The Bone Ships: 1 (Tide Child Trilogy)

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An enthralling story in a fascinating yet brutal world and its harsh seas, The Bone Ships is another winner from R.J. Barker. 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.

Thank you so much to Orbit Books via NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review! All opinions are my own! R.J. Barker's The Bone Ships was one of my favorite fantasy reads of last year. It had the perfect blend of epic fantasy and maritime fiction. The fact that the majority of the book takes place on a ship made of dragon bones was really cool and unique, definitely a breath of fresh air from the usual medieval fantasy flooding the market. That book only served to whet my appetite for what would come next and I was extremely excited when I was able to get an early copy of the follow up CALL OF THE BONE SHIPS from publisher Orbit Books. A brilliantly imagined saga of honour, glory, and warfare, The Bone Ships starts an epic new trilogy from David Gemmell Award-nominated RJ Barker.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. L'aspetto politico è poco sviluppato specie se abbiamo un’ambientazione in cui si è perennemente in guerra.

Worry only about tomorrow, and the day after. Think not on the day after that for we fly a ship of the dead, and the Hag calls us all. To plan far ahead is to ask for the Maiden to thwart all you are. We live in the now. We fight for what we believe is right. We can do nothing else.”" A very unique introduction to a largely nautical fantasy series, with a fresh world met by an original plot line, with a great mix of characters thrust into the mix. A really enjoyable read, which was performed brilliantly by the narrator on Audible. Call of the Bone Ships is the second book in The Tide Child trilogy by R.J. Barker. There’s no middle book syndrome here. I was one of the relatively few readers who were slightly disappointed by The Bone Ships on my first read. To sum it up briefly, it was too different from The Wounded Kingdom trilogy, and I expected a focus on characterization right from the getgo. But that wasn’t the case, The Bone Ships spent the first half of the novel heavily focused on world-building, and the characterizations came in the second half. This storytelling decision, however, made the reread experience of The Bone Ships that I did rewarding. And I’m happy to say that Call of the Bone Ships provided a more character-driven narrative in addition to retaining the fascinating world-building. RJBarker wrote one of my favourite fantasy series of all time, The Wounded Kingdom trilogy. So, when I heard that he was writing a brand-new series called The Tide Child trilogy, I was excited. And by excited, I mean I might have shouted about it to one or two, or seventy random people. I am a huge fan. You may wonder why it did not get a higher rating then. The truth is that this was a very good book in the end, but it took its time in getting there.Joron pilots Keesian Tooth to Slatehulme. Dinyl’s ship is destroyed by Slatehulme’s mangonel, and he is killed. Meas and Joron rescue the surviving prisoners from Safe Harbor. Slatehulme is besieged by Hundred Isles ships; they believe that Meas is the Caller. In exchange for Meas's surrender, the Hundred Isles ships allow the remaining members of the peace faction to leave the island. Joron assumes control of the fleet and becomes the temporary shipwife of Tide Child. As mentioned, less worldbuilding is required in this book, but it's still very much present as more parts of the map of the world are filled in and history and lore are expanded upon or hinted at. Personally, I hope we get to learn much more about the lore and that it is not left to the imagination, but I think the author will oblige us as there is surely a treasure trove’s worth of things we still don’t know about Gullaime and Arakeesians and the Song within Joron and I can hardly wait to find out all the things. The Bones Ships, as noted above, is book one of The Tide Child. There are unanswered questions at the end of the book, but I felt that this section of the tale made a satisfying read on its own.

The story focuses mostly on the world-building, and it was really well done. Again, my personal tastes did not make me enjoy this world to the max, but I cannot deny that Barker has woven a vivid and interesting world. Conoscete tutti quella splendida sensazione che si prova quando un libro tiene incollati alle pagine, vero? Un pensiero fisso, un’attrazione quasi erotica, il seducente canto di una sirena. Esattamente quello che è successo a me con Le Navi d’Ossa, primo libro della trilogia Tide Child scritta da R.J. Barker.

There is a rumour that the first arakeesian/keyshan/sea-dragon to be seen in generations has been spotted in the oceans of the Scattered Archipelago. The bones of the arakeesian are used to make the Bone Ships and they were thought hunted to extinction, long gone, faded from the world to fable, to myth and to legend.