The Bone Shard War (The Drowning Empire)

Product Information

In contrast to Nisong, we have Ragan who grew up as a Cloudtree Monk along with their harsh discipline. Compelling, intimate, and fulfilling in equal measure, The Bone Shard War ended The Drowning Empire trilogy emotionally.

i'll say some nice things first: there's an interesting plot twist that i didn't see coming and i liked how it made sense.The Bone Shard War is the epic finale to the unmissable, action-packed and magic-laced Drowning Empire series. So, yes, she is definitely the catalyst for the plot, but I fell like she carries the brunt of it in general because a lot of worlbuilding and conflict hinges on her characterization. I could feel Mephi’s pain radiating off the page, after everything they’d been through and done for each other and how close they were… I really couldn’t cope with that.

Nils: I had to read back over my notes of The Bone Shard Emperor to remind myself where we left the story, however the two year time jump didn’t feel jarring. But she was also 14 and I was probably just as annoying then too, so maybe it fit better than I think.But in this book, initially, it felt like I missed reading an installment or a novella, and I did not think the book needed to utilize this time jump.

So it could be argued this was important for the character strength, but equally I can see why we could've skipped some of it in detail.Like the second book, this third one is heavily relationship focused in a way that I found frustrating. So when she finally decided to let Nisong go, when she stopped to evaluate why she was trying to be Nisong and what that actually meant and that she didn’t need to be that person, I was so happy for her. There is a finesse in Lin's negotiation, in knowing how to approach and talk to powerful men and reign in her anger and using her other assets instead of threatening everyone with her bone shard magic or Alanga powers the way her father did. Although I did say there were a few sections in the middle of The Bone Shard War that felt repetitive, I was rewarded by the final 150 pages. Stewart shows us that redemption can be sought even if the world you live in makes it hard to do so.