The Bone Shard Daughter: The Drowning Empire Book One

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I appreciated Ranami and Phalue’s rep especially Phalue’s father not even being disappointed or so on her loving a woman.

From the statuary to the clothing, I couldn’t believe that I missed this glaringly obvious component of the story! You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Despite the author’s claim that The Bone Shard Daughter isn’t an Asian fantasy, Lin’s story is an Asian Family Saga, with her need to find validation with her father, who has set her up in competition with his foster son, Bayan. The mystery behind how The Endless Sea swallowed islands that were shown at the beginning of the book remains an unsolved mystery.Palue is the daughter of a governor, desperately in love with the beautiful Ranami who doesn’t want to become a governor’s wife, and wishes for the common people to be treated more fairly. It also allows the reader to deduce things that the individual characters may be unaware of, contributing to a nice tension as the reader awaits the character's awakening to what the reader knows. An unmissable debut from a major new voice in fantasy, The Bone Shard Daughter is by turns intimate, epic and thrilling - a triumph of storytelling perfect for fans of City of Brass , The Poppy War and Empire of Sand --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. The plot, the magic, the characters, the beasts; all of it is just so well throughout, written, and intricately put together. Mephi, to Jovis' amazement, is able to speak, slowly developing from simple one-word concepts to using complete sentences.

The plot is split among the points of view of the various characters, winding from one to the next, and eventually connecting. I feel that lately, with new SFF releases, it’s getting harder for me to find a debut that utilized more than three or four POV characters; Stewart uses five POV here, and she exacted a relatively unique storytelling style to it.

Gio, the leader of this branch of the Shardless Few, wants Jovis to use his powers to kill the governor’s personal guard.

This book is told in multiple points of views—Lin and Jovis in first person, and the others in third. The second thread is tied to Jovis whose missing wife’s face is suspended in his memory like an axis point around which all else turns.The worldbuilding of this novel is really gorgeous, being set in an Empire comprised of moving islands (I hope the finished copies have maps . Andrea Stewart is the daughter of immigrants, and was raised in a number of places across the United States. For decades the emperor has reigned, but now his rule is failing, whispers of revolution travel across the Empire’s islands. The characters were totally engaging, fully developed, endearing, and I felt emotionally invested in their journeys. Ilith tells her her father knew what Lin was doing all along, and he knew about the visits to the blacksmith and his family.

Not only all of the main characters came from a different background, but all of them were also carefully developed and characterized throughout this novel that’s infused with splendid pacing. The bone shard magic is so original, I really enjoyed how this book has a unique and fascinating magic system, it is refreshing. I loved learning more about the constructs—built from parts of dead animals—and the bone shard magic involved to reanimate them; I found the act of imbuing commands into these constructs and the repercussion of failing to be fascinating. I’ve struggled to get back into reading and this did more than transport me to another world, it reignited my LOVE of reading. We welcome respectful dialogue related to speculative fiction in literature, games, film, and the wider world.

Jovis’s and Phalue’s chapters are full of action as the former is trying to evade the law and the criminal gang he owes money to, and the latter gets pulled into a rebellious group because of the woman she loves. The geographic background of islands that move with the seasons is quite original, as is the system of magic by which it is ruled. All I’ll say is that it deals with the lost memory concept in Fantasy and that was the aspect that really hooked me in the beginning.