Suz @ Bookish Revelations
Written on Oct 24, 2014
The New York Times bestselling first novel in the Bone Season series, an epic fantasy about a young woman fighting to use her powers and stay alive in an England entirely different from our own.
In 2059, Scion has taken over most of the world's cities, promising safety for all the citizens it deems worthy and wiping out clairvoyants wherever it can find them.
Paige Mahoney, though, is a clairvoyant--and a criminal just for existing. Paige is determined to fight Scion's power, and as part of the Seven Seals, Paige has found a use for her powers: she scouts for information by breaking into others' minds as they dream.
But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly-as soldiers in their army.
Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.
The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine-a young woman learning to harness her powers in a world where everything has been taken from her. It also introduces an extraordinary young writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.
- ISBN13 9781632868480
- Publish Date 7 February 2017 (first published 20 June 2013)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 24 August 2023
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Imprint Bloomsbury Academic USA
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 560
- Language English
Reviews
bumblingbookworm
Written on Jul 2, 2014
I DNFed this one at 60 pages. I think I got this in a bag of goodies at a book event, but it was never a book I was particularly drawn to - the premise never really appealed to me. Unfortunately I was bored and confused while reading this - I know there was chart at the beginning of the book but it was just so overwhelming even to look at it, and I didn't really understand the world. I don't expect to have a full understanding of a world 60 pages into a book, but what I read had a lot of info-dumpy world building and I didn't even understand that. It was giving me a headache to read and I just didn't care enough to keep reading TBH.
inlibrisveritas
Written on Oct 14, 2013
I don’t think I’ve ever used the words fantasy and dystopian in the same sentence, or at least not that i can remember. It’s usually the sci-fi genre that has it, but this is a different cup of tea. We have an alternate history as well as a future look of our own world where voyants exist. Claravoyants, are exactly what you think and more. They connect to the aether in some form and interact with spirits…and for this they are feared and persecuted. However everything isn’t as it seems and Paige is smack-dab in the middle of it. Now she must deal with a race called Rephaim, who treat them as slaves, and horrible creatures that have a taste for flesh. This book offers so much in terms of information, and the world building is some of the best I’ve read this year. The world is so detailed we get a flow chart for the different types of Voyants…and trust me there are a lot. We get new creatures to learn about and a new history, our own cities turned into something new. The Bone Season is rife with details and I just couldn’t get enough.
Shannon takes just as much care with her characters as she does with her world. Paige is a girl with a tough past and a tough personality. She’s definitely someone who can take care of herself but in many cases is forced to ally with people to gain what she needs. I really loved her, even though her outer toughness and her need to remain stubborn could get frustrating. I love that because she’s so different from other Voyants she’s had to protect herself, but because of that difference she’s also had to distance herself and remain closed off. Then there is Warden, the Rephaim now in charge of Paige. I’ll admit that it barely took a few pages before I was ready to claim him for the ever growing book boyfriend harem…even though Paige wasn’t falling for him, I definitely was. He’s hardened to most things and they exist on different levels, which is quite interesting. I enjoyed seeing them interact with each other and the different layers of their relationship. Then there are the other Rephiam which I wasn’t so fond of, especially Nashira who is as cold and selfish as it gets. Even the characters we only get a few chapters of are worth noting, like Jaxon, Nick, Liss, and Julian.
I’m definitely glad I decided to grab this one from the library and I’m glad I took the chance to read it before it was due back. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next book in the series, which apparently will have 7 books total. I need to know what is going ot happen with Nashira, Warden, and Paige. There is just so much I need to know.
kimbacaffeinate
Written on Aug 8, 2013
We meet Paige Mahoney a Dreamweaver living in I Cohort, Section 4 located in the city of London in the year 2059. She is a member of an illegal underground cell known as the Seven Seals. Several major cities throughout the world are controlled by the Scion where being a clairvoyant is illegal. Paige scouts the aether breaking into others minds and stealing useful information. Daily life is risk and to be captured means death, but when Paige is captured she discovers there is something more sinister and evil than the Scion. Captured and made a slave by the Rephaim, a powerful otherworldly race hidden in the city of Oxford, known as the Sheol I colony, she is assigned to Warden the blood-consort. He is to be her keeper and trainer. There is much more to her capture and if Paige wants to regain her freedom she may just have to learn to trust. The tale that unfolds is riveting as we learn about the city of Oxford, Scion and Paige’s past.
Paige is a wonderful protagonist; she is complex, head-strong and bright. She doesn’t whine about her predicaments, instead she plots and plans. A champion for the underdog she helps those around her, even the enemy. I easily connected with her as Shannon made us privy to events in her past and her emotions. Arcturus Warden is the tall, dark and mysterious blood-consort for the Rephaite. He has never taken a slave for training but selects Paige when he realizes she is one of the rarest types of clairvoyant. From the beginning his treatment of Paige is different from how other captures in her group are treated by their masters. Warden intrigued me from the onset and I loved how the author peeled back his layers and revealed him to us. Shannon did a stunning job of building their relationship and making it feel genuine and believable. I am anxious to see how this relationship develops and find I have developed a soft-spot for them. While not the focus of the tale their relationship was certainly a thread I enjoyed. We meet the other Seven Dials and get an idea of their personalities and relationship to Paige. Characters we meet from slaves, to Rephiam in Oxford are fleshed out and each had a unique voice.
Coming in at close to five hundred pages, Bone Season, blends several genres and did so surprisingly well. While there are moments of what I like to call “information dumps” the tale itself was clever, and I found no holes in the building of it. The world is complex, unique and Shannon brought it to life with vivid details. We touch on a plethora of subjects including Jack the Ripper,aliens, spirits, clairvoyants,and the aether. The world seemed plausible, and the characters both mysterious and fleshed out. Shannon had me flipping the pages as the pace slowly built towards the climatic ending. The detail was amazing, vibrant and utterly clever from the hierarchy of the Rephiam to Paige’s trips into the dreamworld. Some of the action scenes took my breath away from the clairvoyant attacks to the flux darts. The tale is filled with darkness and light, evil and good, all of which kept me delightfully enthralled. I am not sure this tale will need seven books, perhaps three but I am anxious to see how it develops.
Copy received in exchange for unbiased review and originally published @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer