Bone Song / John Meaney

Bone Song

category: fantasy, author:

John Meaney

book 1 of Dark Suspense
original copyright 2008,

read in November 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 9 out of 10

This... is a very weird world! Yet -- within its weirdness -- absolutely logical. If corpses did provide a power source... then this could well be the world that they power.

Better yet... not all the world is the same...

The action is centred on Tristopolis. The central power plant is an awful place... which is no surprise... it is haunted by the dead people who are being tormented to provide the city with power. The power station in the country of Illuria is equally awful... yet in a different way. The energy of the dead is extracted in a different way.

One fantasy world with a variety of self-consistent countries. The countries are inspired -- loosely -- by our own. With a passing reference to a fantasy book series where power is extracted from fossil fuels...

A dark world. Gothic. Yet very human... including the non-humans.

There is a touch of humour in Bone Song. Sometimes black humour, often cynical. The occasional quotable chuckle in a dark detective novel.

The cops are tough, determined and dedicated. Okay, they are very tough. They also work closely with each other, support each other, care for each other. It's easy to like them.

I liked the characters enough to be upset by the sudden death near the end of the book.

Still, that's just me: I like all the good-guy characters to survive...

This is a great book. I hope that there are more.

..o0o..

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