The Bone Season: A Novel

Samantha Shannon

Aug 2013 · Bloomsbury Publishing USA

About this ebook

From the author of The Priory of the Orange Tree, the New York Times bestselling first novel in the Bone Season series, an epic fantasy about a young woman fighting to use her powers and stay alive in an England entirely different from our own.

In 2059, Scion has taken over most of the world's cities, promising safety for all the citizens it deems worthy and wiping out clairvoyants wherever it can find them.

Paige Mahoney, though, is a clairvoyant--and a criminal just for existing. Paige is determined to fight Scion's power, and as part of the Seven Seals, Paige has found a use for her powers: she scouts for information by breaking into others' minds as they dream.

But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city, 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.

The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine-a young woman learning to harness her powers in a world where everything has been taken from her. It also introduces an extraordinary young writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.

Ratings and reviews

Jesus, the characters. Nobody has any coherent motivation, the plot is just one random event after another. It feels like something I wrote as a high school freshman. I guess this book is for a much younger audience than I thought. Don't bother with this wreck of a story if you're over thirteen. There is no crossover potential here.

The plot doesn't hang together well. The author starts things and doesn't quite finish them. The main character has little or no personality giving her an unfinished feel that leaves us with an unlikely anti-hero who lacks depth. Additionally the conflict in the story is never entirely addressed and the "bad guy" never entirely determined. Interesting ideas but it's altogether sloppy even for a first publication but especially for someone being hailed as the next J.K. Rowling.

In my opinion the book started out slow. Had took me a day or two to really get into it. However when everything she wrote clicked. I couldn't stop reading. I appreciate the way she wrote. Her style of writing was the right for her to do it. She has to explain to everyone the world she dreamed. I loved it and can not wait for more. Hopefully next year we will get another book. I am a new loyal fan of hers. She is my keeper/ mime-lord. Haha

About the author

Samantha Shannon is the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of The Bone Season series. Her work has been translated into twenty-six languages. Her fourth novel, The Priory of the Orange Tree, was her first outside of The Bone Season series and was a New York Times bestseller. She lives in London.

samanthashannon.co.uk / @say_shannon