The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart – Review

Published: September 8, 2020

Publisher: Orbit Books

Series: The Drowning Empire #1

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 448 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 5.0/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

In an empire controlled by bone shard magic, Lin, the former heir to the emperor will fight to reclaim her magic and her place on the throne. The Bone Shard Daughter marks the debut of a major new voice in epic fantasy.

The emperor’s reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire’s many islands.

Lin is the emperor’s daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.

Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright – and save her people.

This was exactly as amazing as I hoped it would be!! The Bone Shard Daughter has been one of my most anticipated debuts of the year and I’m so excited! I’ve come across too many books that have been hyped up (or that I’ve been hyped for) that have been tremendous let downs. This however…has such awesome characters, the world is awesome, the magic is awesome, and may I just say I love animal companions?

The synopsis introduces us to Lin, daughter of the Emperor, who is secretly learning her father’s bone shard magic. She competes with Bayan (a boy her father has fostered) to earn his favor, but it seems that Bayan is winning for he is being instructed in the bone shard magic while she is endlessly quizzed about her memory. Lin begins to sneak about and steal keys to enter forbidden areas of the palace while trying to avoid the spy constructs her father has created.

Another main POV is Jovis, a smuggler, who is just trying to outrun this world’s equivalent of the mafia and find his wife who went missing seven years ago. He’s chasing down a little boat with blue sails that was seen sailing away after she went missing. During his journeys he begins helping children escape the ceremony where shards of their skulls are taken for the emperor’s collection and he becomes a bit of a hero to the people. He also picks up Mephi, a weird little creature that reminded me of a magical mink or otter when described. Mephi quickly became one of my favorite parts of this book. I just LOVE animal companions!

There’s also Phalue, who is the daughter to the governor of one of the islands. Phalue’s lover Ranami is mixed up with the resistance soon Phalue is too. Well, not that soon because it takes quite a bit of convincing and effort for Phalue to come around to the idea. Phalue took awhile to grow on me as she isn’t as immediately likable as Jovis and Lin but I ended up liking her fairly well.

Lastly, there’s Sand, who is a bit of a mystery. She’s on an island with a group of others who cannot remember ever living anywhere else. They have certain tasks they complete and sort of mindlessly go about their lives… until Sand falls out of a tree and begins to question everything.

The characters are the biggest part of what makes The Bone Shard Daughter a delight to read, but the world building is pretty fantastic as well. The magic is way cool and well thought out, the islands seem to move about the sea and the weather changes between dry and wet years. One of the islands also sinks into the sea pretty early on, which is kind of terrifying and makes you wonder what could be in store for later books. There’s also some mysterious beings that the Emperor is supposedly protecting his people from by using his life draining bone magic.On top of all this, the rebels are trying to find ways to destabilize the island governors and the emperor.

If all of this somehow doesn’t totally sell this book to you, I guess nothing will. It’s absolutely fantastic and I was honestly a little skeptical prior to starting it. I thought it would be like so many other things I’ve read this year (and in previous years) but it has memorable content and characters. This really, truly deserves the sense of hype and anticipation it’s gotten leading up to it’s release this week! I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next book in the series because, WOW THAT ENDING!!!!