The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart

Second books in trilogies are never easy, and they seldom live up to the expectations the first book sets. The world is familiar, the characters won’t grow to their potential until the third book, and the best battles are saved for the last too.

The Bone Shard Emperor, the second book in The Drowning Empire trilogy by Andrea Stewart, is slightly less exciting than the first, but it manages to avoid stagnation and the sense that it’s merely a pass-through to the important final book. Mostly she achieves this by short chapters that always forward the overall plot, and by deepening the world.

Lin is the emperor now, but it’s not an easy or welcome rule. It doesn’t help that she questions her right to rule too, knowing that she isn’t the emperor’s natural daughter. The constructs her father built wreak havoc on the islands, and her decision to end the tithing of bone shards doesn’t bring her the goodwill she hoped. Her father’s shoddy rule has made the governors of the islands independent and they’re not willing to provide soldiers to fight the construct army taking over the islands one by one. The islands keep sinking, and the Alanga, the ancient enemy, are back. And they’re much closer than she could’ve imagined.

Jovis has accepted a position as a commander of Lin’s guard, but he’s still a spy for the Shardless Few, which constantly forces him to choose where his loyalties lie. And he hasn’t managed to get rid of the smugglers either. When he finally decides to side with Lin, he manages to betray her trust.

Phalue and Ranami have smaller roles. They’re trying to establish Phalue’s rule as the new governor of their island, balancing between the emperor and the Shardless Few. And Sand, who now knows she’s a construct copy of the old emperor’s dead wife, is prepared to bring down Lin’s rule with her construct army.

Everything heads inevitably towards a confrontation on a battlefield, much too soon for Lin. She and Jovis have a secret weapon in their magic, but they dare not use it in public. And there’s a new wielder of the same magic on their side. But can they trust him?

This was an interesting book, with enough action and revelations to keep it feeling fresh. Some of the latter seemed to spring out of nowhere, like the existence of replicas in addition to constructs and the origins of Alanga, as if they were clearer to the author than what she’d remembered to tell the reader.

The only thing that caused me to cringe was the rather forced romance between Lin and Jovis. It was clumsy and not necessary. Jovis declaring his love after spending years obsessed with his wife seemed especially poorly done. I also tend to imagine him as much older than he is, in his forties even, and her much younger (in reality, she’s only five, no matter what her memories say), and I find the idea of them together somewhat repulsive.

The ending left Lin and Jovis in a new place again. The existence of Alanga is out and Mephi is in the hands of the enemy. It’ll be interesting to see where all this will lead.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange of an honest review.