★★★☆☆ Early Martha Wells, updated

City of Bones: Updated and Revised Edition

Martha Wells

City of Bones, published in 1995, was Martha Wells' second published novel. This book is an updated and revised edition, and is Wells' preferred text. Now, I have a confession to make: I have not read the earlier edition. Thus I do not know how it changed to make this one. (And while I'm in a confessional mood, let me also admit that I don't know why the book is called "City of Bones"-- bones play a very small role in the book.) Like many of you (your turn to confess!), I became interested in Wells through Murderbot. If that is you, well, if you were hoping for something a lot like Murderbot, this is not that.

City of Bones is one of those novels that avoids commitment to either Fantasy or Science Fiction. It's a postapocalypse novel. The seas of the world on which it takes place (which could be a future Earth) have been replaced by volcanic wastelands. Prior to the apocalypse the world was inhabited by a technologically sophisticated people whom the present inhabitants call "The Ancients". The Ancients left behind artifacts which the present inhabitants call arcane engines. In addition they left behind a race of people genetically engineered to survive in the wastes, called Krismen. One such person, Khat, is the main point-of-view character. The Krismen are, however, a minority. Most of the people are more ordinary humans. Some of them have magic -- the science fictional interpretation would be that this is Clarke's Law magic: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

The exact nature of the apocalypse that took away the water and created the wastes is not at first clear. In fact, this turns out to be an important plot point, and, to avoid spoilers, I will say no more about it.

Aside from Khat (who is, to be honest, a pretty typical Action Hero kind of guy), the most important character is Elen, who is a Warder, who are a kind of magical police force. Elen's intelligent and methodical personality is far more important than her magic. Hers is the quest mentioned in the publisher's blurb, "to find relics believed to be part of one of the Ancients' arcane engines". Khat makes a living as a relics trader, and Elen hires him to help her out. And thus the story begins.

My biggest problem with City of Bones is that it's so *slow*. The previous paragraph, in which I outlined the beginning of the story, takes the first half of the book. Things pick up a bit after that, as we begin to find out the nature of the relics Elen is searching for. Eventually it becomes quite a good story. But it takes a long time to get there.

I thank NetGalley and Tor for an advance reader copy of City of Bones: Updated and Revised Edition. This review expresses my honest opinions.

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