The Bone Shard War

Conclusion with a major bang

This book feels so very essential human. Throughout the trilogy, we as readers are constantly confronted with questions what makes us “us”, how we take set backs in our lives and how far we are willing to go.
I was first taken aback a little because there is a large time jump of 2 years from the last battle on Gaelung to this, and lots has happened. Somehow, I wished these happenings would have been part of the story and not just in flashbacks. But that would probably have made it way too long and badly paced.
Our MCs are all various shades of grey and no one is beyond redemption or always acting angel-y like good. For me this is the part that memes the story so compelling, how and why they act as they do.
This instalment gave us even higher stakes as before and delivers. It is no cookie-cutter story of either just drama or just sunshine and rainbows and unicorns - but just like real life, brutal but with a glimmer of hope.

Dua tahun berlalu sejak pertempuran Gaelung, dimana The Bone Shard Emperor berakhir. Kemenangan pertama yang diraih Kaisar Lin Sukai di Gaelung tidak membuatnya mendapatkan aliansi dengan mudah. Kekaisaran masih dalam kondisi tidak stabil dan Lin kekurangan dukungan.
Dengan gubernur-gubernurnya merencanakan pengkhianatan, kelompok Shardless Few memulai pertempuran juga. Yang lebih buruk, nemesis lamanya, Nisong, bekerja bersama Alanga Ragan, untuk membunuhnya.
Harapan terletak pada sejarah dan legenda mengatakan mitos tujuh pedang, ditempa berabad silam. Jika Lin mampu menemukannya sebelum musuh-musuhnya, Lin mungkin bisa membalikkan keadaan.
Namun jika dia gagal, seluruh kekaisaran akan runtuh.
Sebagai penutup trilogy, The Bone Shard War untukku, memiliki akhir yang memuaskan dan agak emosional. Setelah buku kedua The Bone Shard Emperor yang kurang meninggalkan bekas seperti pendahulunya, The Bone Shard Daughter, aku agak ragu melanjutkan ke buku ketiganya ini.
Namun keputusanku tepat membaca penutup ini. Aku tidak bisa menjabarkan banyak tanpa spoiler. Yang paling memuaskan buatku akhirnya di buku ini kita akan mengetahui apa penyebab pulau-pulau tenggelam. Penutup untuk kelangsungan kekaisaran dan akhir untuk seluruh karakter yang diperkenalkan penulis sangat memuaskan buatku.

Stewart put her heart into this book, making it a great ending to a fierce trilogy. The characters grew, they evolved, I’m not mad about how their stories end – which can happen quite easily, let me tell you. If Stewart wants to write a novella set in the future about what happens far after the war. I like wars in fantasy, but I like the build-up and aftermath even more. Not sure why – maybe it’s the politics I like? Building/restoring communities? Also it’s making me want to go back and reread the trilogy! Which is great because I’m all for the re-readability of a book/series. I want to go back to the world and the characters. One thing that’s clear with this trilogy is that it’s so much of a unique story, worldbuilding, and characters. I think that’s why it’s good and how it builds it way up – even when the plot reaches its climax it doesn’t stop being good and unique. That’s what I want and like in books.

I didn’t realise that there was a time jump (two years) between the second book and this one. It did jar me a bit and took me a bit to get back into the story but luckily it didn’t stop me from enjoying it. Although Stewart did make the time jump work which is something that isn’t the case for everyone.

I did feel a bit more connected to the other main characters that I wasn’t (connected to) in this book. Even though we’re finishing the book and therefore won’t be spending time with them, I think I gained a better understanding for them and started to like them a bit. Although Lin and Jovis remain my firm favourites. I really liked going on their journeys and see them through the pain and fights they have to deal with. The ossalens were great, I’d definitely like to know more about them in any way. They had such personality and I think Stewart had a fun time writing them.

I probably should not have continued with this series, as I found book two to be pretty bad, and I didn't love book one. However, I was really determined to figure out why this wasn't clicking, because on paper I should like this series. It just wasn't working.

And I had a random thought while reading this book, and then I searched the book for a phrase. And once I did, it allowed my issues with this series to coalesce. Bear with me here: this book says the phrase “The Shardless Few” 307 times.

The Shardless Few is the name of the organization/rebellion trying to overthrow the government. And their name is said CONSTANTLY. Why is this the problem? It's not. It's a symptom of the problem. My issue with this series is that none of it feels believable, none of the characters act like real people, none of the political stakes feel like real stakes. Everything is extraordinarily hollow to me.

I first realized this because we are presented this story through five POV characters from various backgrounds, and each of them interacts with many others, and every single one of these characters say “The Shardless Few X. The Shardless Few Y. We can't ignore the Shardless Few. The Shardless Few are here. Whose here? The Shardless Few.” and I just don't think everyone would always talk like this. That's a long phrase and especially people who have to interact with the group daily would shorten it. The Shardless. The Few. The SFs, dammit. Can you imagine if every single time a person in the FBI referred to the FBI, they said “Federal Bureau of Investigation”? They would sound absurd. Their vocal cords would rebel. People just don't do this.

And that's a silly nitpick, that was just taking me out of it a little. But once I realized that, I was aware of how every character felt like that. They talked as if they were being written. The scheming was written as if they were being told to pretend to scheme, like an acting workshop without the instructor's presence. The political aspects were like if a child just said “hey in my story, these are the bad guys. Why? They do bad stuff I guess.” Most of the high stakes drama boils down to someone being like:

“We must stop the abuse! The Shardless Few want to stop the abuse! We will not ignore The Shardless Fee's desires. We agree with the Shardless Few.”
“Okay I will work with the Shardless Few, because I also don't like abuse and stuff.”
“Thank you for helping the Shardless Few! The Shardless Few will appreciate it! The Shardless Few will fill help the children. With the orphanages and stuff.”
“The children? Oh yeah, children. Orphanages. Yes, this is a big problem. I will help the Shardless Few with the orphanages”

Like what is this series even about? Why do any of these people do the things they do? There are all these islands and we are supposed to care about rebellions on each island and various injustices on these islands but each island's personality is “island”. There's “island X” and “Island Y” and everyone has the same thoughts and opinions; they want the children to be taken care of and for the abuses to stop. Down with the emperor! Long live the Shardless Few!

K.

I will also say that the audiobook narrators were mostly really good, and got me through this entire series.

Great conclusion to this amazing trilogy. It ended in a way that I did not expect, but it makes so much sense that it pains me!

I can't wait to discover what else Andrea Stewart has in store for us!

Great conclusion to this amazing trilogy. It ended in a way that I did not expect, but it makes so much sense that it pains me!

I can't wait to discover what else Andrea Stewart has in store for us!