SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Bone-Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart: https://t.co/ecqzmk4X5Z
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) November 16, 2021
Short Review: 9 out of 10
1/3
Short Review (cont): Sequel to The Bone-Shard Daughter, finds Lin trying to be a better emperor than her father and ceding the horrifying power he used while Jovis decides whether she can be trusted as constructs begin an uprising. Really good themes & characters
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) November 16, 2021
2/3
Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on November 23, 2021 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
The Bone Shard Emperor is the second book in Andrea Stewart's Drowning Empire trilogy, which began with last year's The Bone Shard Daughter (my review here). I liked The Bone Shard Daughter a good amount - it had a fun set of characters, particularly its main two, and its magic system, which largely was based upon a programming-esque language, was a lot of fun. It also read incredibly well for a book that was a decent length, of well over 400 pages. Still it read at times more like a prologue than the actual real story, which annoyed me a bit....although that made me curious how the second book would actually take the story, now that the characters are in position to make an impact.
And yeah, I really did like The Bone Shard Emperor, as a very well done piece of epic fantasy, even as it adds about 100 pages to its page-length (Amazon lists it as 561 pages). The characters remain incredibly strong, especially as one character tries to hold together and lead an Empire that had previously been held together through cruel magic, all the while trying not to repeat the cruelties of her predecessor - and the other characters try to figure out whether or not she has crossed the line. Add in a new set of magical powers, and the characters now all having chances to interact with each other, and you have a much stronger novel, even as it does rely at times on a few played out tropes.
Spoiler for book 1 are inevitable below, you have been warned:
--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Lin Sukai is now Emperor of the Phoenix Emperor...and she is determined to be a different kind of emperor - a better kind of emperor - than the father that created her and held the Empire together with cruel bone-shard magic that tied the lives of his subjects to the magical constructs who enforced his every edict. But without the power of the constructs what does she have to offer to the governors who rule the islands of her Empire, especially when such local rulers do not know her or have reason to trust a girl they've never seen in their life? And Lin knows those governors will never trust her if they know the truths - that she's not her father's actual blood daughter, but a being created using his own evil magics.
Jovis didn't mean to become a legendary freedom fighting smuggler - and when he agreed to assassinate the emperor for the anti-Empire resistance, the Shardless Few, he had no intention of joining forces with the Emperor's successor. But here he is, along with his strange creature companion Mephi, now acting as the captain of Lin's guard. But can Jovis really trust her? Or should he act as the resistance wants and take her out? And what will happen if she discovers not just his strange powers, but that he has ties to both the resistance and an illicit smuggling group?
But the world will not let Lin and Jovis find these answers without pressure, as signs emerge that the Legendary Alanga, beings used powers like the Jovis' and Lin's to cause great destruction, are starting to arise throughout the Empire. And in the north, an army of constructs - armed with the memories of Lin's "mother" - are waging war on the Empire, and seemingly willing to do anything to destroy the Empire and anyone in their path.....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like its predecessor, The Bone Shard Emperor features a quintet of point of view characters, who the story alternates between - Lin and Jovis (see above plot summary), as well as Nisong (the Construct leader previously known as Sand), and Phalue & Ranami. Phalue and Ranami's chapters, on a small island in the Empire, still feel like a bit of a side story even as they finally intersect with the other main characters (previously they only interacted in a small role with Jovis). In fact, Phalue and Ranami disappear for long stretches at at time, which only magnifies this feeling.
Still, this isn't really a problem because the themes and characters involved with the two main characters - as well as with Nisong - are done really well. Lin's whole plot last book was trying to deal with her conflicting desires to prove herself to her father (and to uncover her father's secrets) and her desire to prove she was a better person than her father - now her father is dead, leaving Lin as Emperor....something she has never been prepared for. And so she still sets about proving herself to be better than him....but as the girl hidden away from the world, how can she prove herself when no one knows her and thus no one trusts her? Lin's frustration at it all, and desperate need for both answers as to what her father was actually doing and as to how she can attain respect like Jovis, is very easy to understand and relate to, and it's easy to see how she's clearly trying to be better in basically every way. Smartly, this book doesn't really ever suggest Lin is really being that tempted to turn to the dark side, with her actions always being justified by the context. Instead, Lin's conflict is largely driven by her fears of what she doesn't know about the Alanga, and about her fears of being exposed as not a real person (and an Alanga besides). Lin is driven, but at the same time desperately lonely and afraid of exposing her secrets to anyone else, even as those secrets only contribute to that loneliness.
And then there's Jovis, who spends the entire book at Lin's side. For Jovis, the Emperor was responsible for the capture of his beloved wife, and for the very system that drove him to smuggling and becoming unwillingly a rebel. And so he doesn't know what to do with Lin - who seems to agree about the horrors the last Emperor inflicted, who seems to trust him to be her guard despite not even knowing him, and who has a creature just like Mephi - and undoubtedly similar powers. And then there's the fact that Lin seems creepily to have his own wife's eyes. And so Jovis finds himself torn - between his prior commitment to the Shardless Few rebels, between his commitment to the family he still cares about even without having seen them for years, and towards feelings that he starts having for Lin - as he can tell that she truly means well, even as he constantly fears she's turning towards the very things he hated about her father. It's a plot arc that works really well in his conflict driven by his secret multiple allegiances, for the most part.
Jovis and Lin's plots deal strongly with the issues of power and control and the cost of holding to such power and control - after all by Lin giving up the bone shard magic and the constructs, Lin is losing the power that once stopped the Alanga, who seemingly are coming back, to say nothing of the construct rebellion that is growing...or the fact that several of her islands have now mysteriously sank (perhaps due to the mines of valuable material located on those islands). The power she had given up is cruel and monstrous...but can she actually be a meaningful emperor without it? Or without the cruel knowledge hidden away by her father? What is the cost of holding on to such power? And can one have such power - such as the Alanga power - without becoming what the Alanga legendarily became....people who held themselves above those without it, as if they were better, no matter the costs? Both Lin and Jovis' plots deal heavily with these themes in interesting ways as things go from bad to worse.
These themes are also dealt with in the other 3 characters' chapters. Nisong and her construct army, led by her four construct friends, want to destroy the Empire who cast them aside and who now, under Lin's guidance, has asked for their destruction...but what good is this campaign if it will cost Nisong the beings she cares for most? Phalue has made a full turn towards trying to a ruler FOR her people instead of OF her people like her father, but how can she do so while she's being blackmailed by the shardless few? Without being scared of a little orphan girl who might be spying on her? And for Ranami, now fully on Phalue's side, she finds herself unable to trust a girl who is exactly like how she used to be, a poor orphan desperate for anything, and thus afraid to help. And again with both Phalue and Ranami and the shardless few the conflict comes into play - what good is forcing a change if it will cause harm to so many innocents? All these themes play out interestingly and strongly (along with issues of past grudges and histories), which really makes this book work.
Really the only problem with this book is well, I'm very much tired of the trope of "two characters carry secrets they're afraid to reveal to one another, resulting in one exposing themselves to the other only to be heartbroken when they discover the other's secrets inadvertently" plot point - which you will see coming a mile away. It's done decently well, so it's understandable (especially from Lin's perspective") but it's a very tired trope which just had me waiting for the inevitable to occur, whereas otherwise I had little idea where the plot was going.
Still the themes are strong, the characters are strong, and the prose is super readable, and....well, I can't wait to read the conclusion, given where the cliffhangers come from here. Very worth your time.
And yeah, I really did like The Bone Shard Emperor, as a very well done piece of epic fantasy, even as it adds about 100 pages to its page-length (Amazon lists it as 561 pages). The characters remain incredibly strong, especially as one character tries to hold together and lead an Empire that had previously been held together through cruel magic, all the while trying not to repeat the cruelties of her predecessor - and the other characters try to figure out whether or not she has crossed the line. Add in a new set of magical powers, and the characters now all having chances to interact with each other, and you have a much stronger novel, even as it does rely at times on a few played out tropes.
Spoiler for book 1 are inevitable below, you have been warned:
--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Lin Sukai is now Emperor of the Phoenix Emperor...and she is determined to be a different kind of emperor - a better kind of emperor - than the father that created her and held the Empire together with cruel bone-shard magic that tied the lives of his subjects to the magical constructs who enforced his every edict. But without the power of the constructs what does she have to offer to the governors who rule the islands of her Empire, especially when such local rulers do not know her or have reason to trust a girl they've never seen in their life? And Lin knows those governors will never trust her if they know the truths - that she's not her father's actual blood daughter, but a being created using his own evil magics.
Jovis didn't mean to become a legendary freedom fighting smuggler - and when he agreed to assassinate the emperor for the anti-Empire resistance, the Shardless Few, he had no intention of joining forces with the Emperor's successor. But here he is, along with his strange creature companion Mephi, now acting as the captain of Lin's guard. But can Jovis really trust her? Or should he act as the resistance wants and take her out? And what will happen if she discovers not just his strange powers, but that he has ties to both the resistance and an illicit smuggling group?
But the world will not let Lin and Jovis find these answers without pressure, as signs emerge that the Legendary Alanga, beings used powers like the Jovis' and Lin's to cause great destruction, are starting to arise throughout the Empire. And in the north, an army of constructs - armed with the memories of Lin's "mother" - are waging war on the Empire, and seemingly willing to do anything to destroy the Empire and anyone in their path.....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like its predecessor, The Bone Shard Emperor features a quintet of point of view characters, who the story alternates between - Lin and Jovis (see above plot summary), as well as Nisong (the Construct leader previously known as Sand), and Phalue & Ranami. Phalue and Ranami's chapters, on a small island in the Empire, still feel like a bit of a side story even as they finally intersect with the other main characters (previously they only interacted in a small role with Jovis). In fact, Phalue and Ranami disappear for long stretches at at time, which only magnifies this feeling.
Still, this isn't really a problem because the themes and characters involved with the two main characters - as well as with Nisong - are done really well. Lin's whole plot last book was trying to deal with her conflicting desires to prove herself to her father (and to uncover her father's secrets) and her desire to prove she was a better person than her father - now her father is dead, leaving Lin as Emperor....something she has never been prepared for. And so she still sets about proving herself to be better than him....but as the girl hidden away from the world, how can she prove herself when no one knows her and thus no one trusts her? Lin's frustration at it all, and desperate need for both answers as to what her father was actually doing and as to how she can attain respect like Jovis, is very easy to understand and relate to, and it's easy to see how she's clearly trying to be better in basically every way. Smartly, this book doesn't really ever suggest Lin is really being that tempted to turn to the dark side, with her actions always being justified by the context. Instead, Lin's conflict is largely driven by her fears of what she doesn't know about the Alanga, and about her fears of being exposed as not a real person (and an Alanga besides). Lin is driven, but at the same time desperately lonely and afraid of exposing her secrets to anyone else, even as those secrets only contribute to that loneliness.
And then there's Jovis, who spends the entire book at Lin's side. For Jovis, the Emperor was responsible for the capture of his beloved wife, and for the very system that drove him to smuggling and becoming unwillingly a rebel. And so he doesn't know what to do with Lin - who seems to agree about the horrors the last Emperor inflicted, who seems to trust him to be her guard despite not even knowing him, and who has a creature just like Mephi - and undoubtedly similar powers. And then there's the fact that Lin seems creepily to have his own wife's eyes. And so Jovis finds himself torn - between his prior commitment to the Shardless Few rebels, between his commitment to the family he still cares about even without having seen them for years, and towards feelings that he starts having for Lin - as he can tell that she truly means well, even as he constantly fears she's turning towards the very things he hated about her father. It's a plot arc that works really well in his conflict driven by his secret multiple allegiances, for the most part.
Jovis and Lin's plots deal strongly with the issues of power and control and the cost of holding to such power and control - after all by Lin giving up the bone shard magic and the constructs, Lin is losing the power that once stopped the Alanga, who seemingly are coming back, to say nothing of the construct rebellion that is growing...or the fact that several of her islands have now mysteriously sank (perhaps due to the mines of valuable material located on those islands). The power she had given up is cruel and monstrous...but can she actually be a meaningful emperor without it? Or without the cruel knowledge hidden away by her father? What is the cost of holding on to such power? And can one have such power - such as the Alanga power - without becoming what the Alanga legendarily became....people who held themselves above those without it, as if they were better, no matter the costs? Both Lin and Jovis' plots deal heavily with these themes in interesting ways as things go from bad to worse.
These themes are also dealt with in the other 3 characters' chapters. Nisong and her construct army, led by her four construct friends, want to destroy the Empire who cast them aside and who now, under Lin's guidance, has asked for their destruction...but what good is this campaign if it will cost Nisong the beings she cares for most? Phalue has made a full turn towards trying to a ruler FOR her people instead of OF her people like her father, but how can she do so while she's being blackmailed by the shardless few? Without being scared of a little orphan girl who might be spying on her? And for Ranami, now fully on Phalue's side, she finds herself unable to trust a girl who is exactly like how she used to be, a poor orphan desperate for anything, and thus afraid to help. And again with both Phalue and Ranami and the shardless few the conflict comes into play - what good is forcing a change if it will cause harm to so many innocents? All these themes play out interestingly and strongly (along with issues of past grudges and histories), which really makes this book work.
Really the only problem with this book is well, I'm very much tired of the trope of "two characters carry secrets they're afraid to reveal to one another, resulting in one exposing themselves to the other only to be heartbroken when they discover the other's secrets inadvertently" plot point - which you will see coming a mile away. It's done decently well, so it's understandable (especially from Lin's perspective") but it's a very tired trope which just had me waiting for the inevitable to occur, whereas otherwise I had little idea where the plot was going.
Still the themes are strong, the characters are strong, and the prose is super readable, and....well, I can't wait to read the conclusion, given where the cliffhangers come from here. Very worth your time.
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