Throne of Bones

As a long time reader of fantasy, I look on the current fantasy field and do not like what I see. I have tried and failed to read anything by the prolific Robert Jordan. I may try again as the first book in his long series, the one I could not get through years ago, is available on Amazon Kindle for $1.

So, being familiar with Vox Day's other works, I approached his newest book, Throne of Bones, with a guarded optimism. I found the book good enough that it may reignite my interest in the fantasy genre. Picture a Roman type government in the south, a medieval style government to the middle north of the world, Vikings to the north, with scattered pockets of elves, dwarves, and goblins. Of course there is magic, and, surprising for such novels, most humans are "Christians." If you can picture all this you can picture this world.

The main thing I liked about the book was the good characterizations. Rather than all characters being variations on a theme, most being alike, each of the characters has a unique perspective--the elves are elves and the dwarves are dwarves, for example. The "Roman" characters in conflict each try to do best by their country in their own way, with their own individual personalities.

Except for the occasional demon, there is little stereotypical evil in the book. A personal pet peeve is such characters. Even the semi-demonic Nephilum are not "evil" so much as trying to achieve their goals with a total lack of concern for ethics. This is, of course, what evil is all about, achieving good for yourself by unethical means, as Augustine pointed out centuries ago.

Even the evil human characters have redeeming qualities, just like the real world. The good that evil men do has always been an interesting aspect of humanity, and Throne of Bones, has plenty of this.

I did not like the multiple perspectives. For a novel of this scope, I can see the author had little choice in the matter. I personally prefer smaller stories, less epic in scope. (Thus the four stars I give it, rather than five. There is no way to give it 4 1/2 stars, about where I place the book.)

So if you like fantasy, I would certainly recommend this book. The Kindle price of $5 is very fair.