Call of the Bone Ships by RJ Barker

Dragons have returned to the Hundred Isles. But their return heralds only war and destruction. When a horde of dying slaves are discovered in the bowels of a ship, Shipwife Meas and the crew of the Tide Child find themselves drawn into a vicious plot that will leave them questioning their loyalties and fighting for their lives.

RJ Barker is one of my favourite authors. It’s official.

Look, I’m a pretty emotionally-muted guy. It takes quite a lot for me to well up. But Barker managed to make me do just that with the end of his Wounded Kingdom series, and he’s now done it again with the second book in his Tide Child trilogy.

If you haven’t read the first book yet (The Bone Ships), then that’s something I would highly recommend to all fans of epic fantasy. I mean, come on. It’s about a bunch of pirate-y folks sailing around on ships made of dragon bone, trying to put an end to a never-ending war in a world where society itself is the enemy. Even just as a concept, it’s brilliant.

I loved the first book, but Call of the Bone Ships is just… well, in my eyes it’s a masterpiece. Honestly, my notes for this review are just a list of things that I loved.

Call of the Bone Ships starts with the crew of the Tide Child discovering what appears to be a slave ship, with humans and gullaime (bird-like wind-wizards) alike trapped in the hull. This incident informs the rest of the book: Where was this ship going? Why the need for slaves? Are there other ships like this one?

Things may not be exactly as they seem. Fans of RJ Barker’s Wounded Kingdom trilogy will know that he loves to add a bit of mystery flavour to his novels, and it’s the same here. When faced with the aforementioned ship, Lucky Meas is determined to get to the bottom of it. And where she goes, Joron follows.

Joron Twiner is, at this point, one of my favourite characters in fantasy. In the Bone Ships, he has this fabulous arc where he is torn down to his component parts and then slowly, steadily built back up again. That process continues in the sequel. It’s this wonderfully bittersweet mix of doubt and growth. Joron suffers from some pretty severe imposter syndrome and no small amount of self-loathing. It’s pretty heartbreaking (and possibly a little too relatable), but what I loved is that this is balanced out by the support of his peers. A found family that is there for him when he needs them to be, even when he has ordered them otherwise.

And, more broadly, this applies to the whole book. Barker is tremendously talented at balancing his highs with his lows. He gives you just enough dark moments to make the light shine brighter, but enough light to give the dark some gravity. The result is this thread of hope that runs throughout the book — something that made me want to be reading it every moment that I wasn’t.

But Joron isn’t the only compelling character here. There is Meas, obviously. But there is also the crew. After the events of book one, Joron is still finding his place among them, but the fact that he even has a place is indicative of the wider growth of the character cast. It ties into an overarching theme of the series — that people are capable of change. I loved how Joron learned to question his initial appraisal of people, even if in some cases he would be right to trust it. Sure, some people genuinely might not be too pleasant, but they might not always be that way. And there are also amazing people out there with such depth to them that you may be closing yourself off to. This is all represented in the book, with some amazing characters coming into their own as a result.

The discussion of change on a personal level is also mirrored on the societal level, and in a way that reflects our own world. Often, “progress” is built on the back of suffering, corpses, and by ignoring those people who need help the most. Often, many people benefit from this. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s too late to change things, or that we shouldn’t be fighting for something better.

There are so many things I love about this book. I could try to touch on every possible thing, but this review would get very long very quickly. I loved the highs, and I felt genuinely hurt by the lows. I love the questions that were posed, I loved the growth of the characters, and I loved learning more about the lore of this fascinating world. I adored this book. Perhaps even more than the first.

There’s a term in music for when a band has “found their sound”, and that partially rings true here. But RJ Barker, despite having favoured themes, has shown himself to have a tremendous range as an author. I’m excited for the conclusion of the Tide Child trilogy, but I’m also equally excited for what comes after.

Barker, if you’re reading this… I loved your book, but I will never forgive you for it.

We received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thank you to Orbit Books for the review copy!