This epic fantasy is set in an Empire ruled by an unpopular man with out of date views, join Lin and fellow characters as they try to bring the Empire into a new world. The Bone Shard Daughter was an extremely immersive, epic fantasy.
The Bone Shard Daughter, Andrea Stewart
Themes: Adult, Fantasy, Own Voices, LGBT
Reading Format: Paperback
3 STARS // 6.1 CAWPILE
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Thank you very much to Obit for sending me through an early release of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.
The Bone Shard Daughter is an own voices epic fantasy following the adventures of several exciting lead characters told from their narrative perspectives. It takes place in an Empire compiled of many islands and ruled by a very unpopular Emporer. So this is definitely a novel of power, inheriting power, earning power, stumbling upon power. We see each of our main characters deal with this in a different way, which would actually be quite interesting to look back and analyse.
Featured in this book are constructs, very weird creatures that are put together like Frankenstein’s Monster, half of one creature and bits of another. They are formed to obey and are fitted with bone shards detailing their life’s commands. These shards and inscribed by those talented enough to do it, the Emporer being one of these people. The idea of a construct is interesting and definitely unique, I’m not sure if this was a magic system or not, but I certainly haven’t read anything like it before.
One of the things I really appreciated about this book is the seamless integration of LGBT relationships without it being a big deal. They were just part of society with nothing further mentioned and I appreciate that we as a real-life society are getting closer every day to seeing sexuality of any kind normalised in the media we consume. The Bone Shard Daughter did a really good job of this and I really liked the diversity included.
The reason I didn’t rate this book higher is that I found it lost itself a bit towards the end. There was always a lot going on, but it started to feel like too much at the end. Also, there was a relationship change that I found immensely strange and whilst I was accepting of this change, I didn’t like the way the character dealt with it. It’s difficult to go into more detail about this without spoilers, but generally, I found it was a weird path to go down and I didn’t really like the way it was done.
Overall though, Andrea Stewart’s writing hypnotised me immediately, she has a real way of writing characters. Jovis is one of the main protagonists and I found him so funny and loveable. He was the character I wanted to follow the most, a smuggler getting swept up in something much bigger than he expected or wanted. But the way Stewart writes him made me feel he was really there next to be, which I think is a rare talent.
So I think if you’re after an epic fantasy to kick off a new series, and don’t mind a lot, a lot going on, The Bone Shard Daughter could be for you.
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Great review! I hadn’t heard of this book yet. Added it to my kindle pre-orders.