Review: The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart

After my disappointment at the conclusion to The Bone Shard Emperor, I was a little wary picking up The Bone Shard War. I didn’t know if the story would recover from the last-minute villain swap at the end of the second book or if the entire series would crash and burn. Fortunately, I felt The Bone Shard War accomplished the former. Andrea Stewart continues to weave her characters through a mysterious empire that has yet to give up all of its secrets. The conclusion to The Drowning Empire highlight’s the series strengths in worldbuilding and political intrigue.

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Blurb

With the help of the Shardless Few, Jovis and Lin have defeated the construct army and the treacherous Ragan. But not all alliances are easy. The leader of the Shardless Few has debts to pay and a world to make over. And this new world does not need or want an Emperor.

But this is not the only thing to threaten the fragile peace. Now that fewer people are undergoing the Tithing Festival, the Alanga are returning, and not all of them are peaceful. While Jovis and Lin find allies in unlikely places, other Alanga begin to choose sides–and many are none too happy with the current regime or with the commoners.

With enemies on all sides, Empress Lin must decide if she should follow in the destructive steps of her forebears to save the Empire’s citizens and bring peace. 

Review of The Bone Shard War

• Format: audiobook
• Pacing: medium
• Plot or character-driven: plot
• Multiple POVs: yes
• Representation: sapphic couple/main characters

Let’s start with how I felt the series as a whole fell short. Throughout the second book, Sand/Nisong was build up to be a strong and cunning leader in contrast to Lin’s well meaning, but clumsy, attempt at taking on the role of emperor. With their opposing personalities combined with their mutual connection to Lin’s father and both being his failed attempts to recreate the real Nisong, a fascinating rivalry arose between Lin and Nisong. The entire book, my anticipation grew for when they would inevitably meet, only for their confrontation to be cut short when Ragan stole center stage. Ragan was not nearly as compelling as a villain, and even though The Bone Shard War expanded on his backstory and motivations, he didn’t have the same potential to challenge Lin’s moral convictions and position as emperor.

After her defeat, Sand/Nisong’s development really leaned into her sympathetic traits, especially in comparison to Ragan being more malicious and unpredictable. I found their dynamic mildly interesting, but nothing about them really stuck with me from The Bone Shard War. Nisong’s chapters were just interesting enough that I wasn’t bored.

Moving on to what I liked.

The most interesting conflict in The Bone Shard War was Lin’s battle against herself and the people of the empire. As others pointed out, Lin is a bad emperor. The many mistakes she makes were difficult to watch, but they illustrated an essential theme in the series overall: no one is fit to have absolute power over a nation of people. Had Lin been a great emperor that made all of her people happy, she would have undermined the story’s anti-autocratic message.

Phalue and Ranami were good foils for Lin in this book. With each mistake Lin makes, Phalue was there to point out how it would affect her people. Additionally, the work Phalue and Ranami did on their island contrasted Lin’s focus on clinging to her power. While Lin chased after magical swords, Phalue and Ranami strengthened their island by investing in its people. They began restructuring distribution of resources and improved their island’s quality of life while planning a new system of power that would prevent hoarding of resources and power in the future. I loved that the reader was left to question whether Lin made the right decision by prioritizing individual power to protect her people or whether she could have prevented war by conceding her position.

Of all the characters, I feel that Jovis was the most consistent and likeable throughout the series. I loved getting to see his identity change from smuggler to captain of the guard to Alanga, and how his self-perception slowly began to change as well. Jovis struggled with doubting his worthiness to do and be perceived as “good” the entire series, which was an interesting internal conflict to follow. In the final book, Jovis is once again trapped in Kaphra’s schemes, but now he has Mephi to protect. It was heartbreaking to see Jovis being forced to act as Kaphra’s weapon. If it weren’t for Mephi, he would have lost himself. I loved Jovis and Mephi’s dynamic, and getting to see them lean on each other to survive. I know that their story is going to stick with me long after I’ve read these books.

After reading The Bone Shard War, I’m happy with how this series ended. I was disappointed by the second book when Ragan took over as the main antagonist, but grew very attached to the main characters. I found all of their stories interesting and loved how they came together to form a unified anti-autocratic theme. I would recommend this series to fans of epic fantasy who love intricate worldbuilding and political conflict.

You’ll Like This Book if You Enjoy…

• Epic fantasy
• Political intrigue/conflict
• Vast worldbuilding and magic systems
• Magical animal companions

Where to find The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart

Have you read The Bone Shard War? Let’s chat in the comments!