The Bone Season

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon – 452 pages

It is the year 2059. Several major world cities are under the control of a security force called Scion. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London, part of a secret cell known as the Seven Seals. The work she does is unusual: scouting for information by breaking into others’ minds. Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare kind of clairvoyant, and in this world, the voyants commit treason simply by breathing.

But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city—Oxford, erased from the map two centuries ago and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly—as soldiers in their army.

Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.

A follower of the Good Book Fairy from Minnesota suggested I read this book and told me it was the “it” book in her neck of the woods. I did a little research and found out that this author had already been signed to continue this story with a  7 book total book-deal  and the movie options have already been sold to Imaginarium Studios. Lots of talk made this seem like it would be the next, dare I say it, Harry Potter or Hunger Games series, which immediately puts a lot of undue pressure on a book I hadn’t even started!

With that being said, I liked the book, a lot. There is an insane amount of information overload with a gazillion different names and types of seers, clairvoyants, sniffers, grubbers, red-jackets etc. I was able, thankfully, to skip a lot of that and still had no problem understanding the plot and plight of the characters. For some who need to grasp all the details, this book could be laborious, but the author offers graphs in the front of the book and a detailed glossary at the end to help you if necessary. All in all, this was an original page turner and I believe much of the author’s goal in this first book was setting up the background for the future books to come. I know with all there is yet for me to read, this book satisfied my curiosity about 2059, Scion, the Citadel and the Bone Seasons in general. I will not be running out to read the sequels, but I will happily see the movie with popcorn and a diet coke!

– “My father thought I would lead a simple life; that I was bright but unambitious, complacent with whatever work life threw at me. My father, as usual, was wrong.”