R. J. Barker

The second book in The Tide Child trilogy DID NOT DISAPPOINT! RJ Barker is a wonderful storyteller, I am so glad I discovered this author.

"Call of the Bone Ships" is very different in both scope and tone from The Bone Ships. There is still plenty of maritime adventures and sea battles. But here, we go to very dark places, there is grief and sacrifice, loss and scary fanaticism. There is less swashbuckling and more pain, there is always a price to pay for every victory. The stakes are higher. The characters grow and change through pain and hardship and we see a side to some of them we had not seen before.

Unlike the first book, this one ends with a cliffhanger. I wish authors would stop doing that. Hmm, but then again, maybe not ;)))… (meer)

Oh. How perfectly this series lands... Third book of a trilogy can be a strange beast sometimes, hard to tame. RJ Barker does it beautifully.

This is a dark, dark tale. There are people being broken, people dying, people doing terrible things, people doing truly evil things (and arguing that there is a difference between the two latter). Much of the grief and tragedy in "The Bone Ship’s Wake", as in the two previous books, comes from blindly following traditions, just for traditions’ sake, because “this is how it was always done”.

The loneliness of leadership is described so vividly here. Both Meas and Joron tumble into this darkness – and come back out.

I loved the plot twists I did not see coming, and new discoveries about so many characters. There are horrible choices everyone has to make. Yet, there is also bravery, friendship, hope, the stories that bind people together. And did I mention all the adventure and excitement? I had to take deep breaths between storms, sea battles, monsters of the deep, and mysteriously empty ships.

The ending was fitting. It still broke my heart.

And stripping everything else in the book away, what you have left is the romance of the sea. Feel it, smell it, taste it, see these ships fly…… (meer)

It is a very rare thing indeed, as an adult, to meet a book of the sea of exactly the same kind you used to devour when you were nine. It’s just that this is not a children’s book and it happens to be fantasy, too (oh, yes). But all the feelings, the smell of the sea, the exaltation, these are all there still.

Exploring the world of “Bone Ships” was a lot of fun - despite it being a dark and grim one. The worldbuilding is very skillfully done, and I loved all the made-up naval terms.
Joron’s voyage of discovery - of himself, of others, learning to question the way things work in his society - was one of the most enjoyable things about the book.

In case I have not made it clear in the first paragraph of this review: this book is fiendishly entertaining. Sea battles (lots of them). Strange creatures and monsters. Swashbuckling galore. Badass characters. Last minute rescues.

The best thing: the whole trilogy is out, so Book 2 and 3 are waiting for me. Hurray! I’ll definitely be watching R.J. Barker :-)))… (meer)