The Bone Ship's Wake

I genuinely admire RJ's vision. The Tide Child is such a refreshing fantasy trilogy and a good part of the reason for this is how different it feels from a lot of modern fantasy. First take the setting - Nautical Fantasy is definitely an interesting niche. There are other Nautical Fantasy series out there, but I have yet to encounter one as well realised as this. The boneships, constructed from the bones of ancient seamonsters in a land devoid of natural wood sources, are described with an eye to nautical detail giving them a brilliant sense of reality. The wildlife, formed of fantastical sea creatures, moves beyond the classic nautical tropes. Most fantasy settings cleave so close to land that they forget about the weird and wonderful creatures that can inhabit the oceans. The setting is certainly a star here!

But moving beyond that the relationships that form the core of tightknit crew are center stage. This is as much a character study for Joron Twiner as it is a world building exercise for a nautical world. The growth in this character over the series is just brilliant constructed. He goes from essentially a failure at the start of the series to this titanic heroic figure at the end. And through that the growth feels earnt. All that character development feels natural and deserved. This is no mean trick and shows the quality of RJs writing.

Modern fantasy is in safe hands with creative works like these. I cannot recommend the Tide Child enough!