Early Review – The Bone Shard War (The Drowning Empire, Book 3) by Andrea Stewart (4.5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 616 pages
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: April 18, 2023
ASIN: B09Y5K337Y
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the The Drowning Empire series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
“Lin Sukai has won her first victory as Emperor, but the future of the Phoenix Empire hangs in the balance – and Lin is dangerously short of allies.
As her own governors plot treason, the Shardless Few renew hostilities. Worse still, Lin discovers her old nemesis Nisong has joined forces with the rogue Alanga, Ragan. Both seek her death.
Yet hopes lies in history. Legend tells of seven mythic swords, forged in centuries past. If Lin can find them before her enemies, she may yet be able to turn the tide.
If she fails, the Sukai dynasty – and the entire empire – will fall.”
Series Info/Source: This is the 3rd (and final) book in The Drowning Empire. I got a copy of this on ebook from NetGalley for review.
Thoughts: I was thrilled to get this book for review and ended up really enjoying how the series wrapped up. I struggled a bit through the beginning of this book. It wasn’t bad, it was just hard to stay engaged because of all the POV switches and the long chapter length. Things really picked up in the last third of the book through and then I struggled to stop reading it!
I am not going to do any sort of synopsis here, there is just so much going on at this point in the series. The book changes POV between Lin, Jovis, Ranami, Phalue and Nisong. Having this many POVs did draw out the story quite a bit, especially at the beginning. According to my Kindle, the chapters were 20-30 minutes long in a lot of cases. This made it harder for me to read the book quickly because I would finish a long chapter and then set it aside because I didn’t have time to start another long chapter.
This book did an amazing job of tying up this epic fantasy series and I loved how the ending was done. It does feel slightly rushed at the end, but I still really enjoyed how everything was concluded. I would love to read more about these characters and this world in the future. Some of the reveals here were amazing. Especially the reveals around how the islands were formed and why they were collapsing.
My Summary (4.5/5): Overall I really enjoyed this series as a whole and loved how this book wrapped things up. The first book in this series remains my favorite, while the second was my least favorite. I really enjoyed the characters, world-building, and bone magic here. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for what Stewart writes next. I would recommend this series to those that enjoy epic fantasy and in particular intriguing magic systems and engaging characters.
