There are multiple characters with their own POV chapters, and mainly three different plot lines to follow (the Emperor's daughter Lin, the smuggler Jovis, and the governor's daughter Phalue with her lover Ranami). In the beginning I was skeptical whether I'd manage to keep my interest in all these seemingly separate plot lines, but Jovis's smuggler affairs and boating takes him from island to island, entangling him into the other's plots little by little, which makes the whole book more interesting.

My absolute favorite character is Jovis, and I think the book is worth reading just to get to know him (and he is not the only good thing in the book!). Jovis has a good sense of humour, a good heart and a lot of common sense. Even in the middle of long-lasting grieving he doesn't hesitate to spring into action. And on top of that, he is humble. He insist he is not a hero, but he keeps doing heroic things even if he is tired of getting sucked up into other people's drama and is in it only for a pay or a means to his own ends. Here are some of my favorite quotes from Jovis's thoughts about him doing heroic deeds:

Jovis also has a companion animal, Mephi, who is a chimera-like magical creature in it's cub stage, and he grows throughout the book while learning more. Mephi can speak and has magical skills, most remarkable of them being that

Mephi somehow shares a connection with Jovis and because of that Jovis gets superhuman abilities himself. See the next spoiler for Ranami's summary of the abilitites. Besides those, Jovis also seems to have some magical awareness of water.

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The worldbuilding is very intriquing with the unique magic system, and I couldn't wait to learn more about it throughout the book. The Emperor has bone shard magic and is very secretive about teaching it forward to his potential successors (his daughter Lin and his step son / Lin's rival Bayan). The bone shard magic has a resemblance to necromancy in the matter that the magic user builds a construct (a chimera-like body) from deceaced animal or human parts. What animates these constructs is a bone shard – or multiple of them –

from a living human's skull. When the bone shard is used for bone shard magic, it drains the human's life little by little until death to animate the construct. This necromantic and parasitic

bone shard magic is paired with a language system unique to the bone shard magic. The language system makes the magic user able to command these constructs through carving command symbols onto the bone shards. Towards the end there is a huge plot twist regarding this bone shard magic:

Lin and Bayan are both constructs made by the Emperor to be used by him in different ways

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Besides this bone shard magic, the book references ancient foes, god-like creatures called Alanga, who had very powerful magic completely of their own. They were defeated by the Emperor's ancestors a long time ago, and the Emperors since have sweared to keep the people safe from them. The Alanga have been gone for so long though, that the people have reduced them to myths and begun to question if they are a threat at all anymore. It is teased that the Alanga might come back; their ancient artefacts of statues and murals have begun to open their eyes, indicating a possible end to their absence. This is what might be coming in the sequels, besides the political intrique of a possible revolution or at the very least a need for a political reform by the current ruler. As it has been so far, Jovis seems to keep being in the middle of all of this, connecting all the different plot lines of the different groups or sides in this Empire;

he is made into a cover agent

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Con 5 puntos de vista diferentes: Lin, la hija del emperador, Jovis, un contrabandista, Phalue, la hija de un gobernador, Ranami, novia de Phalue y Arena, "prisionera" en una isla, es un libro que se va desarrollando lentamente. En la primera mitad del libro vamos conociendo a cada personaje, su entorno y como funciona el mundo en el que se encuentran, donde ya pueden encontrarse algunas pistas de como los 5 personajes se van relacionando entre sí. 

A los 3/4 del libro ya están presentes los distintos desafíos a los que se enfrentan 4 de los 5 personajes y como los enfrentan. Dejando el último 25% para que podamos hacernos una idea de cual es la nueva estructura del mundo y en el último capítulo presentando el problema al que se enfrentaran en el segundo libro de la trilogía.

En mi caso particular, la sinopsis del libro no tiene nada que ver con la historia que se desarrolla después, puede que sea una buena sinopsis para la trilogía pero no para la historia en sí, ya que presenta únicamente a Lin como protagonista, cuando para mi el conductor de la historia en este caso, es Jovis. Esta situación llevó a que me costara conectar con el libro y los distintos personajes desde un principio y no encontrar el conflicto que me imaginaba hasta el último capítulo. 

En resumen, el 50% inicial del libro sería contexto, 25% central la trama en sí, y el 25% restante.. contexto para continuar la saga.

There's a pretty large cast of narrators, listening via audiobook helped enormously with keeping track of them since there are three audiobook narrators to handle all the perspectives. Those performances are great, making helping keep the characters distinct even when the same performed voiced multiple characters. 

The plot has several threads, following each of the main characters. The blurb implies that Lin is the only main character, but Jovis plays an enormous role (meeting all but one of the other main characters at various points), and the romance between Phalue and Ranami felt complex and real. Lin is the daughter of the emperor, trying to get her father's approval by getting back memories she lost in a sickness several years ago. Jovis is a smuggler who is trying to find his wife who was kidnapped five years ago. He ends up rescuing children from having their shards taken. Phalue is the daughter of a governor on one of the islands, and Ranami is her girlfriend who keeps turning down Phalue's marriage proposals because Phalue doesn't seem to understand the enormity of her privilege in comparison to everyone on the island. There's a woman called Sand who is trying to escape her current situation, I don't want to spoil anything about her but she seems set up to do much more in the sequel.

Lin has spent years trying to get her father's approval, and is frustrated by his ableist insistence that she's not whole unless she can get back the memories she lost. Desperate to get him to pay attention to her as she is and not as she was, Lin starts copying his keys to get access to rooms that might hold knowledge of the magic he should be teaching her. She's in competition with her foster brother Bayan since he regained more of his memories and seems to continually be one step ahead of her in getting the emperor's attention.

The relationship between Phalue and Ranami briefly dips into some toxic territory as Phalue doesn't seem to understand or know how to take seriously Ranami's concerns. It definitely helps that both of them are narrators, so their perspectives are shown directly at various points. 

Jovis ends up with an animal companion after he saves it from the water during a disaster early one. Mephi is pretty cool and not annoying, which is a relief because sometimes I end up detesting animal sidekicks. 

The magic system is based on using bone taken from the empire's citizens as children. The shards can be used to power constructs, and once in use they slowly drain the life force of their original owner. The emperor uses an elaborate array of constructs to do all the imperial bureaucracy which could be done by people, but he doesn't trust anyone else to do it right. This setup means that the way the lower classes are exploited is more than just cruelty and resource hoarding by the rich, but that their very lives can be taken, slowly, by an emperor they'll never see, if he happens to pick their shard from a drawer and use it to fuel a construct. I love the way the magic system is inseparable from the political structure and brewing uprising. 

I really enjoyed listening to this book. The pace of the narrators was really excellent. 

There was at least bear content for once!! Just, um, 🐻😳, maybe not the bear content bears want. Please refrain from sticking boneshards in us thank you, sheesh.