The Bone ShipS

released OUT NOW! 496 pages | Paperback/ebook

Author rJ Barker Publisher Orbit

The salty scent of the waves. The creak of the rigging. The soft glow of... corpselights powered by child sacrifices?! RJ Barker’s new trilogy is a pirate yarn wrapped in Halloween decorations. The first book in the Tide Child series, it reveals a world where vessels are fashioned from the carcasses of giant sea beasts. It’s a treat for fans of the bony bits of Pirates Of The Caribbean.

Made-up nautical jargon abounds and there’s a unique hierarchy of ranks and castes which have a poetry about them. This is a book that doesn’t have wood, only varisk; no cutlasses or chickens, only curnow and kivelly. You acclimatise quickly, and it gives the story a distinctive flavour, but the first few chapters feel like an exercise in wordplay. Scene-setting bombards you.

Fortunately, you’re excited to find out what happens to the energetically-drawn characters. In the master-apprentice relationship between Meas and her deckkeeper Joron, there are echoes of Girton and Merela from Barker’s first novel, 2017’s Age Of Assassins. The Bone Ships thunders with magic and sea battles. But there’s social commentary here, too. It’s a civilisation that treats disabilities as curses and perpetuates unnecessary war with neighbouring nations. Our crew are criminals, but these outlaw sailors, perhaps, demonstrate more loyalty and humanity than the society which shuns them. Dave Bradley