the second book, but in this book the absence of the rule-based bone shard magic and its replacement with the flimsy elemental Alanga magic really crippled it. The upsurge in the importance of the swords to the plot feels like a way to keep the magic interesting and not have it rely entirely on the Alanga magic, but ironically it makes the book less interesting as a result.

2) Another problem with this book is that the politics of this book really betrayed the lack of depth to the worldbuilding. This was a minor problem in BSE, but the reason why that book could get away with it was that all the politics really focused on developing Lin's character arc, so even though the politics couldn't really stand on their own, it had specific ramifications on the character arcs that made it work. Here, there is no character arc; the politics is its own thing, and it doesn't work. The conflict over witstone and caro nuts is interesting in theory, but in practice, every island uses them the same ways and faces almost the same exact challenges. For those who have read The Green Bone Saga, you can note the way each individual country uses jade and shine is different from the next; none of that depth is present here, and that makes the politics quite shallow and dull comparatively.

3) The first half of this book is also really weak at handling payoff. While I do like all the character relationships present in this book, the first half of the book—300 pages—focuses on relationships we have invested less time into, and keeps both sets of primary relationships separate from each other.
One of my favorite parts of reading final books in a series is seeing low-stakes relationship payoff moments in the first half of the book, and then high-stakes ones later. For Wheel of Time fans, think of that big meeting in the tent at the start of A Memory of Light. For Expanse fans, think of the Roci scenes at the start of Leviathan Falls. For Red Rising fans, think of the moments Darrow shares with Sevro, Ragnar, and Victra at the start of Morning Star. For First Law fans, think of the Jezal or Logen scenes at the start of The Last Argument of Kings. For Lady Trent fans, think of a particular scene at a university at the start of Within the Sanctuary of Wings. You all know what I'm talking about—this book did none of that in the first half. So we were already off to a rather unsatisfying start as I'd have to wait a long while to get those moments. That is not crippling on its own, but when paired with these other structural problems, as well as the more scene-focused problems I'll get to below, it just adds fuel to the fire.

4) Finally, the themes. This series really wants to talk about how a single monarch can inherently not look after the common person, while weighing that against the benefits of monarchy. Ultimately, I felt that it wasn't very effective at showing the plight of the common people besides shouting "caro nuts!" over and over again (tying into the worldbuilding problems as well), and idk, that is a problem that I felt Lin understood very well. At the same time, I felt it did a rather poor job of defending monarchy as well. Not that monarchy is an ideal form of government in my opinion, but if you want to do a proper thematic investigation into monarchy and why democracy would be better, you need to not ignore the benefits of monarchy, but instead represent them well and show why those benefits are outweighed by the benefits of democracy. Otherwise, the story comes across preachy and un-nuanced—and this one did.

Scene-Level Critiques

5) While the plot structure is the biggest problem with the book generally, the thing that bothers me most is a specific scene-level problem that came up over and over in the book: people change their minds very quickly, and always in the most inconvenient way for the characters. Don't get me wrong, things being inconvenient for the characters is generally a good thing, because conflict is a good thing.

But here's where the issue comes in: say a group of NPCs is following a leader. Another leader challenges for control. If we are supposed to prefer the first leader, the entire group of NPCs will listen to both speeches and automatically cheer for the second leader, with almost nobody remaining behind with the first leader—certainly nobody outspoken. It comes across contrived and somewhat unrealistic, and makes the NPCs appear fickle and indecisive; the author's hand is visible all over it.

But fine, those are just NPCs, it is a forgivable critique because it creates a problem rather than solves one, so even if it's not handled cleanly it can still lead to good character moments. But the problem is, this same quick mind-changing nature afflicts our main characters as well, especially Lin and Nisong/Sand who go from stubbornly refusing to change their minds to suddenly flipping on a dime when they've been backed into a corner. And it's not just giving into a decision but not being happy about it—it's the whole thought process of the character changing as well, and for major issues regarding the major themes of the series. (Comically, there was one chapter in the book that featured at least three mind-changes in different directions from the same character in just a few pages.)

6) I also didn't really like the fight scenes of this book. I don't know if this is a problem in the previous books, but in this one, I found myself being taken out in every fight scene by how much combatants talk to each other constantly. That's not really how fights work, I think. I could see it working once in a while, just for the sake of drama, but they are straight up having deep conversations about imperial policy and whatnot while in a high-level sword duel every couple of chapters! (Okay, that is admittedly a slight exaggeration. It was not every couple of chapters, but it was frequent.)

7) I'm also going to put the Alanga magic in this section of the review. Earlier I said it was flimsy and uninteresting, but there's another part to it—because of the lack of defined rules that allows the reader to understand how the magic works, nearly every time the magic was used to solve problems I found it unsatisfying and very deus ex machina. And unfortunately, this happened at least five to six times in the book, including the climax.

Some other critiques

- I found the writing of one character's trauma/PTSD in this book to be somewhat unbelievable. It makes sense they would have trauma/PTSD, but it more often came up when it would be inconvenient for the character to have trauma/PTSD, and was forgotten when it would be convenient for them to not have it. That was frustrating.

- Littlefinger's teleportation device from the final seasons of Game of Thrones was present in this book. One of the villains here just seems to teleport from island to island wherever he can cause the most problems. "On that villain grindset," as one friend said.

- I don't remember if this was a thing in the earlier books, but I was really bothered by the prose style in this book, and how the author makes a lot of dramatic single-sentence paragraphs—at least one on every page. It made the writing needlessly dramatic for me.

Conclusion

Okay, so that's a lot of critiques. But I'm still giving this book 3 stars. Some of that might be my bias—I want to like this book, so giving it less than 3 stars feels off. It's also because I can forgive a lot if you give me some really really good character relationships and moments, and while this book didn't give it to me in the ways I wanted, it really delivered the relationships it chose to focus on with perfection.

And I also do think the series is still worth reading and recommending. The first book is good. The second book is great. And even this book has a lot going for it, and some of my friends like it more than I do, because my criticisms don't matter as much to them as they do to me. So I hope you will all read it and join the conversation, and I'm really curious for your thoughts.

I’m so sad this trilogy is over! I read the books all in a row, so thankfully didn’t have a chance to forget anything. This series has such interesting magic and world building. I was connected with the characters and invested in them. Lin and Jovis were both so well developed. This final book was everything I wanted it to be! The reveals had my jaw dropping and the way things clicked together was satisfying. The ending was a good balance of realistic but also fulfilling. I definitely recommend reading this series from start to finish!

I will start of with what I did like about this book. Stewart's writing style and characterization remain consistent with the other two books. No characters get a personality transplant or some other nonsense. There are a few twists and turns in the story, but the groundwork is laid for them. Nothing feels like it was added at random purely for shock value.
I thought the final act of the book was the most engaging part.
Now to what I didn't like. The first 60% of this book was monotonous.
Worst of all, it accomplished nothing plot wise. The action is repetitive.
Our heros show up on to a location, get into a fight with the antagonists, lose, and rinse and repeat.

This book was one of my most highly anticipated reads for 2023, and I was just so incredibly let down by it.

There were so many things I loved about [book:The Bone Shard Daughter]. The magic system we got a taste of was so interesting, the characters were so easy to get invested in and attached to, and plot and the stakes were just so exciting that I had a hard time putting it down. This book, however, took all of those things that I was expecting it to wrap up neatly and satisfyingly, and decided to end them off not with a bang but with a whimper.

Things I liked about this book:
- All the ossalen are still wholesome and lovable
- Ranami and Phalue are still super gay for each other
- ??? yeah that's about it

The things that didn't work for me:
- The separation of our main characters:This is probably my biggest gripe about this book. For the first 75% of the book, all of our main characters are off on separate islands doing their own thing. While I don't mind this too much when it's done in a first or middle book in a series, since I recognize that it's often necessary to show us more of the world and/or to give us a better sense for who individual characters are outside of the definition of their relationship with one another, it is not something I want to see (or at least, don't want to see for significant page time) in a finale. When I'm wrapping up a series, I just want to spend time with the characters I've grown attached to, and more importantly, I want to see them spend time with each other. I want to see the way their bond has grown, their dynamics have changed, and how they work together to tackle their problems. Because everyone was off on their own adventures for so much of the book, all of the character dynamics I was looking forward to were missing, and I felt like I was just waiting and waiting for everyone to get back together again.

- The "villains:" First off, there were just too many of them. If we had been building up to several big baddies over the course of the series that would have been one thing, but most of the characters we're up against have really only been a note-worthy opposing force since the end of book 2. Because of this, I think this book really suffered trying to build up all of their motivations and the threats they pose all at once— and by "suffered", I mean it failed. By and large, all of the characters our heroes are up against are motivated by a one-dimensional desire for vengeance for the various ways they've been slighted in the past, and yet none of their end goals made sense in terms of how it related back to our heroes. There were occasional snippets where it seemed like the book was suddenly trying to give an explanation for why someone was acting the way they were, but it never felt developed enough to be something I was prepared to believe. It seemed like we just needed them to be against Lin for the sake of giving the book dramatic stakes, and the fact that they were all so blinded by anger that they couldn't be reasoned with until it was suddenly convenient for the plot was incredibly frustrating.

- The POV switches: I have no issue with a multi-POV book, and the way it happened in the first two books didn't bother me. However, while in the first two books it felt like a POV switch happened when things were starting to get dramatic so that you would end on a cliffhanger and want to move to the next chapter, in this book, it felt like it would just switch to a new POV because it realized you were probably getting bored with the one you were in.
I also felt like the balancing of the POVs in this book was poorer than it was in the first two. In the first half of the book especially it felt like we were spending a disproportionate amount of time in the villain's perspective, which I was not a fan of. While I could understand why we needed to see now and then what she and <other villain> were plotting, it felt like it was taking away from time I would have rather spent with our heroes. Again, when I'm reading a finale I want to spend quality time with the characters I've grown to love, so I was so annoyed at how much time we spent with a character we were rooting against— especially since I didn't find her perspective particularly interesting or insightful to begin with.

- The pacing: To put it bluntly, I just found this book to be incredibly boring. It felt like for most of the book, all the characters did was sail to an island, fail at whatever their goal was, and repeat— and it only took a couple of times of this before I was falling asleep waiting for anything interesting to happen. I remember The Bone Shard Emperor fell victim to this a bit, and I disliked it then too, but in its case that repetitive loop only spanned maybe 100-150 or so pages rather than the first 450 pages of the book. I was just never excited to pick this book up after I put it down, and it felt like this book was just trying to fill page time so the last book could be the longest in the series.

- Unanswered magic system questions: I found the magic system in the first book so compelling and interesting, and I kept hoping the later installments would delve into things more, so having now finished this book and discovered it never really did, I feel let down. I wanted to spend so much more time learning about bone shard magic; how it works, why only some people can do it, how it was discovered, what its limitations are, and on and on, and this book barely brushed the surface on any of that. While we did get some interesting information, most everything else was just left open-ended and unanswered, and the book mainly leaves us with an incredibly unsatisfying "we're still researching and don't have the answers yet" rather than actually making an attempt to give closure.

- The ending: sdfddfgfjsfk wHY??? (I'm redacting my spoiler-filled rant about the ending until the book is released, so just know that I am angry and have lots of angry thoughts about it.)

I had such high hopes for this book and I'm just so incredibly disappointed by it. I enjoyed The Bone Shard Daughter and The Bone Shard Emperor so much and I never could have expected that this one would let me down so greatly. If it weren't the last book in the series I probably would have considered DNFing it, but I just couldn't leave it unfinished after how far we've come. Honestly this book probably deserves 1.5 star just based off of how many things I actively disliked about it, but I am going to generously keep it at a 2 only as a credit to how much I enjoyed the first two.

I hate when I don’t absolutely love a book. I especially hate it when it’s the ending to a series that up to this point has been really phenomenal. Maybe I’m just too wrapped up in it because I read all three books in just a few weeks but this book felt different from the others and there were aspects that I didn’t enjoy.

Firstly; the beginning of this book, with the time jump felt disjointed. We just skip two years ahead and get a whole lot of info dumping on what we missed. I hated the lack of consistent storytelling because the other books were very straightforward instead of info dumping information later on. We really should have been with Jovis and Mephi and their ordeals after the end of the second book, I feel cheated of that experience and trauma because I didn’t get to see it, only told about it which didn’t hold the same emotional impact as it could have.

Secondly; I felt like Lin was smarter in the other books. I think she was portrayed to be more like a human in this book than the others, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it was definitely a change in character. She’s very clever and always trying to think ahead but in this book she’s constantly reacting and she hardly ever causes the action. She really doesn’t impact that much of the story, at least for the first 80% of the book.

Thirdly; Phalue and Ranami were treated poorly in this book. They barely were there (especially in comparison to how much time Nisong gets), and I think it’s a travesty. We got so much from them in the first book and we developed them as characters who were interesting and then in this book they were only used in the story to be convenient. Phalue is only used in the story to help Lin, but again, Phalue presence in the story doesn’t affect much. Only Ranami matters and she doesn’t get the page time she deserves.

Lastly; I think this book was just too long. I felt like we wasted a lot of time watching Lin search for the swords and Jovis not contributing to the plot except as filler stuff. There was a lot that could have been trimmed down to make this book feel more concise and to stream line the plot that was relevant to the overarching narrative.

As I stated before, I wanted to love this series with my whole heart. But just because this book didn’t work for me doesn’t mean I wouldn’t recommend it to others. This book has a fantastic ending and I really felt like it was told as cinematically as possible. Unfortunately the 80% prior to that just wasn’t as engaging for me as the last bit of the book.

I absolutely loved this conclusion to one of my favorite series. The ending was everything I wanted, and some that I didn't want but still made sense. It had a great wrap up in a bitter-sweet-life-goes-on type of way. I think all of our characters got great endings, even if they weren't exactly the ones we'd hoped for.

Publishers really need to start including mini summaries of the key points of the previous novels in fantasy series. My enjoyment of this novel would have been so much better had I remembered more from the previous novels.

The Bone Shard War continues as Lin is left alone after Jovis leaves to find Mephi and attempt to save the empire, Dione and Ragan continue their relentless fight to dethrone Lin, and Renami and Phalue fight for their home and each other.

Jovis’ chapters were my favourite. His situation was heartbreaking, but watching him rise to the occasion despite some of his low moments was uplifting.

Stewart continues to expand her world with incredible reveals I didn’t see coming. I don’t think they were fleshed out as much as they should have been, the reveal itself was truly incredible. I did not see it coming.

The end is bittersweet and perfect. Too many novels wrap the story up with a neat little bow with little to no consequences. Stewart strikes the perfect balance between happily ever after and reality after fighting for so many years.

Overall, The Drowning Empire is a vastly underrated fantasy series you don’t want to miss out on. It’s full of adventure, love, magic, and battles.

The third in the Drowning Empire series. Coming out April 20,2023

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Filled with tragedy, bone shard magic and even more character development, this book did not dissapoint. I think this is a definitely an underated fantasy series. Andrea Stewart Builds a unique magical world with a fast paced plot and intriguing characters. If you haven’t read The Drowning Empire Series yet, you have until April 20th to catch up before this book comes out!

This was a great ending to a wonderful fantasy Trilogy! It started off a little bit slower and took me a little to get reacquainted with the characters and story, but after that it was so good! I love all these well written characters, and it was such a satisfying ending! I can’t wait to read more from this author!

*The Bone Shard War* by Andrea Stewart
4/5
I received copies of this book from Orbit Books and NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This was by far the book I was most anticipating this year after reading the first two around the release of book two and absolutely adoring them. In preparation of this finale I reread both of the first books and enjoyed book 1 just as much if not more than I did the first time around, but was a bit let down by book 2 which was slower than I had originally remembered which is also how I felt about this final entry. I think this is still a strong and fitting ending to the trilogy and I don't have any significant faults with the story or character work, but the whole book just felt very slow and meandering, and some of the plot points felt a bit contrived and unreasonable. There aren't any major surprises in the worldbuilding, and most of the reveals are telegraphed well throughout the first two books without being too obvious in my experience while still rewarding attentive readers or people going through the book multiple times and coming up with predictions on why things in the world work the way they do. While not the resounding triumph that I originally thought this series was, it is still very strong and enjoyable throughout its majority and something I would recommend to most if not all fantasy readers, but there are some pain points along the way. You can certainly see Andrea Stewart's growth as a writer as the series progresses though and I'm as excited as ever for whatever her next work may be.

This was my most anticipated release for the year and, let me tell you, it was worth the wait. There is so much room for this world to be explored, but all of the important pieces came together in this conclusion. There were times that I paused the audio, put down my Kindle and just kinda stared at the wall for a bit processing the information I'd just been given. There were other times when I needed to put it down and go to bed, but I just couldn't stop.
There was so much growth of the characters across this series. It's incredible to think about where they all started out and how they perceived the world then compared to what they know now and how they have responded to their experiences. These characters had depth and emotion and indecision. I loved that every character was given a fair arc. It's easy to write a hero or a villain and have them consistently do heroic or villainous things. You can still write a great book if that's all you do. Stewart went so above and beyond that. She had her heroes do villainous things and she had her villains call out her heroes for those villainous things. She left doors open for her villains to have redemption and she let her heroes have compassion for their enemies. I won't go into any specific arcs because I don't want to spoil anything, but every character has an arc that makes complete sense for them, flaws and all.
As for the world building, my mind is blown. This series asked so many questions over the course of the last few books and the answers have been revealed so perfectly and strategically. There are so many more questions I would love to have answers to, but as I said, I'm so satisfied with this ending that I'll be content if we never get another story from the Drowning Empire. I'll just re-read this series forever and pull out as many hints as I can to answer my own questions.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
The Bone Shard War concludes The Drowning Empire in epic fashion. Andrea Stewart impeccably brings the story to a compelling close, leaving me satisfied and moved.
It was a bit jarring at first to jump in and find that two years had passed in the timeline between the end of the last book and this one, but Stewart filled in the gaps and made it work.
The character growth is perhaps the most intriguing part of this installment, especially in terms of their relationships to power. Lin has risen so far politically from her initial origins, but even with her new sense of power, she’s still making mistakes, but she’s also becoming more self-aware. Jovis, usually a charmer, is in a much more emotionally vulnerable position, reckoning with the trauma of what he’s been through. And each of the major side characters also remain interesting, especially Nisong, who is a bit of an antagonist to Lin, even if she’s not really acting entirely of her own volition. Ranami and Phalue are always a bright spot as a sweet sapphic couple in the midst of all the chaos, especially in how their different strengths play off each other.
While there was a lot of action and intrigue to keep me engaged, I definitely felt the length of this one. It is ultimately worth it, but the moments of lull definitely stuck out here, as a contrast to the more exciting moments, and I do feel like things could have been at least mildly trimmed…just a tad.
Overall, this was a great conclusion to a great trilogy, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a fantasy series with unique world building and layered characters.

I’m not a big fan of time jumps but this one was done well enough that I didn’t mind too much, took a bit to get used to but once it got going IT GOT GOING! A very satisfying and emotional ending.

I've loved this series since the very beginning, and The Bone Shard War didn't disappoint. It featured so much of I loved from the first two books in the series - the magic system, the world building, the depth of the characters - while also bringing the plot to a satisfying conclusion, resolving lingering unanswered questions whose groundwork was laid in earlier volumes, and making me both laugh and cry while doing so.

The world of The Drowning Empire felt complex and well-thought-out from the book one, and The Bone Shard War was no exception, taking place in a world that felt lived in. The universe's history and mythology were further explored, and I loved how rich it all felt.

Along with doing an admirable job of wrapping up the plot elements from the prior two volumes, I felt it shone the most while exploring the growth of characters I had gotten to know across three books. Nisong's journey was particularly reasonant with her gradual exploration and reframing of her memories from a past life portrayed particularly masterfully. The changing of a character's motivations and goals, especially in the final book of a series, can often feel unearned and rushed, but this wasn't the case at all with Nisong's transformation, nor the other characters who experienced growth in The Bone Shard War. I love how The Drowning Empire manages to feature a number of antagonists without making their motivations or goals feel flat or overly black-and-white, and this final book in particular explored how different characters with different motivations could be initially be united in one goal but ultimately be driven in different directions according to their personal experiences and beliefs.

I can't wait to see what Andrea Stewart comes up with next!

I have been WAITING for this book. When I picked up the trilogy’s other two novels, I didn’t expect to fall in love with the characters as much as I did. Especially Jovis and Mephi. Goodness, I loved Mephi. He reminded me of my dog if she ever could speak. Staunchly at my side, regardless of circumstance. Brightening the darkest situation with a spark of humor. And Jovis—the imperfect hero. The man who wanted so badly to do right, but he went astray. Then, of course, there’s Lin, Ragan, Nisong, Dione. All of them with their own motivations and goals. The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart gave me the satisfaction and closure I needed. The book takes readers through emotional turmoil. Trust me when I say you’ll experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. But don’t let that deter you from experiencing Andrea Stewart’s newest work.

Set two years after its predecessor’s conclusion, the Empire is in shambles. Lin has Thrana, but she is without Jovis. Not remembering many details from The Bone Shard Emperor, I screamed inside. How could Jovis leave her?! But Stewart connected the pieces together through allusions backward. I wish I had reread at least The Bone Shard Emperor before reading The Bone Shard War, as I was definitely lost at the beginning. But everything came together by the end, and Stewart answered questions—solved mysteries—I didn’t even realize I had. Everything about the trilogy’s conclusion is BRILLIANT.

I love Andrea Stewart’s imagination. While some fantasy novels I’ve read I would be considered too…MUCH for young adults, I’d say her trilogy is safe. It is incredibly developed, with thought-out political motivations, but nothing is too difficult for a younger mind to understand. The trilogy has the right amount of tension, broken up with humor and some mild romance between the characters. I sucked in every word of The Bone Shard War—imbibed the entire series, truth be told. It intoxicated me. And if you can have a hangover from a good story, Andrea Stewart gave me one. No regrets, though. No sensitivity to light or sound, but I have missing memories. Memories of “real life”—of anything but my time spent in the pages of Stewart’s work.

Andrea Stewart, I can’t wait to see what else you have in store.

That took me on an emotional roller-coaster. I love this series, and Stewart pulled off the ending.

The first half is slow paced, and while having some interesting story and worlding building along the way, it starts feeling a little repetitive over time based on the structure - get on boat, look for sword, fight Ragan for sword, get on boat - but you can feel it building throughout, and the back half of it flies without it feeling rushed.

Mephi continues to be one of my favourite book animal companions, with Lozhi and Thrana right behind.

I've been rather lukewarm on Lin for the majority of the series, but there was a moment in this book where she finally got the thing that I wanted her to get - the awareness that wanting the best for the Empire and the best for the people of the Empire were not necessarily the same thing, and that was what I had been waiting for.

The thing that I did really like was the progression arc of Jovis' character through the entire series, and overall he reminds me a lot of Kaladin in the Stormlight Archive. He's the hero. He wants to be the hero. Sometimes you can't be either due external or internal circumstances, but at the end of the day hopefully the coin will flip your way when it matters. I think I needed more from his perspective at the end of the book (or perhaps a POV from Mephi) based on the crux of the finale, but I'm satisfied with how it turned out.

I would highly recommend that you read this soon after finishing Bone Shard Emperor so that it is all fresh in your mind - it's been a year for me, and while I remembered BSE fairly well, there were some moments where it took me a while to catch up (what are Ragan and Dione doing again? oh yeah...), so I'd worry about people who have even longer gaps between books. This is a series that I would love to reread back to back, as one full story.

A fitting end to an original trilogy! I loved the magical system in this & the characters throughout. The ossalen were so likable, even if their Alanga were not always. While I did think the last one ran a little longer than necessary, I did really enjoy how everything came together in the end!