The Bone Shard Daughter

 Book Title: The Bone Shard Daughter

Author: Andrea Stewart

Series: The Drowning Empire #1

Date Started: July 6th 2021

Date Completed: July 17th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

The Bone Shard Daughter was one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a long time. I read a lot of fantasy novels, and I'm particularly fond of high-fantasy with Asian influences which this novel sits comfortably in, and this is definitely at the front of the pack. The story was meticulously and diligently planned, the characters and world full-fledged and realised, and it was just an absolute joy to read.

Stewart has constructed such a well-built world, so different to so many, but so well-rooted and made accessible to the audience through the prose. The East Asian-inspired setting is lush and epic, and the constructs (creatures created from animal matter and controlled by the bone shards of the title, taken from the citizens of the empire as children and used to power the monstrous creatures until they have no energy left to live) are such a cool idea, and so well utilised in the story. You get the sense that Stewart isn't a making-it-up-as-she-goes-along writer (though, of course, I don't know!) but that she puts a great deal of thought into how she weaves her tapestry. So when you read it, it performs flawlessly.

There's also such a great balance of multiple complex, conflicted lead characters that each have full stories in their own right, but clearly have further to go until their paths inevitably intertwine. The politics and conflict they face are so believable because it's rooted in these characters and their positions and perspectives in the world. One of our heroines doesn't believe poverty exists and it's understandable, thus the need to teach her otherwise becomes to much more visceral and compelling.

I've gushed enough already, but there's plenty more to enjoy in the book itself past the base elements of literary storytelling. Part of what's so good about The Bone Shard Daugther is its action and its excitement, the puzzles that you're able to work out alongside the characters, and the mysteries that still plague them onwards to the next book, which I will be picking up the second it comes out.