The Bone Ships: Winner of the Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel (The Tide Child Trilogy)

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Don’t know it,” she said, dismissive, uninterested. “Not seen it written in the rolls of honour, not heard it in any reports of action.” There is plenty of action spread throughout Call of the Bone Ships both on the land and the sea. With his action scenes, Barker doesn’t shy away from depicting the visceral nature of the battle and the fights have a weight to them, a heft to the blows dealt where you can feel the bite of the blade into flesh. There are some absolutely stunning cinematic and large-scale set pieces throughout Call of the Bone Ships, dramatic moments too, but there are also smaller and more personal moments, ripples in the water that are weighted and have a huge impact. The settings are all vividly realised and Barker manages to easily evoke images of the locations allowing you to picture them in your mind. With his writing, Barker’s words are able to convey the emotions that the characters feel and there are moments that rend your heart. In Call of the Bone Ships, you find yourself cursing Barker for what he puts both his characters and his readers through as he breaks them in the name of the story. Joron Twiner is Meas' second in command and he has a bond with the guillame. This story has Joron featured just as much as Meas as they come upon the strangest ship they'd ever seen with the strangest cargo ever beheld. Desperation has birthed evil. The pacing is steady throughout, with ebbs and flows, but the tale never loses the wind in its sails, taking on elements of the story as it mimics the swell of waves, moving along smoothly only to build to a peak multiple times throughout the book and bringing everything to a frothy head before crashing down again and then purposefully building up to the next crescendo. It makes for an utterly engrossing read and had all of us who read the book together devouring it swiftly. This writing is spellbinding in quality. Everything is so intricately explained, the battles are so vivid in their depth and quality, and the character dialogue is just wonderful. The author can explain a calm scene on the water and just leave you captivated while nothing is happening, he's that good at his craft. It just oozes quality, and you will have a very difficult time peeling your eyes from the book.

The Bone Ships by RJ Barker book review - Fantasy Book Review The Bone Ships by RJ Barker book review - Fantasy Book Review

A vividly realized high-seas epic that pulls you deep into its world and keeps you tangled there until the very last word." —Evan Winter, author of The Rage of DragonsFor generations, the Hundred Isles have built their ships from the bones of ancient dragons to fight an endless war. The dragons disappeared, but the battles for supremacy persisted. Barker continues to create a beautifully atmospheric world that is gritty, yet hopeful. As Meas and her crew continue to try to avert war, we learn more about the politics of the Hundred Isles and the gullaime, as well as see more locations within the world. He takes the already interesting world and expands it even wider, giving the reader more room to imagine and explore. The style is not bad, although it does not make big discounts for a better understanding of what is happening. Some events are depicted indistinctly and fragmentarily. However, the various positive aspects of the writing style offset these shortcomings.

The Bone Ships - BookPage The Bone Ships - BookPage

Bad things,” it said again. “Yes, and Meas will stop them.” “And Joron! And Gullaime!” “Yes.” “And Farys, and Means and Solemn Muffaz and Anzir and…” The gullaime went on, joyfully naming the crew and Joron felt sure if he had not interrupted it the creature would have carried on until it had named everyone aboard the ship. “Yes. All of us.” RJ Barker managed to lay down a tremendous amount of worldbuilding in The Bone Ships and while this did impact the pacing slightly in that story, it’s now paying huge dividends in this second book, allowing him even more time to focus on character development. And wow, has he done an outstanding job of it. I laughed and cried and cursed as I followed the journey of the crew, characters I have come to love and hate. Farys, Coughlin, Anzir, Dinyl, Shorn, Cwell… So many feelings. It’s also a testament to the author’s adeptness at clearly portraying relationships in all their complex glory that my feelings about characters I once loathed are now... I don’t know! You’ve muddied the waters RJ! It’s complicated. And it’s fantastic.Heroes and readers continue to explore new aspects of the interesting world of the islands. The second book is more focused on sea voyages - it is very good that their subtleties are conveyed in a comprehensive and diverse way. Various concepts of seafaring are successfully reworked in a fantasy style, but remain recognizable. Worldbuilding is revealed in a consistent and logical way - this can be seen in the examples of gullaimes and sea dragons.