Review: The Bone Ships by R.J. Barker

I’ve found my next obsession: The Bone Ships by R.J. Barker.

How could I not fall in love with The Bone Ships when it’s got everything you could want in a nautical fantasy book? A crew of the condemned, swashbuckling adventure, and colossal sea dragons…

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Title: The Bone Ships
Author: R.J. Barker
Series: The Tide Child #1
Genre: Epic fantasy
Publisher: Orbit
Pages: 471
Audiobook length: 17 hrs 3 min
ISBN: 9780316487962
Content warnings: infant murder/child sacrifice, ableism, violence, gore, death of parent, alcoholism, fire/fire injury, mentions of rape

Blurb

A brilliantly imagined saga of honor, glory, and warfare, The Bone Ships is the epic launch of a new fantasy from David Gemmell Award-nominated RJ Barker.

Two nations at war. One prize beyond compare.

For generations, the Hundred Isles have built their ships from the bones of ancient dragons to fight an endless war. The dragons disappeared, but the battles for supremacy persisted. 

Now the first dragon in centuries has been spotted in far-off waters, and both sides see a chance to shift the balance of power in their favour. Because whoever catches it will win not only glory, but the war.

Review of The Bone Ships

• Format: ebook
• Pacing: slow (for character development but lots of action!)
• Plot or character-driven: plot
• POVs: third person single POV (some occasional shifts in POV for short chapters)
• Representation: Achillean mc

I will admit. I was skeptical about all the hype around The Bone Ships during the first few chapters. The main character, Joron, did not make a good first impression. The only person that stood out as worth paying attention to was Lucky Meas, the legendary shipwife who survived the fate of all firstborns in The Hundred Isles to become a legend. But The Bone Ships is a story that creeps up on you. One that throws you in right as its characters have hit rock bottom before slowly revealing their integrity as they build their way back up. As my feelings towards Joron and the other characters slowly changed, so did Joron’s feelings for Lucky Meas. It was such a unique experience to have my opinion of a book change the same way the main character was changing.

Characters & Relationships

Joron was an interesting narrator to follow because at times I could relate to him so much and other times I was so frustrated with him! Wanting to take Tide Child from Meas was, to be blunt, delusional. I could understand his anger at her usurping him, but it was obvious he didn’t have any of the qualities a ship captain needed, especially to lead a crew of condemned criminals. His crew knew that he was young and uncertain of himself and took advantage.

Then Meas steps in with enough experience and backbone to command respect from Joron’s rebellious crew. At the same time, Joron realizing he was afraid of dying before each battle and looking around to see if anyone else felt the same fear felt very human. It made me like him more as a character. Joron felt very real. I really enjoyed getting to see how he changed throughout The Bone Ships.

Lucky Meas was by far my favorite character. From the first time she appeared on page, she was a forceful and effective leader made more interesting by the fact that I didn’t know what drove her. Nothing in The Bone Ships is given freely. I had to piece together Meas’s backstory with the crumbs Joron was able to pick up. Most of what I came to learn about Meas was through her actions and how she led her crew. I don’t think I can summarize how I feel about Meas coherently. She’s just awesome! She’s definitely going on my list of best characters of all time.

The crew on Tide Child was large. I was glad Barker limited the number of characters he gave roles in the story, otherwise I would have felt overwhelmed. This made it easier to form a connection to the central characters. I especially liked Farys, one of the youngest of the crew members, and Mevans, who seemed too clever for his own good. Gavith also seemed very sweet. I predict he and Farys will become romantically involved since they are the only teens in the crew… They both deserve a happy ending so hopefully things work out for them!

There is no romance in The Bone Ships, so R.J. Barker devoted all of his attention on platonic relationships between the characters. There were a lot of interesting dynamics between crew members, many of which had very strong personalities! I especially loved to see the deep, trusting bonds characters developed as they learned to rely each other on their quest.

Wordbuilding

R.J. Barker wrote in his acknowledgements that he had to sacrifice accuracy of ship life to complete The Bone Ships by deadline. As someone who has never been on a ship everything felt pretty realistic to me! Most time is spent at sea, but we did get to see the capital of The Hundred Isles, Bernshulme, which had an interesting matriarchal political system. Women rise to positions of power by giving birth to whole, unmarred children. Those who are born with visible “defects” or who’s mothers die in childbirth become berncast, lesser citizens. 

I was a little surprised at how merciless the sea is portrayed in The Bone Ships. Again, in my nonexistent experience with the ocean, I feel like there is at least a little chance of saving people who go overboard or are stuck on sinking ships? In The Bone Ships, beakwyrms and longthresh lurk beneath the ships promising a painful death to any sailor who falls within their reach. On top of the cut throat politics of Bernshulme, the world of The Bone Ships appears very grim. As dark as the world gets, there were some unexpected moments of humor and a strong thread of hope that bound the story.

Plot & Pacing

The Bone Ships felt like a true adventure fantasy. Joron, Meas and their crew set out on a quest to protect the first arkeesian of their lifetime. Because of the slow burn character development and length of the journey to protect the arkeesian, the pacing was slow, but I never felt bored. The interpersonal conflicts between the crewmembers of Tide Child combined with a steady stream of swashbuckling ship battles was enough to keep me occupied.

Conclusion

The Bone Ships was an awesome, gritty fantasy adventure that I’d recommend to anyone who even remotely enjoys fantasy!

You’ll like this book if you enjoy…

• Pirates!
• Sea dragons!
• Epic fantasy with a strong focus on character development
• Strong platonic bonds between characters

Where to find The Bone Ships:

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