The Drowning Empire
#4403.98 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 2020–2023 Reading commitment Medium Andrea Stewart Last reviewed 2026-08-13
Overview
A flooded island empire ruled by an ailing emperor who animates bone-shard constructs to defend his realm, seen through the eyes of his estranged, memory-gapped daughter Lin and a smuggler, Jovis, drawn into a rebellion against imperial rule. Andrea Stewart's Drowning Empire trilogy opened with her debut novel The Bone Shard Daughter (2020), followed by The Bone Shard Emperor (2021) and The Bone Shard War (2023), published by Orbit Books. The debut was a finalist for the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel, the Compton Crook Award, and the Locus Award for Best First Novel, and won reader-voted awards in the Debut Novel and Fantasy categories, with reviewers praising its exploration of empire, agency, and identity across the trilogy's shifting points of view.
Epic fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
The Bone Shard Trilogy Andrea Stewart
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Bone Shard Daughter | 2020 | 1 | core | 3.97 (38,494 ratings) |
 | The Bone Shard Emperor | 2021 | 2 | core | 4.05 (16,211 ratings) |
 | The Bone Shard War | 2023 | 3 | core | 3.92 (9,388 ratings) |
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.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Drowning Empire? The Drowning Empire's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for The Drowning Empire? Publication order, starting with The Bone Shard Daughter. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Drowning Empire finished? Complete (2020–2023).
- How much reading does The Drowning Empire take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books).
- How is The Drowning Empire ranked? #440 in this site's official ranking, based on 64,093 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #440?
Ranked #440 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.98 across 3 core books.
- A smaller readership (64,093 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Remarkably consistent across the whole series: all 3 rated core books rate within 0.13 of each other.
- Less than 0.01 behind #439, The Deptford Mice (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Well rated · 3 books · Complete · 64k ratings · Ranks #440 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length epic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- The Bone Shard Daughter (2020)
- The Bone Shard Emperor (2021)
- The Bone Shard War (2023)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- Locus Award (Best First Novel), 2021: finalist: The Bone Shard Daughter; 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).
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Suggestions computed from what The Drowning Empire and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- Exiles Epic fantasy · Ongoing · Medium commitment · 4.11
- The Draconis Memoria Epic fantasy / Grimdark · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.11
- The Elven Epic fantasy · Ongoing · Medium commitment · 4.11
- The Winnowing Flame Trilogy Epic fantasy · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.11
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.98 across 64,093 ratings on 3 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: The Drowning Empire admitted; Core Canon = the completed 3-book trilogy accepted 2026-08-13
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-08-13
Rule: Core = all 3 novels of the completed trilogy.