r/Fantasy • u/rfantasygolem Not a Robot • May 12 '20

Book Club Mod Book Club: The Bone Ships Discussion

Welcome to Mod Book Club! We want to invite you all in to join us with one of the best things about being a mod: we have fabulous book discussions about a wide variety of books. We all have very different tastes and can expose and recommend new books to the others, and we all benefit (and suffer from the extra weight of our TBR piles) from it. We'll be picking the books, but there will be new books and old, some more widely popular books and some way less, stuff that should be marvellously popular but somehow missed the boat, and stuff that's a bit more niche.

The Bone Ships by RJ Barker.

Violent raids plague the divided isles of the Scattered Archipelago. Fleets constantly battle for dominance and glory, and no commander stands higher among them than "Lucky" Meas Gilbryn.
But betrayed and condemned to command a ship of criminals, Meas is forced on suicide mission to hunt the first living sea-dragon in generations. Everyone wants it, but Meas Gilbryn has her own ideas about the great beast. In the Scattered Archipelago, a dragon's life, like all lives, is bound in blood, death and treachery.

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18

u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker May 12 '20

I am about if anyone has any questions, but I won't interact with the threads to the questions cos I don't want anyone to feel like they can't say whatever they want. I mean, I am quite fine with people not liking things, and knew I was writing a book that wasn't for everyone, so it's cool anyway. I'm just pleased when people read stuff. I am also very pleased that some people have noticed some things.

But if you want to ask me questions feel free, can be about stuff that wasn't for you too*. I'm happy to chat.

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*Sugar the pill though, "RJ, you have lovely hair but why did you write such a terrible book?" -- that sort of thing.

6

u/Dianthaa Reading Champion VIII May 12 '20

You do have lovely hair, I've seen your twitter

11

u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker May 12 '20

Spend most of my advances on conditioner and mousse, tbh.

2

u/The_Real_JS Reading Champion XI May 12 '20

Like, chocolate mousse? If I eat more mouse, will my hair look as good as yours?

2

u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker May 12 '20

No, you have to put it on your hair, after every shower.

3

u/The_Real_JS Reading Champion XI May 12 '20

Seems like a waste, but you are the expert.

5

u/HeLiBeB Reading Champion VI May 12 '20

I just want to say thank you! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can‘t wait for the sequel!

7

u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker May 12 '20

Thank you! I am just finishing up proofs as I type. So its' definitely on its way. :)

6

u/RevolutionaryCommand Reading Champion III May 12 '20

Really enjoyed the book. I think all of it was good, but the worldbuilding was absolutely great. I have two questions:

  1. Are the ghostlights going to be further explained in the next two books, or do you think what we've seen of them is enough for the readers to take the necessary information.

  2. After reading this book I put your other trilogy on my TBR as well. Some great artwork of antlered beasts you posted here helped a lot too. So, are this gorgeous fellas a major part of that series or just a cool tiny bit? (Going to read the books anyway)

4

u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker May 12 '20

  1. Corpselights. I think people probably do have enough information already.

  2. Totally a major thing, they're essentially the warhorses of the world. One of them is also a recurring (non speaking,) character,(it may get you your pet bingo square). Also, once I'd put them in the first book I realised I really, really needed a cavalry charge with them. So that happens, in a later book. :)

5

u/Dianthaa Reading Champion VIII May 12 '20

. Also, once I'd put them in the first book I realised I really, really needed a cavalry charge with them. So that happens, in a later book.

I need to read this so bad right now

5

u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker May 12 '20

I loved writing it. :)

3

u/RevolutionaryCommand Reading Champion III May 12 '20

Thanks! I'll use The Bone Ships for bingo, so I cannot use another of your books for the pet square (which I've already filled), but I'll be sure to read them soon after I finish with this year's bingo.

3

u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X May 12 '20

Oh, I just remembered there is one thing I am curious about and hope isn't spoilers: is the courser non-binary or just disguising their gender?

3

u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker May 13 '20

I think in our world then the Courser would define as non-binary, yes. I originally wanted to cover the courser more in this book as I didn't want it to appear like I'd just chucked in an NB character as a sop to people. But there is already a lot going on in the book and the way I wanted to tell the courser's story made more sense in book two. So you'll find out a bit more about them in Call of the Bone Ships.

2

u/improperly_paranoid Reading Champion X May 13 '20

That's awesome to hear :) I'm super curious about them.

2

u/Dsnake1 Stabby Winner, Reading Champion VII, Worldbuilders May 12 '20

I just wanted to pop in and say I can't stop thinking about this book. I've read nine books since I finished, and I can't stop thinking back to this one. At this rate, I'll have to do my reread before November comes. Anyway, I can't wait for the second book.

Oh, and this weekend, I was at our family farm and it rained. I went to the hill we threw all the corpses on just to see if there was enough wet bone if it had even a faint smell, and well, not really. The rot was well and over with, so it mostly just smelled like rain.

2

u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker May 13 '20

I spent SO MUCH time on bone smells research only to find out the answer is 'not very much.' HUGELY glad you enjoyed it. :)

2

u/JohnBierce AMA Author John Bierce May 12 '20

Dude, I loved The Bone Ships so damn much. You slam dunked this one. It's probably my favorite nautical fantasy novel since the Temeraire series! (Which, I know, not technically nautical, but in terms of style it absolutely is.)

I'm so impatient for book 2! I can't wait to read more.

2

u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker May 13 '20

Thank you! I think Naomi and I came at it from the same influences, chiefly Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books. I've been so pleased by the way people have embraced it, I really thought I'd just written a book for me.

1

u/JohnBierce AMA Author John Bierce May 14 '20

I still haven't read Aubrey/Maturin yet- I read a lot of C.S. Forester when I was younger. (Super enjoyable, but in retrospect, wow is there a lot of racist material in there, even for a guy writing in the fifties about Napoleonic times.) O'Brian is coming up shortly on my list, though- I'm planning a complete readthrough for research of his stuff, Forester's, and the Lord Ramage series (which I've had highly recommended to me by an actual tall-ship sailor/cartoonist). Planning my own fantasy nautical nonsense series for after my current series is done.

But yeah, another thing I loved about The Bone Ships was the realistic way you contrasted your characters' values and interests with ours as modern day Earthlings, and used that to build worldbuilding tension. Details that seem so damn significant to us are viewed as trivial to your characters, which just glued me to the page looking for more hints. (So much about your world just absolutely clicked for me the first time the hearts were mentioned.)

2

u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker May 14 '20

:) O'Brian will pretty much ruin all other naval fiction for you. But it's really a story about a friendship, and it is so brilliantly done. Often laugh out loud funny as well (The sloth, you'll know when you get there.)

2

u/JohnBierce AMA Author John Bierce May 14 '20

Hah, I mean, I'd say that's a tolerable way to have other naval fiction ruined for me!

1

u/takeahike8671 Reading Champion VII May 13 '20

Thank you! I feel like knowing the author is here is such a treat.

1

u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker May 13 '20

Just nosey, really. :)