The Staff of Fire and Bone

by Mikko Azul

[teachergorman]

This is an excellent adventure. I got to read an advance review copy, and I loved it. There's so much to enjoy here, it's hard to know where to start. The world of Muralia is vast and richly conceived. Its different races of people are culturally distinct and wary of each other, and they struggle to come together when faced with a common foe, adding a layer to the challenge faced by the main characters who are charged with uniting the various peoples and saving this world from impending doom. The forces working to bring the ultimate evil back to life are also complex and have distinct motivations. One of my favorite things about this novel is the way it plays with fantasy conventions, satisfying readers with some of the archetypal elements of a hero story while dodging a lot of the cliches of Western European fantasy. These aren't the dragons and elves and orcs of so many derivative fantasy works. The Staff of Fire and Bone is an exciting debut because it is so original while still providing a deeply satisfying narrative. Every fantasy fan should check this out!