Bel Reviews: Samantha Shannon's - "The Bone Season"
“Welcome to Scion. No Safer Place.”
Ahhhh, sure! A completely believable slogan by a completely trustworthy governing body. Just as long as you fit into their nice neat little boxes and obey, obey, obey.
As you would expect, we follow the young woman who commits treason by simply breathing. In 2059 London it is illegal to have any sort of supernatural ability, so for nineteen year old Paige Mahoney, being able to dreamwalk (her spirit can possess other people’s bodies) and walking the line between legality and the seedy underbelly of the organised criminal element, is ‘normal’.
It’s not until she is captured and shipped off to Oxford, a long forgotten and practically mythical place, that she finds herself under the tutelage of a race of otherworldly creatures. Will she open herself up to learning to hone her skills for the sake of this alien race? Or will she make a break for it and head back to London?
This book doesn’t really have a specifically defined genre, but it is most definitely speculative fiction. There is a little dystopia, a little Victorian fashion, a smidge of romance and a hell of a lot of paranormal butt-kicking, not to mention science fiction.
The pacing is varied enough that you would have to be extremely focussed to finish in a single sitting. That being said, I did find my mind wandering back to the storyline when I was at work, so there is certainly enough hook to bring you back after being forced to put the book down.
Paige is a dedicated and loyal character, and watching her struggle with her conscience was heart wrenching. I’m wondering how she will evolve over the seven-part series.
Though there are still questions to be answered, you are left feeling satisfied and hopeful for the next instalment.
There are movie rights for The Bone Season being optioned and I think this dark, futuristic, struggle for survival would lend itself wonderfully to the big screen. Here’s hoping we’ll see Paige on the silver screen sooner rather than later.
http://samantha-shannon.blogspot.com.au/
http://www.boneseasonbooks.com/
Paperback, 466 pages
Expected Publication: August 20th 2013 by Bloomsbury
ISBN13 9781408836439
