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The Bone Shard Daughter - By Andrea Stewart


Kezay

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Y'all... it has been a while since I've read a good fictional book let alone one in a fantasy setting.  Game of Thrones I've always wanted to read, but between enjoying the HBO series and the fandom's ire at GRRM taking forever on the next book I figured I"d wait until that book comes out and then just binge it all cover to cover until I'm caught up.

 

In the meantime, my immediate manager at work let me borrow a book titled The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart and let me tell you it is one of the best and easiest reads I've had in a good while.  Just over 430 pages (not counting supplemental material at the end of the book) and a fantasy setting rooted in Asian mythology and a story-centric hook that directly relates to the title, the use of bone shards.

 

I don't want to get too deep into specifics in case anyone may be reading it (or may plan to) but the author does a fantastic job leading the reader through different character pathways, across a variety of lands/settings while maintaining how vast the world is that they're building.  They also manage to contain it just enough that character interactions and the effects of events on one side of the world affecting the other feels organic and consequential to the overall plot. There are a couple of twists in the story, the biggest of which was handled in such a cool way that even though you're tipped off enough to know what it is the true reveal of it in the story still comes off as a OMG kind of moment. By that point, expected, yet still exceptional.

 

Fortunately, this book is the first in a planned trilogy and it released in 2020.  The sequel, The Bone Shard Emperor, came out late in 2021 and I plan on tackling that sometime later this summer.  The series as a whole is called The Drowning Empire, although the author maintains that this will only be a trilogy.  Though I wonder if the Drowning Empire is the overarching name of this fantasy series with "The Bone Shard..." named books simply being a part of it.

 

Anyway, that's all I had to say, been a while since I've been so invested in a book and felt like making thread :P

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Can I really start yet another incomplete fantasy book series? …Yeah I can. The Bone Shard Daughter sounds interesting, I'll give it a look sometime.

 

Also, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for George R.R. Martin to finish A Song of Ice and Fire, considering it's been 11 years since the last book (and at least 3 or 4 years since his "oh yeah book 6 is almost finished, any day now" updates). I still love the books but waiting until all 7 are finished before reading might be a fool's errand at this point.

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this year i wanted to try reading between 24 and 30 books, and while i'm currently at 10, i didn't actually read any for the entirety of may...

 

but taking a month off means i'm ready to read again, so i'm happy to take this recommendation and give this series a go flower; most of the books i've read thus far have been feminist fiction so far so it'll be nice to read a new fantasy series for once....i find it hard to delve into fantasy series now that i'm older

 

i tried to read Dune a few years ago and it was so fuckin dense and boring i actually gave up within the first 30 pages, which is insane for me x_x

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4 hours ago, April said:


first interesting post here in a while and this is what it amounted to lol;

 

I appreciate you calling that out. I know this place isn't the most active, but I honestly would have rather no comment be posted and the thread slowly die off into Page 2 and beyond than what the first comment ended up being.

 

3 hours ago, Eliwood8 said:

Can I really start yet another incomplete fantasy book series? …Yeah I can. The Bone Shard Daughter sounds interesting, I'll give it a look sometime.

 

Also, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for George R.R. Martin to finish A Song of Ice and Fire, considering it's been 11 years since the last book (and at least 3 or 4 years since his "oh yeah book 6 is almost finished, any day now" updates). I still love the books but waiting until all 7 are finished before reading might be a fool's errand at this point.

 

Haha, well it sounds like this author is pretty new in this space and is hungry to have this story told so hopefully it won't stay incomplete. ;)  As for A Song of Ice and Fire, I'm not holding my breath too much, but it is giving me an opportunity to check out some other stuff while I wait in the meantime, just in case.  My plan later this year, as a gift to myself, is to purchase the most current book set.  If Book 7 still isn't out then it it is what it is.  My next hope then will be that it's out by the time I finish the previous ones!

 

1 hour ago, Spring said:

this year i wanted to try reading between 24 and 30 books, and while i'm currently at 10, i didn't actually read any for the entirety of may...

 

but taking a month off means i'm ready to read again, so i'm happy to take this recommendation and give this series a go flower; most of the books i've read thus far have been feminist fiction so far so it'll be nice to read a new fantasy series for once....i find it hard to delve into fantasy series now that i'm older

 

i tried to read Dune a few years ago and it was so fuckin dense and boring i actually gave up within the first 30 pages, which is insane for me x_x

 

I've never been successful at those book reading goals so kudos to you for making it to 10 in your endeavor!  If you have space/time to check it out then go for it; it's a really easy read so even if you happen to not like it as much as I did it wouldn't have been too far out of your way.  As for Dune, that's another book I have no read but I know plenty who have and it has ranged from "you have to give it time to really settle and build up the lore" to "one of the best books they've ever read".  Always at extremes, no inbetween; but that's one of those books I'll tackle when the mood strikes.  Could be never for all I know!

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i tried dune when i was in high school and read a lot and it was just so unapproachable for me. iirc i was having to flip back to the end of the book all the time to try to understand shit with the glossary and it was just not for me at allll

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This sounds like a series I would enjoy reading as well, with the fantasy setting and world-building elements. I read Elantris by Brandon Sanderson which I would highly recommend even though being his first novel, I had seen reviews stating it was his hardest to read. I haven't gotten around to tackling any of his other work in the "Cosmere Universe".

 

Great post, I'm keeping Bone Shard Daughter on my list.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 6 months later...

I finally got around to reading this, really enjoyed it, thanks for the recommendation, @Kezay! Like you said, nice easy read but still a meaty enough story/setting that it'll be bouncing around in my head for a few days. I'll have to check out the second book sometime soon.

 

Full book spoilers within:

Spoiler

You just know something's weird with Lin from the beginning, but I didn't consider she could be a construct until Bayan's melting face thing happened. The whole time I thought she was some other girl being fed the memories of Lin, but the Emperor's true goals were much more interesting (and much more twisted!).

 

Same with Sand, I assumed she was the real Lin early on, then I thought she might be Emahla, but being another construct is very intriguing. Most of all, now I'm curious why the Emperor would even bother keeping those constructs alive on that island. Seems like he's the type to just destroy a "tool" if it's not working properly.

 

Lots of seeds planted for the next books, I'm excited to see how they turn out. The Alanga, Mephi who seems to be connected to the witstone (maybe fossilized remains of Mephi's species?), the sinking islands—lots to explore, in addition to the main characters' arcs.

 

Also I really like the idea of an island-based empire where the islands float/move around. Just a cool setting for a fantasy story.

 

I'm still turning over in my mind why Lin and Jovis's chapters are written first-person while the others are third-person. I guess it just sets them apart as important characters, but I kept wondering if there was more to it than that.

 

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  • 4 months later...
On 1/4/2023 at 1:50 PM, Eliwood8 said:

I finally got around to reading this, really enjoyed it, thanks for the recommendation, @Kezay! Like you said, nice easy read but still a meaty enough story/setting that it'll be bouncing around in my head for a few days. I'll have to check out the second book sometime soon.

 

Full book spoilers within:

  Reveal hidden contents

You just know something's weird with Lin from the beginning, but I didn't consider she could be a construct until Bayan's melting face thing happened. The whole time I thought she was some other girl being fed the memories of Lin, but the Emperor's true goals were much more interesting (and much more twisted!).

 

Same with Sand, I assumed she was the real Lin early on, then I thought she might be Emahla, but being another construct is very intriguing. Most of all, now I'm curious why the Emperor would even bother keeping those constructs alive on that island. Seems like he's the type to just destroy a "tool" if it's not working properly.

 

Lots of seeds planted for the next books, I'm excited to see how they turn out. The Alanga, Mephi who seems to be connected to the witstone (maybe fossilized remains of Mephi's species?), the sinking islands—lots to explore, in addition to the main characters' arcs.

 

Also I really like the idea of an island-based empire where the islands float/move around. Just a cool setting for a fantasy story.

 

I'm still turning over in my mind why Lin and Jovis's chapters are written first-person while the others are third-person. I guess it just sets them apart as important characters, but I kept wondering if there was more to it than that.

 

 

Oh my gosh, I'm so late following up here, haha!

 

Glad to hear you enjoyed it and it was good hearing your thoughts in the spoilers section of your post.  I definitely sets up a lot (and more) in the second book, Bone Shard Emperor.  I just finished that one back in February.  Also a very easy read but a good read like the first.  Quite a few questions get answered in it but it will leave you with a few more for the third and final book... which just came out in April!  I got that one too but haven't started on it yet.

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No worries, haha. And I did read The Bone Shard Emperor since that last post! I'm really enjoying how this whole fantasy world is coming together, great balance of magic and mystery. I haven't gotten to the third book yet but I probably will sometime this year.

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