I enjoyed this one. Well written and kept me entertained. This series is one that I will be purchasing physical copies of.

I do recommend .

Finales, the things that can make or break a series (cough *lost* cough). Thankfully I am thrilled to say I like how The Drowning Empire series by Andrea Stewart caps off!

"The Bone Shard War" kicks off two years after the last book and all the mess that left. Fractious governors demanding to use the resource that sinks their islands, Ragan has teamed up with Nisong and that is a whole sack of crazy, while the Shardless Few are making moves and Alanga keep popping up. Meanwhile Jovis is presumed dead and is having a real rough go of it. Mephi is ok though.

Thank you Natalie Naudus, Feodor Chin, and Emily Woo Zeller for narrating the series. From the light moments, to the really rough ones (yea f Ragan) you gave extra voice to these characters.

Thank you Orbit Books, Hachette Audio, and Netgalley for the ARCs. I definitely wasn't listening/reading at work when it got slow...

Reasons to read:
-I just told you it ends well, so get after it if you were waiting
-World-building elements I accepted because the characters did came back to slap me in the face
-Some side characters get their moment to shine
-Some people get their comeuppance
-And some people let go of pain

Cons:
-Unfortunately graphic animal death 1 time (f Ragan)

I will forever and always read Andrea Stewart until the end of time.

I received the audiobook ARC without having read the first book in the series. Yes, I got the ARC and then proceeded to DEVOUR the first and second book in The Drowning Empire series. I cannot express into words how incredible Andrea Stewart’s writing is, her world building, and the magic system????? IMPECCABLE.

I loved my week of reading this series and this book is the perfect ending to the trilogy. I adored the way the characters developed and their growth throughout the series was incredibly done.

Andrea Stewart managed to create characters that were cruel and somehow still compelling enough to root for. Stewart had me by the throat with these characters and storylines.

This book is up there with the best books I've read this year, if you haven't read this series yet, please make it a priority, you will not regret it.

[Actual Rating 4.25] The Bone Shard War is the final novel in the Drowning Empire trilogy. These conclusions are always bittersweet as I am anxious to find out how a series ends, but I am sad to finish it. Like most series, I always wish that I could read them back-to-back, this one was not any different. It did take me a minute to put myself back into the mindset of this universe, but I was able to catch up without issue. This part of the story takes place two years after the last novel where there are a ton of moving parts that all weave together in this massive universe. Lin is the ruler of the Phoenix Empire, but she is having trouble keeping control. Her allies are limited as Jovis is still gone after going to rescue Mephi plus she up against Ragan, the Shardless Few, and those around her. The Shardless Few has deemed Lin unfit to rule and are working to remove her from the throne. As for Jovis, he is caught by Ioph Carn. As the timeline is years after the last novel, I do miss seeing everything take place. I do understand why the author tried to keep to this timeline, but I think there could have been a whole other novel to fill in the gaps.

The characters and storylines were separated for part of this novel, which is difficult in a third novel in a trilogy. Usually, I expect them all to converge soon and lead up to the final climax. Instead, this one takes a bit longer to get there, which I do wish happened a little sooner. I loved the content, but it almost felt as-if the story could have been split into two novels just to spread out the pacing a little more. It would read smoother for readers like me who would expect the novel before a final one to be slower and then the actual final one could be faster. Since I loved the actual bulk of the novel, I did not mind this as much, but it was something I noted. A lot of the world was set-up in the previous novels, but there was still more world-building in this story. The characters had great character development and I loved that it was easy to follow yet complex.

There is a lot to love about this series and it feels highly underrated. It is a great introduction to Stewart’s writing, and I cannot wait to see what she writes next. This series was very ambitious, and I believe that Stewart pulled it off well. The plot(s) and characters were all engaging, and I love the relationships between them. Some characters and plotlines still have more that could have been explored, but Stewart did create a satisfying conclusion. While the story did not quite have pacing that worked for me, I still found that this long story went by quickly. I would love to read the three novels back-to-back in the future to see how the series all read together. Overall, this was a fun novel and a great final novel in the trilogy.

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this entertaining novel. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart is the last book in the Drowning Empire trilogy. I was super excited to be able to listen to this audiobook as an early reviewer and then I saw the runtime of 19 hr36 min which made me less excited. I loved the first book but the second book I found lacking. Lin, Jovis and Mephi were all accounted for in this book but I found that I didn’t care anymore. Thanks for creating Mephi as that’s my favorite character from the books. Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Audio/Orbit for the ARC.

I enjoyed listening to The Bone Shard War. The narration I kept me entertained and hooked the whole time.
Thank you Netgalley for ARC in exchange of my honest feedback

The audiobook was narrated at the high level that has been expected through this series. I love to listen to the audio while I read the book and this is the perfect pairing.
Regarding the content of the book itself, this was a perfectly satisfying conclusion to an exceptional series. As is often the case for a novel with multiple point of view characters, there were certain storylines and voices that I preferred over others. Jovis and Lin remain my personal favorites, while I think that all of the stories are executed well enough. Jovis is the absolute best and I will hear no slander against him even if he does absolutely atrocious things.
This world is so intensely magical and politically complex, and I love the execution of both. If you enjoyed the first two, I think you will enjoy this ote just as much.

That’s why the islands are sinking? You were hoping you’d get answers and you do!

This book starts 2 years after book 2.

Lin & Jovis go through SO much! You really feel for them. Jovis was my favorite character, his arc was so emotional but Lin’s is also a challenge! Many of the other characters are nicely fleshed out & you might find yourself understanding or hating less.

I loved the magic system. Felt unique.

The plot and world were intricate, complicated, multilayered, wrapped up!

I liked the multi POV chapters. It’s easy to track in the audiobook as there’s multiple narrators and chapter titles start with the character’s name. This lets you see so much more.

You get the answers you wanted from books 1 & 2. A great ending to a trilogy I’ll read again!

Oh - great narration and beautiful covers that’ll look fabulous on bookshelves.

Publication date - Tuesday 4/18/2023.

Thank you NetGalley & Orbit for early access to this story. I loved it!!

I did a mix of audiobook and ebook when reading The Bone Shard War and I fully recommend for an immersive experience (also because most of the book is so tense it’s hard to put down! So when you have to go do boring things like housework you can pop on the audio version). The cast of narrators was excellent and I found it very easy to listen to. I also found them easy to listen to and understand even when I sped up the audio to 2.0. The only tricky part was on netgalley shelf app where I couldn’t find chapter headings so it was hard to find my place after reading some on ebook and then returning to audio. This wouldn’t be an issue once released though.

The Bone Shard War is the final book in The Drowning Empire trilogy and WOW does it deliver. I absolutely love this series and the characters within it. In my opinion it is one of the best series with animal companions - Mehzi and Lohzi are brilliant. It also has a complex magic system, politics, war and love. The Bone Shard War made me cry with absolute despair and also with complete joy.

When starting this book I needed to recap on the Bone Shard Emperor and I recommend doing this as quite a lot has happened. It is told by the points of view of Lin, Jovis, Ranami and Phalue who are all fighting their own battles to save the people of the Empire.

The whole story was fast paced, intense and I was enthralled from start to end. There were quite a few shock moments and revelations which I hadn’t anticipated and loved how it tied up loose ends. With the end of a series it does feel really bittersweet and I am going to miss these characters, but Andrea Stewart finished the story with a fitting ending honouring all the characters.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for the opportunity to read this in advance, a complete triumph.

A bittersweet conclusion to the Drowning Empire. This book starts 2 years after the cliff hanger ending from Bone Shard Emperor, and there’s a bit of catching up the reader has to do.

What I continue to love about this series is the magic system and political factions warring for power; The understanding of the magic of the world slowly continues to expand and build even in the third installment and I’m left with all my questions from previous books answered. Characters continue to debate the morals of the different political ideals of the the Emperor, Constructs, Shardless Few and the Alanga, who play a much bigger role in this book.
This also leads to a lot of side quests, so take that as you will.

Overall, a satisfying ending to one of the most unique fantasy series I’ve read in a long time.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for allowing me to write an honest review of this eARC and ALC. I highly recommend listening AND reading along with this amazing story. The full cast of narrators continues to make this an even more rich setting than it already was on the written page.

What a delightful end to this wonderful trilogy. Endings are tough for me to stomach, which says more about me than it does anything else. I adored the first two books in this trilogy and I was struggling to say goodbye to the characters that I loved so much. It was, however, a phenomenal ending despite the tinge of bittersweet. My rule of thumb is that a book gets five stars if it makes me FEEL things and this made me feel all kinds of things. I cried. I gasped aloud. I got angry. I laughed.

I would be shocked if anyone who loved the first two did not adore this one. The storytelling and world-building continue to be excellently crafted and our beloved characters grow and bond with one another in wonderful ways. And while endings are difficult, this was worth the anxiety of saying goodbye (for now). I will absolutely be adding this trilogy to my shelves so that I can reread it over and over.

Thank you Andrea Stewart for giving us this wonderful world and these complex characters. They have my whole heart.

Thank you to Hachette Audio and Orbit for this audiobook ARC via Netgalley!

I loved The Bone Shard Daughter for its dark mysteries and wondrous world. I enjoyed The Bone Shard Emperor for its convergence of plots and previous separated central characters. The Bone Shard War just follows the cast of characters as they struggle. The individual struggles are not high stakes, or at least those stakes did not weigh on me. TBSW serves a lot of chaos and picking up the pieces. The second half picks up the pace and re-caught my interest. The story takes a turn when we finally get some revelations about the magical mysteries and characters start taking decisive action.

I think you will have the best experience with this book if you (1) read it right after you read the first two and (2) physically read and do not do the audiobook. The audiobook narrator is perfectly fine; IMO the style of writing is not best served by the audio medium.

Although TBSW is my least favorite entry in the trilogy, Andrea Stewart gave her series a satisfying and fitting ending.

When I saw this book on Netgalley, I was extremely delighted to know the end of this series.

I have loved the concepts of bone shard magic, and the world building aspects of this series have definitely made all those hours of investment worthwhile. My only complaint with the last book is the main protagonist's questionable decision-making skills. After so many treacherous events until now, she is still trusting nonsensical people. Which has made me quite agitated. But that, however, does not disregard my love for the whole series.

So I still recommend you to read this trilogy and on a scale of 5 I suggest you get a bargain on this one.

Genre: #Fantasy #magic
Rating 3/5 ⭐️

Thankyou @netgalley @andreagstewart @hachettebooks for the Digital ARC

This book concludes the Drowning Empire Trilogy. Thank you to Net Galley and Orbit for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

This is one of the only series in recent times that I have vibed with enough to continue and finish. If you are a fan of the first two books, there is absolutely no reason I could see you would regret reading this third one. The audiobook in particular is amazing. The cast of narrators does an excellent job at reading the writing. There was never a lull that made me contemplate putting the book down.

The strengths of this book were numerous. The pacing was great. It felt less dense or rooted in the world building and history as the second and first book. It was an easier listen/read. It still had some additional world building but it was easily consumed. Parts of the world building, the most major addition this book provides, is a bit confusing and I am at a loss as to how it was brought to light in the way it was. Other than that one revelation, I enjoyed the other new additions to what we know of the Alonga.

The character arcs were mostly believable and satisfying. The characters felt very complete and not a lot was just left up to imagination. That can sometimes feel too finite, but it was just complete enough to feel whole. My dislikes or unsureness come from the balance of characters. Jovis and Lin are the two front runners of the first two books. They are heavily featured here, especially Jovis, but still somehow feel less important or focal to the actions of this series. It's difficult to describe because they are present and active in the plot, but a lot of what we see of them is in their head or reactionary instead of the force they showed previously. Mephi and Jovis scenes are much more sparse and less compelling than I grew to love previously. We didn't get nearly as much Mephi, which was sad. The other Ossalin (forgive me, I did audio and have no clue how this is spelled in text) are unique and cool but Mephi is the first and supreme.

The villains this books were refreshingly different than how I thought they would be. I was ready to hate the same characters in the same ways, but was surprised with how they were treated. In the best way.

I am torn on the ending, but I don't want to turn this into a review with spoilers. So, I will just say this as vaguely as possible. The ending is overall one that I am happy with, but there is an awful lot thrown into the last handful of chapters that feel almost like they were entirely new plot points. They felt almost unnecessary because they don't create any cliffhangers and also don't interfere with the way the ending initially felt like it was going.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing my this ARC for review in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was so excited to get to the conclusion of The Drowning Empire and it did not disappoint. Getting back together with Lin and Jovis, and we can't forget Mephi. The beginning started off strong, but somewhere towards the middle it became very slow and boring. The ending did not need that long of a build up for how predictable it was. Overall, I enjoyed the audiobook narrator and I am glad I was able to enjoy this series

***3 Stars***

Overall,
I was really looking forward to the finale of this trilogy, and while it answered a lot of questions I found it quite long and slow in many parts. A good chunk of this book is running around from place to place chasing their own tails. The ending was satisfying, if not a little bitter sweet. There were definitely a few big surprises that were enjoyable. The writing as with the other two books in this series is well done. The world building and explanations of how some of the magic works was interesting. In the end though this book took a lot of effort for me to get through, I felt pretty disengaged with some of the characters and since it is a multi POV I found that I didn't care about what some of the characters were doing. #Ilovemephi

Audio Narration,
The narration is fantastic, the same narrator from the first two books is back and she does a fantastic job of embodying the characters with her voice.

Recommendation,
Definitely read this to complete the series. If you are reading this review and trying to decide if you want to start the series at all, I would say yes, if you like political fantasy.

***I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and Orbit in exchange for my free and honest review***

This is a perfect capstone for this series. It's hard to explain why without spoilers, but know that Stewart nails the landing on this fantastic, high fantasy world. The mysteries are resolved, the stakes are high, just rewards and punishments are served. The audiobook is a narration cast, and all three of them do fantastic work with their roles. When a series ends this strongly, you want to start back over and do it all again.

This book is the final book in the Bone Shard trilogy, and in my opinion, the best of the three, which is always an incredible achievement for a high fantasy trilogy.

There was a lot to wrap up well here. One of the strengths of this series is the characters and the connections formed across books that came to fruition in the plot of the Bone Shard War. We saw true character growth, particularly from Ranami and Jovis, and even some change from characters, that felt completely earned.

I liked Books 1 and 2. Book 1 sets up a highly interesting world with quite a few mysteries, while Book 2 expands our knowledge of the world and gives us new characters whose motivations come to matter a great deal.

However this book was even stronger to me because it doesn’t let characters simply get stuck in past patterns for the sake of plot devices (ok except for Lin trying to persuade someone who disagrees with her only to be distracted from their plans…this happened 2 too many times), and the magic is actually fully explained as well, in a really satisfying way too, which I think is rare.

I also really enjoyed the audiobook! It has multiple narrators, all of whom are engaging.

This series has a lot of heart, the best talking animals (who are NOT pets do not offend them), and some incredible worldbuilding. Don’t miss it!

The Bone Shard War is the final book in The Drowning Empire trilogy, one of my most anticipated books of the year. I'm so happy to say that Andrea Stewart did not disappoint!

The Bone Shard War picks up two years after the end of The Bone Shard Emperor. Although I'd forgotten much of what happened in the second installment, Stewart did a great job catching the reader up. (But honestly, all the books are worth a reread, which I might do soon!)

Although Lin has secured a victory as an emperor, her list of allies is short. And much to her dismay, she discovers that Nisong formed an alliance with Ragan, and both want her dead. But Lin is on the hunt for seven magical swords that will help her to keep control of her empire. The only trick is getting to these swords before her enemies.

For the past two years, Jovis has been in a predicament. He can't reveal his identity, and he's done things that don't make him proud. Can he regain control and help Lin and his former allies?

I was unprepared for the emotions I felt while reading this book. The fear I had for my favorite characters? Palpable. The confidence that they'd make it out alive? Minimal. But I was along for the ride from beginning to end.

If you're already a fan of The Drowning Empire trilogy, The Bone Shard War did not disappoint. If you want a multi-POV and genre-bending series to read, I highly recommend The Bone Shard Daughter, as it was one of my favorite books of 2020. If you want to try the audiobooks, I also highly recommend them. All three narrators, Natalie Naudus, Feodor Chin, and Emily Woo Zeller, bring life to the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for providing an e-ARC and digital audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This was a great final installment to the series. I loved the first book, but the series kind of lost me with the second, but this third and final book managed to draw me back in.

It was all I wanted it to be and more. Both tragic, yet also heart warming this book brought all the characters’ arcs and the themes of the series to a satisfying conclusion and left me very excited for what projects the author might write next.