The Bone Ships

Winner of the Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel

By: RJ Barker

Narrated by: Jude Owusu

Length: 17 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

'Excellent . . . one of the most interesting and original fantasy worlds I've seen in years'
ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY

'Brilliant'
ROBIN HOBB, author of The Assassin's Apprentice

***Winner of the Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel***

TWO NATIONS AT WAR. A PRIZE BEYOND COMPARE.

For generations, the Hundred Isles have built their ships from the bones of ancient dragons to fight an endless war.
The dragons disappeared, but the battles for supremacy persisted.
Now the first dragon in centuries has been spotted in far-off waters, and both sides see a chance to shift the balance of power in their favour. Because whoever catches it will win not only glory, but the war.

A brilliantly imagined saga of honour, glory, and warfare, The Bone Ships starts an epic new trilogy from David Gemmell Award-nominated RJ Barker.

'A vividly realised high-seas epic that pulls you deep into its world and keeps you tangled there until the very last word'
EVAN WINTER, author of The Rage of Dragons


'An epic tale of duty and obligation and honour, and what bravery really means . . . I can't recommend it enough'
PETER MCLEAN, author of Priest of Bones


'A viciously exciting adventure. I loved every second of it'
TASHA SURI, author of Empire of Sand


'Swashbuckling awesomeness . . . a fascinating world and a twisty plot, both rooted in characters I came to care about. A definite winner'
JOHN GWYNNE, author of MALICE


'The Bone Ships has already built up plenty of anticipation - and with good reason ... Barker's previous series, the acclaimed The Wounded Kingdom Trilogy, was a powerhouse of gritty fantasy, and The Bone Ships promises to launch one of this season's greatest, grandest dragon sagas'
NPR

©2019 RJ Barker (P)2019 Hachette Audio UK

Great story with excellent narration

The Bone Ships,Tide Child #1, by RJ Barker is another one of those books that I picked up based on hype alone, and luckily, I loved it. I loved it so much, that this is gonna be one of those gushing reviews.

The worldbuilding is great, the eerie magic lights, the sea-dragon-bone ships and the matriarchal society with some pretty bonkers views. The entire story takes place on and around islands set in one hemisphere of the world, and I’m very curious if further books in the series will give us more info on the rest of the world and the scale of it.

The narrator has such a deep lovely voice, and he does a great job bringing the vivid text to life, one of the cases where I’d recommend going for the audio if you can. I really enjoyed the writing, it has a lot of made-up sailing jargon, but I didn’t have any problems following along, and it’s often quite beautiful and musical, even when it’s just sailors cursing. I found the language sort of playful, a lot of fun with rhythm for instance, which came across great in audio. It also recently won an Earphones Award from Audiofile magazine. There are a lot of made up words that I thought add flavour to the world, most of them are close enough to English, or clear from context, that I didn’t have any problems, things like sither instead of sister, deckchild instead of sailor, different names for the days of the week, etc.

The world itself is dark, which I normally avoid, but because of the humor, the main characters working towards improving this grim reality, and the overall hopeful way characters and their relationships grow, I really liked it. The world also felt very real to me, I think because of all the details of ship life. I can see Tide Child and a lot of the other places they go, and creatures they meet, so clearly in my mind, I almost remember being there.

Joron is the inexperienced, and mostly incompetent, shipwife of Tide Child, a dead bone ship crewed by women and men sentenced to death for their crimes. Luckily for the survival of the crew and ship, the book opens with him losing his command to Lucky Meas, a much more experienced and competent captain. She whips the ship and crew into shape, and draws them into her plan to hunt down an Arakeesian (sea dragon). I absolutely loved everything about how the crew was transformed by having a leader and a purpose, for a rag-tag bunch of drunks to a strong and united crew. Joron’s the POV character, so naturally it centers on him, and his growth, both in his own eyes and those of the crew is pretty damn great.

Despite Jorun being the MC, and really digging his personal journey, he’s not my favorite character. I read someone else saying how Meas is much more like a typical protagonist, and I agree, it also helps that she’s very kickass. But my favourite character is the tragic Gullaim, a navigator bird-like magical creature (windseeker) I liked how otherworldly he was, and the story of his people broke my heart.

I thought it was cool how I listened to this in October and then again in January, so being such a short time between them, I was surprised when emotional moments that got me the first time around got me the second time around.