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Tristopolis #1
Bone Song
Hailed as “the first important new SF writer of the 21st century,” John Meaney delivers a darkly luminous new thriller that blends futuristic noir with gothic fantasy. Here, in a city of the dead where desire is very much alive and murder a pleasure for connoisseurs, an honest cop must face his own darkest impulses just to have a prayer.
There have been four victims already. Famed for their beauty and one-of-a-kind artistic gifts, they were murdered in the most shocking ways imaginable and their corpses stolen. Now the famed diva Maria daLivnova is arriving in Tristopolis—a city literally powered by the massive necroflux generators that process the dead—and it is up to Lieutenant Donal Riordan to make sure she ends her limited engagement alive.
But Riordan isn’t the only one watching deLivnova. For the Diva is being followed by two other secret “protectors”: Commander Laura Steele—who’s made a more or less successful transition to para-life—and her partner, the invisible free-wraith Xalia. They are part of the necropolis’s vast underground network and they’ve mobilized against an unseen enemy for a battle of epic proportions. For a perverse death cult with powerful members in every stratum of society has learned how to distill from the bones of their sacrificed victims the ultimate thrill—a nectar that, once tasted, is impossible to resist. And the more precious the life, the greater the pleasure it is to take it away.
Soon Riordan will find himself in the unlikeliest of alliances as he journeys through a world of corruption—both aboveground and below—among gargoyles and zombies, spirit slaves and assassins, science and sorcery, in search of an enemy even the dead have every reason to fear….
There have been four victims already. Famed for their beauty and one-of-a-kind artistic gifts, they were murdered in the most shocking ways imaginable and their corpses stolen. Now the famed diva Maria daLivnova is arriving in Tristopolis—a city literally powered by the massive necroflux generators that process the dead—and it is up to Lieutenant Donal Riordan to make sure she ends her limited engagement alive.
But Riordan isn’t the only one watching deLivnova. For the Diva is being followed by two other secret “protectors”: Commander Laura Steele—who’s made a more or less successful transition to para-life—and her partner, the invisible free-wraith Xalia. They are part of the necropolis’s vast underground network and they’ve mobilized against an unseen enemy for a battle of epic proportions. For a perverse death cult with powerful members in every stratum of society has learned how to distill from the bones of their sacrificed victims the ultimate thrill—a nectar that, once tasted, is impossible to resist. And the more precious the life, the greater the pleasure it is to take it away.
Soon Riordan will find himself in the unlikeliest of alliances as he journeys through a world of corruption—both aboveground and below—among gargoyles and zombies, spirit slaves and assassins, science and sorcery, in search of an enemy even the dead have every reason to fear….
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
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932 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 130 reviews
May 28, 2017
An intriguing but wildly inconsistent book.
Imagine, if you will, J.D. Robb's "In Death" series redone with the deathworld of Chronicles of Riddick, the sensibility of a Batman graphic novel, and the magic of California Bones. It's an unusual combination, a Dagwood sandwich of a book if you will, and much of my reading was occupied by puzzling out the details of the world.
"Donal sketched a fingertip salute to the shadows beyond the stone steps. Stuffing his hands in his overcoat pockets, he looked up at the two hundred stories of police HQ rearing upward, dark and uncompromising. It was late and cold and the sky appeared deep purple, heavily opaque. Somewhere near the top, Commissioner Vilnar's office waited. And reading between the lines of this morning's phone call, the commissioner had a new job lined up for him--something Donal was not going to enjoy."
The plot is straightforward: someone is killing artists to use their bones sooner than a natural death would allow. Donal Riordan is a highly respectedNew York City Tristopolis cop, whose job is his life. If he isn't on a case, he's practicing his marksmanship, going for a run or resting in his crummy little apartment in a dangerous side of town. Commissioner Vilnar assigns Riordan the job of protecting a famed opera singer while she is in town. The first half of the book centers around the protection detail, while the second is nominally about finding the conspirator(s). There's a missing-person side investigation that ends up dominating the majority of the second half of the book. There's also supposed to be political underpinnings to the main mystery, but it is not well integrated.
It's the world-building that intrigues here. There's hints of a chronic, quick-silver rain that is toxic to the skin, to the extent that Donal tends to spend his time running in the sewers catacombs (what isn't explained is why there are catacombs if the dead are burned for energy?) There are death-wolves that guard the doors of the police precinct, and seem to act as independent police agents. The desk sergeant is literally melded to his desk. There are non-human races, such as the cat-like people that staff the hospital/healing facilities.
However, the flip side to all the ideas is the extent to which they are developed. Much of it feels like 'sci-fi/fantasy' in the same way that J.D. Robb's books do: replace any given object or basic function with something fantastical and call it world-building. There's a comment about '25/9' instead of '24/7,' streets go up to the thousands, taxis are purple and instead of armor-piercing rounds, we have chitin-piercing rounds with a silver load.
At times, there's a little more depth, which leads to interesting mental routes. Mechanical devices are powered by indentured wraiths and the dead bones that provide 'thaumaturgical energy'. Death seems to come in many layers, with the wraiths resembling a disembodied consciousness and the zombies are bodies reliant on the energy from the bones. Wraiths and zombies are viewed as less-than-human, but unfortunately, the writing around it is largely generic and non-nuanced, resorting to obvious -ist comments. It'd be easy to replace 'zombies' with any other group and have a non-fantasy story, and the wraiths have a strong parallel in slavery-based cultures.
This is a book that is all over the ratings map, even among reading friends, with two giving it one-star, and two awarding four and five stars. It's not one that would be easy to recommend, but I can see it appealing to people who enjoyed Two Serpents Rise by Gladstone. I was frequently struck at how vivid some of the scenes were in my mind; I feel like there's something almost cinematic about it. Recently, I was discussing the concept of stretchy-books that push one's reading. This felt like one of them, not in terms of ethics or boundary-pushing writing skill, but in the wealth of ideas and their combination. I wanted to play longer in the world, so despite a variety of issues with plotting and world-building, I'll be giving it a read.
Imagine, if you will, J.D. Robb's "In Death" series redone with the deathworld of Chronicles of Riddick, the sensibility of a Batman graphic novel, and the magic of California Bones. It's an unusual combination, a Dagwood sandwich of a book if you will, and much of my reading was occupied by puzzling out the details of the world.
"Donal sketched a fingertip salute to the shadows beyond the stone steps. Stuffing his hands in his overcoat pockets, he looked up at the two hundred stories of police HQ rearing upward, dark and uncompromising. It was late and cold and the sky appeared deep purple, heavily opaque. Somewhere near the top, Commissioner Vilnar's office waited. And reading between the lines of this morning's phone call, the commissioner had a new job lined up for him--something Donal was not going to enjoy."
The plot is straightforward: someone is killing artists to use their bones sooner than a natural death would allow. Donal Riordan is a highly respected
It's the world-building that intrigues here. There's hints of a chronic, quick-silver rain that is toxic to the skin, to the extent that Donal tends to spend his time running in the sewers catacombs (what isn't explained is why there are catacombs if the dead are burned for energy?) There are death-wolves that guard the doors of the police precinct, and seem to act as independent police agents. The desk sergeant is literally melded to his desk. There are non-human races, such as the cat-like people that staff the hospital/healing facilities.
However, the flip side to all the ideas is the extent to which they are developed. Much of it feels like 'sci-fi/fantasy' in the same way that J.D. Robb's books do: replace any given object or basic function with something fantastical and call it world-building. There's a comment about '25/9' instead of '24/7,' streets go up to the thousands, taxis are purple and instead of armor-piercing rounds, we have chitin-piercing rounds with a silver load.
At times, there's a little more depth, which leads to interesting mental routes. Mechanical devices are powered by indentured wraiths and the dead bones that provide 'thaumaturgical energy'. Death seems to come in many layers, with the wraiths resembling a disembodied consciousness and the zombies are bodies reliant on the energy from the bones. Wraiths and zombies are viewed as less-than-human, but unfortunately, the writing around it is largely generic and non-nuanced, resorting to obvious -ist comments. It'd be easy to replace 'zombies' with any other group and have a non-fantasy story, and the wraiths have a strong parallel in slavery-based cultures.
This is a book that is all over the ratings map, even among reading friends, with two giving it one-star, and two awarding four and five stars. It's not one that would be easy to recommend, but I can see it appealing to people who enjoyed Two Serpents Rise by Gladstone. I was frequently struck at how vivid some of the scenes were in my mind; I feel like there's something almost cinematic about it. Recently, I was discussing the concept of stretchy-books that push one's reading. This felt like one of them, not in terms of ethics or boundary-pushing writing skill, but in the wealth of ideas and their combination. I wanted to play longer in the world, so despite a variety of issues with plotting and world-building, I'll be giving it a read.
February 7, 2017
Finally after so many false starts and being distracted by other books I have finished Bone Song - it only took me dragging it to China and back to achieve that!
Anyway how was the book - well I will admit I wasn't sure what I was going to be greeted by since I have only read John Meaney's science fiction work in the past. however it did't take me long to realise there was something about his work which I didn't pick up on before.
This was the fact that he is an incredible world builder which slowly dawned on me as I read this book, because at its heart this is a crime story - all be it a rather strange one.
Slowly I realised this is a world where zombies can be police officers, that the power stations are run off the bones of the dead and office security is supplied by supernatural wolves then this is not your run of the mill story.
But rather than turning the story it to some sort of fantasy with a 'badge' you get a totally acceptable society which is organised and run in a very similar manner to one we recognise today. And I think this is where a conventional story can become something different and incredible.
So what did I think of the book - if I sit and consider the different elements - the storyline the characters and the way in the way the world is described they are interesting but nothing special however I think how this book works so well is the way in which they are woven together. I will admit that it took me some time to realise this and a little more to start enjoying it but when I did it became a really fun read - and what is more is that there is a second book in the series too!
Anyway how was the book - well I will admit I wasn't sure what I was going to be greeted by since I have only read John Meaney's science fiction work in the past. however it did't take me long to realise there was something about his work which I didn't pick up on before.
This was the fact that he is an incredible world builder which slowly dawned on me as I read this book, because at its heart this is a crime story - all be it a rather strange one.
Slowly I realised this is a world where zombies can be police officers, that the power stations are run off the bones of the dead and office security is supplied by supernatural wolves then this is not your run of the mill story.
But rather than turning the story it to some sort of fantasy with a 'badge' you get a totally acceptable society which is organised and run in a very similar manner to one we recognise today. And I think this is where a conventional story can become something different and incredible.
So what did I think of the book - if I sit and consider the different elements - the storyline the characters and the way in the way the world is described they are interesting but nothing special however I think how this book works so well is the way in which they are woven together. I will admit that it took me some time to realise this and a little more to start enjoying it but when I did it became a really fun read - and what is more is that there is a second book in the series too!
October 11, 2010
If I could say one thing about Bone Song, it is certainly unique. I like that Mr. Meaney wrote a book that was entirely out of his imagination. I did see shades of "Blade Runner" and noir/cyperpunk aspects in his story, but he didn't play it safe or familiar in any other way.
The idea of bones having power to run cities, and for necromancers to kill gifted people so they could harness the power of their bones, was something I have not encountered in my reading. It was pretty gruesome, at times, although this book is far from gory.
The worldbuilding in this story was very solid. I do admit, I was totally scratching my head at first. Mr. Meaney builds his world from the ground up, even using a very different calender and number of days system that I have ever encountered. I am pretty sure that Quintember 37, 6066 is a date I will never see in real life. And last I checked, there are not twenty-five hours in a day.
I loved the infusion of mythical beings and various types of ethereal creatures into this novel. In the cities of Bone Song, wraiths of various types are enslaved and used to power the city in various ways. For example, the elevator in the police building is run by a wraith named Gertie. There are also stone-beings, and deathwolves who guard the premises of the police station and rich people's homes. Mages and witches are employed on the police staff, on airplanes, and in hospitals. And zombies are fairly common, although not accepted by everyone.
The world of crime-solving had a uniqueness as well. Instead of forensic medical examiners, there are Bone Listeners who read the bones to find out how people died. It was a bit creepy how that was done. Well, very creepy.
This story managed to mix the paranormal with science in an intriguing way. I won't deny that I wasn't lost, at times. I was quite lost. But, I was also intrigued to keep reading. That's not to say this book wasn't a bit dry at times. It was. But not so dry that I wanted to give up on it. I truly had to see where the story was going, so I persevered through the drier moments.
I really liked the main character, Donal. He was a tough guy, but also seemed to want to do the right thing, and genuinely cared about people. His situation was pretty harrowing at times, and I felt like I had to hold my breath, at the various twists and turns in this story. When the book felt dry, his character kept me reading. That's a good thing, because that's why I read books, for the characters that stand out and earn my loyalty.
I liked the secondary characters as well. I did feel like Laura, the commander of the unit that Donal joins, and his love interest, could have been more deeply characterized. I didn't feel like I knew a lot about her, which seemed important, considering her relationship with Donal, and her very interesting nature. I had a love/hate relationship with the point of view switches. I felt they were too abrupt, and it took a while to figure out where the story was going when the POV changed. If that had been more smooth, I think I would have been fine with seeing the other characters' viewpoints. I feel like there is more to learn about Viktor, Xilia, Alexa, Harald, and Shushana.
I have to be honest and say I didn't like the ending. It was way too abrupt and didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. I have this feeling that it's a cliffhanger sort of ending, so I won't throw the book against the wall. I'd like to see where John Meaney goes with this story, so I'm looking forward to reading the next book.
Bone Song won't appeal to all readers, but I am glad I read it. It was a unique world with some elements that really stood out to me. Overall, I think Mr. Meaney wrote quite a fascinating book, and I would like to see more of his world where the bones have their own songs to sing.
The idea of bones having power to run cities, and for necromancers to kill gifted people so they could harness the power of their bones, was something I have not encountered in my reading. It was pretty gruesome, at times, although this book is far from gory.
The worldbuilding in this story was very solid. I do admit, I was totally scratching my head at first. Mr. Meaney builds his world from the ground up, even using a very different calender and number of days system that I have ever encountered. I am pretty sure that Quintember 37, 6066 is a date I will never see in real life. And last I checked, there are not twenty-five hours in a day.
I loved the infusion of mythical beings and various types of ethereal creatures into this novel. In the cities of Bone Song, wraiths of various types are enslaved and used to power the city in various ways. For example, the elevator in the police building is run by a wraith named Gertie. There are also stone-beings, and deathwolves who guard the premises of the police station and rich people's homes. Mages and witches are employed on the police staff, on airplanes, and in hospitals. And zombies are fairly common, although not accepted by everyone.
The world of crime-solving had a uniqueness as well. Instead of forensic medical examiners, there are Bone Listeners who read the bones to find out how people died. It was a bit creepy how that was done. Well, very creepy.
This story managed to mix the paranormal with science in an intriguing way. I won't deny that I wasn't lost, at times. I was quite lost. But, I was also intrigued to keep reading. That's not to say this book wasn't a bit dry at times. It was. But not so dry that I wanted to give up on it. I truly had to see where the story was going, so I persevered through the drier moments.
I really liked the main character, Donal. He was a tough guy, but also seemed to want to do the right thing, and genuinely cared about people. His situation was pretty harrowing at times, and I felt like I had to hold my breath, at the various twists and turns in this story. When the book felt dry, his character kept me reading. That's a good thing, because that's why I read books, for the characters that stand out and earn my loyalty.
I liked the secondary characters as well. I did feel like Laura, the commander of the unit that Donal joins, and his love interest, could have been more deeply characterized. I didn't feel like I knew a lot about her, which seemed important, considering her relationship with Donal, and her very interesting nature. I had a love/hate relationship with the point of view switches. I felt they were too abrupt, and it took a while to figure out where the story was going when the POV changed. If that had been more smooth, I think I would have been fine with seeing the other characters' viewpoints. I feel like there is more to learn about Viktor, Xilia, Alexa, Harald, and Shushana.
I have to be honest and say I didn't like the ending. It was way too abrupt and didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. I have this feeling that it's a cliffhanger sort of ending, so I won't throw the book against the wall. I'd like to see where John Meaney goes with this story, so I'm looking forward to reading the next book.
Bone Song won't appeal to all readers, but I am glad I read it. It was a unique world with some elements that really stood out to me. Overall, I think Mr. Meaney wrote quite a fascinating book, and I would like to see more of his world where the bones have their own songs to sing.
March 18, 2020
A highly original and imaginative mystery set in an alternate world where technology is powered by the bones of the dead and the deceased are enslaved. Very entertaining, despite various weak points in plot, characterization, and pacing.
September 28, 2010
Bone song is filed under "urban fantasy", but I'd put it under gothic dieselpunk. It takes place in a couple of different urban environs, both of which are left over by some long past (undescribed) civilization who's technology has been mostly forgotten. What does still work in this world is thaumaturgical based magic; "death" is not so much a final destination as a state of being with different shades, including "zombies" which function as living humans but need regular infusions of thaumaturgical energy and "wraiths" that are discorporal consciousnesses able to pass through matter. Naturally, magic is a very important part of how the world works. Mages and those who can commune with bones (of the both the living and the dead) replace computer nerds, engineers and doctors in our world. There are no computers or wireless communications. The world seems less like a well thought out construction and more like the world of the 50's, with some details changed around to replace technological solutions with magical ways of doing things. But it never really feels like it "gels" in a cohesive way; it's like pasting a lot of pretty baubles on the same suit you've seen a million times before, hoping the little shiny bits make the ensemble into something new. Unfortunately, I didn't feel like I was reading about events occuring in a well thought out world.
The story focuses on Donal Riordan, a hardboiled lieutenant in the metropolitan PD with a rough background and a reputation for being an incorruptible hardass (sound familiar?) who is tasked with protecting an opera star from a shadowy cult who has been abducting top-notch artists, presumably to glean visions from their bones. Without giving away too many spoilers, the protection detail doesn't go as Donal hoped. After all is said and done, he finds himself attached to a federal unit that is tasked specifically with breaking up the bone-thieving cult.
Somehow, Donal and his superior fall in love. And I say "somehow" because for no reason that's hinted, led up to, foreshadowed or makes any sense in terms of character complications they wind up in bed and almost immediately afterwords "fall in love" (sound familiar?). Now, I'm all about some hot'n'steamy human/zombie romance, don't get me wrong. But it feels like it was thrown in because Jason Meaney's pre-writing notes had these two character's arcs crossing, and maybe it was necessary for one or another plot development later. But there's nothing in the final book I read that makes it plausible. I don't need some drawn out courtship, but there wasn't even any hint of animal magentism. This, in my opinion, is amateurish and it detracted from my enjoyment of the story.
As the investigation continues, the leads take the team to higher and higher levels of government (sound familiar?) and the story goes off on a couple of tangents that eventually come back around to the main plot and characters, but only eventually. There were a few chapters, wherein some members of the federal team are working on rescuing an undercover agent who's been discovered and is being tortured, that really didn't need to happen so much. I think that whole section of the book was trying to explain that the team, aside from the newcomer Donal, is a tight unit that looks after their own and brooks no guff. Additionally, it showed off some of the skills of each of the teammembers, but in retrospect that handful of chapters felt manufactured. The characters and plot could both have been better advanced with subtler dialogue and crisper writing around the main plotline.
Eventually, Donal gets himself sent via aeroplane (see "dieselpunk", above) to another city to follow up on some leads on his own (sound familiar?). At this point in the book (maybe 75% through it), there's a lot of characters and while there's a lot of "clues", it's pretty clear what's going to happen, if not the exact way it'll play out. The trip to the other city had a situation occur that I can only describe as "contrived", and while Donal didn't understand what was happening, I the reader had even less idea what was going on, why, or what happened to Donal during the resolution. There just wasn't enough explanation of the situation and the characters involved to advance the mystery - another example events introducing plot complications wholly divorced from the preceeding story. At this point, there's 20%-15% of the book left, and I was getting the feeling that this was going to be one of those books where everything wraps up too cleanly in the last couple chapters.
It does. Within the span of the last 8%, everybody in the team resolves their reticences around "the new guy", a major suspect is "surprisingly" exonerated, the perpetrator trying to frame the suspect is caught (after a chase so laughable I don't know why Jason bothered), and the Big Bad Guys are interrupted in the middle of an evil ritual, but manage to slip through the fingers of justice (sound familiar?). The last couple of chapters do less to wrap up the story than setup the sequel, and the "heart wrenching twist" at the end seemed a bit extreme and implausible; it would have been nice to see Donal and Laura's relationship evolve - but given the light treatment characterization got throughout the book, perhaps it was best this way.
All in all, this was a readable noir detective story wrapped in the trappings of a gothic/dieselpunk setting. The character development was very shallow, but the action is fairly nonstop and the pacing - in as much as you only consider points of contention in the plot - was constant and fairly exciting. I would recommend this to fans of the gothic (as in "Sisters of Mercy" or "Fields of the Nephilim") look/feel, or anyone who wants a quick little noir detective story. There's nothing wrong with this book, despite my uncanny ability to detail things that annoy me. But I felt there was so much potential in these characters and the world they live that I can't help but feel a little shortchanged by the shallow characterization and incomplete world building.
The story focuses on Donal Riordan, a hardboiled lieutenant in the metropolitan PD with a rough background and a reputation for being an incorruptible hardass (sound familiar?) who is tasked with protecting an opera star from a shadowy cult who has been abducting top-notch artists, presumably to glean visions from their bones. Without giving away too many spoilers, the protection detail doesn't go as Donal hoped. After all is said and done, he finds himself attached to a federal unit that is tasked specifically with breaking up the bone-thieving cult.
Somehow, Donal and his superior fall in love. And I say "somehow" because for no reason that's hinted, led up to, foreshadowed or makes any sense in terms of character complications they wind up in bed and almost immediately afterwords "fall in love" (sound familiar?). Now, I'm all about some hot'n'steamy human/zombie romance, don't get me wrong. But it feels like it was thrown in because Jason Meaney's pre-writing notes had these two character's arcs crossing, and maybe it was necessary for one or another plot development later. But there's nothing in the final book I read that makes it plausible. I don't need some drawn out courtship, but there wasn't even any hint of animal magentism. This, in my opinion, is amateurish and it detracted from my enjoyment of the story.
As the investigation continues, the leads take the team to higher and higher levels of government (sound familiar?) and the story goes off on a couple of tangents that eventually come back around to the main plot and characters, but only eventually. There were a few chapters, wherein some members of the federal team are working on rescuing an undercover agent who's been discovered and is being tortured, that really didn't need to happen so much. I think that whole section of the book was trying to explain that the team, aside from the newcomer Donal, is a tight unit that looks after their own and brooks no guff. Additionally, it showed off some of the skills of each of the teammembers, but in retrospect that handful of chapters felt manufactured. The characters and plot could both have been better advanced with subtler dialogue and crisper writing around the main plotline.
Eventually, Donal gets himself sent via aeroplane (see "dieselpunk", above) to another city to follow up on some leads on his own (sound familiar?). At this point in the book (maybe 75% through it), there's a lot of characters and while there's a lot of "clues", it's pretty clear what's going to happen, if not the exact way it'll play out. The trip to the other city had a situation occur that I can only describe as "contrived", and while Donal didn't understand what was happening, I the reader had even less idea what was going on, why, or what happened to Donal during the resolution. There just wasn't enough explanation of the situation and the characters involved to advance the mystery - another example events introducing plot complications wholly divorced from the preceeding story. At this point, there's 20%-15% of the book left, and I was getting the feeling that this was going to be one of those books where everything wraps up too cleanly in the last couple chapters.
It does. Within the span of the last 8%, everybody in the team resolves their reticences around "the new guy", a major suspect is "surprisingly" exonerated, the perpetrator trying to frame the suspect is caught (after a chase so laughable I don't know why Jason bothered), and the Big Bad Guys are interrupted in the middle of an evil ritual, but manage to slip through the fingers of justice (sound familiar?). The last couple of chapters do less to wrap up the story than setup the sequel, and the "heart wrenching twist" at the end seemed a bit extreme and implausible; it would have been nice to see Donal and Laura's relationship evolve - but given the light treatment characterization got throughout the book, perhaps it was best this way.
All in all, this was a readable noir detective story wrapped in the trappings of a gothic/dieselpunk setting. The character development was very shallow, but the action is fairly nonstop and the pacing - in as much as you only consider points of contention in the plot - was constant and fairly exciting. I would recommend this to fans of the gothic (as in "Sisters of Mercy" or "Fields of the Nephilim") look/feel, or anyone who wants a quick little noir detective story. There's nothing wrong with this book, despite my uncanny ability to detail things that annoy me. But I felt there was so much potential in these characters and the world they live that I can't help but feel a little shortchanged by the shallow characterization and incomplete world building.
May 8, 2016
I tried, I feel I really did. But I got to Chapter 8--page 85--and could go no further. This is an ambitious book, but the author misplaced those ambitions, putting all his toys in his world-building toybox without leaving anything for development and execution. And that's my main issue with the book, the world building: Yes, it's detailed. However, it's never fully explained. Now, I admit, I hate info dumps and it's a poor writer who uses them to explain how his or her world works. But I also hate a book where the author throws words and people and situations at you without explaining context, history, origin, or without even giving you a general understanding of what the hell is going on! I mean, yeah, it's cool to be in a world where a day is 25 hours long, or power is provided by the bones of the dead; where captive wraiths power elevators and escalators are powered by runes. But I'm the kind of reader who needs an understanding of the how and the why, a history of how a world in which humans and zombies and wraiths and mages can live side-by-side, in relative harmony, even if it's just a sentence here or a throwaway line of dialogue there. Instead, I'm left feeling more and more lost as the book continues to sink me further into this world without providing any sort of guide rope to follow. Yet, Meaney went overboard with certain scene descriptions where there was no reason or no action relevant to the plot. For example, Meaney goes into great detail concerning the main character's, Donal Riordan's, evening ritual, wherein he comes home, uses the bathroom, changes and does some stretching, goes out for a run, comes home and takes a shower, changes clothes again, goes back out, buys a book, eats, comes home, reads in bed, and falls asleep. Seriously. All that took up four pages of the book. Why? Yes, Riordan does his running in the underground tunnels of the city, which are used in a later action sequence. However, that information could've easily been introduced in a more interesting manner without all the other, extremely boring stuff that gave me no insight into Donal's character and certainly did nothing to actively advance the story.
There's a lot of imaginative stuff in this book, but it hasn't been presented well and that's where the poor execution shows: Poor character development, poor sentence construction (a lot of sentence fragments), and just a general lack of flow and easy readability. This wanted to be hard-boiled. This wanted to be the snappy, sparsely-written detective story in the vein of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, just with a few twists on the setting. It's not. Meaney confused brevity with lack, and it shows. (Meaney has the idea that if you throw in enough skulls, ouroboros images, catacombs, along with zombies, deathwolves, and other assorted ghoulies, we'll get the idea that his Tristopolis is a Gothic wonderland without him having to go to the actual effort of bringing his creation to life with history and backstory. It's like one of those Hollywood backlots, where the fronts of the buildings look all functional and fabulous, but there's nothing behind them except some 2"x 4"s propping the facades up. Not to mention everything Meaney describes is either black or purple. Now, I love me some purple, but after a while, even I got tired of hearing about the color!) And there are multiple italicized asides that simply add to the confusion as we have no idea who's speaking them, if they're indeed being spoken, or if they're internal, I'm-going-crazy-and-this-is-what-I'm-hearing whispers in Donal's head. For example, Do you hear the bones?, So beautiful..., We are the bones, We know you now. Again, there's no context, no explanation, no reason behind them other than a sense of, "Ooh, look, I'm making things spooky here, folks! This is my Gothic-detective-fantasy novel and things are getting wei-rd!"
I might not have had a problem with any of this if I could've gotten a handle on the main character, but it seemed as though every time I turned the page the man would flip his personality. Donal would threaten one character for off-the-books fudging of inventory and then turn around and do something shady and very un-cop-like the next chapter. I still don't know what Donal's motivations are, what his innate character and personality is, nothing about what drove the man to do what he did. And that fits in with the overall description for this book: It's an enigma. One I don't care about, nor was ever given a reason to care about, solving.
There's a lot of imaginative stuff in this book, but it hasn't been presented well and that's where the poor execution shows: Poor character development, poor sentence construction (a lot of sentence fragments), and just a general lack of flow and easy readability. This wanted to be hard-boiled. This wanted to be the snappy, sparsely-written detective story in the vein of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, just with a few twists on the setting. It's not. Meaney confused brevity with lack, and it shows. (Meaney has the idea that if you throw in enough skulls, ouroboros images, catacombs, along with zombies, deathwolves, and other assorted ghoulies, we'll get the idea that his Tristopolis is a Gothic wonderland without him having to go to the actual effort of bringing his creation to life with history and backstory. It's like one of those Hollywood backlots, where the fronts of the buildings look all functional and fabulous, but there's nothing behind them except some 2"x 4"s propping the facades up. Not to mention everything Meaney describes is either black or purple. Now, I love me some purple, but after a while, even I got tired of hearing about the color!) And there are multiple italicized asides that simply add to the confusion as we have no idea who's speaking them, if they're indeed being spoken, or if they're internal, I'm-going-crazy-and-this-is-what-I'm-hearing whispers in Donal's head. For example, Do you hear the bones?, So beautiful..., We are the bones, We know you now. Again, there's no context, no explanation, no reason behind them other than a sense of, "Ooh, look, I'm making things spooky here, folks! This is my Gothic-detective-fantasy novel and things are getting wei-rd!"
I might not have had a problem with any of this if I could've gotten a handle on the main character, but it seemed as though every time I turned the page the man would flip his personality. Donal would threaten one character for off-the-books fudging of inventory and then turn around and do something shady and very un-cop-like the next chapter. I still don't know what Donal's motivations are, what his innate character and personality is, nothing about what drove the man to do what he did. And that fits in with the overall description for this book: It's an enigma. One I don't care about, nor was ever given a reason to care about, solving.
September 4, 2013
Ooof but this was a struggle. I don't think I've ever been so quickly disappointed with a book I really, really wanted to like. And I'm not even a fan of urban fantasy! But Bone Song is also a noir thriller, and I'm a sucker for those, plus I'd heard the world building was amazing, so I threw myself at the book with abandon...and ended up frequently throwing the book at things (wall, floor, bed, etc.). Let me count the ways...
The Awesome
The world building. Seriously, I love the concept of a person's bones storing their memories after death, and the fact that they can be used to power entire cities. Necrofusion! Oh my.
Also, the creature show. Zombies and deathwolves and wraiths - the latter especially, as they allow for semi-sentient motor bikes. I WANT A SENTIENT MOTOR BIKE!
The Not-So-Awesome
The plot starts out as a proper noir detective story and paces along merrily until about half-way through, when the cast's Jump To Conclusions map breaks and suddenly nothing makes any sense anymore. Or maybe it does, but while Meaney spends a lot of time over-explaining consequences and correlations in the beginning of the book, there's a marked absense of logic in the latter half. By that time I was so fatigued with the writing (see below), though, I couldn't really bring myself to turn back a few pages to see whether I'd missed anything.
The Bad
Logicfail: When your own characters know they're being stupid or irrational, don't you think they're trying to tell you something?
Pacingfail: I don't know whether Meaney made a deliberate choice to slow down the plot at various places throughout the book, but if it was on purpose, it back-fired, for it was most frustrating. To give you an example: as early on as page 44, we are treated to Donal's after-work rituals. On four long, long pages, Donal comes home, changes, warms up, goes back outside for a run, comes back, eats something, reads a book and goes to bed. This wouldn't be so bad if anything interesting happened along the way, but it doesn't. IT DOESN'T.
HeroComplexFail: Towards the end, when everything is coming to a head and I've just gotten a bit of interest back in how it all ends, Donal arrives in Illurium to hunt down the evil mastermind behind the murders. But first he sends his driver away and goes to hang out on a station platform. You'd think he was there to catch a train, but no, it seems he's only there so that he can accidentally spot and save a young girl from a pimp trying to snare her. He beats him up, gives money to the girl, takes his gun, and then! Returns to the driver. BECAUSE THAT MADE SENSE.
WritingFail: The worst, the worst thing about Bone Song - and the reason the book flew so often - was the writing. It was okay in most places, but awkward in others, and downright atrocious in too many places to ignore. I don't want to bash the author - I couldn't write a book to save my life, so I have respect for anyone who can. However, the over-use of sentence fragments became so obnoxious, I'd be dishonest if I didn't at least mention it here. I think it's done for dramatic effect, and it sometimes works, for example:
But as Donal walked, he remembered something more, against his will: the deep richness of the world seen through Jamix Holandson's eyes.
Through his lifeless bone.
Dramatic, right? But trust me, when this kind of structure occurs on every other page, all drama is lost and the only effect left is one of intense frustration.
Now, on other rooftops, pairs of scarlet eyes blinked, feline and knowing, at Laura sitting at the base of Darksan Tower's spire, straing into the night.
The night to which she belonged.
*headdesk*
Maybe it's just me. Maybe you won't mind at all. If you like your urban fantasy and you're ready for some pretty cool concepts in world building, go right ahead and read this. It's not a bad book. It just has issues.
The Awesome
The world building. Seriously, I love the concept of a person's bones storing their memories after death, and the fact that they can be used to power entire cities. Necrofusion! Oh my.
Also, the creature show. Zombies and deathwolves and wraiths - the latter especially, as they allow for semi-sentient motor bikes. I WANT A SENTIENT MOTOR BIKE!
The Not-So-Awesome
The plot starts out as a proper noir detective story and paces along merrily until about half-way through, when the cast's Jump To Conclusions map breaks and suddenly nothing makes any sense anymore. Or maybe it does, but while Meaney spends a lot of time over-explaining consequences and correlations in the beginning of the book, there's a marked absense of logic in the latter half. By that time I was so fatigued with the writing (see below), though, I couldn't really bring myself to turn back a few pages to see whether I'd missed anything.
The Bad
Logicfail: When your own characters know they're being stupid or irrational, don't you think they're trying to tell you something?
Pacingfail: I don't know whether Meaney made a deliberate choice to slow down the plot at various places throughout the book, but if it was on purpose, it back-fired, for it was most frustrating. To give you an example: as early on as page 44, we are treated to Donal's after-work rituals. On four long, long pages, Donal comes home, changes, warms up, goes back outside for a run, comes back, eats something, reads a book and goes to bed. This wouldn't be so bad if anything interesting happened along the way, but it doesn't. IT DOESN'T.
HeroComplexFail: Towards the end, when everything is coming to a head and I've just gotten a bit of interest back in how it all ends, Donal arrives in Illurium to hunt down the evil mastermind behind the murders. But first he sends his driver away and goes to hang out on a station platform. You'd think he was there to catch a train, but no, it seems he's only there so that he can accidentally spot and save a young girl from a pimp trying to snare her. He beats him up, gives money to the girl, takes his gun, and then! Returns to the driver. BECAUSE THAT MADE SENSE.
WritingFail: The worst, the worst thing about Bone Song - and the reason the book flew so often - was the writing. It was okay in most places, but awkward in others, and downright atrocious in too many places to ignore. I don't want to bash the author - I couldn't write a book to save my life, so I have respect for anyone who can. However, the over-use of sentence fragments became so obnoxious, I'd be dishonest if I didn't at least mention it here. I think it's done for dramatic effect, and it sometimes works, for example:
But as Donal walked, he remembered something more, against his will: the deep richness of the world seen through Jamix Holandson's eyes.
Through his lifeless bone.
Dramatic, right? But trust me, when this kind of structure occurs on every other page, all drama is lost and the only effect left is one of intense frustration.
Now, on other rooftops, pairs of scarlet eyes blinked, feline and knowing, at Laura sitting at the base of Darksan Tower's spire, straing into the night.
The night to which she belonged.
*headdesk*
Maybe it's just me. Maybe you won't mind at all. If you like your urban fantasy and you're ready for some pretty cool concepts in world building, go right ahead and read this. It's not a bad book. It just has issues.
January 28, 2019
Bone Song is a real odd duck for me. I remember reading it back a few years ago and got bored but was still engaged enough to give it three stars. Now I'm older and have finished it and still give it three albeit for different reasons.
The setting is very different from what I'm used to seeing, combining gothic horror, new weird and film noir into a pretty slick package. 6000 years into an alternate reality future, energy reactors run off the bones of the dead, zombies run not off brains but biomechanical hearts imbedded into yheir chests, and necromancers are part of the cops. And for the most part it works. Meaney does a good job of making the world of Tristopolis feel alive. The sky is a permanent shade of purple, quicksilver rain is commonplace and passing conversation makes mention of the world beyond death's city. If i have to make a minor quibble here, its that some of the elements feel forced or come across as goofy. Using the word Thanatos in place of other 4-letter words made me cringe.
However the biggest issues i have with the story fall into two areas.
For starters the characters are very flat and lifeless (no pun intended). Donal Riordan hits all the notes of being a beat cop with honour and integrity, but theres nothing that sets him apart from the other characters. On that note the other characters are just kind of there. Some have interesting quirks and flaws but they're mostly one note stereotypes.
The second issue comes from a major plot point so spoilers ahead. At one point one of Donal's colleagues suspects him of being a traitor built on very tenuous evidence. So he puts him into a trap. Now granted its established the character is not thinking clearly but from a narrative perspective the subsequent events dont go anywhere and end just as abruptly. It feels like padding.
Despite its flaws Bone Song was a good read and I'm glad i finished it. Its raw creative and consistently engaging.
EDIT: So it's been a couple of years since I posted this review and having been thinking about it recently, there was a couple of other gripes I had about it. I still stand by my initial rating but....
The romance. Oh Christ was that romance hamfisted and goofy. Donal and Laura - the head of a secret police unit - hook up after one night of shagging and are already professing their love for one another. To say that romance is dead is an understatement here.
Secondly, the villain's goal seemed....very vague. Its obvious from the start that Malfax Cortindo is the big bad but what he wants with the bones of the dead and how it relates to an Anti-Undead Bill is kind of......mwaaaahhhhh......
I still like the book mind you. Still fun, still engaging, still imaginative enough, but it really needed an editor to cut out the chaff or for Meaney to expand on the world and plot more.
The setting is very different from what I'm used to seeing, combining gothic horror, new weird and film noir into a pretty slick package. 6000 years into an alternate reality future, energy reactors run off the bones of the dead, zombies run not off brains but biomechanical hearts imbedded into yheir chests, and necromancers are part of the cops. And for the most part it works. Meaney does a good job of making the world of Tristopolis feel alive. The sky is a permanent shade of purple, quicksilver rain is commonplace and passing conversation makes mention of the world beyond death's city. If i have to make a minor quibble here, its that some of the elements feel forced or come across as goofy. Using the word Thanatos in place of other 4-letter words made me cringe.
However the biggest issues i have with the story fall into two areas.
For starters the characters are very flat and lifeless (no pun intended). Donal Riordan hits all the notes of being a beat cop with honour and integrity, but theres nothing that sets him apart from the other characters. On that note the other characters are just kind of there. Some have interesting quirks and flaws but they're mostly one note stereotypes.
The second issue comes from a major plot point so spoilers ahead. At one point one of Donal's colleagues suspects him of being a traitor built on very tenuous evidence. So he puts him into a trap. Now granted its established the character is not thinking clearly but from a narrative perspective the subsequent events dont go anywhere and end just as abruptly. It feels like padding.
Despite its flaws Bone Song was a good read and I'm glad i finished it. Its raw creative and consistently engaging.
EDIT: So it's been a couple of years since I posted this review and having been thinking about it recently, there was a couple of other gripes I had about it. I still stand by my initial rating but....
The romance. Oh Christ was that romance hamfisted and goofy. Donal and Laura - the head of a secret police unit - hook up after one night of shagging and are already professing their love for one another. To say that romance is dead is an understatement here.
Secondly, the villain's goal seemed....very vague. Its obvious from the start that Malfax Cortindo is the big bad but what he wants with the bones of the dead and how it relates to an Anti-Undead Bill is kind of......mwaaaahhhhh......
I still like the book mind you. Still fun, still engaging, still imaginative enough, but it really needed an editor to cut out the chaff or for Meaney to expand on the world and plot more.
March 30, 2009
2.5, maybe. I haven't been so disappointed in a book since I don't know when, chiefly because it has such incredible worldbuilding and because the first half of the book absolutely blew me away. I was completely enmeshed in the world and the characters and couldn't wait to get back to it each time I put it down.
About halfway through, though, it seemed to have a schizophrenic breakdown. The previously tight and compelling POVs (split between two main characters) mushroomed into multiple, shallow head-hopping POVs which seriously diluted the flow of the story and the characterizations. That would have been bearable (because the worldbuilding remained amazing and compelling, the plotting intricate), but then the characterizations and plot went to hell as well. People started falling in love instantaneously for no apparent reason; others launched on paths of boneheaded revenge for really cooked up motives that had more to do with authorial convenience then true motivations. Even the characters, late in the book, admitted they were stupid. Plot points were thrown in for no good reason except that, again, the author needed to get someone from point A to point B and show off more worldbuilding; the main character turned into a Maury Stu-type character that could do no wrong and was the best of the best, easily victorious in any contest; and absolutely no care was given to the emotional underpinnings of the story. Things happened, we were supposed to care, but they were so paint-by-number, handled so woodenly and shallowly, that I found myself not caring at all.
But that worldbuilding! Wow. I kept reading long after I would have put most books down because the depth and originality of this world dominated by death, the macabre, and the dead was truly breathtaking. If you love books with dazzling settings and don't care overmuch if the characters have no more depth than a video game and the plotting bears more resemblance to a software program, you'll probably enjoy this book more than I did. I think if the first half of this book hadn't had everything going so damned well, I wouldn't have been as severely disappointed. As is, I'm not sure I'll bother reading any more in this series.
About halfway through, though, it seemed to have a schizophrenic breakdown. The previously tight and compelling POVs (split between two main characters) mushroomed into multiple, shallow head-hopping POVs which seriously diluted the flow of the story and the characterizations. That would have been bearable (because the worldbuilding remained amazing and compelling, the plotting intricate), but then the characterizations and plot went to hell as well. People started falling in love instantaneously for no apparent reason; others launched on paths of boneheaded revenge for really cooked up motives that had more to do with authorial convenience then true motivations. Even the characters, late in the book, admitted they were stupid. Plot points were thrown in for no good reason except that, again, the author needed to get someone from point A to point B and show off more worldbuilding; the main character turned into a Maury Stu-type character that could do no wrong and was the best of the best, easily victorious in any contest; and absolutely no care was given to the emotional underpinnings of the story. Things happened, we were supposed to care, but they were so paint-by-number, handled so woodenly and shallowly, that I found myself not caring at all.
But that worldbuilding! Wow. I kept reading long after I would have put most books down because the depth and originality of this world dominated by death, the macabre, and the dead was truly breathtaking. If you love books with dazzling settings and don't care overmuch if the characters have no more depth than a video game and the plotting bears more resemblance to a software program, you'll probably enjoy this book more than I did. I think if the first half of this book hadn't had everything going so damned well, I wouldn't have been as severely disappointed. As is, I'm not sure I'll bother reading any more in this series.
July 5, 2012
:/ Read this a while ago. Three, but barely. It's like eating something and you don't know if you like it or not and it smells kinda funny so you make someone else try it and then they smack you.
Best part is the worldbuilding. Fantastic. Dialogue is pretty good. Biggest problem is that I failed to give much of a crap about anyone except perhaps that fliratious elevator ghost who's, alas, more of a secondary character. MC is a dish-sponge just starting to develop a little odour--some texture there but it's cold and you'd really rather not.
Worth it for the worldbuilding but I was unenthused.
Best part is the worldbuilding. Fantastic. Dialogue is pretty good. Biggest problem is that I failed to give much of a crap about anyone except perhaps that fliratious elevator ghost who's, alas, more of a secondary character. MC is a dish-sponge just starting to develop a little odour--some texture there but it's cold and you'd really rather not.
Worth it for the worldbuilding but I was unenthused.
September 9, 2010
An absolutely mind-blowing book, one of the best fantasies I've read in YEARS. Dark, dark, dark - this is a world powered by death, in a very literal sense. Wraiths and necromancy provide the security, technology, motivation, and power for the entire city...the entire world...and Meaney has developed an INCREDIBLY complex and engrossing cosmology around this concept. Add to that a very well-crafted police procedural/hardboiled crime novel, and you've got one of the most unique books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Meaney pulls NO punches, and it's brilliant.
March 17, 2011
I found it compelling -- fast-paced, well-written gothic necro noir. I look forward to the sequel.
August 6, 2012
I'm tempted to just use the word: 'shit' to sum this book up, since that is the most common phrase of dialogue Mr Meaney uses when his characters can't think of anything more meaningful to say - which is often.
Quite frankly, this is the worst-written book I've ever read. The problem is, where to start? I was given this as a gift, and felt obliged to read it out of courtesy. It started badly, and by the end it became more a mission to grind it out until the bitter end, determined not to be beaten by such an ineptly written pile of old you-know-what.
I was so appalled by it, that at one point about half way through, I looked at a few reader reviews on this site & Amazon, just to see what other people thought. It seems there is a slight majority on the side of this being a great novel ... so maybe it's just me, but I still stand by everything I thought then.
What people seem to like most is the world this story is set in. Hmmm .... personally I think it's rather overdone to no obvious end. Death, demons, scorcery all exist ... with no explanation as to why, and little or no description. The poor descriptions are problem number 1 for me - mostly things either just are named, or given a description which consists of just stating their colour (mostly purple).
I lead myself here to the next problem (number 2): the brackets. Often seemingly not sure how best to describe something, Mr Meaney resorts to giving an explanation, then adding an alternative in brackets. If the novel were written in the first-person this may be acceptable, but the narrative all-too often vaguely appears viewed through the character's eyes, but not explicitly so. It looks amateurish.
Number 3 - Background detail. Current detail in the story is perfunctory at best - both character and setting, but past events - usually something that happened to one of the lead characters, is described in far more detail. The story veers off on tangents to describe past incidents, including names of past contacts and associates, that add nothing whatsover to the present story.
Problem 4: Sketchy characters. The character descriptions are atrocious. The same phrases are often repeated, and little else is provided. How often is cop Harald described as having 'gentle eyes' & being an ex-marine? Too often, and you never know anything else about him.
Laura is a zombie - why? Never explained. Xalia swears a lot - why? Don't know. Viktor & Alexa - do we ever know much about them? Not really. Donal? The main character - veers between super-cop & indecisive, hard-nosed to by-the-book, senior police officer to practically homeless tramp, focussed to easily distracted by women (Laura and the 'Diva'). All we ever know for sure about him is he came from an orphanage. We know, because we are told ad nauseum. And then there's Sushana (Silly name, sounds too much like 'Susanna' said with a speech impediment). Has there ever been a more pointless character in fiction? She is mentioned constantly - either in danger, in a coma, or recovering. Presumably we are supposed to care, but she does literally nothing else in the story. No dialogue, no real part of the plot, not even present in all but one situation except in other's conversations. All we ever know about her is she is rumoured to be in a manage á trois with 2 colleagues - yes, really! That's it. What drivel.
Problem 5: Character names. Some silly names here - Malfax Cortindo (silly & clumsy, and nearly always said in whole each time). Also, referring to an earlier problem, background 'characters' are often named when there is no need to.
Problem 6: Dialogue. This to me is one of the worst problems - it's awful. Too many conversations are full of 'chummy' dialogue which sounds either unnatural or pointless. It's not economical where it needs to be. Conversations too quickly descend into pointless swearing, like the author has reached a point where he can't decide how to proceed and goes for the easy option. Many times, supposedly strong & you assume decisive characters - Donal & Laura plus the other cops - resort to beginning sentences with 'Um....' which makes them look weak and indecisive.
Problem 7: Over-use of death references. The references to death, hell, demons, etc are overdone - really hammered home mercilessly with everything from street names, buildings, dialogue. It's not subtle, and without knowing any background to it all, it just looks tacked on - rather like the emphasis at times to things that show the world to be similiar to ours but not quite the same - like clock times and days of the week for example.
I could argue also that not enough of the plot makes any sense, but it is fantasy s-f so some license must given. Granted, it's got a semblence of some good ideas - although I'd like to know a lot more about why things are, rather than just accepting that is how it is.
The setting is Tristopolis, but with so much going on in the place, we never really know what the city is and what it is all about. It's like a sort of even more nightmarish version of Gotham City, but we aren't told much more other than names of things. It comes across as a bit of a cardboard facade, and not a living, breathing metropolis. I saw someone described the characters in one review as being no deeper than those in video games. It's true, and I'd say it's also true of the city itself.
Obviously, I may be missing something here, as so many people like it, but I'll stick by my opinions. Each to their own, and if readers like it, then fine, I'm not bothered. Maybe I should've stuck with my first thought & kept it simple: It was 'shit'.
Quite frankly, this is the worst-written book I've ever read. The problem is, where to start? I was given this as a gift, and felt obliged to read it out of courtesy. It started badly, and by the end it became more a mission to grind it out until the bitter end, determined not to be beaten by such an ineptly written pile of old you-know-what.
I was so appalled by it, that at one point about half way through, I looked at a few reader reviews on this site & Amazon, just to see what other people thought. It seems there is a slight majority on the side of this being a great novel ... so maybe it's just me, but I still stand by everything I thought then.
What people seem to like most is the world this story is set in. Hmmm .... personally I think it's rather overdone to no obvious end. Death, demons, scorcery all exist ... with no explanation as to why, and little or no description. The poor descriptions are problem number 1 for me - mostly things either just are named, or given a description which consists of just stating their colour (mostly purple).
I lead myself here to the next problem (number 2): the brackets. Often seemingly not sure how best to describe something, Mr Meaney resorts to giving an explanation, then adding an alternative in brackets. If the novel were written in the first-person this may be acceptable, but the narrative all-too often vaguely appears viewed through the character's eyes, but not explicitly so. It looks amateurish.
Number 3 - Background detail. Current detail in the story is perfunctory at best - both character and setting, but past events - usually something that happened to one of the lead characters, is described in far more detail. The story veers off on tangents to describe past incidents, including names of past contacts and associates, that add nothing whatsover to the present story.
Problem 4: Sketchy characters. The character descriptions are atrocious. The same phrases are often repeated, and little else is provided. How often is cop Harald described as having 'gentle eyes' & being an ex-marine? Too often, and you never know anything else about him.
Laura is a zombie - why? Never explained. Xalia swears a lot - why? Don't know. Viktor & Alexa - do we ever know much about them? Not really. Donal? The main character - veers between super-cop & indecisive, hard-nosed to by-the-book, senior police officer to practically homeless tramp, focussed to easily distracted by women (Laura and the 'Diva'). All we ever know for sure about him is he came from an orphanage. We know, because we are told ad nauseum. And then there's Sushana (Silly name, sounds too much like 'Susanna' said with a speech impediment). Has there ever been a more pointless character in fiction? She is mentioned constantly - either in danger, in a coma, or recovering. Presumably we are supposed to care, but she does literally nothing else in the story. No dialogue, no real part of the plot, not even present in all but one situation except in other's conversations. All we ever know about her is she is rumoured to be in a manage á trois with 2 colleagues - yes, really! That's it. What drivel.
Problem 5: Character names. Some silly names here - Malfax Cortindo (silly & clumsy, and nearly always said in whole each time). Also, referring to an earlier problem, background 'characters' are often named when there is no need to.
Problem 6: Dialogue. This to me is one of the worst problems - it's awful. Too many conversations are full of 'chummy' dialogue which sounds either unnatural or pointless. It's not economical where it needs to be. Conversations too quickly descend into pointless swearing, like the author has reached a point where he can't decide how to proceed and goes for the easy option. Many times, supposedly strong & you assume decisive characters - Donal & Laura plus the other cops - resort to beginning sentences with 'Um....' which makes them look weak and indecisive.
Problem 7: Over-use of death references. The references to death, hell, demons, etc are overdone - really hammered home mercilessly with everything from street names, buildings, dialogue. It's not subtle, and without knowing any background to it all, it just looks tacked on - rather like the emphasis at times to things that show the world to be similiar to ours but not quite the same - like clock times and days of the week for example.
I could argue also that not enough of the plot makes any sense, but it is fantasy s-f so some license must given. Granted, it's got a semblence of some good ideas - although I'd like to know a lot more about why things are, rather than just accepting that is how it is.
The setting is Tristopolis, but with so much going on in the place, we never really know what the city is and what it is all about. It's like a sort of even more nightmarish version of Gotham City, but we aren't told much more other than names of things. It comes across as a bit of a cardboard facade, and not a living, breathing metropolis. I saw someone described the characters in one review as being no deeper than those in video games. It's true, and I'd say it's also true of the city itself.
Obviously, I may be missing something here, as so many people like it, but I'll stick by my opinions. Each to their own, and if readers like it, then fine, I'm not bothered. Maybe I should've stuck with my first thought & kept it simple: It was 'shit'.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 10, 2011
The first of a series (The Tristopolis series) this novel features Donal, an investigator for Police Headquarters. Only this police dept is nothing like any department we might have. In fact, Tristopolis is nothing like any city we have on Earth. No, Tristopolis is a city that is powered by the bones of the dead....and apparently it's still a bit....uncomfortable. There are many species inhabiting this city - and working for the police dept. Deathwolves, wraiths, zombies....
In the beginning of the book Donal is given the task of protecting a visiting Diva from an apparent conspiracy...In preparation for this job, Donal is sent to the power company to do some research. The danger the Diva is in involves murder, appropriation of the murder victim's bones, and the apparent use of the bones. Bones sing. Not everyone can hear their song, but something happens to Donal during his visit to the power company and when he leaves, he finds that he frequently hears a voice inside his head that asks him "do you hear the..." He always interrupts the question, sometimes answering, sometimes telling it to shut-up. The thing I loved about this development is that throughout the whole novel, we hear from this voice...it's like a supporting cast.
There is complication - Donal fails in his protective mission (not a spoiler, this info is given on the back of the book), Donal ends up in a hospital and then is recruited by an elite squad within the police department, trying to find out if there is a traitor within the police department, if there is indeed a conspiracy, etc. There are many wonderful characters to read, and lots of great dialogue.
The worldbuilding is .....exquisite. Think of a blend of Gotham City (Batman), a fantasy setting with purple skies, furniture and appliances a la Beauty and the Beast (wraiths occupy them), steampunk-like gadgets run by magic or hexes and a wonderful array of characters that you could find in many fantasy and urban fantasy novel. It all works so well together in John Meaney's creation. Bone Song is rich in details, good writing, suspense and also has some chuckles.
This book was so interesting and entertaining that I found myself wondering halfway through if there was going to be a sequel. I've only felt like that with a few series.
Needless to say, I am looking forward to acquiring the sequel to this (Black Blood in the US and Dark Blood in the UK) and hope it will be soon. Both books, Bone Song and DarkBlood/Black Blood are available now.
I recommend this to lovers of fantasy and urban fantasy.
In the beginning of the book Donal is given the task of protecting a visiting Diva from an apparent conspiracy...In preparation for this job, Donal is sent to the power company to do some research. The danger the Diva is in involves murder, appropriation of the murder victim's bones, and the apparent use of the bones. Bones sing. Not everyone can hear their song, but something happens to Donal during his visit to the power company and when he leaves, he finds that he frequently hears a voice inside his head that asks him "do you hear the..." He always interrupts the question, sometimes answering, sometimes telling it to shut-up. The thing I loved about this development is that throughout the whole novel, we hear from this voice...it's like a supporting cast.
There is complication - Donal fails in his protective mission (not a spoiler, this info is given on the back of the book), Donal ends up in a hospital and then is recruited by an elite squad within the police department, trying to find out if there is a traitor within the police department, if there is indeed a conspiracy, etc. There are many wonderful characters to read, and lots of great dialogue.
The worldbuilding is .....exquisite. Think of a blend of Gotham City (Batman), a fantasy setting with purple skies, furniture and appliances a la Beauty and the Beast (wraiths occupy them), steampunk-like gadgets run by magic or hexes and a wonderful array of characters that you could find in many fantasy and urban fantasy novel. It all works so well together in John Meaney's creation. Bone Song is rich in details, good writing, suspense and also has some chuckles.
This book was so interesting and entertaining that I found myself wondering halfway through if there was going to be a sequel. I've only felt like that with a few series.
Needless to say, I am looking forward to acquiring the sequel to this (Black Blood in the US and Dark Blood in the UK) and hope it will be soon. Both books, Bone Song and DarkBlood/Black Blood are available now.
I recommend this to lovers of fantasy and urban fantasy.
February 16, 2009
I picked this up on a total whim and didn't open it until I needed reading material while waiting at the doctor's office.
Then I ended up reading most of it while on "typing breaks" at work. (I do have RSI, but perhaps I did sneak in more chapters than strictly necessarily...)
It's grim and gritty and unflinching and just a touch of wry, set in a world where people swear, "Thanatos!" and wraiths operate the elevators. I think I got captivated when the main character, Police Lieutenant Donal Riordan, is in a hurry to get out of his 27th-floor office and elsewhere. The cleaners happen to be working on the windows, so he grabs some liquid-metal gloves, jumps out, and grabs the cleaners' cable to slide on down. The convenient taxi starts to speed away when its driver sees him, but:
Just then a dark shape shot into the road from beyond the HQ steps. Amber eyes blazed and the taxi screeched to a halt, rocking on its suspension.
One of the police deathwolves kindly stops the taxi for Donal.
Donal is good at his job but hardly perfect; I was astonished at the level of screw-up Meaney allowed him, which in its way was the climax of the book for me. But that event has repercussions throughout the rest of the story, handled with surprising deftness despite its repetitive reappearances.
I actually objected a bit whenever the POV swung over to other characters, because I was that focused on Donal, but let's say that I got my comeuppance for that.
I'm anxious about the sequel, which I'll read but I think may have been set up for disappointment. We'll see.
August 23, 2011
Didn't finish. Got halfway through and decided I am not going to waste my time when I have other, far more promising books I could be reading.
Honestly, not that interesting of a premise. Felt like the author was trying way too hard to be gothy. I mean, why bother describing the color of something when 90% of the stuff in your 'creative' 'new' world are the same color? To me, it seemed like just another New York City noir-thriller, but with everything colored black and with a few vague references to 'necrofusion', whatever that is.
Also the part where magically fall in love and then have sex like five times in a row was seriously unrealistic. The only person I'd expect to declare their true and undying love to someone they've lived with for a full 10 hours, is a teenage girl who reads too much Twilight. This part gave me the impression of wish-fulfillment on the part of the author. And the sex itself was pretty unrealistic. Not going to get into it here because I know my parents read this. Heh.
Also, the plot was hard to keep up with. There were too many things happening at the same time. I mean, I may have brain damage, but I can usually keep track of what's going on in what I'm reading. I don't normally have to flip back ten pages going "Wait, who is Viktor?"
Overall, a good read if you're into noir-thriller-mystery-stuff and don't mind the seriously overdone, 'edgy' setting, or the unrealistic romance, or the ridiculous amount of boning. But if you're like me and your main attraction to this book was the fantasy/sci-fi aspect, don't even bother.
Honestly, not that interesting of a premise. Felt like the author was trying way too hard to be gothy. I mean, why bother describing the color of something when 90% of the stuff in your 'creative' 'new' world are the same color? To me, it seemed like just another New York City noir-thriller, but with everything colored black and with a few vague references to 'necrofusion', whatever that is.
Also the part where magically fall in love and then have sex like five times in a row was seriously unrealistic. The only person I'd expect to declare their true and undying love to someone they've lived with for a full 10 hours, is a teenage girl who reads too much Twilight. This part gave me the impression of wish-fulfillment on the part of the author. And the sex itself was pretty unrealistic. Not going to get into it here because I know my parents read this. Heh.
Also, the plot was hard to keep up with. There were too many things happening at the same time. I mean, I may have brain damage, but I can usually keep track of what's going on in what I'm reading. I don't normally have to flip back ten pages going "Wait, who is Viktor?"
Overall, a good read if you're into noir-thriller-mystery-stuff and don't mind the seriously overdone, 'edgy' setting, or the unrealistic romance, or the ridiculous amount of boning. But if you're like me and your main attraction to this book was the fantasy/sci-fi aspect, don't even bother.
January 13, 2021
Setting, setting, setting - this author is damned deviously inventive when it comes to setting. Tristopolis is like nothing else out there now. But it comes with some characters that are sometimes as incompletely fleshed out as the zombies that inhabit this dark city. The love affair that Donal, the main character has feels too convenient. The situation provides him with everything that he would need as a sort of deus ex machina of amour. Donal doesn't have to lift a finger to achieve the relationship so it feels flat. It's also a rough transition when the story goes from Donal's perceptions to suddenly encompass the view points of the members of the team. This is not a bad thing, because there are a number of interesting characters. The plot of the story is intriguing and develops well and contains well drafted action scenes. But it's that setting, the completely thought out and envisioned world of Tristopolis that really sells things. Meany has a plethora of ideas and he tosses them out freely. What's even better is the follow up is an easier read, partially because he can now freely pursue these larger themes without the necessity of complex intoductions.
November 24, 2009
About halfway through- Wow. This is a very weird world. I am very much enjoying the exctra, throw-away bits, like the 25-hour day, 9-day week, money in denominations of 27, 11, and 3, etc.; yeah, kinda gratuitous, but it makes me NOT try to map it onto buisness as usual, plus it makes me realize how many "alien" cultures in fiction still presuppose a 24-hour day, just for instance. I am very much enjoying that this one mixes it up, even when it's pretty arbitrary.
Now that I'm done- again, wow. The world is very, very weird and fascinating, and it seemed to be fairly consistent 9though the money denominations did seem arbitrary). I was very taken with how "other" it was- something that's hard to find.
Now that I'm done- again, wow. The world is very, very weird and fascinating, and it seemed to be fairly consistent 9though the money denominations did seem arbitrary). I was very taken with how "other" it was- something that's hard to find.
September 1, 2009
Wow. Okay, the beginning was a bit slow and it took me a while to get into the book - but then I couldn't put it down. The world that John Meaney built is stunning, a world where everything runs on the power of the dead, mostly their bones. It's scary and creepy and it takes time to get used to it, to be perfectly honest. The setting aside, this is basically a mystery book. I fell in love with it once Donal joined Laura's team. I'm now really curious how the team members will react to what happened in the last chapter, at the very end of the book. That means I will be reading the next one in the series for sure!
The most captivating quote? Do you hear the bones?
The most captivating quote? Do you hear the bones?
December 21, 2011
This was really good, a police procedural in a world where the bones of the dead provide power to run a city. A sorcerer is targeting talented artists, whose dead bodies disappear. Police lieutenant Riordan is recruited by Laura Steele for a task force that pursues the sorcerer. The city/world is fascinating, the characters are interesting, there's a nice balance of action, love/sex, political intrigue, mystery.
June 6, 2013
I finished it; I didn't like it.
I couldn't begin to care what happened to the main character or why.
The main plot line was handed to the reader in the first 70 pages, then wash, rinse, repeat - supposedly enjoy that the main character doesn't quite repeat himself during the second climax.
Watch main character fail at logic repeatedly!
Watch main character question his sanity while you question why you're still reading!
Read something else instead.
I couldn't begin to care what happened to the main character or why.
The main plot line was handed to the reader in the first 70 pages, then wash, rinse, repeat - supposedly enjoy that the main character doesn't quite repeat himself during the second climax.
Watch main character fail at logic repeatedly!
Watch main character question his sanity while you question why you're still reading!
Read something else instead.
August 4, 2008
This book was unusual in its feel. It was a very dark, gothic setting, and at times felt a bit like steampunk meets Knockturn Alley. The story kept me pretty interested, but the execution felt choppy.
September 7, 2021
Wow!! This was an amazing book I was always kept on my toes with what was going to happen next. This book had such a good story, bones powering the city and being able to read peoples stories from their homes after they’ve died, this was such an interesting concept and I loved reading it.
The book got going straight away with Donal being dropped straight in the deep end trying to save the Diva. I was utterly shocked with how all the action unfolded from there on in the book because I couldn’t predict anything that was going to happen. I love how that your kept in the dark just as much as the characters which gives you the opportunity to try and guess who’s the main killers.
This book was really easy to follow which was nice because with Sci-Fi novels sometimes the plot gets lost in all the technology they’re using and describing . I love that this apps had a fantasy twist with the wraiths and the death wolves, it made the plot better because there were more resources for the team to use.
Laura’s team was a well written group of characters, they all had such different personalities but you could really understand their sense of family towards the others. Laura and Donald relationship was rushed across a bit and I was sad that we didn’t really get to know shushana. The bone people made a great addition to the plot with their special skills and I loved their aloofness.
Over all this was an excellent read and I would definitely recommend this book! There’s just too many surprises to not want to read it, I’m now excited to read the next as I want to find out how Donal and the team are doing with the shocking ending of this book!
The book got going straight away with Donal being dropped straight in the deep end trying to save the Diva. I was utterly shocked with how all the action unfolded from there on in the book because I couldn’t predict anything that was going to happen. I love how that your kept in the dark just as much as the characters which gives you the opportunity to try and guess who’s the main killers.
This book was really easy to follow which was nice because with Sci-Fi novels sometimes the plot gets lost in all the technology they’re using and describing . I love that this apps had a fantasy twist with the wraiths and the death wolves, it made the plot better because there were more resources for the team to use.
Laura’s team was a well written group of characters, they all had such different personalities but you could really understand their sense of family towards the others. Laura and Donald relationship was rushed across a bit and I was sad that we didn’t really get to know shushana. The bone people made a great addition to the plot with their special skills and I loved their aloofness.
Over all this was an excellent read and I would definitely recommend this book! There’s just too many surprises to not want to read it, I’m now excited to read the next as I want to find out how Donal and the team are doing with the shocking ending of this book!
August 25, 2019
Gothic, Noir, Hard-Boiled...?
This book is the first of a series. Honestly, I bought it almost reluctantly because the premise seemed almost trite and adolescent. It got some glowing reviews from authors I respected though, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm very glad I did. Bone Song is a hard-boiled detective story in a Gothic noir setting where the conveniences of modern society are powered by necromantic sciences. The story is well-paced with a nod to most of the hard-boiled detective tropes, but with far greater depths than I expected. Donal, the aforementioned detective, is essentially a decent, dedicated policeman who struggles with a deep ambivalence about the choices his world has made in order to prosper. In fact, most of the characters we're introduced to are just trying to do the right thing, except for the villains of course. However their story takes place in a meticulously imaged world of everyday horror. The author paints a vivid picture of a fantastic world that rests on the misery and subjugation of the dead. It's not too much of a stretch to compare it to our modern world. It's just not a comparison I was quick to make because I was so wrapped up in the fantastic visuals and engaging story to really notice until it was all over. At any rate, I hope you'll try the book out. It's great. I'm really looking forward to finishing the series!
This book is the first of a series. Honestly, I bought it almost reluctantly because the premise seemed almost trite and adolescent. It got some glowing reviews from authors I respected though, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm very glad I did. Bone Song is a hard-boiled detective story in a Gothic noir setting where the conveniences of modern society are powered by necromantic sciences. The story is well-paced with a nod to most of the hard-boiled detective tropes, but with far greater depths than I expected. Donal, the aforementioned detective, is essentially a decent, dedicated policeman who struggles with a deep ambivalence about the choices his world has made in order to prosper. In fact, most of the characters we're introduced to are just trying to do the right thing, except for the villains of course. However their story takes place in a meticulously imaged world of everyday horror. The author paints a vivid picture of a fantastic world that rests on the misery and subjugation of the dead. It's not too much of a stretch to compare it to our modern world. It's just not a comparison I was quick to make because I was so wrapped up in the fantastic visuals and engaging story to really notice until it was all over. At any rate, I hope you'll try the book out. It's great. I'm really looking forward to finishing the series!
December 31, 2017
Half the reason I think I have such favourable memories of Bone Song is just how darned weird it is. The story is a fairly uninspired police procedural, you know the sort of thing: big conspiracy, honest cop from a tough background who has to get to the bottom of it, doesn’t know whom to trust, has to cut some corners and break some rules (and other people’s faces) to get results, but ultimately is a good, honest guy and not at all a nasty piece of work who just tortured someone. Even when set in an SFF backdrop, this isn’t particularly inspired. But the backdrop of Bone Song is a little bit more than just your average urban fantasy setting. It turns the dial up to eleven and really really goes for it, in absolutely every regard. Characters, places, cars, you name it – it’s all got a little bit weird and creepy. And I love it.
The book is set primarily in the city of Tristopolis, where the power station’s necrofusion generators are powered by the bones of the dead. And this pretty much sets the tone for the book’s aesthetic going forward. Even the colour schemes the author describes as parts of daily life in the city are twisted by this – a preponderance of blues and purples and silvers, overlaid with mercury rain, skulls and ouroboroi. The city’s inhabitants aren’t just living humans; there are deathwolves and wraiths and zombies ghouls and cat-lady nurses. The religions have a streak of unexplained witchcraft running through them, as well as the macabre – the protagonist went to an orphanage presided over by Sister Mary-Ann Styx, for goodness’ sake. The author has so obviously put so much care and attention into making even the tiniest things that little bit more necrotastic that the whole thing becomes slightly joyous. Even the names that aren’t obvious like Styx have a hint of it to them – Malfax Cortindo springs to mind – and there are things which don’t appear obviously gothic in and of themselves, but which somehow seem to add to the feel of the book, like the fact that the week is eighteen days and the day twenty-five hours. Meaney goes down to the point of describing the shapes of coins in his dedication to setting, as well as laying out the grand vistas like the Glass Plains. So you get this really beautiful and coherent sense of a world which, I suspect, had Meaney been less dedicated, would just have come across as silly. The amount of hyperbolic neo-gothic he’s playing with could so easily have slipped into the ridiculous, but it is precisely the amount to which he has concentrated it – filled every single detail and twisted every line – that makes it rooted and real to the reader. The world feels absolutely believable, and also absolutely the realistic sort of grim you want for this sort of crime story. Somehow, I get the exact same atmosphere from the quicksilver rain from a purple sky, the same misery and determination and quiet tension, that I would from clear rain from grey skies in a fictionalised New York. And while the plotting and characters of the book would never have it ranking top of anyone’s lists, the setting does go a long way to averaging that out, and, more importantly, to making the book both incredibly endearing and utterly memorable. Because I am intensely fond of it.
But, as I say, the characters and plotting are not the best, by anyone’s standards. Meaney’s protagonist, Donal Riordan, is too much of a cop stereotype to really appeal. He’s an excellent example of what he is – a cop from the streets, smarter than he looks but not book-smart, determined to solve the crimes and keep the people safe, but not afraid to break some rules – but what he is is hackneyed and a bit dull. And the characters surrounding him, for all their superficial, neo-gothic glamour, are much the same. The romance plot particularly lets things down, seemingly coming out of nowhere, with no build up and no… emotional investment. Meaney wanted a romance sub-plot, so he threw it in, and was none too fussed about how we go there. Given the care he has lavished on his world-building, this sloppiness is quite surprising. He does at least manage to summon a host of plausible, strong and diverse female characters, both foreground and background, but they’re not necessarily innovative even then. They’re good, because not enough SFF has that and I do own a feminist hat I like to don from time to time. But as characters go generally, they’re not that exciting.
Likewise, the plotting is nothing special. Nothing that happens really surprised me, nor would it surprise anyone who’s watched trashy police telly or read crime fiction ever. It’s not awful, not really worth any condemnation. But nor is it worthy of praise. He’s done a thing that many others have done, and done it perfectly successfully, but not really excelled at it in any way.
As I say, what makes the book shine is the setting, and it shines so hard that it does overpower the books other faults. It doesn’t balance them out, because they are still there and still obvious, but it makes the book so much about its glorious, beautiful, wonderful setting that that doesn’t matter anymore. And this opinion makes me officially a hypocrite, because it is the precise opposite of what I said about Dune. But it’s my ‘blog, an I can be a hypocrite on it if I want. I suspect the real difference is one of timing – Dune was too early for me, so by the time I read it, I’d already internalised all the things that it did as cool and new. Whereas Bone Song is cool and new. It messes with things and makes them interesting and unexpected, and above all it commits 100% to what it chooses to do, and so it does charm me into ignoring what it fails to do properly.
Bone Song is a endearing, memorable, neo-gothic extravaganza, and it is worth reading simply because I can’t think of anything else that does precisely what it does.
The book is set primarily in the city of Tristopolis, where the power station’s necrofusion generators are powered by the bones of the dead. And this pretty much sets the tone for the book’s aesthetic going forward. Even the colour schemes the author describes as parts of daily life in the city are twisted by this – a preponderance of blues and purples and silvers, overlaid with mercury rain, skulls and ouroboroi. The city’s inhabitants aren’t just living humans; there are deathwolves and wraiths and zombies ghouls and cat-lady nurses. The religions have a streak of unexplained witchcraft running through them, as well as the macabre – the protagonist went to an orphanage presided over by Sister Mary-Ann Styx, for goodness’ sake. The author has so obviously put so much care and attention into making even the tiniest things that little bit more necrotastic that the whole thing becomes slightly joyous. Even the names that aren’t obvious like Styx have a hint of it to them – Malfax Cortindo springs to mind – and there are things which don’t appear obviously gothic in and of themselves, but which somehow seem to add to the feel of the book, like the fact that the week is eighteen days and the day twenty-five hours. Meaney goes down to the point of describing the shapes of coins in his dedication to setting, as well as laying out the grand vistas like the Glass Plains. So you get this really beautiful and coherent sense of a world which, I suspect, had Meaney been less dedicated, would just have come across as silly. The amount of hyperbolic neo-gothic he’s playing with could so easily have slipped into the ridiculous, but it is precisely the amount to which he has concentrated it – filled every single detail and twisted every line – that makes it rooted and real to the reader. The world feels absolutely believable, and also absolutely the realistic sort of grim you want for this sort of crime story. Somehow, I get the exact same atmosphere from the quicksilver rain from a purple sky, the same misery and determination and quiet tension, that I would from clear rain from grey skies in a fictionalised New York. And while the plotting and characters of the book would never have it ranking top of anyone’s lists, the setting does go a long way to averaging that out, and, more importantly, to making the book both incredibly endearing and utterly memorable. Because I am intensely fond of it.
But, as I say, the characters and plotting are not the best, by anyone’s standards. Meaney’s protagonist, Donal Riordan, is too much of a cop stereotype to really appeal. He’s an excellent example of what he is – a cop from the streets, smarter than he looks but not book-smart, determined to solve the crimes and keep the people safe, but not afraid to break some rules – but what he is is hackneyed and a bit dull. And the characters surrounding him, for all their superficial, neo-gothic glamour, are much the same. The romance plot particularly lets things down, seemingly coming out of nowhere, with no build up and no… emotional investment. Meaney wanted a romance sub-plot, so he threw it in, and was none too fussed about how we go there. Given the care he has lavished on his world-building, this sloppiness is quite surprising. He does at least manage to summon a host of plausible, strong and diverse female characters, both foreground and background, but they’re not necessarily innovative even then. They’re good, because not enough SFF has that and I do own a feminist hat I like to don from time to time. But as characters go generally, they’re not that exciting.
Likewise, the plotting is nothing special. Nothing that happens really surprised me, nor would it surprise anyone who’s watched trashy police telly or read crime fiction ever. It’s not awful, not really worth any condemnation. But nor is it worthy of praise. He’s done a thing that many others have done, and done it perfectly successfully, but not really excelled at it in any way.
As I say, what makes the book shine is the setting, and it shines so hard that it does overpower the books other faults. It doesn’t balance them out, because they are still there and still obvious, but it makes the book so much about its glorious, beautiful, wonderful setting that that doesn’t matter anymore. And this opinion makes me officially a hypocrite, because it is the precise opposite of what I said about Dune. But it’s my ‘blog, an I can be a hypocrite on it if I want. I suspect the real difference is one of timing – Dune was too early for me, so by the time I read it, I’d already internalised all the things that it did as cool and new. Whereas Bone Song is cool and new. It messes with things and makes them interesting and unexpected, and above all it commits 100% to what it chooses to do, and so it does charm me into ignoring what it fails to do properly.
Bone Song is a endearing, memorable, neo-gothic extravaganza, and it is worth reading simply because I can’t think of anything else that does precisely what it does.
August 30, 2017
I read this several years ago and found myself re-reading it recently. I remember liking it more than I did this time, but still found it very interesting.
This is a police procedural with overtones of international intrigue. The difference is that Meaney has created an inventive completely different alternative to the modern world based on magic. It describes a modern society which has skyscrapers, cars, planes, power generation, etc but all done by a magical technology. It has humans as well as various other creatures living together. As an example, power generation comes from using the bones of people after they die.
The story is somewhat uneven, but with a good plot. I saw other reviews who had some difficulty reading this book which didn't occur at all for me.
Interesting and fairly unusual novel.
This is a police procedural with overtones of international intrigue. The difference is that Meaney has created an inventive completely different alternative to the modern world based on magic. It describes a modern society which has skyscrapers, cars, planes, power generation, etc but all done by a magical technology. It has humans as well as various other creatures living together. As an example, power generation comes from using the bones of people after they die.
The story is somewhat uneven, but with a good plot. I saw other reviews who had some difficulty reading this book which didn't occur at all for me.
Interesting and fairly unusual novel.
June 19, 2025
The world building here is really good. There's a certain romance to Meaney's gothic-deco city with its 200-storey skyscrapers bathed in eternal twilight. A place where witches ride alongside police detectives, hexes are often deadlier than bullets, and zombies can find true love. But he seems to spend so much time playing with his set pieces that he neglects to flesh out the story itself leaving us to wonder the whys and wherefores of a rather serpentine plot....in other words, what the hell is going on? Add to that an annoying habit of interjecting sentence fragments ad nauseam: "Do you...?" "Can you feel....?" "...the bones?" and you have a novel with some interesting passages undone by stretches of tedium. Would probably have been better as a manga giving the visuals a greater impact. 2.5/5
January 21, 2022
"Bone Song" had me confused for a while - there was lots of description and some action but it just niggled me. And then I figured it out - it's a comic book only the pictures have been taken out and replaced with words.
It's got lots of world creation but you end up not knowing what the hell is happening or how it works. It's steampunk noir with a lot of magic thrown in and it is completely confusing.
Lieutenant Donal Riordan is tasked to protect an opera singer performing in Tristoplis - she gets killed and he's at least partly responsible. It's time to be enlisted into a secret police group dedicated to finding the Black Circle - gimme a break!
I read a quarter of it and gave up - it really didn't work for me.
2 Stars
It's got lots of world creation but you end up not knowing what the hell is happening or how it works. It's steampunk noir with a lot of magic thrown in and it is completely confusing.
Lieutenant Donal Riordan is tasked to protect an opera singer performing in Tristoplis - she gets killed and he's at least partly responsible. It's time to be enlisted into a secret police group dedicated to finding the Black Circle - gimme a break!
I read a quarter of it and gave up - it really didn't work for me.
2 Stars
January 5, 2023
It takes skill to weave necromancy in place of technology into a world in such a way that it becomes acceptable as normal enough to become the background to a classic noir tale. If you loved noir fiction or dark horror, this is both.
Unlike fantasy, the necromancy is not portrayed as fantastic but woven so deeply into the fundamental nature of the world that it forms the tapestry into which the tale of the characters can be woven. If you are looking for stereotypes, you won't actually find them. This is a work that flows so naturally that the characters make sense utterly in the world in which they act, even if they should seem fantastic to our eyes.
The setting allows for a true telling of a noir mystery, rife with tragedy, adventure, romance, and even humour.
Unlike fantasy, the necromancy is not portrayed as fantastic but woven so deeply into the fundamental nature of the world that it forms the tapestry into which the tale of the characters can be woven. If you are looking for stereotypes, you won't actually find them. This is a work that flows so naturally that the characters make sense utterly in the world in which they act, even if they should seem fantastic to our eyes.
The setting allows for a true telling of a noir mystery, rife with tragedy, adventure, romance, and even humour.
April 6, 2021
Uninteresting in the extreme for me and I really wanted to like this one. There were many instances where I felt I was missing some important exposition only to realize after rereading and going back and forth through pages that the author wasn't providing the exposition itself. I was well and truly lost in the story and came away not understanding the antagonist's motivations, what the driving force behind the plot was, or why I should care about the protagonist. Maybe it wasn't explained in small enough words for me.
*All thoughts and opinions are my own.*
*All thoughts and opinions are my own.*
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