I received a copy of this audiobook through Netgalley. This is my honest review.

If this book looks interesting to you based on the cover (as it did for me), I strongly recommend not starting with it, as it's book three in a series. I wasn't really paying attention to that fact because the audiobook was available to listen now and the cover is just gorgeous. But once I got into the story, I was a little bit lost. There wasn't much background information given about the previous stories (so if you've read those already, you won't have to slog through stuff you already know), and I was definitely expected to already understand some things about bone shard magic it seems.

In spite of me having not read the previous books in the series, I was immediately sucked into this story. I wanted to know more about the political strife in the realm and how it would be resolved. I was also very curious about The Shardless Few. Even though I was definitely missing a lot of background information that would surely have helped me to understand the events of this story better, I feel like I did gain a rather good understanding of the main points of the world and those in it.

Overall I give The Bone Shard War 4.186 out of 5 stars. And I will definitely be looking into the first two books in the series at some point.

I absolutely love this story and each book is better than the one before it. Sapphic, tense, fantasy … yes yes and yes!

The Bone Shard War provides a fitting conclusion to Andrea Stewart’s debut trilogy. The time skip between this book and the previous one allows enough space for her characters to begin the story dealing with new challenges, albeit ones that stem from the consequences of their choices made throughout the first two installments in the trilogy. And it’s in her character work where Stewart’s writing shines best, as each character’s arc comes to fruition while they struggle to shape their world’s future. Each of their fates is well-earned and in some cases surprising. It’s a great finale to a strong trilogy and I’m very excited to read whatever she writes next.

It was so bittersweet having to say goodbye to such a beloved series. I fell in love with 'The Bone Shard Daughter' years ago, and it has been both a pain and a joy to go along the ride with these characters with each installment in the series. 'The Bone Shard Daughter' became one of my favourites when I read it back in 2020, as I loved the world, its magic, and of course, our characters (Mephi is always my favourite!).

The ending was emotional and impactful, and I adored the many new characters we were able to glimpse into through perspective. I'm in love with the resolution all the main characters received, especially the ollassen (Thrana, Mephi and Lozhi). This series will forever hold a precious place in my heart.

This series fascinated me from the beginning. I’m glad the ending is out but I’m sorry it’s done. I’d love to read more stories from this universe.

This story is the exception to the rule.

It's a well-written third & final book in a trilogy.

In fact, it's far better than books one and two.

After finishing book one, I only vaguely liked Lin (and that's a slight exaggeration).

In this book, Lin becomes more than she has been, and almost likable. Jovis is perhaps my favorite character, and definitely humanized Lin.

I think what really helped me enjoy this book more than its predecessors is that I read it on audiobook! The narrators tell the story so perfectly! (And maybe I'm wrong, but I think I recognize these voices from the Fourth Wing audio!!)

"I wish I had Lin's power and could just reach inside myself and remove them." Don't we all wish we could do that, Jovis? I think the point of this whole story is trying to change who you were created to be, overcoming your past (and your conditioning), and making it matter.

There's a great side story that is better than the main storyline. Definitely follow that.

Be aware - this series is brutally dark. Yes, there are tandem love stories, but this is really not that sort of fantasy. It's a fight for survival at the end of the world. And death happens.

Such a great ending to the trilogy! Absolutely loved it!!
I've been reading each instalment as soon as it was out and reading this final one was a bittersweet feeling. Excited to see what Andrea comes up with next!

It's a bit hard to review the last book in a trilogy since so much of what I want to mention would be considered spoilers. So heres what I can say...
I really enjoyed the Bone Shard War and overall thought it was a good and satisfying ending to a trilogy I'd definitely recommend.

I was a bit apprehensive about this book because although I adored book 1, when I read book 2 back when it came out, I was a little bit disappointed. That being said, I did reread the first two via audiobook immediately before starting book 3 which helped a lot.

When I read Bone Shard Emperor the first go round it was with my eyes, we all know my eyes aren't great so it took me quite a while to read it, which looking back definitely took me out of the story a lot and made the middle part feel like it went on forever so breezing through the audio definitely smoothed out some of the issues I originally had with it.

Have to say the main gripe I had with The Bone Shard War—apart from just not feeling the main romantic relationship which I know is personal preference—was the constant internal monologues the mc Lin (and Jovis at times) had, especially during battle sequences and hey its called the Bone Shard WAR, a good majority of this book is fighting.

There's a lot of "omg what if I'm not a good person anymore? Does that matter. Am I my fathers daughter? I've never claimed to be a hero, but maybe I can do heroic things!"

And I get that the repetition is probably supposed to hammer home the idea that the cycle of history is doomed to repeat itself, and meant to make you question things like can an empire ever be a good thing even if the emperor themselves is good.

I do think those themes work and are executed well in other characters' chapters like Ramani but while I love examining character morals and motives, especially when they're grey 1. Being stuck inside a characters head all the time like that mid battle, kills any sort of tension for me, and 2. Lin seemed to have these moral dilemmas and rediscover that not only does she have power but that now means she has the power to change things every single time she encountered any sort of setback or challenge which got kind of annoying tbh.

That being said, I do like these characters, and I LOVE the worldbuilding and magic in these books. It's so unique. I've never read anything like it!
Moving islands, strange mythical beasts for companions (Mephi continues to be the best character), magic that relies on the empire tithing not money but shards of its citizens bones, taken from right behind the ear, to power weird frankenstein-esque constructs. Amazing!
There's a reveal in this book about the worldbuilding that was SO GOOD! I can't say more without huge spoilers, obviously, but man, I love it when everything finally clicks into place!

Personal preference but I do wish Andrea Stewart had dipped more into the dark side/ethics of the bone shard magic—can you have body autonomy if you're a 'made thing' etc because the times she did were some of my favourites throughout the whole series.

All in all, I would highly recommend this series to anyone who's even slightly interested in it. As someone whos now read all three as audiobooks, I can also highly recommend the audios as well, as all three narrators did such a great job!

Final volume of the trilogy that deals with magic that destroys the ecology and also allows its practitioners to control other people with engraved bone shards. Actually tries to deal with the fact that "the most powerful magician should rule" is not a great principle, though the emperor arrives at this conclusion in a fairly abrupt manner.

2 ⭐

I really really wanted to like this. This book is the conclusion to The Drowning Empire series, and while both the series and The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stweart started off okay, I feel like it never really redeemed themself. There are so many great points about this book. Most are forgettable, lost in pacing, but I really did like the subplot about over consumption and how it related to the mining of their Islands.

For me, this was just an ok book. Maybe if I read the series closer together, it would be more exciting.

I did tandems read this along with the audio book. On a much lighter note, I absolutely adore the narrators! They all three put so much familiarity and care with voicing these diverse characters. They were a fantastic choice for this book, and it was nice having them return for the last installment

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this audio book in return for an honest review.

The Bone Shard War is a perfect third book in a trilogy. There are five POV characters, two of which are in a sapphic relationship. It’s hard to talk about this book too much without spoiling things for book one or two in the trilogy, but please read this perfect implementation of animal sidekicks and enjoy a finished(!!) amazing fantasy trilogy.

I received an audiobook ARC and must say the narration of this audiobook is top quality, it wasn't until writing this I realized that only three narrators worked on the book instead of five. The voices of each POV character are distinct, and all the performances add life to the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio for a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review

This has been by far the most beautiful intricate magic system I’ve read in a fantasy book. I was so excited for the conclusion of this trilogy. At times, the storylines felt like they weren’t going to tie together but at the end the bigger picture was present without feeling forced. 4/5

I have incredibly mixed opinions about this finale.



<b>Things I liked:</b>

• The ossalen
• Ayesh
• Jovis’s character, despite its pitfalls in this installment
• Jovis and Philine’s dynamic
• Ranami and Phalue, together and apart
• Phalue and Lin’s tentative friendship



<b>Gripes:</b>

• <b>Lin.</b> Lin has always been an issue in this series. She is the result of one of her father’s experiments, yes, and she acts just as you’d expect an experiment to behave—unnaturally and unconvincing as a human. She is overly logical, lacks compassion, and even the writing in her point of view chapters sounds devoid of any humanity.

Now, the issue with this lies in the fact that the text (particularly, through Jovis) leads you to believe that she’s as human as the other characters. It tells us instead of showing us that Lin is strong, brave, and has a big heart. However, it doesn’t once occur to her to establish orphanages in order to look out for the children in her war-torn empire until after Phalue and raises the issue with her. She also catches herself thinking that it is beneath her to be concerned about the small plights of individual citizens.

While she begins to correct these errors within herself, this shows us that she is not the big-hearted person Jovis and the narrative would lead us to believe. She’s growing and trying to get there, but the contradictions in the text chafed.


• <b>Jovis.</b> I have always loved Jovis’s point of views in each installment. He reminds me of <i>Tangled</i>’s Flynn Rider—charming yet roguish, teetering in the realm of moral grayness. His POV has by far the biggest heart and is the most captivating.

In this installment, we see him subjugated by bone shard magic and threats against Mephi’s life, forced to do Kaphra’s bidding. It takes him two years and halfway through this book until he realizes bone shard commands are slippery and he can interpret them in different ways to thwart them. The issue with this bit of ingenuity is that it is something Jovis already knows; he did it in the first book, <i>Bone Shard Daughter</i>. Why, then, did it take him two years to figure out something his character has already demonstrated that he knows and can easily do? It directly contradicts characterization established previously in the series.

This leads Jovis’s whole imprisonment for two-thirds of this novel to feel completely contrived and devoid of any real meaning. His subsequent character arc of questioning his heroism and his belief in his own strength results in the same contrivances; it all feels forced and poorly-plotted. Don’t even get me started on where this character arc took him in the end…


• <spoiler><b>Jovis’s fate.</b> I would far rather Stewart had killed him off than turned to the most aggravating and pointless of the tropes—amnesia. Irritation toward the trope aside, it completely undoes all of the character work Stewart had established with Jovis across three novels. It also completely removes the need for him to heal from his trauma which is the most angering part of it. Sure, he’s left confused because he has lost literally all of his memories, but that’s still better than having to reckon with his past traumas and PTSD. It seemed like a very quick undo switch for all of the trials and suffering he endured, and that felt like a massive injustice to real-life sufferers of PTSD who had briefly seen representation only for it to be ripped away.</spoiler>


• <b>Nisong.</b> <spoiler>Nisong, much like the other two, hated Lin consistently throughout the series. While I was glad to see her toe the line of moral grayness and be redeemed, it felt shoehorned in yet again. Her hatred for Lin was truly just quelled in an instant on the battlefield once Lin says some kind words and pleads with her to let her pass? Her revelations that followed about being mistaken for pushing so hard to rise to power were incredibly rushed and needed more time to simmer that they weren’t given.</spoiler>


• <b>Dione.</b> <spoiler>He tells Lin in an earlier battle that he has a vendetta against the Sukais and is after her specifically, regardless of how she was made, and yet, when Lin abdicates, he just…says okay??? He doesn’t want to kill her??? I was glad to see some depth in him but this happened so fast I couldn’t suspend my disbelief to feel it was truly earned.</spoiler>


• <b>Ragan.</b> Ragan lacked depth. He was filled with rage and ready to wreak havoc on the empire that made him suffer in childhood. This was all fine, however, there was never a side to him that we were shown even in Nisong’s chapters that developed him any further than that. This was disappointing, as we got to see the other antagonists get redeemed in their own ways (as forced as those moments were).


• <spoiler><b>Lin’s choice to abdicate.</b> She really spent the last three books fighting tooth and nail for her place as emperor only to abdicate it because she randomly saw reason, realized that they would all die if she didn’t, and finally came to the conclusion that a panel of elected representatives wouldn’t be such a bad idea? Lin’s biggest pitfall throughout the series was clinging to power to the detriment of her citizens. And she just came to the conclusion that she didn’t need to do that anymore in a split-second on the battlefield? It felt like yet another contrivance for the sake of wrapping up her arc without having to do the all the work.</spoiler>


• <b>The length of this book.</b> It was pointlessly long-winded. There was so much time lingering on scenes and characters that didn’t matter that there was no room left for Stewart to actually develop her protagonists and antagonists appropriately. This resulted in the multitude of contrivances listed above in order for her to accomplish her desired ending.



All in all, I had fun at some points while reading this book, but its biggest flaws lie in the needless length of the novel that was never taken advantage of appropriately and all the shoehorned-in character arcs that resulted.

Regarding the audiobook, I have enjoyed performances from each narrator for each installment in the series. However, I don’t think that they add much to the story itself. A truly fantastic narrator will gut you emotionally during some of the most tragic scenes and have you clinging to every last word in high stakes action sequences. None of the narrators did this for me.



<b>Overall Rating:</b> 2 stars

<i>A big thank you to Netgalley and the publishers, Hachette Audio and Orbit, for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!</i>

A satisfying conclusion to an epic trilogy.
There’s a two year time jump at the start, I think this worked well. It allowed for characters to have moved on from where we left off and I wanted to catch up. Basically hooked me straight away.
There is more of the same as the first two books (politics, quests, fight scenes) but I would say character arcs are great in this instalment.
What really carries these books are the ossalen, they are my favourite part of the world, with Mephi in particular having my heart.
I read this as an audio - the different narrators did well and allowed for an easy listening experience. You can stop at any point and pick up and know the POV.
Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio, Orbit Publishers for an E-ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

I absolutely love this series!
The Drowning empire manages to hook from book one and does not let go.
The world-building and characters are so easy to get attached too, and the multiple pov's are easy to follow.
Thanks so much for the chance to listen early.

There were some great reveals in this that I really appreciated, and the politics were often quite interesting.

But I think that it dragged on too long. It would have benefited from being a good 100-200 pages shorter. (Especially the fight scenes, which weren't as engaging for me.)

ARC provided by the publisher Orbit Books & Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars - I enjoyed the overall story of the book, however having not read the 2 previous books getting into the story and following some of the character info was a little more difficult. I definitely recommend reading them in order.

The Bone Shard War is the epic finale to the unmissable Drowning Empire series.

Lin Sukai has won her first victory as Emperor, but the future of the Phoenix Empire hangs in the balance - and Lin is dangerously short of allies.

As her own governors plot treason, the Shardless Few renew hostilities. Worse still, Lin discovers her old nemesis Nisong has joined forces with the rogue Alanga, Ragan. Both seek her death.

Yet hopes lies in history. Legend tells of seven mythic swords, forged in centuries past. If Lin can find them before her enemies, she may yet be able to turn the tide.

If she fails, the Sukai dynasty - and the entire empire - will fall.

Thank you to Hachette Audio and Netgalley fo this eARC!

Andrea Stewart did the very difficult task of successfully writing a trilogy with all three books feeling like a necessary part of the story. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I was sad when it was over. However, I think the story was told the way it should have been told, and while I wanted to stay in the world longer, I think more books would have been excessive.

The beginning was a bit confusing, because it is not as explicit about the time jump as it needs to be. I initially felt like I had forgotten a large chunk of the ending of book two. Once I figured out that there was a time jump, it was less confusing, but it was a frustrating way to begin the book.

Stewart wrote an extremely compelling and unique world for this series, and the only issue with this was wanting to know more. I had a lot of questions regarding the How and Why behind some of the magic and the backstory. I think there's a difficult line between writing enough backstory and not enough, and I think Stewart struggled a bit in some of this. Some of my questions were answered very implicitly rather than explicitly - making it difficult to remember 100+ pages down the line.

The characters I struggled the most with in regard to their backstories were Ragan and Nisong. I wanted to know more about their background and their motivations, and I felt like these would have added to the story. I know, however, that they are not the main characters, and I think adding to their backstory risked crossing into the territory of making the book too long and too info dumpy. So ultimately I feel Stewart made the right decision in leaving some of this for the reader to ponder.

All in all, this was a very strong and successful conclusion to a great series, and I will continue to recommend this series widely! The magic system is so unique and the world is so intriguing that I felt extremely immersed, and I will continue to read this author the moment her next book is out!

Hear me out: I LOVE THIS SERIES!!! It is superb. Everything I want in an epic fantasy with interesting characters. However, I really did not like two things: 1) the pacing and 2) the ending for my favourite character :( I was kind of let down by this conclusion for this series to be honest. I really was hoping for them to live in peace and do the things they dreamed of... but that didn't pan out well. I really loved some of the Mephi Moments (TM). Overall, it was an OKAY conclusion, but could be better. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The audiobook production itself for this entire trilogy is amazing, I love all three of the narrators and they all elevated this work and my enjoyment of the series.

Unfortunately this was an ending that only sort of stuck the landing for me. My biggest issue was how bloated this felt, where earlier in the series I would say a strength of the work was how tightly plotted everything was. I am also not a quest driven reader so the whole "go to a place to get a thing" repetitive plot arcs where never going to be to my taste. This could have probably still been a four star with all of that for me if it weren't for the new antagonist that we got in book 2, I think he completely detracted from the larger conversation we could have had with Dione and added to the bloat. I do see how this arc allows us to see the development of another character but I think there were other ways we could have done that. I also was noticing holes in the magic/world building that really bothered me with one of our character's situations that he was stuck in, and it felt like he was stuck in it longer than made sense logically so there would be this emotional pay off scene but that didn't land for me cause I was already pretty annoyed that he was still stuck in that situation. There is still a lot of good in this series, the ideas are fascinating and I generally like the themes but I do think a lot of these little things added up to just make me feel bummed and exhausted by the end of the experience.