The Bone Season

Samantha Shannon has been set-up, poor woman! She's being hyped as JK Rowling so naturally everybody goes in with the mindset that it will never, ever be as good as Harry Potter Harry Potter Paperback Box Set (Books 1-7) . They're right. Harry Potter is the Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien 4-Book Boxed Set: The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (Movie Tie-in): The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King of our time. Both are in my top books of all-time list. Every Christmas vacation you'll find me, a thirty-five-year-old woman, hunkered down with hot cocoa reading one of the two, or both! They are like an old friend, a warm blanket, a smile from the one you love. Waxing poetic, yes, but if you're going to actually compare these two authors to anybody else this is what they are competing against. One book in to a 7 book series there is no way whatsoever to even begin to compare Samantha Shannon. That rant aside, I don't know where the Harry Potter comparison is coming from. If anything this is Hunger Games territory. The subject matter is much darker, much more mature. Remember it took us almost a decade to watch Harry, Hermione and Ron grow-up to be dangerous, world-changing characters. The darkest parts of the story came in the later books. In Shannon's work the danger and the dark are front-and-center. For one thing the main character is 19, college territory, and although I wouldn't have ventured to have called myself an "adult" at 19, Paige isn't a kid. She's faced with death, torture, deprivation, slavery, addiction, desire, love, you name it. Very mature themes from the early chapters. While I appreciate other reviewers who have noted that this is more YA than adult, I think we're starting a 7 book series with a 19 year-old, street-wise, young woman who is being forced to grow up really quickly. I am willing to wait Ms. Shannon out because I think the series has the potential to go wonderful places and I think we'll see the more adult themes continue. The main character, Paige, will be exciting to watch. She's no cowering Bella Swan for sure but she isn't tough-as-nails Katniss Everdeen either. I have high hopes she'll get there though. Without giving too much plot away, Paige and her friends are in a world on fire. The human race has been parceled into clairvoyants and non-clairvoyants. Within the clairvoyant mass there are so many sub-types I lost track. I was 6 chapters in reading on the cloud reader before switching to Kindle and realizing there were charts in the front of the book listing them all. Don't do what I did, look at the charts! Otherwise you are going to be lost in a maze of really long names for things you can't remember. Even with the charts you're not going to be able to keep them straight but it's much better than having no description at all. If there is a weakness here it's that, so much info in the early chapters you get lost in the names. It took until about 75% in on Kindle before I felt "at home" in the world and becoming attached to the characters. Again, if it were a one-shot book we'd be in trouble but I'm in it for the long-haul so it's worth the trudge through the brain dump at the beginning. The Warden is an exciting character for me. The closest I can come to a comparison is Jericho Barrons in the Fever The Fever Series 5-Book Bundle: Darkfever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever, Shadowfever series. He's tall, dark and deadly for sure, but you always kind of felt like he maybe wasn't on the bad guy side. We don't know a whole lot about what he is even at the end of the book but we do know what he and his kind are capable of-good and bad. They are a powerful force and coupled with the Scion (the second ruling class introduced), I don't know which are really the bad guys. Maybe they both are? Maybe they are opposing sides? Who knows? We do know the Warden's kind, the Rephaim, are hiding a "secret" and they don't have as cozy a relationship with the Scion as originally implied. I'm not going to lie, I'm routing for the Warden like I was Jericho Barrons. I don't know what it is about bad boys that gets me every time. Ignore the hype but still read the book. It's for sure an entertaining book and a heck of a start for a 22-year-old.

I read The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon because it was EVERYWHERE. I mean, there was a lot of hype about this book, most of touting it as the next Harry Potter. It is nothing like the HP books, but I think it was hyped this way for a couple of reasons: Shannon is British, she grew up reading HP, and this is the first of seven books. I guess you could also say it is set in a magical world, but that would be a stretch. Don't get me wrong, this is a very good book. I would make it more dystopian science fiction with a little fantasy thrown in. Shannon does a good job creating this world and creating complete characters that are sympathetic and as real as they can be. The main character is Paige Mahoney is a young woman living in the underground of Scion London in the year 2059. Scion is the security force that runs London, and wants to start running other parts of the world as well. Paige works with an underground criminal group known as The Seven Seals. Paige is a rare type of clairvoyant, a dreamwalker; she can break into other's minds and steal information. All types of voyants are illegal, and just by being she is committing a crime. Paige is arrested and learns that captured voyants go to Oxford, a prison city erased from the map but run by a new race of beings, the Rephaim. They value the voyants as servants and soldiers in their army. Paige is assigned to Warden, a high placed Rephaim who is her enemy, or is he? Paige must learn to trust in herself, her keeper, and those around her. She must learn to harness her power if there is any hope of escape and of a different world. I think this series is only going to get better. Shannon has created a world that is fantastic and perfectly flawed heroine in Paige Mahoney. I can't wait for the next book. I give it a four out of five stars.

のめり込んで下さい。 今迄に無い面白い本です！ 是非一度ご覧ください。

Me encanta este escritor. Otra vez una historia apasionante :)

Der Roman “The Bone Season” der jungen Engländerin Samantha Shannon gilt als die Fantasy-Überraschung des Jahres 2013 und die Autorin wird von vielen bereits mit Harry-Potter-Autorin Joanne K. Rowling verglichen – immerhin sind in Shannons Buchreihe auch sieben Bände vorgesehen und diese werden sogar im gleichen Verlag wie die Rowling-Werke verlegt. Für eine 22-Jährige ein ganz schöner Erwartungsdruck, dem der Debütroman aber nach weitestgehend einheilliger Kritiker- und Lesermeinung durchaus gerecht werden kann. Somit war natürlich auch ich sehr neugierig auf den Auftaktband, ließ mich aber von dem vielerorts als sehr kompliziert beschriebenen Einstieg in die Geschichte noch eine Weile abschrecken – und wer einen Blick auf die der Handlung vorangehende Aufzählung der Charakterklassen wirft, wird vermutlich erst einmal ein wenig erschrecken: Hier wird man nämlich mit nicht weniger als rund 50 verschiedenen Bezeichnungen erschlagen, von denen man 90% wahrscheinlich noch nie zuvor gehört hat. An dieser Stelle am besten schnell weiterblättern und sich ins kalte Wasser stürzen, denn so schlimm wie befürchtet ist der Einstieg in Shannons futuristisches Szenario bei weitem nicht. Im Prinzip lässt sich die Welt im Jahr 2059 wie folgt darstellen: Es gibt verschiedene Arten von Hellsehern, die auf unterschiedliche Wege in die Gedanken oder Träume von anderen Menschen eindringen können. Aufgrund dieser Fähigkeit werden diese Begabten von dem Sicherheitsunternehmen Scion unterdrückt und verfolgt, sodass die Gejagten weitestgehend aus dem Untergrund agieren und auf kriminelle Weise ihr Geld verdienen, indem sie sich einem der verschiedenen Syndikate anschließen – so wie die Protagonistin Paige Mahoney. An den verschiedenen Einteilungen wie “Soothsayers”, “Mediums”, “Augurs” oder “Clairvoyants” hält man sich besser nicht zu sehr auf, um gleich zu Anfang einer großen Verwirrung zu entgehen. Verhältnismäßig leicht fällt es, sich von der schon auf den ersten Seiten sehr intensiven Atmosphäre einnehmen zu lassen. Schon direkt zu Beginn wird ein überall präsentes Gefühl der Bedrohung aufgebaut und die prekäre Situation der Hauptfigur ist sofort verständlich: Ein falscher Schritt und die Exekutierung durch die Regierung ist nahezu unvermeidlich. Noch beklemmender wird die Stimmung, wenn sich der Schauplatz von den Straßen Londons in die Strafkolonie “Sheol I” verlagert und sich Paige mit weitaus schlimmeren Geschöpfen als den Sicherheitskräften Scions auseinandersetzen muss. Hier hat Samantha Shannon wirklich einige sehr beeindruckende und teilweise auch sehr beängstigende Charaktere geschaffen, die aber nicht plump als böse, sondern erstaunlich differenziert dargestellt werden – vor allem die Figur des “Warden” habe ich als sehr faszinierend und interessant empfunden. Gerade die “Beziehung” zwischen ihm und Paige wird dadurch zu einer hochspannenden Angelegenheit, die für mich zu einer der großen Stärken der Handlung zählt. Da “The Bone Season” wie erwähnt der Auftakt einer 7-teiligen Reihe ist, verwendet Shannon verständlicherweise natürlich recht viel Zeit auf die Beschreibung ihres Settings und die Einführung der Charaktere. Das heißt aber nicht, dass die Geschichte selbst langweilig oder mager ausfallen würde – das Buch ist zu keinem Zeitpunkt auch nur ansatzweise langweilig und fesselt bis zum packenden Ende, das natürlich wenig überraschend mit einem kleinen Cliffhanger endet, aber dennoch einen guten Abschluss dieses ersten Bandes bietet. Gerade für den ersten Teilabschnitt einer derart umfassenden Reihe fällt der Schluss sehr dramatisch aus und schraubt die Erwartungen für die kommenden Bücher ganz schön in die Höhe – das macht es umso ärgerlicher, dass der zweite Band “The Mime Order” kürzlich erst von Oktober 2014 auf Januar 2015 verschoben wurde.

I love Samantha’s writing. so. much. Their storytelling is entrancing and incredibly immersive, visually and emotionally. I wasn't just reading but experiencing the story. I liked that it jumped straight into things and then unveiled backstory information as the story progressed; it kept me engaged and always coming back for more. The characters and world-building were super appealing right off the bat, and the range of paranormal abilities and history was SO interesting. There was so much detail and substance to everything, UGH, I was eating it all up! Paige was instantly likeable; gritty, tough and smart with just enough badass attitude without being overbearing. It was heartbreaking to learn of the pain and longing she's buried deep down. She has already experienced significant and necessary growth in this first book. I genuinely can't wait to see how she'll continue to break down the barriers around her and prosper! “I want to remind them that if you leave one spark aglow, it can still burn everything down.” I am such a sucker for moody, mysterious MMCs and Arcturus fit that bill perfectly for me. His stony and peculiar demeanour was perplexing, immediately piquing my curiosity and desire to learn everything about him, and he totally exceeded my expectations. He also has obstacles to overcome following a disastrous ordeal, but since his path has crossed with Paige... THEY WERE JUST MEANT TO FIND EACH OTHER. I LOVE IT. 😩 I'm already too invested in these two. “Though you may not have seen it, it was always me who needed you, not the other way around.” One of my favourite parts was the gradual build-up of mutual trust and respect between the characters, creating such a deep and strong bond. It wasn't rushed or disingenuous; it was intentionally earned by both parties genuinely opening up, sharing experiences, and seeing the other for who they truly were. No doubt this will become a top-tier series of mine.

I haven't read the book, so could not say about the content. But the quality and condition of the book is good.