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The Bone Ships
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"The Bone Ships" Discuss Everything *Spoilers*
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I've reached the first naval battle in chapter 9. An untrained, incompetent, probably still hungover crew, and Joron would be more useful as fishbait instead of as a Deckkeeper at this point... this is going to be an absolute clusterfuck, isn't it?I'm really enjoying this book so far, but I'm hoping for major character development for Joron, because so far he's been such a pathetic good-for-nothing that he's making my fists itch. Looking forward to continuing this.
Overall, I thought this was tremendous! It reminded me of two books/series I really love: Railsea, by China Mieville, and Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. The world outside of the ship is interesting, brutal and strange, particularly the society, with its obsession with birth defects and its infant sacrifices. But this really is a nautical book, and it comes alive when we're aboard ship.
Joron is on a personal journey, and I enjoyed following his struggle to recover his dignity, live up to Meas's standards, and earn his place on the ship. Meas is a stock character in a way, but done well, and in her private moments with Joron she usually has something wise to say. The rest are an entertaining bunch, and their own points of view and character are drawn out well as the story moves along.
I'm a little bit skeptical about the main plotline - Karrad doesn't seem the kind of person to conspire with Meas for the good of all. Both of them seem too embedded in the society to attempt this radical scheme. My other minor niggle: I would have preferred Narza to be cut from this story. She has her moment of action in the assault on the Two Towers, but she's a cliche from a different genre and doesn't fit well.
These minor complaints aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this read. The battles are all great set pieces, particularly the Two Towers. The diverse hostile fauna, the guilliame and keyshan are fascinating and mysterious. I will be reading more of this trilogy.
I'm about 65% through and wholeheartedly enjoying the ride at this point. I couldn't stand the sight of Joron at first, but I'm loving him now. I must admit I also got somethin' in me eye when they first saw the arakeesian, and I wasn't expecting that. This is really enjoyable!
First off, seventeen reasons I hated this book:1) the “excerpt” at the very beginning: Meas straightened, held her sword held aloft as she stared out over the rail.
2) P 82: They were in poor condition, and he had had not even known they were aboard.
3) P 84: It was rare that those upon sea did not to help one another when it was needed.
4) P 84: To Joron’s thinking, and most of the crew’s, they had a won a victory here.
5) P 107 - the man who killed Joron’s father is named Rion. On p 124 he is named Jion.
6) P 108 - from the court of the Bern as it argued for him to be cast to away to a ship of the dead.
7) P 133: I am grateful for the invite but I am afraid have a ship to prepare and the tide waits for none
8) P 134: Unlike Meas, who stood upon a ship of shame, she sat upon on the throne of tears, …
9) P 135: The amusement on the the Thirteenbern’s face vanished and she was standing.
10) P 168: I said that would you never make shipwife through skill.
11) P 214: The the crew were little more than dots on the slate, …
12) P 386: She crumpled up the note and threw into the sea.
13) P 403: His shoes no longer hurt his feet (Boots, they were boots!)
14) P 442: … then shuffled past him him and down the narrow stairs before turning at the bottom.
15) P 458: Held in jaws longer as the massive ship.
16) P 461: This is what have fought for.
17) P 464: He Joron tried to smile but could not for he knew had as much as killed a man he come to hold dear
So many editing errors the publisher should be ashamed.
This is a book that starts with a fight over a shipwife’s hat. A shipwife is this world’s equivalent of a shipmaster, because this world has a matriarchal way of naming things. Ships are male, for instance The flora and fauna are quite different from reality, the boats are built from dragon bones. Probably for lack of wood or other ready, equally strong materials.
Our main character is Joron Twiner. He is the reluctant, scared, drunken shipwife on a small, dilapidated wessel named Tide Child. It is a black ship, a ship of the condemned. He anchored the ship and went ashore to drink for days on end, leaving the crew aboard. Except for the gullaime windtalker, which he has left on a boyo, in fear of it. Joron doesn’t seem to have any other plan than to drink himself silly and try to forget his role as shipwife. But he is disturbed in his depressed plan by a whirlwind of a woman named Meas Gilbryn. She fights him over the hat and title of shipwife, lets him live and takes him aboard the ship, where she proceeds to rouse the whole crew of about seventy condemned and set them to work. Joron never could make one of them do what he wanted, Not that he had tried, he was too scared, too fearful. Meas is his total opposite. She has a plan, a destination, she has authority and she, now, has the hat. She procures a new hat for Joren, that of the deckkeeper, second in command. She fights for that hat just as easily as she had her own.
Joron is on a steep learning curve, as he is told how to command under her. He might not have any authority on his own, but Meas owns him, he owes her his life, and he can command under her authority and he finds that it is far easier to wield that kind of power, the one where he is commanded to command rather than finding power within himself. Poor Joron has no experience after all, he is young, he was elected a shipwife by the rest of the crew exactly because they expected him not to have any power or authority over them, he was a puppet they could control. And his fear of them chased him ashore and into a drunken stupor. “What shall we do with the drunken sailor”
My mind wanders to the ironborn of Westeros, to Moby Dick, to Treasure Island, and even to good old The Onedin Line I used to watch on TV as a child. Also the Wizard of Earthsea comes to mind, perhaps mostly because of the map depicting a world consisting of small peninsulas, islands,reefs and sea, sea, sea.
The world is strange to us, but I find the place names fascinating, Shipshulme, Bernshumle and such. Hulme sounds a lot like the Norwegian holme - a small, barren rock in the sea.
The people are hard, cruel, their world is hard, cruel, the animals mostly sound dangerous and fierce, and in the beginning we see Joron’s fear for and disgust at the vegetation Meas forces him to battle on their way to Tide Child.
Gradually we learn that the society is divided between the Bearn and Kept on one side, and the Bearncast on the other. Also between the stonebound - fishers and farmers - and the fleet. There is an appendix explaining ranks in the fleet and the Hundred Isles, thankfully. We learn that children are sacrificed to be used as corpselights on the ships, and that this somehow makes the ships stronger or better, gives them soul(s).
Joron and his lot belong to the Hundred Isles. They are at war with the Gaunt Islanders, but they also have to protect their islands from raiders of other sorts. That is the approaching task of the Tide Child now. Meas explains this to Joron, and she does not try to put lipstick on the pig, she describes the hard and cruel realities of battle ahead of them. Joron, who has no experience of sea battles, only has his fathers rather romanticised tales to rely on, is shocked to learn that this war veteran has such a bleak outlook on her tasks, on war, on heroics.
“So remember this, if you hear tales of bravery and greatness, they are realy aways told by people who have only watched battle from afar. Those of us who have suffered through it, know such stories as a skin over the horror of what is true. No sane woman or man wishes for war, and those that do never would if they thought it would leave paint on their doorsteps.”
At the same time, Joron has been hiding his ship and himself away for what sounds like months, in fear of assignments to battle, so he does know this is not a splendid adventure ahead of them. He is ashamed of his former neglect of his duties, he has grown very sober, and like the rest of the crew he seems to find the situation out of his control, so he accepts his fate.
One strange thing is that on his way back to the ship he thought a lot about his ship's coffer. But at once he entered his old room that Meas took over, the coffer was never mentioned again, forgotten.
Meas continues to teach and lecture to Joron,
“The greatest revenge is not that taken with a blade, it is what is done by taking your enemys' taunts and throwing them back in their face.”
Black Orris has the best comments in the book. The scene where Joron frees Black Orris is amusing, and him seeing it was a bird he freed after, brings a smile. Later he connects with the gullaime while Black Orris sits on his shoulder, like a small angel or devil - or both. It can feel a little like Joron is the wessel of Black Orris. The two bird-like creatures might have an easier communication than the gullaime with humans? Later we get nothing to confirm this suspicion of mine. The windtalker magic that the gullaime can conjure apparently needs to be charged at landlocked windspires. Tide Child’s windmage is stronger - and crazier - than most other gullaime. It can last longer, because it doesn’t succumb to the pain as readily as most of them.
Meas wants to change their world, end the endless war between the Hundred Islands and the Gaunt Islands. Her want seems to stem from empathy with the children who are sacrificed to give soul to the boats, becoming corpselight. She herself, as a firstborn, was to be sacrificed, but the sea - a tsunami - saved her from her fate. Meas cooperates with Indy Karrad, Joron’s nemesis. Karrad had Joron sentenced to the black ships because Joon killed his son in a duel. Joron clearly does ot like this cooperation, but Meas assures him that the means to the goal is worth it. Karrad tells them a seadragon is spotted, and sends them to protect it from either being spotted or killed. They are to accompany it north where the sea is deep and kill it there so that no one can use its bones for ships. Because without new bones, new ships can’t be built, and without new ships the power balance might be maintained and the war hopefully can be easier to end.
The religious system might deserve a whole dissertation on its own. There is the hag, the maiden, the mother, the godbird Skearith, etc. The glimpses we get are strewn around, and I have not paid enough attention to give a deeper analysis. But for anyone going in fresh, this might be a fun idea.
Joron had dreams as a child that might turn out important,
“As a child he had dreamed he heard the storms talking to him, and his father had told him to put such thoughts aside, that nothing good could come of them and that if he spoke of them he was likely to find himself floating blue above a ship as a corpselight.”
Joron thinks back to this while engaging with the gullaime, so perhaps the scare his father put in him makes him extra scared of the windtalker?
The Tide Child meets with two smaller ships from the Gaunt Islands. Only the officers know about their cooperation. In most appearances it is hard for the two fractions to tell each other apart.
They search the seas to the south west and find the ararkeesian, wakewyrm, keyshan, seadragon. It is being attacked by eight ships. They perform the ritual of scattering the paint. What this is supposed to do, is not explained, but I seem to remember the paint as red and blue, so perhaps it is some kind of communion, perhaps with the sea hag.
There is a new sea battle, the gullaime wears itself out. They manage to sink or chase all the ships away, the seadragon finishes one of the ships. And the arakeesian is huge, enormous,
“And now Meas drove them onwards towards the beast, and the frailty of their ship against such a giant was as apparent as the frailty of flesh against the jaws of the longthresh in the reddening sea.”
The longthresh is a killer fish something like a mix of a shark and an eel. They slowly kill people swimming in the sea after the battle.
Joron gets a head injury before the hand to hand battle starts, but is seemingly totally unaffected by it. Something hits his side when their boat is damaged by an enemy projectile, but he seems totally unaffected by it. He has to feed the gullaime with pieces of fish, and his thumb is stung on its beak. This injury is mentioned again and again, he is seemingly totally affected by it. This contrast is weird. Perhaps it is so because the two first injuries were received during battle, in a scene where violence was accepted, anticipated while the third injury came while Joron was giving aid, being caring and - to a certain degree - loving?
An old woman named Garriya, brought aboard for good luck, names Joron “Caller”. She won't tell him why when he asks. Then a lot happens, that I don’t care to retell, mostly because of the seventeen reasons listed above.
“So it went on for Joron, day after miserable grey day.”
With only about sixty pages left, I’m sad to say I’m bored with the story. The battle scenes are not catching my enthusiasm, there is something about the characters that has made them feel distant to me. The best two characters over all are the two birdies, Black Orris and the still unnamed gullaime. The miserable grey is a shared experience between Joron and me.
As the last battle of Tide Child nears, the old woman named Garriya makes Joron sing, and he sings a song with the tune from the windspire, a tune that lifts the crew’s spirit. Not that they have any hope at all of surviving the coming onslaught from Meas’ sither (sister) with her fancy fresh and whole ship, as Tide Child is broken, undermanned and smaller. But the song eventually brings the seadragon, and it rescues the few remaining crew of Tide Child. Then Joron rescues Meas from a traitor, and we are told to read on in the next book, but I doubt I will.
my favorite secondary character was the gullaime
I paid attention to the numerous editing errors, too, and was annoyed, because that is just sloppy and the book deserved better.That said, though, I enjoyed The Bone Ships a lot. More than I expected, even. This was a solid first book in a series I plan on continuing, and even though the ending was unsurprising - I just KNEW the wakewyrm would help them somehow and they weren't going to kill it - the maritime swashbuckling fantasy pulled me in. I loved to see a tentative found family taking shape among the condemned, and I especially enjoyed seeing Joron find his place and regain his dignity as second-in-command. The world and its grim customs are also fascinating, and I look forward to reading more about them.
A couple of questions I don't think were answered yet: why was Joron called The Caller? And what exactly did Meas do to lose the Arakeesian Dread and get condemned to the black ships? I want to know.
Kirsi wrote: "why was Joron called The Caller?"I think Garriya named him "Caller" because she had some kind of magic knowledge that he would be the one able to call on the seadragon in times of need, and that's what he does (on her behest) when he sings towards the end.
I'm happy for you that you enjoyed the book. There were parts I found good too, by all means. But as a total I ended up only liking it half as much as you.
I looked to see if there was a Fandom Wiki for this, and found this small glossary, to which R.J. Barker contributed:https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...
I guess Skearith's Bones = the stars.
Chapter 33/34 @ 80%I like the idea of peace with the Gaunt Islanders, and no more killing babies for corpselights.
I also like the idea of protecting the great arakeesian and keeping it alive... Maes sounded sincere though, when she talked to the crew. Their gullaime will not be happy at all if they try to hunt it.
CBRetriever wrote: "my favorite secondary character was the gullaime"Me too
Here's an illustration of him. I can't pull out the image source to display it, but if you go look it's a cool picture.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...
Bonnie wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "my favorite secondary character was the gullaime"Me too
Here's an illustration of him. I can't pull out the image source to display it, but if you go look it's a cool picture...."
thanks - it's close to what i was imagining but a bit less bird like
I guess one advantage of listening to the audiobook is that I am not tormented by the copyediting errors. :-)
Cheryl L wrote: "I guess one advantage of listening to the audiobook is that I am not tormented by the copyediting errors. :-)"Did your audiobook also have to chapters where the audio and voices were strange?
At first, I didn’t like this book much at all. I still believe if I have been listening to the audiobook I would have dnfed it about a quarter in. Once I started getting used to the terms and things started to pick up story wise, I started getting more invested. I’m still not the biggest fan of Meas but she’s been slowly, oh so slowly, growing on me. I wonder why her mom hates her so much? As for Joron, it was nice to see him grow so much in just this one book yet I have to agree with what was mentioned above. It was odd he got some serious wounds but boots making his feet sore bing made to seem like his greatest injury.
So, I did finish, and in the end, enjoyed the second two thirds of the book thoroughly.The Gullaime was by far my most favourite character, and had the most interesting story.
I started out by detesting Joron, and in fact, my detestation of him in the early pages was almost what stopped me reading this book. However, he became a much more solid character during the story.
His interactions with the Guillaime were (in my opinion) the best bits of the story. There was enough there to hint at a lot more going on behind the scenes with both it, and the Arakeesian.
I am still contemplating whether I'll read on. The Hundred Islander society seems incredibly negative, and I don't know if I want that much negativity in my stories at the moment. But...the Guillaime....
I actually quite enjoyed this. This is a slow burn kind of story. The main plot took about 100 pages to kick off and there is an overwhelming amount of new in-world ship terminology you have to learn, but once I got through this, the story took off for me. I would say that if you're looking for a very plot heavy kind of story, I don't think this one is for you. While there is definitely plot and lots of action scenes, the real winner for me was the relationships between the characters, specifically Joron's relationship with Meas, the guillame, and other members of the crew. It was heartwarming to see him go from being a drunken disgrace at the beginning of the story to a successful and well-liked first mate to the legendary Lucky Meas. It was great to see him come into his own. A special shout out to Black Orris. He's my fave
1. What did you think of the world?
2. What did you think of the characters?
3. What worked or didn't for you?
4. Overall thoughts?
Non-spoiler thread here: First impressions