276°
Posted 20 hours ago

The Bone Shard Daughter: The Drowning Empire Book One

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

This book is told in multiple points of views—Lin and Jovis in first person, and the others in third. I know this may sound intimidating to some, especially the switch in first and third person, but it was done seamlessly, and I loved how each perspective slowly wove together in a grand tapestry. The Bone Shard Wargives us answerspretty early on even as it weaves in new mysteries which are solved in their own time. Some of the larger revelations totally reframe the series, giving it a ton of re-read value. That to me is always a sign of a well-executed finale. The minute I finished The Bone Shard War, I was eager to revisit the earlier books and comb through them for clues I missed on the first go. Little by little, he’d become more than just an animal, but a companion he couldn’t see himself being parted from.” Jovis and Lin are my favorite characters but I loved everyone else too. There are also minor characters that are fantastic. And yes, there are deaths. Sigh... I appreciated Ranami and Phalue’s rep especially Phalue’s father not even being disappointed or so on her loving a woman. Even in books, most societies still frown on lgbtq+ individuals which reflects our real world of course. None of it is bad but it was a nice change.

That and the MAGIC! MY GOD THE MAGIC SYSTEM IS SO FREAKIN’ UNIQUE (AND A BIT CREEPY AND INHUMANE— but hey, thats just my opinion). One of these rebels is Ranami. Ranami grew up as a "gutter rat", and is determined to change the system, and replace it with one that is more just. Her partner, Phalue, is the daughter of the wealthy governor of Nephilanu Island. Phalue, who had given up her philandering ways upon meeting Ranami, yearns only for Ranami to agree to marry her. She is unable to understand why Ranami continues to refuse her. Ranami is very clear that she has no desire to be a governor's wife. She is frustrated by Phalue's insistence upon defending the existing social structure, and how she parrots her father's philosophies. She begs Phalue to read relevant books on the subject, eventually dragging her into rebel business. Phalue agrees to help, but because she loves Ranami, not out of commitment to the cause. Jovis, the most successful smuggler in the last hundred years, sails the Endless Sea searching for his wife Emahla, who disappeared on a ship with blue sails several years ago. After rescuing a child from the annual trepanning day, during which subjects of the Empire have bone shards taken from their skulls, Jovis finds himself living up to a new legend about himself: Jovis, savior of children, accompanied by a mysterious animal companion named Mephisolou, who grants him supernatural strength. Note: Major spoilers will be under spoiler tags, but minor spoilers may be openly displayed. If you are against any and all spoilers, please do not read further. The Bone Shard Daughter tells the story of Lin, the daughter of the Emperor who cannot remember a semblance of her life before five years ago, and Jovis, a wanted smuggler on a fruitless search for his lover who’s been missing for seven years. It also follows three other characters—Phalue, Ranami, and Sand—whose paths weave intricately with the others to create an overall compelling narrative.Sand: A resident of Maila island, Sand spends her days placidly collecting mangoes, until one day she falls from a tree and hits her head. As she begins to recover memories she didn't know she had lost, she realizes she has not always been on the island, nor have the others there with her, and she sets out to awaken them and return to the empire. I found myself daydreaming about Stewart’s worldbuilding long after I finished the book. The world of the Drowning Empire trilogy is fascinating, centering on a premise I’m surprised I haven’t encountered before: People live on floating, migrating islands that drift through the Endless Sea, the bottom of which is unreachable. Stewart does an excellent job of orienting the reader through the islands’ relative locations, even though a map isn’t included (and probably can’t be, given the nature of the islands’ movement). So, I never liked the strict division of sci-fi versus fantasy in publishing. My favorite works tend to be those that combine the tropes of both, especially sci-fi with grand, beautiful worldbuilding. This is the first epic fantasy I’ve read that borrows brilliantly from sci-fi tropes, though. Its magic system made me go WHOAAA OMG once I realized it worked like coding. Basically, the empire takes a bone shard from behind everyone’s ear when they’re 8, then if you carve the right commands on the shards in a special language, they can remotely drain the person’s lifeforce to power magical constructs made of animal parts. BUT, if the commands don’t work with each other, it can cause the whole construct to break down. (Where are the programmers out there…relatable content for you.) Phalue: The daughter and heir of the governor of one of the empire's largest islands. Her relationship with Ranami, a commoner, is fraught with uncertainty and conflict because of their different world views. Did I mention that I loved Mephi (the “animal companion”)? He was so sweet and cute, where can I get one???

As more people come to Jovis wanting his help, he keeps resisting since he’s just trying to find his wife and doesn’t want to get involved, but Mephi changes all that. It seems to please Mephi whenever Jovis gives in and agrees to aid someone, and it soon becomes clear that he’s more of a companion than a pet. Mephi seems to understand language (at least, when he wants to), and he starts learning to speak for himself as he grows. In a starred review, Library Journal opines that "multiple points of view combine with vivid worldbuilding and well-rounded characters, as the ramifications of authority based in fear impact an entire country". [6] Awards [ edit ] Jovis’ friendship with Mephi is the heart of his story, and they both won my whole heart, especially together.As a note though, this book is being comp'd to THE POPPY WAR/for fans of TPW and beyond them both being under the umbrella of Asian fantasy, I just want to put out there that if you are reading them because of this . . . don't necessarily come into this expecting the same kind of story? THE POPPY WAR (if you haven't read it . . . well, read it) is grimdark military fantasy; TBSD isn't. TBSD has a very different narrative. The worldbuilding of the two are different, taking influences from different parts of East Asian culture. (On that note, TPW has way more of a historical influence too.) Both are awesome though, and worth a read. The Bone Shard Daughter was the first book I read this year (I read perhaps the most hyped debut of 2020 in 2021. Go figure). As with all hyped debuts, I had the central question lurking at the corners of my mind: Would this live up to the hype? Was it really that good? Why was there a Sarah J. Maas recommendation on the front cover (I have nothing against Sarah J. Maas, I just found the fact that she had a blurb on the cover of an epic fantasy novel... kind of hilarious). I liked the POV switches and the alternating first- and third-person narration (I tend to get easily tired of the first-person voice that seems to be increasingly common), and thank all the deities it did NOT have the ever-popular present-tense narration either. We alternate between a few corners of the Empire, with the story set on several islands, and get to know several key figures. Lin, an Emperor’s daughter (as she will tell you ad nauseam) who tries to win her father’s approval and recover her lost memories, ends up having a bit of an identity crisis. Jovis, a smuggler, is trying to find his missing wife and ends up reluctantly pulled into an insurrection while meeting a strange companion on his unexpected journey. Phalue, a daughter of a corrupt island governor, is pulled into a guerilla world of her girlfriend Ranami. And far away on a remote island a woman named Sand shakes off a thrall of leading a life of a mindless worker drone. All these threads are destined to collide at the heart of the Empire - eventually, as of course this is very much a beginning of a series and the payoff is a few books away. Do not expect any resolutions; everything is a set-up for the story to come.

He taught me how to read a person’s thoughts on their face. And he knew that I knew how to read these signs. So between us, it was as though he had spoken out loud. The Emperor’s network of constructs is made possible by Tithing Festivals, during which each eight-year-old child is required to “donate” a bone shard to the Empire. Even if they are one of the 96% who survive this procedure, they may still die prematurely: once a bone shard with commands engraved on it is inserted into a construct, it feeds off the life force of the one it was taken from. a b c Lu, S. Qiouyi (2020-09-15). "Exploring Empire and Agency in The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart". Tor.com . Retrieved 2021-04-19. We all tell ourselves stories of who we are, and in my mind, I was always the hero. But I wasn't. Not in all the ways I should have been. The days we’d spent swimming and fishing at the beach, the first time I’d kissed her, the dreams we’d shared – I was now the only keeper of these memories, and that was the truest sort of loneliness. There were so many things I still wanted to tell her, to share with her.I wished I did remember. Was there a time when this man stroked my hair and kissed my forehead? Had he loved me before I’d forgotten, when I’d been whole and unbroken?

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment