⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
4 Stars!

Synopsis: The finale in this epic trilogy. Lin, Jovis, Mephi, bone shard magic and sinking islands – it all comes together in this fantastic book.

CW/TW: Violence/Murder/Death/War/Bodily Injury/others may be present.

Rep: Queernormative, Sapphic POV Characters.

Series Book Review: Book Review: The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire #1) , by Andrea Stewart | Book Review: The Bone Shard Emperor (The Drowning Empire #2), by Andrea Stewart

The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart is the explosive and emotional conclusion to an epic trilogy.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy and this book was no different! This finale was an excellent read full of tension, action and emotional scenes. As this is the finale I’ll keep this brief to avoid spoilers for this book and the rest of the series.

The Bone Shard War returns with all of our favourite POV’s, and picks up a little while after the second book. We dive into the all the problems building up to now, the island, the mysteries of the Alanga, the secrets Lin’s father kept, and the mysteries behind bone shard magic.

Stewart again impresses with her prose and storytelling, weaving together multiple threads that come to a conclusion well suited to the series. I loved the insights that we got, the resolutions revealed, and watching the characters grow and come into their final arcs. Overall the ending is bittersweet but yet suited to the series overall.

Overall, The Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart is a satisfying conclusion to what has been an epic and captivating trilogy.

*I received an eARC from Orbit Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review –

This felt like a little bit of a letdown, if I'm honest. the first book is stellar, but book two is a little mixed and by the time I get here there are too many characters trying to do too many things. don't get me wrong I still enjoyed it, but I wanted to love it and have it feel a little less messy. Multiple leads and motivations can be done, but here it felt that they were all just a little too close to each other with not enough difference.
A good series but probably won't go back to it.

It is always really hard to review the final book in a trilogy or series without giving away spoilers that will ruin the experience for everyone, so I will simply say that this was absolutely everything I hoped it would be, and a lot more besides.

I'll be eagerly anticipating anything that Andrea Stewart chooses to write next because after this I am a fully dedicated fan.

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.

We start this 3rd book 2 years after where we left off at the end of Bone Shard Emperor, and a lot has changed.
Not gonna lie, it took me a while to get back into it.
But once I was in i couldn't stop.
This final book gives you explanations on a lot of questions still open and wraps up pretty nicely. Careful I didn't say painlessly... You're in for a ride!

Thanks to the publisher for granting me access to this one. I've been a big fan of this series from the get-go, and Andrea Stewart has written such a creative fantasy world with compelling characters and a fantastic animal sidekick, but this installment was a let-down, for me, feeling too circular, repetitive and overlong. I'll still be in line for what she writes next, though!

Great ending to a brilliant trilogy. I have really enjoyed this authors work and this entire series. The world building remained familiar to the previous books which is a huge plus. The writing of the characters remained strong and just made this conclusion that much better.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

While I enjoyed the first two books in this series, for some reason reading 'The Bone Shard War' felt like a bit of a slog (at least at the beginning). I think maybe because it had been so long since I read the other two books in the series, but at the start I had forgotten who some of the characters (like Ragan) were, and what everyone was up to. While I swiftly got back into the world, it took me a while to get invested in the plot and the characters again. I think it didn't help that there were some characters and relationships (like Lin and Jovis's romance) that I was never completely convinced by or interested in.

However, by about the halfway mark, I found myself thoroughly enjoying this series again. I love the ossalen and their connections with the Alanga, and I also enjoyed the many twists the plot took. Overall, this was a great conclusion to a unique fantasy series, but I just wish that it hadn't taken me so long to get into this book (which is the main reason for the 3.5 star rating).

Bone Shard War by Andrea Stewart is the dramatic conclusion to her trilogy which began with Bone Shard Daughter and then continued with Bone Shard Emperor. It is essential to have read these two books before picking up Bone Shard War as it really could not be read as a stand alone.
This is definitely a chunky read, but it needs to be because there are a lot of characters and story threads that need to be wrapped up , and I am impressed with the skill the author shows in how she weaves everything together. There is a lot going on at all times in this book, so readers who like pacy action packed books will certainly enjoy it , but there are also complex and well crafted characters
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Stewart was always going to have a challenge on her hands to wrap up this sprawling series, and I think she did it extremely well. Most of characters have satisfactory arcs, with perhaps the exception of Ragan - I would have liked to see his character delved into a bit more, fitting in with the overall message of the novel that no one is good or evil in essence but shades of grey, in response to their circumstances and upbringing. I particularly liked the reveal about the ossalen - I did not see that one coming - and the arc for Nisong/Sand. An exceptionally accomplished debut series.

A brilliant end to the series. So excited to read more from this author.
When I read the first book, I fell in love with it from the first chapter. It felt like a magical version of the Westworld sci-fi, and the way the worldbuilding was created so intricately made this series a top contender for best series of the year for me. Super impressed with the creativity this author uses to create such remarkable worlds. Highly recommend.

Bone Shard War feels miles away from where the series started, and unfortunately not in a way that I like. The claustrophobic horror magic of book 1 has been subsumed into a classic fantasy of magic swords, a quest around the world, and battles, which just doesn't do the series justice. The characters particularly suffer from what feel like contrivances to keep people apart, throw them together, or just generally limit their arcs (Nisong especially suffers from wasted porential). The prose and dialogue also felt off to me more than ever, leading overall to an immensely slow read. All that said, it's not without a few bits of charm, and I appreciate bits of the ending, but this book is just in the shadow of what the series looked like it would be.

This was a really compelling and satisfying conclusion to what has been an excellent trilogy. I thought that the plot for this third and final installment built very well through the narrative and found it fascinating to see where our characters found themselves following a two year time jump. The interaction between Rin and Jovis was particularly poignant and I loved the way in which Ranami found the role she was born to. All of the character arcs and plot threads were concluded with aplomb and overall, this was a fabulous way to end the series. I will definitely be picking up whatever Andrea Stewart comes up with next.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

<b> thank you so much to orbit for providing me with a review copy! </b>

i am bereft that i have no more drowning empire books to look forward to. ANDREA STEWART PLEASE MORE MEPHI </3

the conclusion to the trilogy was just as big-brained as the first two. the scope of the world, the magic building and the character relationships were all expertly woven together to make a book i just couldn't put down. i ended up reading 400 pages in one sitting because i literally could not escape the iron grip that BSW had on me.

one of my favourite things in fantasy series is the kind of 'zoom out' effect - book 1 focuses maybe on one country, or city, or whatever, and book two expands to include other countries or cities, and book 3 expands even further. bone shard war ended up linking stories and ideas from even the very first book, and the build up of like 1200 pages made the result soooo worth it.

there's a time jump between the end of the bone shard emperor and the bone shard war, and i think the start does a good job of reminding the reader of what happened in the previous installment (however i did reread the bone shard emperor before picking this up so take that with a pinch of salt).

these books are fantastic in every format - i own the hardcovers, the ebooks and the audiobooks for all three, and i would highly recommend your favourite format. the audiobooks in particular are so immersive and the narrators do a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life. listening while reading along was the way i read TBSW and if you can, i'd say that's the best way to read them.

overall, i adored this book. i adore the characters and the writing, the ending was painful without being sadistic and i really enjoyed the way the series wrapped up. as a conclusion, wrapping up all the different threads of the series, i think it was masterful, and i'm even more desperate for andrea stewart's next offering.

Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars

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.

Oh, this series is something special. I utterly loved the first two and had that mix of excitement and trepidation ahead of picking up the final instalment.

It does not disappoint. It was great to get back to these characters and see what had happened to them since the end of the last book. We’re two years on in this book, and things haven’t gotten any easier for anyone.

We learn more about the Alanga and the ossalen here and I really like the world and magic systems that have been built by Andrea Stewart in these books. I could happily read more books in this setting if she ever felt that way inclined…..

The switch between multiple points of view makes this book difficult to put down. I was constantly just wanting to read a bit more to see how each of our characters was doing.

Who was I rooting for? Well, everyone had their own motivation, and a lot of them felt valid. But I really wanted to see Jovis get himself out of his latest predicament.

The ending was certainly bittersweet, but fitting. Following these characters on this journey has been a pleasure and I can’t wait to see what Stewart does next.

The Bone Shard War is the last book in The Drowning Empire series. The final installment take time two years after last event at second books. I delighted that after two books full of action packages, intrigues political issues and mystery of bone shard magic the author still willing to delivered tight plotline amazingly.

I appreciate author efforts reader capable to absorb this massive worldbuilding and multi characters slowly . The informations layering and blend together with the story telling and plots. The ending isnt something I expected but at least give new hope into the new reign of Phoenix Empire. At the end I love everything about this series and looking forward to read other installment from the author. I highly recommend for fellow Fantasy readers who love unique magic system, action and intrigue, strong and well developed characters, beautiful worldbuilding and super cute animal companions.

Thank you Netgalley and Orbit from Little Brown Group UK for provided my digital copy. My thoughts and opinions always become my own.

Wow! This was everything you could want from the final chapter in this wonderful and original trilogy. There were some amazing twists in this that answered questions I didn't know I had. When I think about the character development throughout for the two main characters and the complex world building, achieved seamlessly, I think this will definitely be one of my top epic fantasy reads of 2023!

Thanks to Netgalley and Orbit UK for providing me with this ARC!

The Bone Shard War is the third and final book in the Drowning Empire trilogy. It was a fantastic conclusion to this trilogy and I highly recommend checking it out. The characters are well written, the world is a vivid one and the plot is compelling throughout.

A hammer-blow of a conclusion to a fantastic series. I'm delighted to have had the opportunity to read and review The Bone Shard War, partly because it gave me an excuse to do a complete re-read of the series!
The Bone Shard War continues on with following the mysteries, intrigues and heartbreaks of the previous book but (obviously) begins to give some fascinating conclusions and insights. I find often with final books of this ilk things either fall apart in complexity or come together - delighted to say this was the latter.
Overall this series was so fun to read from start to finish, I recommend it to everyone who is looking for a truly cool magic system in a world that inspires and intrigues. I found that a lot of the elements that I was less keen on in book two were addressed in this final book which makes the trilogy as a whole a winner in my books.
I'll be interested to see what the general response to the ending is. No spoilers here but, while I neither think it was 'good' or 'bad' I do think it will be a great ending for some and others will find it is not what they were expecting.
All being said I love this series, the writing, the characters and the plot and I'm somewhat sad to see it at an end - but that just means I get to reread again!
I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own.