“Nothing’s worse than a story without an end,” our heroine declaims at one point. I was forcibly reminded of this sentiment when The Bone Season breaks off in the middle of the set-piece that concludes the novel. Author Samantha Shannon herself has said that this is number one of seven. Other than the same number of novels in the Harry Potter series, why seven?
Remember the good old days of genre fiction when we thought that a trilogy was pushing it? Or when a master like Samuel R. Delany told us that The Splendour and Misery of Bodies, Of Cities – one of the greatest SF novels ever written – was part one of a diptych … and then he promptly neglected to write the concluding volume.
Now we have a young up-and-coming writer like Shannon telling us, before we’ve even cracked open a single page of The Bone Season, that we will have to commit to six more. I think the Knights of the Round Table had an easier ‘to do’ list in finding the Holy Grail than a modern reader has in seeking resolution in the current book she is reading.
Continuing the theme of derivation, a ‘bone season’ is an event where clairvoyants are harvested to battle mysterious creatures, much as the ‘hunger games’ selects combatants from the 12 districts to battle each other to the death. Both Samantha Shannon and Suzanne Collins feature young plucky heroines and strong but enigmatic leading men. Both novels feature de rigueur dystopias anchored around highly stratified societies.
While The Bone Season is characterised by impressive world-building, I felt there was simply too much info-dumping in this first instalment. A bit here and there is okay, but Shannon’s characters are so busy establishing the over-complicated back story that they forget to be characters. Sadly, we therefore forego the primary joy of reading, which is to savour a great story well told.
Also, the Rephaim are so thoroughly unlikeable, and our heroine Paige spends so much of the novel in a state of acute pain and distress, that there is not much to root for, or like, in the novel. None of the characters make that much of an impression either. The ‘big reveal’ about Nick’s sexuality is handled so perfunctorily that it makes little impact on the story.
Likewise, Paige’s constant state of heightened antagonism towards Arcturus, combined with his aloof coldness, leaves no room for the reader’s emotional investment in the story. This makes for an excruciating, rather tedious build-up towards a thoroughly confusing climactic battle. Just what the dickens happens to Nashira, for example?
It will remain to be seen if Shannon has built a strong enough base here to carry a further six novels. My gut feeling is she will have to introduce some new, quirky and likeable characters pretty fast, as well as lightening the mood a little bit, for readers to commit further to this series.
A Book Lover's Discourse 