In The Bone Ships RJ Barker gives us a story filled with unique world building and engaging characters. In a world where ships of war are primarily made from the bones of sea dragons, the two political powers continue to scrape together dragon bone though it has been ages since they have found any new dragons to harvest. But when news surfaces of a possible living dragon, the race is on to secure it as a military resource.

Both the world building and characters of The Bone Ships really shine. You have this unique world that is absolutely fascinating. It's engaging and deep at every turn. You have political machinations, not only within a single country, but between and within two enemy nations. There are secrets, plots within plots, and questions of a political nature that play a role throughout the novel. It's not only the politics of the nations that are impressive, but the very flora and fauna of the world itself. The world building here is incredible, from the descriptions of foliage, to the bone ships themselves, to the islands of the archipelago, to the religion, to names for kin, names for nautical terms, Barker crafts an entirely unique world but you never feel lost and it never feels like there is an info dump. For instance, while warships are made from dragon bone, smaller fishing boats are made from hardened plants--and this has major repercussions for the plot of the book, as simple as it sounds at first glance. Barker does a wonderful job describing the colorful plants of the archipelago, helping the reader visualize a truly lush world. Of course, there are also creatures that play a role, from the sea dragons themselves to other water beasts to the bird-like gullaime. The gullaime are also the magic users of Barker's world. I loved the tidbits we learned about them and their culture, and I look forward to learning much more in future novels set in this world. Beyond the world building though, the characters are very well drawn and engaging. Barker took a risk in allowing us to see the story not through multiple viewpoint characters, or even through a single viewpoint of the captain of the ship, but rather through the eyes of the first officer. I think this makes the story more compelling because Joron has a great deal of growing to do as a person. While Meas is interesting and appropriately badass throughout the novel, she also knows who she is and how to get things done. While she is often driving the plot, seeing things through Joron's eyes allows for much more character growth. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this growth happen and seeing Joron's perspective on having his life turned upside down by Meas' arrival helped hooked me from the start. He is a flawed but likeable character, and that combination can be difficult to craft. Barker does it with aplomb. There are a bevy of side characters as well, each with their own struggles and arcs. Barker does a good job of letting us get to know them as people, but make no mistake, this is Joron's story. Meas steals the show from time to time, certainly, but Joron is still the main character. The prose itself is cinematic at points, doing a wonderful job of describing the action and creating tension during battle sequences.

I do have a couple criticisms. Because we see the entire story through Joron's eyes, there were moments when I was a little confused by the political situation. Some things were left perhaps a little too mysterious. This makes sense, since Joron doesn't know much about the plots within plots within plots that appear to be going on just under the surface. But it did mean I was left scratching my head occasionally. All the new words for sailing jargon that Barker uses can be a little confusing, at times. Not enough to fully jar you out of the story, but enough that I wasn't always certain what was being referred to. This may be more my issue, however, as I'm not overly familiar with real world nautical terms either. Finally, there were a couple places where I felt like the pacing was uneven. Actions scenes can be followed by noticeable lulls, rather than more smoothly flowing or building on one another. This is particularly true in the first half of the book, where the book begins with a slow build early and then feels like a series of mountains and valleys as you approach the middle. This largely corrects itself by the second half, and for those who don't mind the slow build, it will likely be nearly unnoticeable. For those who prefer faster builds, however, sticking with it will be rewarded.

The Bone Ships is one of the best swashbuckling fantasies I've ever read. With world building that is second to none and an engaging, flawed, and likeable main character, this is one you won't want to miss. Enjoy it and be ready for the sequel's release!

8.5/10

The Bone Ships is a unique fantasy story that I was not prepared for when I started reading it. The distinctly different but unforgettable characters, the insanely strategic plotting and planning, the plot twists and overall overwhelming moments that create this epic story, is unbelievable.

The cast of characters is great and diverse. They're each well developed, full of compelling motivations, personalities and backgrounds that set them well apart from one another. Like his magic systems, it's clear that Barker excels at creating characters with rich cultural history that is a true joy to piece together over the course of the story.

Now Barker's writing is a simple one, and by no means is this a con. In fact I adored how straight to the point it is. He didn't try to manipulate the writing to add suspense, because he's a genius who could add suspense through the plot itself. He also didn't need purple prose to express emotions. The characters' feelings hit you and you understand and sympathies with them nonetheless. Barker is a magnificent storyteller and one that can keep your attention. From the first page through to the last his ability to craft a spectacular story that you can lose yourself in really shines through in The Bone Ships

I loved this book!

The best ships have been built with the bones of dragons. These ships have been used to fight an endless war. The ships outlived the dragons until now. There has been a dragon sighting. Both sides want to get their hands on it. Some to use for ships, some to finally stop the war.

This is one of those books that stayed with me even when I wasn't reading it. That tells me it is well worth 5 stars.

The story is fantastic. The characters are great and grow on you page after page. And I loved the gullaime!

This is my first time reading anything by this author and now I'm a big fan.

So, the story as a whole was not necessarily my cup of tea.

Yet that did not stop me from continuing to read the story. Even if the plot sucked, Barker's writing and use of language is phenomenal. Even with the made up words, I found it fairly easy to follow along and figure out what it is he was talking about. Not only that, but Barker's descriptive writing is simple yet vivid; I had no issue at any part of the story to imagine this great ship sailing the seas, what the crew looked like while in the middle of a storm or a sea battle.

The plot itself I found simple; though I will say that Barker was able to surprise me with a plot point.

While I didn't see much character development with Meas, I saw a lot with Joron. Meas is written in a way to be a mentor to Joron, pushing him to be better, to learn how to be around the crew and gain respect and feel like he earned it. Besides Barker's writing, I think this was the other strong point of the story.

I was drawn to this book because of the title. Bone? Ships? It sounded dark, weird, and fascinating. And the mythology of the book is really interesting, and definitely lived up to my dark expectations. The sea is always a good subject for a fantasy novel because there's so much to explore there.
I particularly enjoyed the world view toward women, because it wasn't trying to say "hey look how different the world could be" the world just *was* different. The biggest example that hit me the first time I came across it very early on was "women and men." That's the way it's written, and it's so outside the norm of our society which nearly always says "men and women" and I loved it. It wasn't drastic, it wasn't trying to be in your face, it's just the way people talk. Women and men. And yet it blew my mind.
Praise aside, this book has a slow pace. We get a lot of inner monologue from Twiner, which is fine because it's his perspective, but it made the book feel really dense and long. Maybe I've just been reading too many novellas lately, but the pacing felt like it was dragging.
Overall, this is an interesting book and the bone ships are fascinating, but if you pick this up be prepared to settle in.

When I heard about this book I was excited. Ships made from dragon bones sign me up. I’ve never read anything like this before. The story is very unique. The world building was amazing. I’d recommend this book to people.

I received a free copy of this book through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

As always I was very excited to read a book, I mean that's why I requested it in the first place, because of the very intriguing premise. Unfortunately, this book didn't work for me and here is why.
There is nothing really wrong with it, I just couldn't get into it. I was bored.
The writing was pretty good actually. But not the dialogue. Oh gosh, I cringed when reading dialogues in this book. They were just so over the top and just cringey, there is no other way to say it.
Characters were also so very over the top and so cliche. Joron is a spineless man who is the most boring character ever, like common dude, do something and stop complaining and being stupid.
Meas was just a tough mean woman killing and threatening everyone because she is so tough. I honestly hate her.
Where are the dragons? I was promised epic battles and dragons. (I was honestly so bored I skipped through, but I don't think there are any dragons in the first half of the story).
Another thing that bothered me (and it's just a person thing) is that ships were referred to as "he". As a former sailor I was just shouting no!! Vessel, ship should be referred to as "she". Just a minor thing that bugged me.
Overall, this book was just not for me, but I can see how a lot of people will enjoy it.

As a longtime fantasy reader, few things annoy me as much as writers who needlessly invent words. I don't mean words for new concepts, new animals, new magical elements, things like that; I mean word substitutions that serve no logical purpose. Saying "sither" instead of sister. (Still using "brother", though!) Saying "Skearith's Eye" instead of "the sun". An endless slew of Those Dreaded Compound Words---we all know and fear them!---when the author slaps two or more unrelated words together to describe an object that probably doesn't need a name to begin with, attempting to dazzle us with their worldbuilding skills while only succeeding in ripping us out of the story.

The Bone Ships sins greatly in this regard, and it sins right from the start. The sheer quantity of unnecessary invented words operates like the story version of a speed bump; just as you start getting into the story, whoops! Here's another string of nonsense words whose only purpose is to force you to stop and figure out what the hell is being described. By the time you return to the story proper, all sense of pacing and plot and character development has metaphorically tumbled off the cliff. (The fact that most of this story takes place on a ship, which already has lots of unfamiliar elements, does not help matters.)

The story is uncomplicated. Ship captain ('shipwife', all ships here being dubbed as male) Joron Twiner loses a fight (and command of his ship of condemned criminals) to the famous Meas Gilbryn, and ends up serving as her second-in-command on a quest to save the last known arakeesian (a sort of sea dragon, a long-thought-extinct race whose bones are used to make ships), hopefully bringing peace between two warring seafaring nations in the process. Many and sundry things happen along the way, few of which held my attention for any length, leading to a somewhat anticlimactic ending and a setup for Book 2.

Part of me wonders if I'd have enjoyed this more had the story been centered on the island archipelago, not on a ship. Because the politics of this society are, if not always the most logical, certainly more enthralling than the action on the open seas: in this world, much of the population is born deformed in some way, and political power is held by women who prove their 'strength' by giving birth to unblemished children and surviving the births, (and by the men who service them sexually). Each firstborn child is sacrificed to the ships, creating magical 'corpselights' that the population believes are necessary to power the ships, even though ships exist that have no corpselights and everyone knows those work just fine. They also seem to assign jobs to the malformed based on what they've lost: lose a foot, you become a cobbler. Lose a hand, you have to sew. Like I said, this is not the most logical society in the fantasy genre, but I think you really can't go wrong with human sacrifice and a fertility-based political system, at least when it comes to the entertainment factors.

Overall, this was just not my cup of tea.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for sending me this arc. I will be reviewing this book in the near future with an honest rating and review.

I received a free eARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This by no means affected my opinion of it.

🌊

The first thing that stood out from the very first chapter of THE BONE SHIPS was how this was going to be a different sort of experience than what I was so used to. In YA fantasy, you have your generic European-ish worlds, trademark character archetypes, and predictable plots, but THE BONE SHIPS takes those tropes and completely shatters them with its original worldbuilding, three-dimensional characters, and slow-building but nevertheless unpredictable plot.

The second thing that I loved about this book was the worldbuilding. Yes, it's slow at first, but not at all boring as the author takes this downtime to really develop the characters, and of course, the world. THE BONE SHIPS was like a tidal wave sweeping me off my feet and into a world of naval battles and shipwives and unforgiving seas. Everything is unique, from the terminology to the characters, who are empathetic and well-drawn. This is one book that stands out from the rest of the crowd, twisting my perceptions and taking me on an epic journey.

With amazing world building, The Bone Ships follows a small cast of characters as they encounter war, famine, and the struggle for survival. With sympathetic characters, the journey is action packed and perfect for fans of Game of Thrones!

A special thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Having read The Bone Ships, I can admit that I was expecting a different kind of story. While there is a certain amount of world building, the focus clearly lies on a fairly linear plot line with only a hand full of characters. But don’t let that discourage you, fewer main character mean that the people you do encounter are described and portrayed more elaborately. Instead of blunt generic characters you get a sense of their motives and aspirations.

The author also took a jib at some traditional maritime terms. For example: Captains are called shipwife or the gender of a ship is assumed to be male. That did confuse me a little bit in the beginning, but after a while it felt natural. It’s interesting to see authors break with established terms and show us what could have possible.

Overall I enjoyed The Bone Ships a lot and I’m eager to see where the story will lead us next.

For generations, the Hundred Isles and the Gaunt Islands have been at war, frequently raiding each other's islands and stealing children. Both sides depend on ships crafted from the bones of the long dead sea dragons, but, as they have been hunted to extinction, the resources for crafting new ships have been dwindling. Inexplicably, a single sea dragon has been spotted. Lucky Meas Gilbryn sees this as an opportunity to end the war, but her second in command, Joron Twiner, fears it might be treason. Still, the crew of Tide Child find themselves sailing towards the sea dragon, and certain death.

This is the first book in The Tide Child Trilogy and I can't wait to read the rest of the series. This is an amazing fantasy with a well-imagined world and wonderful characters that feel real and add color to the story. I enjoy fantasies that involve a journey, but I think this is the first I've ever read where most of the story takes place on water. As someone who gets sea sick and can't even enjoy a cruise ship, I loved that I could enjoy a sea adventure without throwing up.

I loved the world building. So much of the story takes place on a single ship, the black ship Tide Child, where the crew have been condemned to death for one crime or another. It was its own microcosm, had its own culture that was both a part of and different from the larger world's culture. It was almost like it was a floating nation. It made sense and worked well in the greater scheme of things. I'm not sure if I'd want to live in this world, but it was vividly imagined with a rich history and mythology that ran through the story flawlessly. There were no sun or moon, but Skearith's Eye and Skearith's Blind Eye instead. I can't tell you how many mornings I woke up and thought of the sun as Skearith's Eye instead of the sun.

But as much as I loved the world and the culture, it's also the things I had a problem with. This book comes with a map. I love books with maps and will often study them to memorization. I noticed that the world seemed to be comprised of two nations: the Hundred Isles and the Gaunt Islands. I don't know how plausible it is for a world to be wholly comprised of islands, but it worked for the story. But, throughout the story, the narrator, Joron, couldn't help but see how similar the two nations were, which made me think the whole world was really very homogeneous with little variation in culture. I also noticed that the cold was emphasized the further north the ship traveled, but the main island in the Hundred Isles lies along the same general latitudes, so I expected to read that some of the crew might not have been as afflicted as they were used to a colder climate, but that wasn't mentioned.

The characters were exceptionally well-done. They felt like real people with histories, secrets, and motivations. They had individual personalities that played off of each other and contributed to the larger personality of the crew. Despite their varied backgrounds, they managed to mesh and work well together, coming together to work towards the same cause. I loved the complexity of Meas's character. She seemed to be both lucky and cursed, but was absolutely brilliant as a leader and tactician. She's an amazing character, one I wouldn't mind calling my leader. My favorite character was the gullaime, a creature that can control the winds and is feared by the crew it's forced to serve. Tide Child's was no exception, but I loved how it became more than just a creature. It had its own personality and I loved getting to know it just as Joron did.

My other complaint is that Joron's character bothered me. I was a little disappointed in him as the story is told from his perspective. He felt a little hard to pin down for most of the story. Fearful, yet brave. Dutiful, yet vengeful. He had an interesting history that kept popping up, which explained his fears really well, but the fact that he was able to put that aside and take up his duties so well kind of astounded me. Since the story's told from his viewpoint, I hoped for a little about how he was able to do it and what was going through his mind. There is some of that, but not enough to convince me of all the growth he made. Perhaps it's just me, but I almost felt like he was a victim of the story, like his growth served the story more than it served him.

The Bone Ships tells a fascinating story. It's not just about three ships, one from the Hundred Isles and two from the Gaunt Islands, seeking to end the war, but also about the formation of a group. It's a beautiful story of mismatched souls coming together to form a cohesive whole where each person can depend on the others and work like a well-oiled machine. It's a lovely read and surprisingly heartwarming.

Overall, this is a great adventure book hinting at underlying politics, but mainly focusing on the formation of a trustworthy crew trying to do the right thing for the people of the world. This was great book with an interesting setting, fascinating characters that change over time, and an intriguing story that had me wondering what the crew was going to do at the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for a free e-copy. All opinions expressed are my own.
Link to post: https://thelilycafe.com/2019/09/19/book-review-the-bone-ships-by-r-j-barker/

Phenomenal. Some of the most compelling worldbuilding I've seen in ages. Bleak and yet filled with hope. I didn't want to leave!

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

Immediately fascinating with its unorthodox boarding of Joron Twiner and Lucky Meas, only to flounder for a while in seemingly directionless seas, The Bone Ships does find its sea-legs in the second half, sailing into a satisfying conclusion.

The first half of this book is, for the most part, character introductions and world-building. RJ Barker throws the reader right into the deepest seas of information and then douses us with words, terms, names, and details that often lack any clear meaning until context comes along later. It’s a fascinating word, both from a cultural and geological perspective, and the the approach to dragons is excitingly original, but there is a lot to take in. It’s an ugly world, dangerous and full of dirty people with dirty ideas, and the crew of the Tide Child are its unwanted, unloved, forgotten outcasts. It’s the kind of crew where a strange woman can walk in, claim a hat, yell at a few people, knock a few heads, and simply assume command because, with one exception, nobody else wants it.

The narrative here is a bit odd, reminiscent of a few grimdark sagas I’ve enjoyed, in that the hero, the protagonist, the main character is not the narrative point-of-view. Instead, it’s the deposed shipwife, Joron, who tells the tale, and its through his eyes that we witness the bold, brash, ballsy actions of Lucky Meas. He’s a decent character with some reasonable growth, who becomes less annoying as he becomes more familiar, but it was Lucky Meas who captained my imagination. She is so much fun to watch, a force of nature stronger than any sea-borne tempest, and as unrelenting as the storm-tossed waves. She’s a leader, through and through, and you can either accept it or get the hell out of her way.

The other characters who intrigued me here were the monstrous, once-feathered, gullaime windtalker, the only member of the crew to give Lucky Meas serious pause; and the courser, Aelerin, neither woman nor man, and regarded with superstitious dread, although their role in the story comes largely in the second half.

As for the story, what we have is a black ship of doomed souls in search of a legendary dragon – once commonplace enough to form the hulls of the bone ships, but hunted to near-extinction – hoping to redeem themselves with an act of heroic bravery. Of course, they are not the only ship in search of the legendary arakeesian, which makes for some suitably epic scenes of naval warfare between bone ships, especially since the Tide Child is the only ship looking to save the dragon. It’s exhilarating stuff, like the best scenes of a pirate tale, only with a little more magic and mayhem . . . and some terrifying beasts of the deep, just to keep everyone on their toes.

For my first literary voyage with RJ Barker, The Bone Ships was a great one, and I’ll definitely be booking berth on the next tale to set sail.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This book is available September 24th.

If you like a book with excellent story building, this one is for you! While never boring, this does have a slower start. Barker takes the time to create and explain an amazingly detailed world, one that is both stark yet inventive, much like the book itself.

I’ve enjoyed Barker’s previous books, so I was very excited to read this book. The fact that it’s so ship-heavy caused a bit of trepidation since, for some unknown reason, I don’t usually like books that take place mainly on ships. It could be because it often makes the book feel stifled to me. However, this book never felt small. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

The characters were so well developed that I really didn’t have one that I liked all the time. Just like real people, they all had strengths and weaknesses. The writing was superb in that way. In fact, I can only compare it to the incredible Tad Williams’ To Green Angel Tower as far as writing skill goes.

This is not a book to miss.

DNFed at 26%.

The minute I heard The Bone Ships was about dragons, or a dragon, I was ready to dive into this book and its characters! The first chapter drew me in, and I was expecting to love the chapters that came after it just as much. However, this book lost me not even halfway through. With every chapter after the first, I became more and more bored by reading all the ship-related description and annoyed by Joron’s constant self-doubt and comparing himself to Lucky Meas. Although I thought the world-building from RJ Barker was extremely interesting, I just couldn’t deal with any more of the slow pacing and day-to-day ship life of everyone. I’m assuming the book does get exciting when they finally encounter the dragon, but I just couldn’t read past 26%.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for sending me a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Bone Ships, is a magnificent seafaring epic fantasy best-suited for readers who really enjoy world building. The first book in a new fantasy series, The Bone Ships was a story I wanted to savor and read slowly. The world building pulled me in, and even if parts of the culture were extremely disturbing, they were offset by the sheer wonder and uniqueness of this strange world.

Barker offsets the bleakness of the society in The Bone Ships by creating an incredibly colorful and vivid world - the plant life is no color you would expect to find (such as bright purple leaves and bright pink vines), and color is used to signify status in the characters. Meas is described as having long, grey hair that is dyed with streaks of bright reds and blues, signifying she is a shipwife and therefore captain of a ship. I wish there had been a few color illustrations to go with the sketches at the beginning of each chapter so I could have grasped the full depth of the world.

In terms of characters, I wasn’t a huge fan of Joron at the beginning of the story (he really wasn’t that likable), but he did eventually grow on me, as did several of the other characters. My favorite character was definitely Meas, with Black Orris and the gulliame (both the Tide Child’s and the race in general) taking close seconds. I loved Meas’ character: she’s intelligent, inspires incredibly loyalty from her former (and future) crew, and takes control of her future whenever she is able, usually without much outward consideration for others (but, since I didn’t like Joron that much at the beginning I didn’t really care). While The Bone Ships is told from Joron’s point of view, I’m not sure if it was the best choice. However, it could be because I’m such a fan of multi-POV narratives and preferred Meas’ character so much more than Joron’s.

The Bone Ships also includes a chapter index, a world map, sketches at the beginning of each chapter, a glossary, and in the acknowledgements the author gives a brief mention of some of the music that inspired this story (a cool touch that I hope stays in the final version).

However, the story doesn’t really seem to kick off until the 25% mark, which for some is too slow of a start. If you like jumping into the story in the middle of the action, this book may not be for you. However, since it’s an entirely unique and vastly different world than the one I’m used to, I appreciated the long beginning to acclimatize to the world and lingo. The dialogue and terminology were especially difficult at first, but the glossary in the back did help and sometimes I just needed to be content with not fully understanding an unfamiliar term before continuing.

In all, The Bone Ships was a magnificent adventure and I was completely enthralled with this tale, giving it a 4.5/5 stars. It releases September 24th and I’m already looking forward to reading the next book in the series! Thank you again to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the privilege of reviewing an ARC.

2 out of 5 stars.

Couldn't get into it. Didn't understand the world or the characters, didn't seem like anything was explained until halfway through the book, at which point I was over it. I think it was an interesting concept, but could have used a lot more world-building in the beginning.