[ARC] The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

 

Rating: ★★★★☆ 4.25 stars

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, LGBT

Trigger warnings: violence 

“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.” 

*Thank you Goodreads for this ARC!

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The Bone Shard Daughter is the first book in The Drowning Empire trilogy by Andrea Stewart. This Asian-inspired story takes place in an empire consisting of many islands, where the emperor uses bone shard magic to create monstrous constructs to enforce law and order. The story follows Lin, the daughter of the emperor and heir to the crumbling Empire. Lin spends her days trapped in the palace and begins to secretly learn bone shard magic to seek approval from her father. At the same time, she seeks to uncover her fractured memories and the secrets behind them. The story also follows several other characters as well. Jovis is a smuggler who is on a search for his missing wife. He finds a magical animal companion along the way and soon finds himself entangled in the brewing revolution against the Empire. Phalue is the daughter of one of the island’s governors and Ranami is her girlfriend and member of the rebellion against the governor (and by extension, the Emperor). The pair grapple with their class difference and their different perspectives regarding the rebellion. Lastly, Sand is a woman with missing memories who is on an island with others, who are also missing their memories. 

“But dreams had a way of only making sense while you were having them.”

I found this to be a strong debut novel and I really enjoyed reading it! Stewart’s writing is clear and easy to read. She is good at building tension and emotion through the dialogue, engaging scenes, and descriptive imagery. Stewart not only writes in five POVs, but also uses a unique storytelling style. Lin and Jovis’ POVs are written through a first-person perspective while Phalue, Ranami, and Sand’s POVs are written through a third-person perspective. Given the amount of character POVs there are, I can see how this could be a risky move and detract from the reading experience but Stewart executes this well. The changes from first-person perspective to third-person perspective and back enhanced each of the character’s unique stories and voices. 

I found the overall story interesting and immersive, but dragging at some points before picking up again at the end. Though I think the story so far is packed enough to set up for more action, political drama, revelations, and rebellion in the rest of the series. There were a couple of twists and turns in the story, some of which I guessed, and a few that I didn’t see coming. The story isn’t completely predictable, which I liked!

I also like the worldbuilding and magic system of this book! Stewart laid a solid foundation for both of these aspects to be explored further in upcoming books. I think the name of the trilogy (The Drowning Empire) gives a hint to the world and the mystery behind the Endless Sea and the moving islands that comprise the Empire. I am also really intrigued by the magic system, which involves bone shard magic. I found the act of carving commands on the bone shards to control the constructs and the consequences of failing to write a command to be fascinating!

“I’d opened my heart a crack for Mephi, and now it seemed the whole world came flooding in.”

This book also has a good bit (and i mean a pretty good bit) of character development. While I thoroughly enjoyed Lin and Jovis’ character development, I especially loved Phalue’s development since I didn’t really like her in the beginning, and her development and growth made me appreciate her character more. But I think out of all of them, I liked Jovis’ character the best (which came at a surprise for me since I read the book given the premise, which focused on Lin). I found Jovis and his magical animal companion’s (Mephi) relationship adorable and endearing. I also appreciated how Stewart handled Phalue and Ranami’s relationship and showed how real and genuine their love is (let’s go sapphics!!). Their relationship however functioned mainly to demonstrate class disparity, poverty, and wealth, how one’s background gives way to one’s perspective, and how challenging it can be to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and truly understand what they’re going through. However, there wasn’t an instance where they were questioned or ridiculed for being queer; people were okay with that. Queerness is normalized in this novel’s world, and it’s great.

“It’s hard to remake one’s view of the world, to admit to complacency. I thought remaking myself for you was hard enough, but doing that was something I wanted. I didn’t want to realize how much I’ve hurt the people around me, and that’s what confronting my beliefs meant. We all tell ourselves stories of who we are, and in my mind, I was always the hero. But I wasn’t. Not in all the ways I should have been.”

Overall, The Bone Shard Daughter is a strong, solid debut novel and first book in a developing series. I really enjoyed reading this and I am very excited to see where the second book will go! If you enjoy good character development, intriguing magic systems, sapphics, and just fantasy overall, I highly recommend this book.

The Bone Shard Daughter officially releases on 10 September 2020 (UK) and 8 September 2020 (US)!

- lian