• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2019 September #1
  *Starred Review* Readers will set sail to a world with ships made from dragons' bones, demanding shipwives, flesh-eating sea monsters, and ever-present death in this beautifully crafted trilogy starter. The Hundred Isles is a culture built on the bones of dead, extinct dragons, its brutality fostered by decades of war. In any world of war and islands, the navy is essential, and on the Hundred Isles, criminals are conscripted as sailors on the black ships of the dead. Joron Twiner has been the shipwife of Tide Child until Meas Gilbryn defeats him in combat. Meas is different because she seeks to change society by ending the war. When word gets out that a dragon has been spotted, she and Joron work together to assemble a crew worthy of killing the mighty beast—but this world still has a few secrets yet to be revealed. The first in the Tide Child trilogy presents a unique and memorable world—harsh and brutal and full of sharply realized, powerful female characters. Barker has managed to craft a story inspired by Moby Dick, Game of Thrones, and pirate lore, and readers will be drawn in and fascinated. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.

RJ Barker is a softly-spoken Yorkshireman with flowing locks. He lives in the frozen north with his wife and son, and divides his time between writing and looking after his son.