Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for The Bone Ships by R.J. Barker starting on June 23, 2025.


Happy Reading!

Thank you :)

Thank you also!

1. The Bone Ships (Jun 23)
2. Call of the Bone Ships (Jul 23) [link]
3. The Bone Ship's Wake (Aug 23) [link]

Availability?
Never seen these on sale.

Read this today. Damn but I love this series... One of these days I'll have to eye read it. The worldbuilding is so unique, and I love the writing... add on to that it's basically naval military fantasy (one of my favorite genres being military SF, which is usually space navy), and the found-family aspects--plus, (view spoiler)[those aspects are made even more fun when the military group has to make decisions to go against a corrupt government. Then we have Joron Twiner, underdog and unfairly sentenced, a ragtag crew of varied criminals, and a creepy magical bird. And Meas--firsts thief of his chances, then giver of more, and best mentor. I love Meas and her gruff pride, and how she steers Joron toward becoming a good Deckkeeper and better person in general. Parts of this really make me think of On Basilisk Station.

The plot is enjoyable but comes secondary for me in all the little moments and worldbuilding, so I don't really have much to say about it... I really love the ship's language--from ships being male, and captain Shipwife, to the Deckmother being the one who metes out punishment, calls like "ship rising!" and "ee" instead of "aye." All the worldbuilding, really--the caste system based on healthy births, and little things like monogamy being frowned upon for childbearing women. (hide spoiler)]

I'll start soon...I still have 5 books from june

You can do it!

Hoping to join late this week... something I wasn't planning to join, but I have time and why not...

If you haven't read yet... I really love this series... Take that as you will...

I'm starting this today.

I read the first chapter of this at work last night and decided to save for home... there's a definite clipped sentence structure I noticed, that required a bit more attention/focus...

There's a whole language and culture that takes a bit to get a hang of as well--and the voices also took a bit of adjustment, with the throaty gravelly voice the narrator choices for women.

Some narrators definitely have a narrow range for opposite gender voices... other narrators have such a range it's amazing it's just one person reading the books...

On reread, I really like the choices--it suits the characters.

I agree on the language/culture thing. It's a bit difficult to get a hang on it.

So I started and loving it. Its a reread but I forgot everything. Until chapter 18 (view spoiler)[ I like how he is just depressed and doesn't know what to do with a ship. And I like Meas being hard but fair and is willing to guide Joron. And her old crewmates joining the ship just shows how great she is.

And I am impatient to see the dragons. I do vaguely remember that Joron had some connection with the dragons via singing or something. It was names too many times and the old lady calls him Caller so that's suspicious. He also felt weird when the gullaime calls the wind. (hide spoiler)]

@Nirkatze, there are I think, four images heading the chapters and they are very pretty so it's nice to eye tead for that. Although you could probably Google the images.

I was curious about the audio so I am doing both at the same time and I quite like it, they sound more like pirates this way

I have nice Broken Binding editions so I have seen the pretties! I think I want to go look at them again though... I looked last time we BR'd this series but it was a while ago... I might sit down and do a dual audio-eye too, if I have time, for the next one... And I think the (view spoiler)[dragons/sea serpents (Arakeishan? Sp?) show up more in 2 & 3... (hide spoiler)]

Paula wrote: "@Nirkatze, there are I think, four images heading the chapters and they are very pretty so it's nice to eye tead for that. Although you could probably Google the images.

I was curious about the a..."

Yes, the images are really pretty and detailed. I've noticed that too.

About Joron:
(view spoiler)[He's turning himself in self-pity and he's being so negative and insecure about everything. I understand that he lost his ship to Meas, but still... (hide spoiler)]

@Nirkatze, Ooh, nice, you have some pretty editions.

@Saar (view spoiler)[ It also influences that he is from a lower social status and that makes him insecure too (hide spoiler)]

@Paula: good point!

Maybe a stupid question, but (view spoiler)[what is a black ship? It has a certain status, but it feels like the lowest of people are on a black ship? So, Meas entered Tide Child by herself, but I thought she would do that with a crew of her own? The gullaime are interesting creatures, so are the coursers. (hide spoiler)]

@Saar (view spoiler)[ Black ships are the ships where the condemned people to die are. Meas was condemned to the ships because of something she did so her crew is blameless. And if they do something incredibly brave and save people they can became a white ship and be pardoned. (hide spoiler)]

@Paula: well, that makes sense. Thanks! (view spoiler)[ I'm at chapter 8, so I don't think it's currently reveiled what Meas and Joron did or maybe I've missed it somehow. (hide spoiler)]

@Saar--those do get revealed later, so you haven't missed it yet. It's a big plot point. Both of them.

This is my oldest unfinished BR by a mile... altho Lonesome Shore is close... I'll probably end up reading this and the 2nd one close together as a result... once I have momentum...

Reading now... 4hrs in... still not doing the best at following, but going with it... I'm struggling to remember characters other than the dude who lost his captain spot at the start, and the woman who took it from him...

Wellp... i found a short summary of the entire trilogy on wikipedia... and based on the first paragraph, maybe they're the only characters I'm supposed to know so far?... the summary only mentions those 2 characters, the dude who sent Joron to be ship captain, and a 4th character coming later, in the entire summary of book 1...

There are more characters than those but those are the important ones. The rest are crew so maybe they lump them together in the summaries

And most of the crew doesn't really coalesce until a while after Meas takes control--once Joron starts getting to know them. Even he admits he doesn't know anyone's names... but he actually starts working at it and then we get some more names/personalities...

I noticed them a bit more by the end... the end was pretty abrupt...

I enjoyed it overall, but I was definitely just riding the waves of the story and not getting deep into it...

Finished too. And like Nirkatze the worldbuilding is the best part. I am also intrigued by Joron and his (view spoiler)[ affinity to the sea dragons/songs/guillemere (hide spoiler)]

I like it a lot more the second time through... it holds up well on reread...

Yeah, i really liked it. It's also my second time and it was easier remembering a bit of the worldbuilding