The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart (The Drowning Empire Trilogy)

SynopsisMagic. Revolution. Identity.

The Emperor is Dead. Long live the Emperor.

Lin Sukai finally sits on the throne she won at so much cost, but her struggles are only just beginning. Her people don’t trust her. Her political alliances are weak. And in a far corner of the Empire a rebel army of constructs is gathering, its leader determined to take the throne by force.

Yet an even greater threat is on the horizon, for the Alanga – the powerful magicians of legend – have returned to the Empire. Lin may need their help to defeat the rebels and restore order.

But can she trust them?

Review
The Bone Shard Emperor is the second book of in Andrea Stewart’sThe Drowning Empire Series, and follows on from where The Bone Shard Daughter left off. Lin is now Emperor of the Phoenix Empire after defeating her father, but she has an Empire that is under attack from her father’s constructs, with the aim of taking the throne off her and destabilising the Empire. She is having to try and build bridges with the Islands as no one trusts her, but that is difficult with her family’s history. With rumours of the Alanga, the powerful magicians who once ruled the Phoenix Empire, returning and Islands sinking Lin finds herself fighting to prove herself and her role as Emperor.

Like in the first book, The Bone Shard Emperor has several narrators, the main two being Lin the Emperor and Jovis and ex smuggler and member of the rebel The Shardless Few, and now Captain of the Guards. Lin’s start as Emperor isn’t easy, but she is determined to prove she can govern the Phoenix Empire, bring the Islands together and rule in a very different way to her father. With Jovis, she visits some of the Islands in the hope that they will support her reign and help fight the Constructs who are waging war on the Empire. Lin shows grace and poise on these visits where she is not welcome by the governers who want her to abdicate. I was drawn to how she managed to deal with the issues head on and by finding out each governers weakness and using that to her advantage, and by returning the bone shards from each Island to show she will not rule by fear like her father. Jovis, once a smuggler and now a spy for The Shardless Few, who want to get rid of the Emperor, is now Captain of the Guard. Whilst he starts as a spy, the more time he spends with Lin he becomes conflicted in his views; he sees her as a good Emperor and they both share a secret. In the first book I fell in love with Melphi, his pet and was glad to see him back, and now he has a friend in Thrana, who is Lin’s pet, both of whom give advice and are protective of Lin and Jovis. The other points of view are from Phalue, who like Lin deposed her father as governor of Nephilanu, and is also finding her feet as ruler and wanting to do things different from her father, and Nisong who is leading the army of Constructs in the hope of overthrowing the Empire and becoming Emperor herself.

From the first page Andrea Stewart grabbed me and took me back into her wonderful world of the Phoenix Empire. Sometimes the second book in a trilogy can be a bit flat, but not here, it was packed with action, great storylines and characters who just jump of the page and come to life. The Constructs are still creepy with different parts of people and animals mixed together, with the inclusion this time of the dead also being brought back to life with bone shard magic. Andrea Stewart’s prose flows seamlessly throught the book, with its multi-layered plot, the different relationships between the characters and the unique voices of the narrators, that make The Bone Shard Emperor such an enjoyable book to read.

I flew through The Bone Shard Daughter completely lost in this fasciating world of floating Islands, frankenstien type constructs and wonderful animals, especially Melphi and Thrana. Lin is a fabulous heroine and I can’t wait to see what she and the other characters do next. Andrea Stewart’s world building is imaginative and with the mix of action, thrills romance, magic and Chinese Folklore make for a fascinating and immersive read. This book met all expectaions after the stunning first book in the series, and I really cant wait for the next chapter in this fabulous trilogy; a spellbinding read.

I would like to thank Orbit Books and Tracy Fenton from Compulsive Readers for inviting me to be part of the blog tour for this wonderful book.