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

Reviews

HiuGregg

This is very much sea based, we rarely stand on solid ground and are surrounded by a whole new terminology and way of being. It is about friendship and gaining trust, loyalty, shifting allegiances, betrayal. At first I found it a little overwhelming but little by little I got my head round the language, sat back and let the author sweep me away into another world. And through it all, an undercurrent of optimism.

Maria S

And there is an appendix at the end of the book explaining ranks in the Fleet. I will be immediately going on the next in the series and ordering the author’s previous trilogy, which somehow I completely overlooked.

Dragon Rider

About one-third through the book I realized how much I enjoyed it and felt happy that I had two thirds yet ahead if me, which I also truly enjoyed. So good. I like a lot of books. It is a story about a group of disparate outsiders and outcasts thrown together and growing into a (mostly) unified crew.

Hedolly

At the beginning I felt a bit as if thrown in at deep end, a bit like learning a new language in a foreign country and slightly struggling with it; but surrendering to it, all soon became clear. I would never intentionally seek out sea based fantasy but the ones I have read I have very much enjoyed (The Liveship Traders anyone? Why is the book done? It is a quest on sea with swashbuckling and well-choreographed fight scenes without celebrating violence or bloodshed.

So imaginative. I could wax lyrical all day long about the fabulous world building and leap of the page characters but I would urge anyone who loves a good fantasy trilogy to pick this one up.