Review of The Bone Ships by R.J. Barker

My lump of gray matter tells me that I enjoyed R.J. Barker’s debut novel Age of Assassins. It says that plotting was satisfying, that characterization was colorful, and that it was overall an enjoyable read. What it’s not telling me is why I didn’t read the remainder of the books in the trilogy... Nevertheless, I decided to pick up the first novel in Barker’s next trilogy, The Bone Ships (2019). I think I’m starting to understand why…

The Bone Ships is set in a completely different world than the Assassins trilogy. Fully nautical, it features a large archipelago called the Hundred Isles, and the swashbuckling, seafearing people who make the islands and waters home. Hunted for their bones to make ships, sea dragons have long ago gone extinct, leaving the people of the Hundred Isles to fight among themselves, as well as another large archipelago called the Gaunt Islands. Enter Joron Twiner. A timid talent, he’s picked to be first mate by Lucky Meas, shipwife (captain) to a bone ship called The Tide Child. Things are initially tough between the pair. Meas is a rough, demanding shipwife. But when a sea dragon is sighted, all bets are off as the Hundred Isles race to claim the beast.

On the surface, The Bone Ships is a fun book. Featuring a fresh fantasy world, ship battles on the high seas, spyglasses, corsairs, sea dragons—it has the elements to succeed. And indeed, there are moments the fun is realized in story. But in its bones (sorry for the pun), The Bone Ships doesn’t feel nautical. Like a white, suburban teen dressed for the ‘hood, the book feels like it’s trying to be nautical but lacks the soul to be nautical. Many of the “correct” words appear (‘har’ and ‘aye matey’ and the like), but at the sub-conscious, between-the-lines point of view, it doesn’t feel pirate-y, swashbuckler-y, sea-y. That mood, that atmosphere doesn’t exist below the surface.

This means there are times that The Bone Ships feels paint-by-the-numbers and the characters, caricatures. Several are the occasions the reader can predict what will happen. Ok, new crew member, conflict… Ok, new mission, build crew, cue training cut scene… Ok, angry, demanding captain, cue insults and drill sargent-esque commands… Not helping this is the fact the novel takes roughly half its pages to get off the ground, (“launch” I guess is the proper boating term). Some readers may not make it over that hump.

And this is a shame. Looking at the fantasy market, Barker identified a nice, rarely explored place. There simply aren’t that many types of books. And Barker seems to do his damndest to build out the world in original fashion. Just, the soul is not there…

The Bone Ships is not unrecommendable, however. Undoubtedly what Barker has produced will appeal to less sensitive readers for whom the issues mentioned above pose no concern. And, once the reader is past the first half of the book, indeed a reasonably good adventure kicks off—sea creatures, naval battles, and the like kicking things up a notch. If such things intrigue, by all means have a go. The gods know there are many less unique specimens of fantasy out there sloshing on the seas.