The Bone Shard Daughter
core novel 2020 The Drowning Empire
Record
| First published | 2020 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.97 (38,494 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780316541428 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Opening the Drowning Empire trilogy, The Bone Shard Daughter is set among the floating islands of the Phoenix Empire, ruled by the Sukai Dynasty across the Endless Sea and held together by a form of magic drawn from citizens' own bone shards, which power constructs used to defend the throne. Lin, the Emperor's daughter, has lost much of her memory to illness and is kept largely confined within the palace, where she secretly studies the forbidden art of bone shard magic to prove herself worthy of succeeding her father. Her path intersects with Jovis, a smuggler searching for his missing wife; Phalue, daughter of a wealthy island governor; and Sand, an enigmatic woman living on the island of Maila. Their separate stories gradually converge around the growing unrest against imperial rule and the secrets underlying the Empire's magic.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Drowning Empire
- Series: The Bone Shard Trilogy core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Andrea Stewart
Awards (verified)
- Locus Award (Best First Novel), 2021: finalist; 4th place per the no-cutoff Locus-poll convention (winner: Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger). Confirmed via sfadb.com (the accepted primary source for Locus lineage claims).
Notes
- From the series record (The Bone Shard Trilogy): A completed trilogy set in a flooded island empire ruled by an emperor who animates bone-shard constructs; the first novel in a new author's debut series for this canon.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Bone Shard Trilogy: position 1 of 3: next The Bone Shard Emperor (2021)
Sources
← The Drowning Empire dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.