This was a great conclusion to the trilogy! In anticipation to read this, I reread the entire series and I enjoyed it much more the second time than I did originally. Personally, I think knowing the major plot twists from the books, but specifically the first book, made my reading experience better. It was easier for me to understand the world and how the magic system works, which I definitely had a hard time with the first time around. Everything I loved about this book would be a spoiler so I'm not going to share much, but Andrea Stewart's writing is really good! She makes the characters feel so real and I can completely understand where they're all coming from and why they're making the decisions that they are. In terms of the audiobook, I love everything Emily Wu Zeller narrates and this was no different. I loved that every POV had a different narrator because it made it so much easier to know what was going on without actually following along with the text. I ended up reading this whole 600+ page book (and 20 hour audiobook) in one day because I simply didn't want to stop.

Andrea Stewart does not kid around.

I always experience a bit of consternation when I come to the concluding novel in a trilogy. What if it's a dud? What if these worlds and characters, whom I've grown to adore and care about over dozens of hours and several years, what if they're done disservice by their makers? Or at least, what seems like a disservice to us. It's happened to me. It's probably happened to you. And it's fine when it does, but it can still carry a sting.

My opening will have tipped you off, but this is not the case with Stewart's *Bone Shard War*, a conclusion that sticks the landing by delivering and overdelivering on the promises the series made across the previous two instalments. The magic of the Drowning Empire is deepened, the themes of identity, societal change, and environmental exploitation are expanded on, and--of course--the compelling narratives of our protagonists, antagonists, and those between the two reach their conclusion.

Two years after the close of *The Bone Shard Emperor*, Jovis is in a rough spot. It's hard to read or listen to, in truth, because the unwitting hero of the previous books has been forced into what can only be described as magical slavery. Bound to the will of a cruel master, we first meet him weak and despirited from years of doing the dirty work of the Eye of Kharne. Mephi is the only thing to keep him going more than once throughout the novel; the trauma those two years have marked Jovis with is palpable in every chapter he is in. It's one of my worst nightmares, to be under the control of another, my agency violated. The slow rebuilding of Jovis' spirit, his willingness to defy the man who has made a prison of his own body makes for the kind of reading that stays with you.

It's a beautifully executed character arc, and it's not the only one. Lin's struggle to keep her empire together is all the more fierce as issues she thought resolved and enemies she thought defeated come back to haunt her. She is a good person--but not, I think, a good Emperor. Not in so far as the practicalities of rule demand. Lin is heroic, she is noble of spirit. She spends a chunk of this novel flitting back and forth trying to gather magical artifacts in the hopes they will help her keep the Empire safe. Lin cares. For her subjects--nay, for her people. She even cares for her foes. Her caring for those foes, her attempts to be different, **better**, than the previous Emperors in the Sukai dynasty, is at least part of why the Empire is in the condition we find it: enacting change on a societal scale is no easy task.

Ranami and Phalue are each faced with challenges of their own. Ranami is forced to muster a defence at home while Phalue is busy first in training the Emperor in sword combat and later in helping Lin sail around the Empire and collect ancient artifacts. I've mentioned as much in my reviews of the other two books, but despite the conservative estimates of their PoV chapters (length-wise, compared to Lin and Jovis), their presence looms just as large. So, too, the case with Nisong, whose antagonism towards Lin is reason for no end of woes; yet her relationship with ossalen Lozhi is a bright spot in the darkness, much like Jovis's relationship with Mephi and Lin's with Thrana.

I slapped my forehead over not one but two revelations in the span of this novel. Stewart delivers them masterfully, and though I won't spoil them, I have to tip my hat for the series-long misdirects which served to build up such fine moments of reversal.

The culmination of this series has heart to spare. It's been a pleasure to spend time in this world, and I'm sure I will return to it in the future. There's much of worth you'll find in Stewart's prose, from the characters to the continued top-notch worldbuilding and marathon-like conflict that gives you what feels like precious seconds to catch your breath.

I listened to the audiobook version of *The Bone Shard War*, provided by NetGalley and Orbit--thanks for that, and I'm sorry it's taken me months to wrap-up writing this review. It's become something of a ritual to commend Emily Woo Zeller, Feodor Chin, and Natalie Naudus for signature performances over five different points of view and dozens of distinctly voiced characters. These are staggering talents in the world of voiceover, and I've often bought books only because of their narration. Fun fact: I bought the *Bone Shard Daughter* mainly because I'd been so impressed with Emily Woo Zeller's performance in *This is How you Lose the Time War*.

You should read this book if:
- You have good taste in fantasy, really;
- You find yourself suddenly accompanied by a small, cute, and extremely conversational hairy critter that crawled out of the sea. Maybe you want to find out more about it--in that case, you can use *The Drowned Empire* trilogy as something of a guide book.
- You love maritime fantasy replete with adventure, danger, excellent portrayal of romance.
- And more! Prob'ly.

Alongside Tchaikovsky's *Lords of Uncreation*, this has quickly become a favourite ending to a trilogy in 2023. I hope that you'll bend an ear and give it a listen or read it!

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy of The Bone Shard War. I have been waiting for this third book. I loved the first two. Touching on all sorts of issues, we see people from both sides of this growing conflict. The end of book two had a big battle so I was interested to see how this would pick up and all the adventures in this book lived up to it. I do not love every character, but that is to be expected. I felt for Jovis and Lin so much. I absolutely have these books in my store.

Just finished this high fantasy novel series, and my biggest regret is that I hadn't read the first two, first. I'm sure that I would have been much better prepared to dive into this one if I had just known that it was part 3 of a trilogy (oops). it was a fantastic dive into a fantastical world of intrigue and betrayal, with what felt like a satisfying ending. The narrators were fantastic, offering emotional turns and different intonations for different characters. The growling of a certain male voice did grate a little at the lower registers, but it was all part of the ambience of the audio version to me.
4/5: Storyline
4/5: Narration
3/5: Character Development
5/5: World-building

This was great! I was really compelled to finish this book pretty quickly, I found it quite easy to remember what had happened in the previous ones and to follow the story of this book! The narration in the audiobook was also pretty good for me, easy to listen in the 2 times speed I usually do.

I received a copy of this audiobook through Netgalley. This is my honest review.

If this book looks interesting to you based on the cover (as it did for me), I strongly recommend not starting with it, as it's book three in a series. I wasn't really paying attention to that fact because the audiobook was available to listen now and the cover is just gorgeous. But once I got into the story, I was a little bit lost. There wasn't much background information given about the previous stories (so if you've read those already, you won't have to slog through stuff you already know), and I was definitely expected to already understand some things about bone shard magic it seems.

In spite of me having not read the previous books in the series, I was immediately sucked into this story. I wanted to know more about the political strife in the realm and how it would be resolved. I was also very curious about The Shardless Few. Even though I was definitely missing a lot of background information that would surely have helped me to understand the events of this story better, I feel like I did gain a rather good understanding of the main points of the world and those in it.

Overall I give The Bone Shard War 4.186 out of 5 stars. And I will definitely be looking into the first two books in the series at some point.

I absolutely love this story and each book is better than the one before it. Sapphic, tense, fantasy … yes yes and yes!

The Bone Shard War provides a fitting conclusion to Andrea Stewart’s debut trilogy. The time skip between this book and the previous one allows enough space for her characters to begin the story dealing with new challenges, albeit ones that stem from the consequences of their choices made throughout the first two installments in the trilogy. And it’s in her character work where Stewart’s writing shines best, as each character’s arc comes to fruition while they struggle to shape their world’s future. Each of their fates is well-earned and in some cases surprising. It’s a great finale to a strong trilogy and I’m very excited to read whatever she writes next.

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.

This series fascinated me from the beginning. I’m glad the ending is out but I’m sorry it’s done. I’d love to read more stories from this universe.

This story is the exception to the rule.

It's a well-written third & final book in a trilogy.

In fact, it's far better than books one and two.

After finishing book one, I only vaguely liked Lin (and that's a slight exaggeration).

In this book, Lin becomes more than she has been, and almost likable. Jovis is perhaps my favorite character, and definitely humanized Lin.

I think what really helped me enjoy this book more than its predecessors is that I read it on audiobook! The narrators tell the story so perfectly! (And maybe I'm wrong, but I think I recognize these voices from the Fourth Wing audio!!)

"I wish I had Lin's power and could just reach inside myself and remove them." Don't we all wish we could do that, Jovis? I think the point of this whole story is trying to change who you were created to be, overcoming your past (and your conditioning), and making it matter.

There's a great side story that is better than the main storyline. Definitely follow that.

Be aware - this series is brutally dark. Yes, there are tandem love stories, but this is really not that sort of fantasy. It's a fight for survival at the end of the world. And death happens.

Such a great ending to the trilogy! Absolutely loved it!!
I've been reading each instalment as soon as it was out and reading this final one was a bittersweet feeling. Excited to see what Andrea comes up with next!

It's a bit hard to review the last book in a trilogy since so much of what I want to mention would be considered spoilers. So heres what I can say...
I really enjoyed the Bone Shard War and overall thought it was a good and satisfying ending to a trilogy I'd definitely recommend.

I was a bit apprehensive about this book because although I adored book 1, when I read book 2 back when it came out, I was a little bit disappointed. That being said, I did reread the first two via audiobook immediately before starting book 3 which helped a lot.

When I read Bone Shard Emperor the first go round it was with my eyes, we all know my eyes aren't great so it took me quite a while to read it, which looking back definitely took me out of the story a lot and made the middle part feel like it went on forever so breezing through the audio definitely smoothed out some of the issues I originally had with it.

Have to say the main gripe I had with The Bone Shard War—apart from just not feeling the main romantic relationship which I know is personal preference—was the constant internal monologues the mc Lin (and Jovis at times) had, especially during battle sequences and hey its called the Bone Shard WAR, a good majority of this book is fighting.

There's a lot of "omg what if I'm not a good person anymore? Does that matter. Am I my fathers daughter? I've never claimed to be a hero, but maybe I can do heroic things!"

And I get that the repetition is probably supposed to hammer home the idea that the cycle of history is doomed to repeat itself, and meant to make you question things like can an empire ever be a good thing even if the emperor themselves is good.

I do think those themes work and are executed well in other characters' chapters like Ramani but while I love examining character morals and motives, especially when they're grey 1. Being stuck inside a characters head all the time like that mid battle, kills any sort of tension for me, and 2. Lin seemed to have these moral dilemmas and rediscover that not only does she have power but that now means she has the power to change things every single time she encountered any sort of setback or challenge which got kind of annoying tbh.

That being said, I do like these characters, and I LOVE the worldbuilding and magic in these books. It's so unique. I've never read anything like it!
Moving islands, strange mythical beasts for companions (Mephi continues to be the best character), magic that relies on the empire tithing not money but shards of its citizens bones, taken from right behind the ear, to power weird frankenstein-esque constructs. Amazing!
There's a reveal in this book about the worldbuilding that was SO GOOD! I can't say more without huge spoilers, obviously, but man, I love it when everything finally clicks into place!

Personal preference but I do wish Andrea Stewart had dipped more into the dark side/ethics of the bone shard magic—can you have body autonomy if you're a 'made thing' etc because the times she did were some of my favourites throughout the whole series.

All in all, I would highly recommend this series to anyone who's even slightly interested in it. As someone whos now read all three as audiobooks, I can also highly recommend the audios as well, as all three narrators did such a great job!

Final volume of the trilogy that deals with magic that destroys the ecology and also allows its practitioners to control other people with engraved bone shards. Actually tries to deal with the fact that "the most powerful magician should rule" is not a great principle, though the emperor arrives at this conclusion in a fairly abrupt manner.

2 ⭐

I really really wanted to like this. This book is the conclusion to The Drowning Empire series, and while both the series and The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stweart started off okay, I feel like it never really redeemed themself. There are so many great points about this book. Most are forgettable, lost in pacing, but I really did like the subplot about over consumption and how it related to the mining of their Islands.

For me, this was just an ok book. Maybe if I read the series closer together, it would be more exciting.

I did tandems read this along with the audio book. On a much lighter note, I absolutely adore the narrators! They all three put so much familiarity and care with voicing these diverse characters. They were a fantastic choice for this book, and it was nice having them return for the last installment

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this audio book in return for an honest review.

The Bone Shard War is a perfect third book in a trilogy. There are five POV characters, two of which are in a sapphic relationship. It’s hard to talk about this book too much without spoiling things for book one or two in the trilogy, but please read this perfect implementation of animal sidekicks and enjoy a finished(!!) amazing fantasy trilogy.

I received an audiobook ARC and must say the narration of this audiobook is top quality, it wasn't until writing this I realized that only three narrators worked on the book instead of five. The voices of each POV character are distinct, and all the performances add life to the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio for a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review

This has been by far the most beautiful intricate magic system I’ve read in a fantasy book. I was so excited for the conclusion of this trilogy. At times, the storylines felt like they weren’t going to tie together but at the end the bigger picture was present without feeling forced. 4/5

I have incredibly mixed opinions about this finale.



<b>Things I liked:</b>

• The ossalen
• Ayesh
• Jovis’s character, despite its pitfalls in this installment
• Jovis and Philine’s dynamic
• Ranami and Phalue, together and apart
• Phalue and Lin’s tentative friendship



<b>Gripes:</b>

• <b>Lin.</b> Lin has always been an issue in this series. She is the result of one of her father’s experiments, yes, and she acts just as you’d expect an experiment to behave—unnaturally and unconvincing as a human. She is overly logical, lacks compassion, and even the writing in her point of view chapters sounds devoid of any humanity.

Now, the issue with this lies in the fact that the text (particularly, through Jovis) leads you to believe that she’s as human as the other characters. It tells us instead of showing us that Lin is strong, brave, and has a big heart. However, it doesn’t once occur to her to establish orphanages in order to look out for the children in her war-torn empire until after Phalue and raises the issue with her. She also catches herself thinking that it is beneath her to be concerned about the small plights of individual citizens.

While she begins to correct these errors within herself, this shows us that she is not the big-hearted person Jovis and the narrative would lead us to believe. She’s growing and trying to get there, but the contradictions in the text chafed.


• <b>Jovis.</b> I have always loved Jovis’s point of views in each installment. He reminds me of <i>Tangled</i>’s Flynn Rider—charming yet roguish, teetering in the realm of moral grayness. His POV has by far the biggest heart and is the most captivating.

In this installment, we see him subjugated by bone shard magic and threats against Mephi’s life, forced to do Kaphra’s bidding. It takes him two years and halfway through this book until he realizes bone shard commands are slippery and he can interpret them in different ways to thwart them. The issue with this bit of ingenuity is that it is something Jovis already knows; he did it in the first book, <i>Bone Shard Daughter</i>. Why, then, did it take him two years to figure out something his character has already demonstrated that he knows and can easily do? It directly contradicts characterization established previously in the series.

This leads Jovis’s whole imprisonment for two-thirds of this novel to feel completely contrived and devoid of any real meaning. His subsequent character arc of questioning his heroism and his belief in his own strength results in the same contrivances; it all feels forced and poorly-plotted. Don’t even get me started on where this character arc took him in the end…


• <spoiler><b>Jovis’s fate.</b> I would far rather Stewart had killed him off than turned to the most aggravating and pointless of the tropes—amnesia. Irritation toward the trope aside, it completely undoes all of the character work Stewart had established with Jovis across three novels. It also completely removes the need for him to heal from his trauma which is the most angering part of it. Sure, he’s left confused because he has lost literally all of his memories, but that’s still better than having to reckon with his past traumas and PTSD. It seemed like a very quick undo switch for all of the trials and suffering he endured, and that felt like a massive injustice to real-life sufferers of PTSD who had briefly seen representation only for it to be ripped away.</spoiler>


• <b>Nisong.</b> <spoiler>Nisong, much like the other two, hated Lin consistently throughout the series. While I was glad to see her toe the line of moral grayness and be redeemed, it felt shoehorned in yet again. Her hatred for Lin was truly just quelled in an instant on the battlefield once Lin says some kind words and pleads with her to let her pass? Her revelations that followed about being mistaken for pushing so hard to rise to power were incredibly rushed and needed more time to simmer that they weren’t given.</spoiler>


• <b>Dione.</b> <spoiler>He tells Lin in an earlier battle that he has a vendetta against the Sukais and is after her specifically, regardless of how she was made, and yet, when Lin abdicates, he just…says okay??? He doesn’t want to kill her??? I was glad to see some depth in him but this happened so fast I couldn’t suspend my disbelief to feel it was truly earned.</spoiler>


• <b>Ragan.</b> Ragan lacked depth. He was filled with rage and ready to wreak havoc on the empire that made him suffer in childhood. This was all fine, however, there was never a side to him that we were shown even in Nisong’s chapters that developed him any further than that. This was disappointing, as we got to see the other antagonists get redeemed in their own ways (as forced as those moments were).


• <spoiler><b>Lin’s choice to abdicate.</b> She really spent the last three books fighting tooth and nail for her place as emperor only to abdicate it because she randomly saw reason, realized that they would all die if she didn’t, and finally came to the conclusion that a panel of elected representatives wouldn’t be such a bad idea? Lin’s biggest pitfall throughout the series was clinging to power to the detriment of her citizens. And she just came to the conclusion that she didn’t need to do that anymore in a split-second on the battlefield? It felt like yet another contrivance for the sake of wrapping up her arc without having to do the all the work.</spoiler>


• <b>The length of this book.</b> It was pointlessly long-winded. There was so much time lingering on scenes and characters that didn’t matter that there was no room left for Stewart to actually develop her protagonists and antagonists appropriately. This resulted in the multitude of contrivances listed above in order for her to accomplish her desired ending.



All in all, I had fun at some points while reading this book, but its biggest flaws lie in the needless length of the novel that was never taken advantage of appropriately and all the shoehorned-in character arcs that resulted.

Regarding the audiobook, I have enjoyed performances from each narrator for each installment in the series. However, I don’t think that they add much to the story itself. A truly fantastic narrator will gut you emotionally during some of the most tragic scenes and have you clinging to every last word in high stakes action sequences. None of the narrators did this for me.



<b>Overall Rating:</b> 2 stars

<i>A big thank you to Netgalley and the publishers, Hachette Audio and Orbit, for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!</i>

A satisfying conclusion to an epic trilogy.
There’s a two year time jump at the start, I think this worked well. It allowed for characters to have moved on from where we left off and I wanted to catch up. Basically hooked me straight away.
There is more of the same as the first two books (politics, quests, fight scenes) but I would say character arcs are great in this instalment.
What really carries these books are the ossalen, they are my favourite part of the world, with Mephi in particular having my heart.
I read this as an audio - the different narrators did well and allowed for an easy listening experience. You can stop at any point and pick up and know the POV.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio, Orbit Publishers for an E-ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

I absolutely love this series!
The Drowning empire manages to hook from book one and does not let go.
The world-building and characters are so easy to get attached too, and the multiple pov's are easy to follow.
Thanks so much for the chance to listen early.