The Bone Ships
Winner of the Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel
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4.2 • 6 Ratings
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- €4.49
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- €4.49
Publisher Description
'Excellent . . . one of the most interesting and original fantasy worlds I've seen in years'
ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY
'Brilliant'
ROBIN HOBB, author of The Assassin's Apprentice
***Winner of the Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel***
TWO NATIONS AT WAR. A PRIZE BEYOND COMPARE.
For 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.
Now the first dragon in centuries has been spotted in far-off waters, and both sides see a chance to shift the balance of power in their favour. Because whoever catches it will win not only glory, but the war.
A brilliantly imagined saga of honour, glory, and warfare, The Bone Ships starts an epic new trilogy from David Gemmell Award-nominated RJ Barker.
'A vividly realised 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 Dragons
'An epic tale of duty and obligation and honour, and what bravery really means . . . I can't recommend it enough'
PETER MCLEAN, author of Priest of Bones
'A viciously exciting adventure. I loved every second of it'
TASHA SURI, author of Empire of Sand
'Swashbuckling awesomeness . . . a fascinating world and a twisty plot, both rooted in characters I came to care about. A definite winner'
JOHN GWYNNE, author of MALICE
'The Bone Ships has already built up plenty of anticipation - and with good reason ... Barker's previous series, the acclaimed The Wounded Kingdom Trilogy, was a powerhouse of gritty fantasy, and The Bone Ships promises to launch one of this season's greatest, grandest dragon sagas'
NPR
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Unusual attention to detail makes a water-covered world come to life in Barker's first Tide Child fantasy epic. A ridge of mountains separates sprinklings of small islands, and the only material strong enough to make oceangoing ships is sea dragon bone. However, dragons are long extinct and the old ships increasingly ramshackle, so a bitter and destructive conflict between the Hundred Isles and the Gaunt Islands may at last sputter out. The sighting of a dragon sends conspirators after the beast, some hoping to harvest its bones and others intending to kill it before its carcass can be used to renew the war. One of the seekers is Meas Gilbryn, a disgraced aristocrat turned pacifist. At the novel's opening, she seizes control of the Tide Child, a ship crewed by men and women who have been condemned to death, by slapping down its pathetically failed captain, Joron Twiner. Much of the rest of the novel feels like one of Patrick O'Brian's richly detailed sagas of seamanship as Meas rebuilds her ship and its crew, including restoring Joron's self-respect, while pursuing the dragon. Though characterization is declared more than demonstrated, this is a very promising beginning for a proposed trilogy.
