From Renaissance Italy, I have travelled to futuristic, dystopian England. I’m about 2/3 of the way through The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon.
Although marketed to adults, I can see many YA readers flocking to this novel. It’s an OK read. I don’t think it is necessarily worthy of the hype that it has been getting, but I can see that it is a potential moneymaking series. Although here are some very original elements, the clairvoyance in particular, reading The Bone Season has me thinking of other books I’ve read.
The first literary connection I made was to Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’s End. Both books have a “Master Species” taking over Earth, claiming to be benign protectors.
There is the obvious similarity to The Hunger Games: a strong female who has to play the Masters’ game, but doesn’t really accept the rules.
The book is set in London and Oxford, recalling Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials . There was even a companion book called Lyra’s Oxford, if I recall correctly.
Finally, Shannon has projected a seven novel series from this debut novel. A little Harry Potterish, don’t you think?
The story moves quickly and Paige is a very likable character. Sometimes the local cant interferes with the flow of the story, but that might just be because I went straight to this novel from Falcon in the Glass. Anyway, if you read a lot, this is worth picking up just to see what all the hype is about. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts about The Bone Season.
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