The Bone Shard Daughter: The Drowning Empire Book One

Product Information

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.” However, I think some readers will be put off by the slower pacing of this book. I won’t deny that I really felt it and the way the plot inched along, particularly in the beginning. For me, though, my investment in the characters, combined with Andrea’s easy writing, made it go by smoothly. It was unputdownable: I ached to know more about each intriguing whisper of a plot twist, and it simultaneously felt like a well-loved quilt being patched together and also a ball of yarn slowly unfurling to create a beautiful shape. Jovis is saving as many children as he can from some horrific things. He also has a little animal friend, Mephi, that I love with all of my heart!

Jovis and Lin are my favorite characters but I loved everyone else too. There are also minor characters that are fantastic. And yes, there are deaths. Sigh... Jovis, the most successful smuggler in the last hundred years, sails the Endless Sea searching for his wife Emahla, who disappeared on a ship with blue sails several years ago. After rescuing a child from the annual trepanning day, during which subjects of the Empire have bone shards taken from their skulls, Jovis finds himself living up to a new legend about himself: Jovis, savior of children, accompanied by a mysterious animal companion named Mephisolou, who grants him supernatural strength. The days we’d spent swimming and fishing at the beach, the first time I’d kissed her, the dreams we’d shared – I was now the only keeper of these memories, and that was the truest sort of loneliness. There were so many things I still wanted to tell her, to share with her.” Of the two more central characters, I thought Lin to be the most narratively interesting. After losing her memories, her father has never deemed her worthy enough to start learning bone shard magic. She learns it herself, determined to prove her value, and that she deserves the throne. While she questions herself, especially after a certain event, she is always sure of her place and worth beyond whatever her father believes. 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.There are unfortunately some plot holes, too, which keep bugging me. If bone shards stop working when the person who provided them dies, then there should be frequent construct maintenance all over the islands - especially after the sinking of Deerhead island, but it doesn’t seem to be happening as nobody mentions it, really. It seems that shards from one island are not limited to constructs that end up on that island (in which case Deerhead sinking would not have caused a giant construct malfunction). And it would realistically require more people than the Emperor and partially trained Bayan to fix those. And are the people whose shards power the super-important 4 closest construct advisors of the Emperor under special guard? Since having those constructs malfunction would be at least an annoyance. Also, Sand loses a bone shard that shakes her into awareness, but the rest of them don’t, yet maintain the awareness. The construct looked nothing so much as a giant spider, dark brown and glistening, as tall as my chest when it stood to attention. Human hands were attached to the end of each of its spindly legs, and an old woman’s face adorned the abdomen.”

Very highly recommended if you like dark magic systems with complicated characters set in a kingdom that is falling apart. Especially ones that deal with themes of ruling and "what really is right". Bonus points for you if you like cute animal companion dynamics because this one is adorable. ↢ And now, Lin is trailing behind Bayan in her father’s competition: her foster brother has more keys than she does and has even begun putting together constructs of his own, while she’s not even allowed into the library containing books about bone shard magic. Fearing that her father favors Bayan and will name him heir, Lin decides to take matters into her own hands by stealing keys and sneaking around the palace to learn more about constructs and how to write their instructions.

New in Series

La Hija de los Huesos, es el primer libro de la trilogía "El Imperio Hundido" de Andrea Stewart. La historia tiene lugar en un imperio que consta de muchas islas. En estas islas, la magia de fragmentos de hueso ejercida por el emperador alimenta todo tipo de monstruosas quimeras, llamadas constructos, hacen cumplir la ley y el orden. Durante décadas, el y

Magic System: I dug this quite a bit; there are two different magic systems - the hard magic that is bone shard magic, and the softer type of magic that Jovis gains and Lin appears to have as well by the end? Hmm. Bone shard magic, which involves taking bits of bone from living humans (dead humans seem to stop the flow of magic) and creating constructs out of them using combinations of different animal flesh. To me, it's basically magical programming - bone shard magic can be (a bit simplistically) summarized as magical if-statements and while loops. That doesn't mean it's boring, though - Stewart manages to come up with interesting and innovative uses for it throughout the book, and it can get quite complicated (like real-life programming *sigh*). There's also a softer magic system that works through Mephi and his kind? I hope the sequel expands on what exactly they are. It appears to bestow accelerated regeneration and significantly boosted strength and speed, and I suspect some kind of water manipulation eventually as well, since Jovis always seems to sense the wetness and water around him. Bottom line: The climax had me riveted, clutching my book as only favorites can. November cannot come soon enough, because I need to know where Andrea Stewart will take her characters after this amazing ending. Bingo Squares: Novel Published in 2020 (Hard Mode: Debut Novel), Novel with a Magical Pet (Hard Mode: The pet can talk), and potentially, although a bit of a stretch, Novel Featuring Politics, as there is a great deal of royalty and rebellion involved. I wasn’t sure on which of the floating islands Father had found the abomination that made up the bulk of the Construct of Spies. But I knew I never wanted to visit. The construct looked nothing so much as a giant spider, dark brown and glistening, as tall as my chest when it stood to attention. Human hands were attached to the end of each of its spindly legs, and an old woman’s adorned the abdomen. In Nephilanu Island, the third thread runs through Phalue’s story. Phalue—daughter and heir to the island’s governor—is wondering if the ravine between her and her partner Ranami will ever be small enough to close. Phalue’s fear properly kindles when she discovers that Ranami is conspiring with the rebellious Shardless Few to take down the Phoenix Empire and restore power to the people. Phalue and Ranami’s beliefs soon start clashing, and Phalue realizes that if she hopes to make a bridge for her and Ranami to cross, she must first confront all the things about empire and her role in it that she’s studiously avoided looking in the eyes before.

The bare bones of this story consist of an empire ruled by bone magic. At a certain young age, every citizen is required to part with a shard of their skull that will then make its way to the stores of the emperor, ready for use in the powering of bone constructs that serve and protect the islands of the empire and the inhabitants. This magic is wielded solely by the emperor and his heirs and is the only thing that stands between the empire and the return of the Alanga; an ancient civilization that ruled these islands hundreds of years ago through terrifying powers. The story follows many characters and has many points of view. There is Lin, the daughter of the emperor, trying to figure out why she has no memories of her past and trying to learn everything about bone-shard magic without her father knowing. She knows that her father is not doing a very good job as leader of the empire and wishes to be named his heir so she can replace him and do a better job. Truly, the way I was instantly absorbed in every chapter is a testament of how great The Bone Shard Daughter is, because my reading has been all over the place this past week ( I blame Rogue Legacy 2). But even though I only read little chunks of it each time, I never felt disconnected from the characters but on the contrary, I can say without doubt that This book respects the reader's intelligence. That's a big deal for me. There are multiple points of view, and the astute reader can put together information from those various sources to gain a wider view of the world than any individual character possesses. 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. But with that said, there were some very nice twists where I thought I knew what was coming, but the writer put an interesting little torque that still surprised me.

Thank you to Orbit for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect ny opinions in any way. Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Librarians Group is the official group for requesting additions or updates to the catalog, including: Lin acting like a YA heroine “I am Lin. I am the Emperor’s Daughter. I would” or whatever. It was repeated too many times. My favorite part of The Bone Shard Daughter is the characters (especially the adorable animal companion) and getting to see the Empire from a variety of viewpoints, although I did find some perspectives more engaging than others.Building and supporting a community of self-published authors dedicated to both sharing experiences and le Officially 15k Members Strong & Climbing!! The characters are all unique in their own way and they are well written and developed. I admit that the first few chapters are a little confusing and it was harder to get into the story, but after the 20% mark, things get more exciting and the characters slowly start to interact with each other, creating one complex storyline instead of 4 different stories. Speaking of the plot twists—god, they were so good. I think some of them are fairly predictable, but there were just so many that I feel like there has to be at least one you don’t see coming. (I certainly was fooled by one.) The layers of some of them invite so many questions, and while the book does not end on a painful cliffhanger, you certainly will find yourself hungry for next book already. But I also adored Jovis. He’s a tired, grumpy, and highly skilled smuggler who “works alone” and “doesn’t need anyone” after his wife went missing 7 years ago. I absolutely loved reading the growth he goes through, helped along by the quiet, steady companionship of Mephi, a talking magical animal creature who slowly gets him to open up. We aren’t sure what type of animal he is, but know that he is the best creature to ever exist. And yes, I may have teared up over a scene involving him… look away.