Book review: The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart
By Daniel Roman
This week marks the release of The Bone Shard War, the final novel in Andrea Stewart’s epic fantasy trilogy The Drowning Empire. The first two books of the series, The Bone Shard Daughter and The Bone Shard Emperor, introduced readers to a vast fantasy world of drifting islands and complex politics, where magic is used to create monstrous constructs, mythic figures control the elements, and adorable animal companions named ossalen roam alongside their human counterparts.
Read our review for The Bone Shard War below, but be warned: while we’re keeping things spoiler-free for Book 3, we will be discussing some plot details from the previous books.
Book review: The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart (The Drowning Empire #3)
From its very first pages The Bone Shard War was not what I expected. That might seems like a strange observation to start a review with, but with trilogy enders, there’s always a big question of how it will stand in conversation with the first two books. Is it a sweeping epic that feels like a continuation of book 2? Is it a novel that stands somewhat on its own? Will its ending deliver on all the promises made by the rest of the series?
The Bone Shard War checks all of these boxes and more, but it’s a huge credit to Stewart that it does that in unpredictable ways. The Bone Shard Emperor ended with a climactic battle that reshaped the face of the Sukai Dynasty, as well as a handful of major cliffhangers. Most notably, we’ve been on the hook to find out about the fate of Mephi, the ossalen companion to Jovis who went missing near the end of the book.
The Bone Shard War gives us answers pretty 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.
As for the ending itself, I found it a totally fulfilling finish to the series. It doesn’t answer everything, and there’s certainly a feeling that the world and characters live on after the final page. But the story Stewart set out to tell in The Bone Shard Daughter is over. The biggest mysteries about the drifting islands in the Sukai Dynasty, the magic-using Alanga, the ossalen and more are solved. The result is a cathartic release.
The Bone Shard War lightens up on the horror but is no less dark
Let’s back things up a bit and talk about the style and tone of the book. The first two novels in The Drowning Empire had a surprisingly dark horror streak, primarily because of the various creepy constructs: human corpses or horrifying creatures sewn together from the parts of different animals which are given life by bone shard magic. Bone shard magic is obviously still very much a part of The Bone Shard War, but the book dials back the horror just a hair.
The Bone Shard War is no less of a dark fantasy for that; characters are going through it in this book, and sometimes Stewart twists the knife in deliciously terrible ways that made me curse out loud before immediately plunging into the next chapter. There’s slightly less body horror and more focus on the Alanga and their elemental powers, but it makes total sense given where we are in the series.
There’s also no reset back to the status quo; instead, there’s a pervading feeling that there were real consequences from the explosive ending of The Bone Shard Emperor and things have only gotten worse for the characters. Lin, Jovis, Ranami, Phalue, Nisong and Gio all have skeletons in their closets, and they come calling here at the finish line.
As for the aforementioned Alanga and the magical elements, they’re pretty spectacular. The action scenes remain exciting and very well drawn. The Drowning Empire reminds me a lot of an adult Avatar: The Last Airbender in terms of the style, the humor, and the elemental magic. With its heavier focus on the Alanga that’s especially true of The Bone Shard War, except with more emotional gut punches peppered throughout.
The Bone Shard War refresher
Given that this is the last book in The Drowning Empire, it hits the ground running. This was slightly intimidating for the first couple of chapters simply because there are so many characters and names to remember from previous books. Because of this, a quick refresher on The Bone Shard Daughter and The Bone Shard Emperor might not hurt before you dive in.
That said, I do think this levels out pretty fast, as Stewart does a pretty solid job of dropping small clues to remind you of who everyone is and what happened in the preceding books. The handholding is minimal, which I personally prefer, but this is one specific area where your mileage may vary depending on how much you like things spelled out in books.
Verdict
The Bone Shard War is an epic finale to The Drowning Empire. It answers longstanding questions in shocking ways, delivers emotional payoffs, and has all the action and heart that has made the series such a great read. I’ll definitely be revisiting the trilogy in the future, and eagerly anticipating whatever Andrea Stewart writes next.
The Bone Shard War is out now from Orbit Books, wherever books are sold.
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