You know what I love? I love that we are getting a tsunami of fantasy based in cultures that aren’t medieval Western Europe. I love it a lot.

That’s not to say there’s nothing good coming out of that particular subgenre. We’re finally seeing good queer rep and ethnic and racial diversity from traditionally cis-het-white land, and that’s rad too. And listen: Tolkien, seriously, thanks for all the fish but so long, the world is bigger than England, France, and Scandinavia.

But roving island chains? Hybrid constructs powered by bone magic? A collapsing Empire akin to that of Imperial China? Newly and inexplicably minted elemental wizards with mysterious, talking familiars (who compromise me emotionally, excuse me, your honor, I love Jovis and Mephi and will die for them)?

Inexplicable ships and missing memories? Queer rep that is without it being a thing? Yes, thank you, I’ll take it all, and I’ll take as many entries in Andrea Stewart’s The Drowning Empire series as she’ll write, starting with the first volume, The Bone Shard Daughter, which is scheduled for publication September 8, 2020 from Orbit Books.

It all starts when Deerhead Island sinks without sign, without warning, and without mercy. Jovis, searching for his lost wife, finds himself rescuing a child from the same ceremony that killed his brother years before – the ceremony in which the empire harvests a small shard of bone from every child’s skull to be used to power the emperor’s constructs. These creatures, created from leftovers and remains to do the ruler’s bidding, are powered by the life tethered to the shard.

Lin, the emperor’s daughter, tries to salvage lost memories, desperate to please her father while Phalue and Ranami try to love each other through a rebellion. As the three stories converge, the truth of the emperor’s plans – and the depth of his grief-driven madness – are revealed.

It’s often said that there aren’t any new fantasy stories. Maybe, on a basic level, that’s true. Details change from language to language and culture to culture, but we do find similar characters and quests, certain obstacles over which heroes must triumph, and certain challenges evil must present. What becomes most important, though, are how such stories are told.

Stewart tells hers masterfully.

Her characters are nuanced and engaging. There are no paragons here, which most of you probably know by now is one of my main ratings criteria. I want to read about people, not tropes or idols. Extra points for moral ambiguity and extra extra points for morally ambiguous women who aren’t cackling caricatures (of which we get not one but two in The Bone Shard Daughter).

We have our smuggler with a heart of precious metal – not quite gold – that’s tarnished, and he’s not real keen on polishing it up all the way. We have our star-crossed lovers who care very much for each other and yet can’t manage to be 100 percent truthful. Book, yes!

We have a new sort of familiar, mysterious creature (I have a theory) who can learn human speech, grows rapidly, and not only advises and enhances but also gives bonded humans elemental powers. It’s like Pokemon and Avatar had some sort of vicious, feral baby that went looking for a really angry trainer/host who really wanted revenge on something giant and strong and pretty much insurmountable. Book, hell yes!

Third, there’s an absolutely fascinating magical system that’s different from any I’ve read about before. It takes life in order to create it; it has a cost but it’s taken from others rather than from the practitioner. It’s a system whose limits are based on the user’s internal morality rather than physical strength.

Lin can use as much bone shard magic as she wishes, but she has to consider how many lives she’s ending by doing so. Her father didn’t care, which gave him what was, essentially, limitless power. Lin wants to be different, but will she be endangering her people by protecting them? Which is the greater good and which the greater evil? Book, hell fucking yes!

Fantasy is meant to expand the reader’s horizons, which is why I went several decades without reading much in the way of what some people call “high fantasy.” Rather than taking me to new places and making my world, even if it was just my mental world, more expansive, it felt as though every novel I picked up was (barely) a variation on the same very narrow theme. I’ve found myself shifting back in the last few years, however, as the market has expanded to include stories with roots in different African, South American, Asian, and Pacific Island cultures. Our world is full of people with stories to tell, and our bookshelves should be just as diverse.

The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire, Book 1) by Andrea Stewart (Orbit) comes out on September 8, 2020.