Book Title: The Bone Shard War
Author: Andrea Stewart
Series: The Drowning Empire #3
Date Started: April 21st 2023
Date Completed: May 13th 2023
Genres: Adventure, Fantasy
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star
Final Rating: Four Stars
Review:
◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆
The Bone Shard War wasn't what I was expecting from the final instalment in Andrea Stewart's glittering trilogy, and while I was disappointed at the absence of real adventure the previous books had, I undeniably loved revisiting these characters and seeing their tales come full circle. I was also impressed by how easily I remembered names and backstories, and that's a real testament to the previous books that I could fall so easily back into this world.
My reservation around this final book is around the lack of momentum, and how isolated it felt from the rest of the series. The story took a significant transition at the end of the last book (as trilogies often so), but the time jump forced the story to have to generate its own momentum all over again, rather than riding from the wave already created. Separating the characters created more self-deprecating internal monologuing than actual tension - though it's interesting to remember that the first book was largely structured with individuals on their own paths, and it worked well back then. I feel like the internal motivations for our ensemble have been existing in an increasingly complicated political system, but their internal through-lines should always be the same within that. With so much going on in this final book, that felt a little lost.
The story itself, while I'm sure conceived early into the series, felt like it was going in circles to reach its finish. Any seeds planted for later resolution felt very obviously done so (and highlighted in this final book rather than previous ones) and the reveals came so thick and fast, but sort of unrelated to the core characters arcs we were attached to - that they were ultimately unsatisfying. In hindsight, some of the worldbuilding and reveals were very clever and cool, but in the moment reading them I felt no dramatic tension or epiphany, which was a shame.
The Bone Shard War was still enjoyable to read (I promise) and will remain one of my favourite trilogies, and it was nice to see the story wrapped up well enough. The characters for the most part had their fitting ends - it just felt sadly flimsy how we got there.
