This month I’m recommending you to set sail with The Bone Ships (2019). British author R.J.Barker’s acclaimed novel was the first volume in his Tide Child Trilogy. It was followed in 2020 by Call of the Bone Ships and in 2021 by The Bone Ship’s Wake. All three books are available in paperback or as ebooks. The Tide Child herself is Shipwife Maes Gilbryn who has shot to near the top of my list of all time favourite Fantasy heroines.

This novel is set in the Scattered Archipelago, a watery realm encircled by perpetual storms. The two main groups of islands are the Hundred Isles and the Gaunt Islands which have been at war for centuries. Both are ruled by fearsome Matriarchs and each accuses the other of atrocities such as the kidnapping and sacrifice of children. Their frequent naval battles are only possible because both the Hundred Isles and the Gaunt Islands have fleets of sailing ships built from the bones of the huge sea dragons known as arakeesians or keyshans. No dragons have been sighted in recent times so no new ships can be built but the islanders still exploit the talents of the Guillaime, an avian race who can control the winds.

The story is mainly told from the point of view of a young fisherman called Joron Twiner. He belongs to the oppressed underclass of the Hundred Isles, not because he is black but because his mother died giving birth to him which is deemed to make him Berncast – of weak blood. After avenging the death of his father, Joron is unjustly condemned to serve in the black ships of the dead. He has been made Shipwife (Captain) of a rotting Bone Ship known as Tide Child but its crew of criminals take little notice of him and Joron spends most of his time in a drunken stupor.

One day he is challenged by an older woman who demands that he give up his command to her. Joron is astonished to learn that this is Lucky Meas Gilbryn, the oldest daughter of the ruler of the Hundred Isles and the most famous and respected Shipwife in the Fleet. He still tries to fight her but she swiftly disarms him and takes his two tailed hat which is the symbol of command. Joron expects to die but instead Meas appoints him as Deckkeeper – her second in command. He agrees that she now owns his loyalty but secretly vows that one day he will get his Shipwife’s hat back.

Maes does not explain why she has been banished from the Fleet but she seems determined to turn Tide Child into an efficient fighting ship. She establishes her authority and recruits more Deckchilder, including some members of her previous crew. Joron struggles to earn respect as an officer but he does manage to befriend Tide Child‘s temperamental Guillaime. After Tide Child is damaged during his first battle, Maes takes her ship to Bernshulme, the capital of the Hundred Isles, to be repaired. There, Joron is shocked to be told that Maes is conspiring with a former lover to negotiate a truce with the Gaunt Islands. Her hope is that once all the Bone Ships have decayed there will be no more wars in the Scattered Archipelago.

That hope is now in jeopardy because a single keyshan has been sighted. Maes’ mission is to join up with some like-minded Shipwives from the Gaunt Islands to escort the keyshan to deep northern waters where it can be destroyed before anyone can make use of its bones. To succeed, Maes will need to outrun or outfight a mighty Bone Ship captained by one of her own sisters. During a voyage full of danger and treachery, Joron discovers a rare power of his own. As he feels an increasing affinity with the mighty keyshan, Joron begins to question everything he thought he knew about the grim world he inhabits. Together, can he and Maes change that world?

I tend to divide Fantasy worlds into three categories – ones I would love to live in, ones I should like to visit and ones I would never want to go anywhere near. The Scattered Archipelago definitely falls into the third category but after reading this trilogy I have a huge respect for Barker’s skill as a world-maker. Normally I’m the last person to enjoy Nautical fiction of any kind. I’m a terrible sailor, I’m afraid of oceans and I hate the taste and smell of fish. Perhaps Barker feels the same because he’s created a world that seems unremittingly hostile to humans. Its seas are full of creatures that prey on people, much of the plantlife on the largely barren islands is thorny or poisonous and deadly diseases and genetic deformities are commonplace. Even the food is awful. In the course of the story we gradually discover how some of these misfortunes have been caused by womankind’s greed and exploitation of the natural world.

The ruling class in the Hundred Isles consists of women who have given birth to healthy children and their chosen consorts, the Kept. Most command positions are held by women and this is considered the natural order of things. Barker has devised a gloomy mythology and a religion with a triad of goddesses – Mother, Maiden and Sea Hag – which the ruling class use to justify their position. Fantasy fiction is full of sinister priesthoods but the child-murdering female-only Hag-priests are in a class of their own. The best most ordinary people can hope for is a place beside the Sea Hag’s bonefire in the afterlife. Does all this make the Tide Child trilogy misogynist? Certainly not. It is a story about power and corruption with traditional gender roles reversed. The trilogy is full of brave and capable women and none of them are there just to be some man’s love interest. Indeed on the Bone Ships heterosexual relationships are banned but same-gender partnerships (Shipfriends) are encouraged.

You know the saying worse things happen at sea ? Well nearly all of those worse things happen to the characters in the Tide Child Trilogy. As well as numerous naval battles, which often culminate in brutal hand to hand fighting, there are storms, shipwrecks and sea monsters, maroonings and mutinies, floggings, torture and amputations. Yes, it’s all quite similar to life in the warring fleets of 18th century Europe. Barker gratefully acknowledges the influences of C.S.Forester and Patrick O’Brian, so if you’ve enjoyed the Hornblower series or the Aubrey & Maturin books you will probably relish The Bone Ships too. The details of life on board the Tide Child are very convincingly portrayed. So much so that by the time I’d finished the trilogy I felt I’d know exactly what to do in a storm or a naval battle. More surprisingly, I could also empathise with the pride the hard-working crew of the Tide Child take in their defiant little ship.

Although the Tide Child Trilogy has much in common with Historical Fantasy, Barker’s invented creatures are particularly strong. His vast sea-dragons, which combine elements of whales, giant squid and traditional sea-monsters, are magnificent creations. Their songs haunt the trilogy and the very idea of attempting to hunt them seems sacriligeous. Even more unusual are the Guillame who act as vital windtalkers and weathermages for the Bone Ships but are treated worse than most domestic animals. Even Joron initially accepts that Guillame are blinded for their own good so that they don’t wander off and come to harm. Shockingly, many of the Guillame themselves are complicit in the enslavement of their race. The Tide Child’s Guillame, whose name and gender we only learn later in the trilogy, has a unique power which they hope to use to free all of the Guillame. They are also a poignant and funny character whose relationship with Joron is a touching one.

Ultimately, this is a book about character and the experiences which shape it. The plot plays out in the gap between Joron losing his Shipwife’s hat and getting it back again but the leading characters go through immense changes in the course of the story. It is a joy to read a Fantasy novel centred on a middle-aged women who is a charismatic leader. Maes Gilbryn is utterly convincing as a naval commander and a tactician but Barker emphasizes the loneliness of her position. Joron becomes the one person she can confide in and his underdog point of view is a valuable corrective to Maes’ rigid upbringing. Treachery leads to a dreadful ordeal for Maes but her faith in the possibility of a better world helps her to survive. Joron also becomes an impressive leader but he has own prejudices to overcome and a focus on revenge embitters his gentle personality. Maes and Joron both suffer and do cruel things during their dangerous voyages and many of their crew lose their lives. This can make the Tide Child Trilogy a painful read at times but stick with it and I promise that you can expect an ending which is both heartbreaking and uplifting. Until next month…

Geraldine