A Throne of Bones (Arts of Dark and Light Book 1)

An excellent fantasy novel with a complex and compelling plot. Other works that include any elements of Christianity usually deal with it in a sappy, trite, stupid, or hostile fashion. That gets old. The author avoids all of that, which is a very rare thing. The characters are engaging, the warfare is gritty, the analogous-to-Roman intrigue is dramatic, romantic, and close to epic. One minor criticism is the death of a key character should have been more poignant and painful, but wasn't because I didn't get enough time with this particular character to develop much empathy before the death. And one thing I especially enjoyed: the development of the antagonist(s) toward the end.

Looking forward to the next one.

I highly enjoyed this first installment in the Arts of Dark and Light.

The battles were interesting and flowed very well, the portion in which the perspective was taken of individual soldiers who were all doomed to die in one way or another was also entertaining. The manner in which elves interacted with humans showed a great deal of creativity.

Many of the strands of the story related to each other from the beginning but some had relations that were difficult to piece together until quite late in the piece, when they all had come together though the story became very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to the next entry in the series.

A very good read and an incredible value for such a sizable novel. I first read the short A Magic Broken to see if I would like this story and upon completion I was sufficiently impressed to take the plunge into A Throne of Bones. Reading the short isn't required to appreciate this novel, but it adds to the experience. I've never read any of Vox's other fiction, although I am familiar with his non-fiction. That being said, I think that the author has a real knack for fiction and am glad to hear that he will be devoting much more time to writing the follow up to this novel that I eagerly await.

A Throne of Bones delivers strong characters with complex motivations, a deep world with a tangible sense of history, and many familiar archetypes which fans of classic fantasy and military history will likely appreciate. Vox delivers a big story here with multiple point-of-view characters that spans several months, yet the plotting is easy enough to grasp. He turns the story very well, renewing and building suspense as the tale grows. There is a bit of mystery along with a few surprises and for the most part the plot is well served.

But this book leaves room for improvement. For starters, I believe it would have benefited from more time in editing, although as I understand it, one of the author's stated goals was to finish the novel as quickly as possible. I appreciate the motives behind the goal, but I think that this needs to be balanced against the quality of the finished product. Overall, I think that this work feels a bit too raw in places and would have improved with further polish.

It should be said that this book is the first in a series and while the end provides some measure of resolution regarding certain plot points it is also openly setting the stage for the continuing story. While some threads feel a bit rushed to conclusion this book's ending is sufficiently satisfying to leave me in anticipation of the next installment. In short, it is very good, but not great. Given the genre and the task the author has set himself, I consider `very good' to be high marks.

Spoiler Alert! It is self-evident where the book shines, but perhaps less obvious where it falters. So I shall give a few examples:

The story opens with the Holy Sanctif assigning one of the Princes of the church to investigate another member who is to be elevated in the church hierarchy, but whom they suspect may not be a mortal being. This is a nice mystery to get the story rolling, but it turns into a mere teaser as the setup is all but abandoned. While events in the story clearly touch upon this mystery, we are denied the exploration of this plot line until very late in the tale. Unfortunately, by the time we return to this part of the story, other events have long overtaken it. This was a major part of the larger story and it deserved more attention. It was quite a letdown to find out that the new Holy Sanctif had already been broken to the will of the immortal. I understand that this was a big story and choices had to be made but I felt like too much was glossed over and the result was a missed opportunity.

Similarly, there were significant gaps in Lodi's story, such as how did they escape the dragon's lair? And why exactly did they travel deeper into orc lands as opposed to returning home after securing the dwarf lord's shield? Worst of all, how exactly did Lodi come to hear of Marcus' Legion and successfully seek him out. I know that Lodi explains this in passing but it is entirely insufficient to cover such a fortuitous coincidence.

The POV changes were fine during the major battles with the legions as there was much to cover over a single event. But it was downright annoying to leave in the middle of the battle on the northern isles, not to return for several chapters. Breaking up that battle might have made sense within the larger story structure, but it lessened the dramatic effect of that particular battle.

Finally, there is the escape of Marcus and his legion at the conclusion of the book. This is the third time that he has managed the feat in this story and in the end it feels like a bridge too far. We aren't actually told how he manages the escape, except that going underground and presumably magic were involved. But it feels rushed and too easy. I got the feeling that the author was tired and out of time and decided that he would sort out the details of this great escape in the next book. And all of this comes on the heels of his legion being joined by the elven princesses, the mage, and then Lodi. The story groans under the weight of the additional coincidence that most of these characters know each other from mostly unrelated events. Perhaps all will be forgiven if in the next book the author spins a most epic and satisfying recounting of their escape. In my opinion, Vox has a lot of explaining to do.

So those were my big gripes, which along with the lack of polish in some places, lead me to give this book four stars instead of five. Anyhow, kudos Vox. Looking forward to the next installment. Please take your time - but don't take too long!

I've recently, after some contemplating, updated this review to four stars. After mulling over this story in reference to many other books in its genre, I think this still ends up being above average, though still not brilliant. Three stars simply doesn't reflect the quality of the story or the experience in reading it.

This is going to be in depth, may contain mild spoilers. I apologize for the length, but I think the author reads all of these reviews and I want to challenge him to improve some of weaker areas of his first book before he publishes the second novel.

I prefer to start with the bad and end on a good note, so let's get the bad out of the way.

The first thing that struck me is the very...minimalist (for lack of a better word) writing style the Vox has. Despite the 820+ page size of the book, no one will accuse Vox of wasting words. Everything is very terse, very direct, and practical. The words in the book are used to describe what is happening and that's about it, and it feels like the times Day does meander some to give insight into a character's background or inner world, he's doing so just because that's what authors do, not because there's any significant dramatic insight to provide.

I never found myself viewing these characters as real people ultimately because the characters are never differentiated by behavior or personality so much as by circumstances. Every character feels essentially identical, with some variation amongst a few of the main characters. So, when someone reacts angrily to the news that their family member was killed, it seems like the same reaction any other character would have had. Conversations are difficult to follow because characters are never much differentiated, except a few foreigners who can't quite speak their second language. All of the characters are equally intelligent, equally assertive, equally verbose, and on and on. Characterization needs some serious depth added to it in the next book, perhaps at the expense of the story.

I'm also reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series at the moment, and the contrast between the characters is stark. When I read King's work, I feel like I'm reading about real people and despite the absolutely alien nature of the world it begins to feel real. There's "texture" to it. If Day slowed down, took just some emphasis off the story, and put a lot of work into the characters it would go a long way towards drawing readers into the world, I think.

Some of these problems are created by the storytelling style of the book itself. Day was going for a George Martin style of storytelling where each chapter focuses on one character, and switches between a dozen different perspectives. While you might praise this kind of storytelling for being experimental, it has some serious pitfalls. For instance, one of the criticisms of the Star Wars movies is that each subsequent movie adds another storyline so that by the time the first prequel came out, there were four storylines to follow and it felt like the film's tone and pacing was harmed by it - amongst other problems. While the storytelling problems with Star Wars were likely the result of getting "carried away", Day purposefully chose this style as a launching point. The problem is, it feels like there's no real momentum by which I mean you don't really feel like the story is driving on to a climax, and when it ends it just ends and you're like, "Oh. Okay that's where he chose to end it arbitrarily." The same criticisms apply to Martin's work as well.

Now, of course this style of storytelling frees you up to kill off any character you want no matter how important they are, but there are ways to do this with a singular narrator that also allow you to feel more engaged with the characters and story.

Another problem I noticed is that Day has a serious phobia of putting at least one of his characters into dilemmas without rescuing them - deus ex machina in some cases. For instance, Marcus finds himself between a rock and a hard place trying to balance his internal morality against the pressures of others, and I was genuinely interested in seeing how the character would choose when every choice would have negative consequences, and furthermore I was interested in seeing how he would handle those negative consequences after making the choice and how it would affect his future decisionmaking. Instead, Vox bails his character out with a very unsatisfying coincidence and his character doesn't have to deal with the fallout of a difficult decision or learn from it or anything else. He just gets to be smug about how lucky he was. That's not exciting or engaging. In fact, Vox does this several times throughout the book. Each time I just found myself caring less and less about what would happen next because I knew some strange coincidence would come along to immediately remove any dramatic tension from the situation.

I'd challenge Vox to put his character in a difficult situation, and then leave them in it and force them to make a decision that will not work out well for them. That's the stuff drama is made of, don't run from it.

Ultimately, little things like this made me not care about the main story arc. Even though the book ends on a sort of cliffhanger, I don't feel like anything is at stake.

Speaking of which, I get that the wolves on the northern island are supposed to be monsters, but Vox doesn't establish what is at stake with them. Are they going to conquer the world? Are they going to just get rid of the northern islanders and then hang out and do wolf stuff?

Simply raising the stakes would do wonders to improve how engaging the story is. Along with some more in depth characterization and Vox could have a serious fantasy powerhouse series on his hands. In fact, it's not too late to fix these things. If these things are fixed, then AToB will just be remembered as the "rough start" to the series. Why? Because of the good...

The good is that Vox is adept at balancing out a very complex story. This is only the first book, but Vox wastes no time establishing what are, I assume, the majority of the key forces at play on the chess board so to speak. And that's one of the biggest draws of the book, because I don't know how you could read it and not at least be a little curious who's going to come out on top considering not just the volume of opposing forces, but the variety as well, between demons, different humanoid races, and monsters. Vox has created a house of cards that should be entertaining to watch come crashing down.

Making this conflict an even more exciting prospect is the way he handles the battles. The battles are some of the best I've read in a fantasy novel. Whereas Tolkien didn't care about strategy, or going into the specifics of the personal impact of the conflict, and seemed to only put the action into his books because he thought that's what the readers wanted, Vox relishes in strategy, and the up close and personal consequences of the violence. The battles are great, and they don't feel forced in just to add conflict. The final battle in the book was the end result of a chain of dominoes first tipped over right at the start of the book. Kudos on that, because it definitely has more impact when the battle literally couldn't exist without the prior 600+ pages setting it up.

I'd like to give this book a four star review, because I enjoyed reading it despite its flaws, but it's a three star book. With just a couple of (easier said than done) improvements, this could be an easy four stars if not five. Vox has laid a solid foundation, and I'm still looking forward to seeing who dies next, who betrays who, and how the alliances change.

Also, just sayin', I'd much rather read this than Martin's Game of Thrones.

To put my review in context, I pretty much stopped reading SF/F books after high school and didn't get back to reading any really until a decade later. It was A Game of Thrones that I picked up as my first return to SF/F. I loved the first book and finished the remaining (published) books in the series rather quickly. A couple years after that, I stumbled upon comments regarding A Throne of Bones and its author in relation to A Game of Thrones. I was enticed to read A Throne of Bones, which I quite enjoyed. And while I agree with Vox Day's comments that A Game of Thrones was the best of the series and it seems to go downhill from there, I would have to say I enjoyed A Game of Thrones more than A Throne of Bones as individual books. A part of this might have been my exuberance at returning to a genre that I loved so much while growing up. Another part of it was that A Game of Thrones was more familiar. It had a similar sense as other fantasy novels I had read growing up to where it made it easier to immerse myself in the world. Strangely enough, the world of A Throne of Bones took some effort on my part to get comfortable with as a reader because it wasn't as conventional in the sources it drew on. Lastly, I also felt that, from what I remember at the time, A Game of Thrones had several climactic events that caused it to have a sort of "M" shape graph for my engagement. A Throne of Bones on the other hand seemed to be a pretty steady incline in my engagement all the way to the end without much dip after some of the climactic events. This leaves me very eager for the second book to come out to see where things go from the big set up of A Throne of Bones. As you can probably tell from this review, my primary concern is being entertained, and A Throne of Bones definitely entertained and left me eager to see where the story goes from here.

Very well plotted epic in a very believable world. I most appreciated that a religion existed. Even more refreshing was thar some of the characters were devout. The beliefs were not preachy, which helped make it more real.

Drawing from some of the most interesting civilizations in history, blending war and politics and fantasy into a satisfying mixture, Vox Day is off to a great start for his fantasy epic.

Looking forward to immediately purchasing reading a Sea of Skulls!

I really enjoyed the short offerings in this series that are all preamble to this book. Unfortunately, I did not love the actual book. It's good in parts, but real wordy and dull in others. Like most epic fantasy novels which plan to sprawl across volumes, there are incredibly interesting stories here. Those stories get started, and then there are interludes of rather dull side plots.

I am fully confident that Day has plans to tie these loose threads together down the road, and that the shift from loose threads to full tapestry will be amazing, but this book felt, at times, like reading as a chore to get to the reading as a reward parts.

His world building is very impressive. It's a Roman-esque world, but with magic, and elves, and dragons, and so on. For that alone I thought the book was worth it.

But, in comparison to the short stories, this book wanders, and not in a good way. It's not bad, and I can see lots of seeds that offer subsequent volumes plenty of tools to go to and provide excitement, but this book served to lay a lot of groundwork without offering any real payoff to the reader.

Fans of epic fantasy who love intricate world building, fans of fantasy court-politics, or any others who are willing to be patient likely have a grand payoff later in the series, but as a single book, I was very disappointed.

SPOILER WARNING

I very much wanted to really like A Throne of Bones, especially given some of the glowing reviews it's received with comparisons to Martin (and Tolkien), but while I found it an ambitious effort, it fell short on a number of fronts, perhaps a victim of its very ambition.

To start, the writing, while competent, is often flat and utilitarian, and doesn't provide the richness and emotional impact that mark a truly great epic fantasy. In fact, it was sometimes downright clunky: "The dead goblin didn't have any answers for him, and the gaping mouth gaping loosely open made it look about as stupid as Forex was feeling" or "...side of the hill and the opening that gaped like an open wound."

The main characters are more or less well drawn, though lacking in any real depth of development, but the secondary characters are often cyphers. This is unfortunate because while I came to like many of the characters, I didn't especially care about them.

The lack of narrative description of many settings rendered them somewhat generic, with just enough detail as required by the plot and little more. For example, we are told nothing of the setting of Raknarborg except that it's dark and has three towers, and is possibly damp. Some storylines seemed to have little purpose in and of themselves except to set up plot points and then disappear; particularly the Lodi the Dwarf storyline, which tells us little about Lodi and seems to exist solely to set up the twist at the end of the book. And while the story is paced at a good clip, the ending seemed rushed and we see little of the lead up or immediate aftermath of the final battle in the first and only multi-character viewpoint chapter. I also had trouble with Marcus's final decision of escaping with his legion; yes, it's good he got it out (hopefully we'll see some of that journey in the next book because there is none here) but instead of honoring his duty to support Amorr against the rebels, which is why he fought that battle, he appear to be putting himself at the service of Savondir either fighting orcs or perhaps in a civil war. Without more detail about Marcus's thought process here, it seems extremely out of character.

Another area that bothered me was the use of magic. Perhaps due to Day's background in game development, the magic depicted here appears to be consequence- and cost-free, rendering it as just another tool or weapon that instead of being, well, magical, comes off as somewhat pedestrian.

Despite all this, I tried to ignore some of the flaws and just enjoy the story for the story, but all too often I was knocked out of the story by a number of continuity errors and scene changes without transition. For example, after the attempted assassination of the Red Prince, Brynjolf is moved to the prince's quarters after which characters are "ushered from the room" and the mage is instantly sipping a cocktail, apparently at the ball. How did we get here? No ideas. A simple sentence would have sufficed. At the end of the first Lodi chapter, we see, presumably, his companion being whisked away in the talon of a dragon; when we next encounter Lodi, his companion is at his side unharmed. How did he escape the dragon? No idea. In the Elven ambassador's residence in Amor, we're told that a room has walls lined with bookshelves and books, and two sentences later that the walls of the room are lined with rich tapestries. In the confrontation at the walls of a rebel city, four men are executed but a couple of paragraphs later, only two bodies are specified. In a late chapter we learn that Amorr is mourning the deaths of the Sanctus and Consul, yet several pages later Severa indicates that the Consul is merely missing having not been seen for some days after the fire.

Day is certainly a decent writer, if not one for soaring poetic passages, and many of these lapses could have and should have been caught by a competent editor. This is a decent, but not great, book. And while it may be a step up from contemporary fantasy novels, which I haven't really read much of, I'd have to put Throne of Bones in the middle ground of fantasy fiction. Hopefully some of these defects will be addressed in the next installment, since the series has promise to rise above it's flaws.

If you like Tolkien-esque worlds of men, elves, dwarves, goblins, and orcs, and the thought of mixing that with what the late Roman republic might have looked like if Christ had appeared a few hundred years earlier intrigues you, then you'll find this book absolutely captivating.

A Throne of Bones is impossible to put down, especially if you're a guy who appreciates fairly accurate and realistic portrayals of military tactics, political intrigue, and characters trying to live according to their faith in a fallen world. All of those are rare commodities in fantasy fiction. Well written, highly recommended.

Beale sets up an interesting fantasy world melding historical societies like Republican Rome, Medieval France and the Norse, and then folds in the standard fantasy elements like magic, orcs, goblins, elves and dwarfs. He sets up in this book a monumental clash of the forces of good against the forces of evil. He promises to bring this clash to a conclusion in three books, avoiding the mistakes of other well known fantasy writers who have been accused of drawing out their stories too long and meandering all over the place to no point.

The problems I have with the story, however, are technical: the prose is sometimes wooden, often the characters don't seem realistic and in one notable case, undergo a sudden transition in character that seems out of place (Severa, I'm looking at you ... where are the crones? I'm guessing they will show up again in books 2 and 3). The various threads of the story are not tightly woven together enough for me and the jumps from one locale to another feel disjointed at times. I am having a hard time seeing how they all fit together coherently.

All in all, though, it is worth reading and I look forward to the next books in the series. Hoping to see Beale's prose skills improve as the series advances ...

I really enjoyed this book. The scale is really phenomenal, and it takes quite some time for all of the different threads to begin coming together. In some sense you could think of it as the Tom Clancy of fantasy books -- many independent threads initially aren't necessarily that riveting but gradually come together into something truly phenomenal. The character building is good and interesting, and I like the author's perspective on what goes on in people's heads. Even the villains aren't fully villainous (nor are the heroes completely heroic) which is something I like about it -- it deals with real people and how they can gradually go down the wrong, or right, paths.

My main gripe at this point is that there is no "next" book yet; if there were, I would have snatched it up already.

A Throne of Bones has all the necessary elements for a good fantasy novel, from magical and exotic races to political intrigue and well drawn characters. While I would quibble with a few structural issues and a sometimes too-transparent aping of historical figures (I recognized Drusus and the opening shots of the Social War pretty early on, but then I read history for fun), as a lover of both the historical cultures utilized I am more than happy to give a pass. My only major criticism is that the author so completely involves the reader in the affairs and point of view of the given chapter's protagonist that the shift at chapter's end can be disorienting. However, in light of the absolutely engrossing story and well drawn world, a slight dizziness is a small price to pay for an otherwise thrilling experience. Can't wait for the next in the series!

A fantasy story grounded in as much reality as you can have when elves, dragons, dwarves and demons stalk the pages. Oh, and magicians. This is an epic that feels more human that most recent examples of its kind, and plays to a wide range of emotions rather than the limited range of angst, hate and despair. Characters in this book have little time for angst, they have too many real problems to deal with. The book is gritty, but not tawdry.

The book has good pacing and a compelling story line. Or lines actually, as there are five plot arcs, sometimes briefly joining, mostly proceeding separately, though all showing a world of growing troubles. But be forewarned, the book ends before any of the stories do - you will need to read future installments to find out what happens to the characters in this story. Well, to the ones who haven't already been killed anyway. There are several main characters, as befits a sprawling epic, but not so many as to clutter up the book.

Speaking of characters, there are no cardboard characters here, all are perfectly believable with realistic motivations and expectations. Some characters do stupid things, but the stupidity is understandable and the motivations - when they're eventually made clear - make sense. The story is one of schemes, counter-schemes, and the problems of coping with titanic events beyond anyone's control. Honor, vengeance, pride, hope, love, lust, trust, betrayal, and duty, all play their part driving the plots forward.

It's not a book for the emotionally squeamish. Beloved characters are not immune to death and profound heartache. There is more than one swift, unexpected, kick to the gut in this book. As well as a few excruciatingly well-expected ones. The story is not exceptionally predictable, and many of the predictable developments are ones that loom like a bird of doom over sections of the book.

The cons are few. Much of the story concerns events in Amorr, a fantasy version of the Roman Republic, and the characters from there have proper Roman names. Some people claim Rome fell because lead pipes contaminated the water supply and drove the people insane. Personally, I think it might have been the naming conventions they used that drove them mad. Eventually the names sort themselves out and mostly stop confusing you - and the author even makes a few jokes within the story about the confusing names - but it is an occasional distraction from the story.

Other distractions include a few examples of sloppy editing, where the timeline gets a bit jumbled and one story line will run considerably ahead of another, causing some confusion when events in one chapter are clearly happening some time before events from an earlier chapter, as well as one case where two minor characters seems to have been merged into one in the editing process without quite clearing up the glitches caused in the story. But these are only momentary distractions.

Final summary, this is an excellent book, and a welcome breath of fresh air into the Fantasy genre. Can't wait for the next book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this fast-paced and entertaining fantasy novel. Vox, with an extensive background in economics, politics, history, Science Fiction and Fantasy, is able to tie it all together in a story that effectively takes you to a typical fantasy world akin to a Christian Rome. The legions are out securing the borders from goblins and orcs or subduing the neighboring states and collecting their taxes. The head of the church dies and the power-politics, fighting, and killing begins. Told from several perspectives, as the story develops we learn about the various characters and I found their tales compelling.

As someone who has left many books unfinished, I felt I could not read this one fast enough. The plot, action and characters kept me interested and rarely could I predict what was going to happen next. Truly Vox' best novel yet and I am looking forward to the next work. Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed the short offerings in this series that are all preamble to this book. Unfortunately, I did not love the actual book. It's good in parts, but real wordy and dull in others. Like most epic fantasy novels which plan to sprawl across volumes, there are incredibly interesting stories here. Those stories get started, and then there are interludes of rather dull side plots.

I am fully confident that Day has plans to tie these loose threads together down the road, and that the shift from loose threads to full tapestry will be amazing, but this book felt, at times, like reading as a chore to get to the reading as a reward parts.

His world building is very impressive. It's a Roman-esque world, but with magic, and elves, and dragons, and so on. For that alone I thought the book was worth it.

But, in comparison to the short stories, this book wanders, and not in a good way. It's not bad, and I can see lots of seeds that offer subsequent volumes plenty of tools to go to and provide excitement, but this book served to lay a lot of groundwork without offering any real payoff to the reader.

Fans of epic fantasy who love intricate world building, fans of fantasy court-politics, or any others who are willing to be patient likely have a grand payoff later in the series, but as a single book, I was very disappointed.

In this expansive work, Vox manages to successfully combine many of the classic elements of fantasy - elves, dwarves, orcs, etc - while adding several interesting twists of his own. His fantasy-genre version of the Church is especially well done. Some reviews state that the book starts slowly, but don't let that dissuade you. The plot picks up steam progressively, and it does not fail to surprise. The character-centric chapter approach (which works quite well), allows the author to present the story from different angles as it unfolds. And it unfolds quite differently than one would predict.

Vox has done for fantasy literature what I wish all Christian artists would do in their respective fields: he has produced something that is original, of high quality and immensely entertaining. Given that many great works of the Renaissance and of classical music were produced by Christians simply exercising their talents, it's rather discouraging that Christian artists and writers today are boxed in by legalistic industry standards that deny the human experience. Hats off to Vox for not cowing to the likes of the "G and PG only" Christian sub-markets. Doing so would have only served to diminish the work.

I'm looking forward to the next book!

This is an excellent work of fantasy fiction. Vox Day weaves together a compelling tale of war, inter-family conflict, magic, and a host of other immensely entertaining subjects into a fantastic tapestry of prose. His background in history is evident, as he appears to base the setting of the book in a unique world that seems to be inspired by the Roman republic, Middle Ages France, and the Medieval Catholic church. His affection for his characters seems evident as well, and readers may find themselves growing quite attached to various characters (I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried when the Red Prince died). He also manages to give all of his characters plausible motivations, and doesn't make his villains convenient plot-filling pastiches. There is a high degree of moral conflict in this book, which works due to a lack of moral ambiguity. In my opinion, this book is more entertaining to read than any of the books in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Fantasy fans should find this to be an incredibly entertaining read.

This book is structured similar to Game of Thrones 5-copy boxed set (George R. R. Martin Song of Ice and Fire series): A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons. There are numerous characters and the point of view switches from person to person. Unlike the Martin books, the direction of plot isn't totally random, and the purpose of the book is not to get you to like a character and then kill him or her.

It should be noted that this book is set in the same world as Summa Elevetica by the same author.

Cons: There is a lot of terminology relating to Roman society that a neophyte like myself will find difficult. Thankfully, it isn't essential, and one can pick it up with context.
There are a lot of characters and plot lines to keep track of.

Pros: Engaging read. You don't want to put it down.
Characters are realistic and well developed.

The worst part about this book is that we will most likely have to wait at least a year for the next installment.

I am giving it 4 stars, because while I very much enjoyed the book, I think there is room for improvement.

Ro-Men check. Dying Elves check. Solitary Dwarves check. Typical sword and sorcery villains check. Gods and Demons ?. Its the first book expect multiple POVs to lay the premise of the story. Im not a big fan of multiple POVs. I hate it when you get engaged in ones character only to have a "meanwhile on a totally unrelated to the current character, on a far, far away land...) I ended up skimming through the other POVs. If youre a big fan of Multiple POVs, this ones for you. If not, its still for you, just skip through the rest of them.

The author is good at telling the story as it happens on a worldwide scale, but it kinda breaks the immersion for me. I would rather have him tell the story or the majority of it about the Legions. And have other races' POV short but still have some sort of continuity or relationship to the main. But that is just my personal prefference tho.

Overall, I like the plot. Just as I like Game of Thrones to be the adventure of Jon Snow. Will read the next book so I can follow the saga of the XVII Legion.

This is a competently written fantasy novel, the first volume is a series of ??? books set in the imagined world of Selenoth. In many ways it's similar to GRR Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series, featuring multiple point of view characters, a well imagined world with a rich backstory, and complex, well developed characters whose actions flow naturally from the intersection of their personalities and the world they inhabit.
On the plus side, as a craftsman, Mr. Day is a better writer than Mr. Martin. While this is a long book, it doesn't suffer from the verbosity I found off-putting in Game of Thrones. (Honestly, Mr. Martin has Stephen King's disease; he won't use 10 words if he can find 40 that will do). While there are scenes featuring sex and violence, in neither case are they as graphic as many scenes in Game of Thrones. A great deal more is left to the readers imagination.
On the negative side, the world of Selenoth is at times a distraction rather than a setting. I think I could live with a world with Men, Elves, Goblins, Orcs, Dragons etc., but I found the mix of Roman Legions and medieval Cavalry hard to swallow. Serious students of history will understand why.
I'm looking forward to the next volume in the series, but because I've become invested in some of the characters, not the world they live in.

The author's motivations are well-documented, and he pursued them manfully. The book is enjoyable and engaging, and attention to detail is necessary on the part of the reader if characters and events are to be kept straight.

I will agree with some other reviewers' comments about story pacing and transitions away from really interesting scenes, but in hindsight this seems to be a foundation-building book, and it is a bit heartening to think that those might not be the really interesting things the author wants to spend time on.

All in all, it's "Book 1". It passes the time well, but will ultimately be viewed as "good" or "bad" based on how faithfully the author tells the rest of the story. I mean, who didn't like the premise of Star Wars until Ewoks and Jar Jar showed up?

The author of this fantasy novel claims that he was inspired to write by the desire to do better than George R.R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons. He has certainly succeeded! I enjoyed this novel immensely, and devoured it over a few days even though it is very long. I admit I have not read Summa Elvetica, but as far as I can tell, one does not really need to do so to understand this book. I did read the short story "A Magic Broken", which features some of the characters from Throne of Bones, but this book was much more compelling than the short story prequel.

The novel is set in a fantasy analogue of Republican Rome called Amorr, and borrows from the Social War of 91 to 88 BC to frame the initial action. In that real-life war, Rome's allies revolted against her following the assassination of a Senator who wanted to extend the Roman citizenship to the allied nations. Something similar to that happens at the beginning of this novel. But, the author does not carry this analogy too far, and as far as I can tell there are no characters blatantly modeled on historical Romans such as Sulla or Marius. Amorr also differs from Republican Rome in that there is an analogue to Christianity, in which residents of Amorr genuinely have faith, as well as an analogue to the Catholic Church (which of course was in a much later period of real-life Rome than 90 BC). Furthermore there is another kingdom seemingly modeled on medieval France, some quasi-Viking "Reavers", as well as kingdoms of Elves and Dwarves, and tribes of Orcs and Goblins. The non-human fantasy races are pretty much what you would expect them to be. Magic works, though it is not completely clear how, nor did I understand why the residents of Amorr hate magic when it can be used effectively in combat.

Throne of Bones follows the format of Game of Thrones in that each chapter is written from the perspective of a different character, and usually ends with a "mini cliffhanger" that puts the character in a pickle but then you have to wait a few more chapters (featuring other characters) before you find out what happened. The author does not hesitate to kill dynamic and sympathetic point of view characters as well as significant secondary characters, or to have his characters make serious mistakes. All of the characters are interesting, and thus (unlike George RR Martin) there is no temptation to skip past the boring characters. Hopefully Vox Day will never punish us with an entire book full of boring characters as Martin did with A Feast For Crows. Nor, unlike George Martin, are there too many subplots to follow. As warfare is a major theme of this book, there is a lot of combat, and all of it is well done.

Vox Day, in his blog and at Black Gate, has for many years criticized fantasy authors for eliminating organized religion from the fantasy setting and for creating characters who are morally confused (i.e., they alternate between conventionally good and conventionally evil). The typical product of this approach is the depressing amoral nihilism of the "hip anti-hero." Vox Day consciously strove to create characters with a clear sense of morality and to show the impact of organized religion in a quasi-medieval fantasy setting. In this, the author definitely succeeds. There are no hip anti-heroes here, though Theudric comes close, but neither are the good characters saccharine or insipid. When a major character is confronted with a serious choice between good and evil, his decision to choose good is credibly and effectively done. Indeed, it is all the more effective because he makes this choice knowing he will pay a very high price for doing so. The obvious question that arises, though, is how is the nature of religious faith and organized religion change when, unlike in our world, magic works and supernatural beings overtly manifest themselves? Who would be an atheist in such a world? Is there a real choice between belief and unbelief if God is right there in your face?

As another reviewer has noted, the book does not really end with a big climax, it just sorta stops. But that's OK, I hope he's hard at work already on the sequel. Hope the author writes faster than Martin -- but that's not a very high bar to clear, heh heh.

In sum, I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy!

Like to think? Ponder? Strategize?

Like ethics? History? Philosophy?

Like maidens? Monsters? Royalty?

This novel is for you.

The intricate plot keeps readers intrigued as they are guided through a maze of twists, turns and surprises. The ethical and moral dilemmas that arise throughout the story invite readers into dialectic. The fantasy element, although subtle, serves as an excellent contrast between the forces of good and evil that battle throughout the text.

A Throne of Bones is a political drama about the fall of an empire from the perspective of its rulers, inhabitants and subjects. The variety of characters serve to describe this occurrence from many points of view, which work in conjunction to tell the tale of how it all happened and why. Attachment to the characters as well as the suspense of wanting to know what comes next will guarantee that readers return to Selenoth with every one of the author's installments.

This is the first of what promises to be an excellent series. I highly recommend A Throne of Bones to any interested reader.

I follow vox for his political and economic commentary, so when I saw he was writing a fiction novel I decided to give it a read. I was very surprised at the flow of the story and finished it in only two days. Great read, I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys this genre.

Often times an exasperated artist will tell a critic, "If you don't like it, why don't you try doing it better!" Having criticized modern fantasy fiction, Vox Day proceeded to write it - and "A Throne of Bones" is the first part of the result. Insisting on historical verisimilitude (rather than "realism"), Day combines real historical examples (republican Rome, medieval France) with common fantasy tropes (orcs, dwarves, elves, werewolves), to populate the world of Selenoth. The world-building very much resembles Guy Gavriel Kay's brilliant use of historical milieus, and both Kay and Day then make stories within such worlds that stand on their own.

The reader is not tormented with fancy misspellings; human names follow Latin, French and Norse conventions, and the viewpoint characters are easy to track. For anyone still challenged by the names and titles, there is a handy glossary at the end.

There is no "thud and blunder" here, no anachronisms that sabotage the suspension of disbelief, no modern sentimentality (from nihilism to political correctness) to interfere with the story - just a gripping tale that makes one wonder what will happen next. Though it is long, the book is not padded with superfluous descriptions either, so reading through it doesn't feel like a slog. There are two or three places where exposition slows things down a bit, but it makes sense within the context and the characters involved, so it's hard to fault it. All told, this is a truly refreshing work of fantasy.

Also, while it is not necessary to have read the previous stories set in Selenoth - Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy and A Magic Broken - they do tell you more about some of the viewpoint characters, and will tide you over till the publication of the sequel.

I've read almost everything Vox Day has written, having followed his blog and column and other books for half a decade. That said, his new epic fantasy is fresh and engaging. I could tell when Vox's arguments were spoken through his characters, and although he expressed on his blog that he learned to make the story about the story, not about some underlying argument or theory, I think it is impossible to completely extricate your own point of view from the telling of the tale, but in Vox's case this does not take away from the story at all, in fact, it enhances the fantasy-realism of the characters.

To expand on my mention of fantasy-realism, I should just say that characters behave as they should. Alpha males are undeniably attractive to women, hardened soldiers are not whipped easily, royalty are not sniveling power tripping cowards, the holy are not greedy perverts, and so on. No individual character is invincible either, each has his/her vulnerabilites, and I was definitely surprised at the fate of more than one. To be honest, I couldn't even really tell which characters Vox favored and which he hated, there just seemed to be some sympathy and logic behind the actions of every character. On that note, the even hand between characters did keep me from rooting for anyone in particular, save for Marcus in the latter half of the book. Lastly, I am not sure if I am a fan of the George R.R. Martin style of breaking up chapters by character perspective. It certainly works to organize very long works and makes following the story much more vivid, but I also thought that I paid too much attention to looking foward to the continuation of another character's story, and it only seemed that in the last quarter of the book did the various storylines begin to blend, which I muse is unavoidable for an epic tale. As a example, I kept looking for the continuation of the dwarf's storyline for some time before finally reaching it again, I suppose I had somehow expected equanimity between the characters, but this is just a minor personal quirp.

The world building was pretty solid, and since I don't particularly like trying to imagine new worlds, Vox did us all a favor and stuck with the mainstream fantasy Tolkeinesque trope and molded Selenoth in a strongly European reminiscent design. I think this was a good idea, why complicate the background and spend ages describing the territory when you can offer something readily envisionable and focus on the characters and the plot? I don't believe anyone who has trouble immersing his/herself into a fantasy world will have much trouble in AtoB.

Anyway, I could go on with my impressions with Vox's author style and competence, but I won't bore anyone looking for an excuse to buy the book any longer. If you like epic fantasy, get this book, plain and simple. I can't think of any reason why not to get this book if you are a SF/F fan, it is considerably different from all the rest because of the author's interesting perspective and awareness of the stagnation in the SF/F realm. This is good fantasy, well written, creative, the story is impressive in imagination, fun, suspenseful at times, realistic, the characters are relatable, it has it all, and for 5 bucks on a Kindle, you can't really get a better deal for 800+ pages of pure workable text, no fluff or evidence of boredom on the author's part, he is clearly interested in telling a good tale, and that is what SF/F should be about.

A very good fantasy book with steady action and surprises.

It flows very nicely and each chapter brings the next step to a story larger than its parts. I would not describe it as very deep but it is a very entertaining book with good surprises, interesting characters and a very diverse sense of humor (at times dark, at others sarcastic, etc...)

A Throne Of Bones is many things and if there is one thing is not, it's "lame" or "boring". I enjoyed every chapter and could hardly stop myself devouring the 900 or so pages. Btw, I noticed the size of chapters were very convenient for 15-20 minute reading sessions (if you manage to pace your reading).

I'm looking forward to the rest of the story in the next book and hope Vox will surpass himself.

Corvus was a character I liked very much.

When I first purchased this book, I started the first chapter and then set it aside. Not a very auspicious beginning. Then I read A Sea of Skulls. The writing was much improved, and I was drawn in to the "series". I realized when I started delving deeper into this story, it has some things in common with books like Irving Stone's "Men to Match My Mountains" or James Michener's "Alaska". It is in some ways, historic backdrop for the vast fantasy world that the author offers us. The writing is at times enthralling and prosaic. The banality of human nature is sometimes hard to swallow, thankfully the strength of the storyline carries through. I would encourage readers to continue with A Sea of Skulls, persistence will be paid off in engaging tales of adventure, the coin of epic fantasy. Some other reviewers have made comparisons with Tolkien's works, and I would agree favorably.

This new epic military high fantasy resembles Steven Erickson's Malazan Book of the Fallen in it's complexity and mix of magic, warfare and political intrigue. So much happens in this first book and yet obviously only scratches the surface of what is to come. After beginning this book I could not put it down. Like Malazan, it's a complex weaving of many plots and story lines that only begin to intersect by the end, but which promise remarkable events to come. I like my fantasy dense and intricate and this one delivers. You have sorcerers and elves and dwarves and orcs and goblins and trolls and immortals and of course men, of the provincial as well as Roman empire variety. But it is so much more than the Roman legions, which begin to take a back seat to the Lord of the Rings type conflicts toward the end.

Truly an amazing epic fantasy that is right up there with the other new greats, Blood Song and The Red Knight. Make sure you read those as well. The oft-lamented dearth of great new epic fantasy is no longer. These new works rank with the all-time best.

I started A Throne of Bones on a Thursday evening and finished it the following Wednesday. Vox's character development is excellent and, as a deliberate response to the nihilism of George R R Martin novels, there are several noble, if flawed, personalities in the cast. He's not yet as good a writer as Martin was at the beginning of his Game of Thrones saga but I am confident that Vox will continue to grow as a novelist. Martin started out magnificently and has dropped off (Dance of Dragons was jaw-droppingly bad) whereas Vox has had a solid start and demonstrated great literary potential.

My only real criticism is that his attention to detail when it comes to military strategy and Senate shenanigans sometimes gets in the way of the plot. On the other hand, being demanding of the reader is not necessarily a bad thing. But it is a case of Vox not quite knowing his audience. He limits his readership at times by including details that 99.999% of readers will probably skim over, even if they are actually well thought out, intelligent details.

I particularly enjoyed the fact that his characters exist in a Christian universe, although this is by no means a 'Christian novel' in the pejorative sense (here's looking at you 'Left Behind'). Well done, Vox. I look forward to further adventures in Selenoth.

The story is reasonably interesting, but the author needs to have this proof read next time. I have *never* read a book with so many errors. It does not ruin the story, but it is a matter of professionalism. I found it rather embarrassing.

UPDATE:

I finished the book, and I will agree with people who say it is worth a read. You are likely to enjoy the book if you like lots of political intrigue and a a slow build up to what looks like a complicted war. I would give it four stars were it not for the proof reading issues. They are probably unlikely to bother you, and they don't in any way ruin the book, but for me it is still annoying to be sold something so shoddily polished. I read his short story that preceded this book and found no errors in it. So I will give the next book in the series a try, but am likely to take Mr. Day off of my reading list if the book is as riddled with errors as this one was.

Better than average epic/large scope fantasy. Actually, given the average _new_ fantasy titles being produced, MUCH better than average. Still rates four stars, not five. That is a sign of how weak genre fantasy titles have been the last couple decades.

More emphasis on scope than character development, though not devoid of development(1). Plot is good and not predictable. Was supposedly written as a non-nihilistic response to GRR Martin's Game of Thones exercise in nihilism. GRRM has more books to tout, but this is a case of quantity not necessarily beating quality and GRRM's quality trajectory has been trending down in successive GoT books.

All in all an enjoyable read.

(1) Several of the characters occur in other VD books/stories. Reading these will help show character development and more depth of character. Summa Elvetica, The Last Witchking, The Wardog's Coin have shorter stories with smaller objectives that allow for more character study.

Boring book. Tried to push through and got about 2/3rds of the way through before giving up. Characters aren't very interesting or particularly likeable.

The roman names make it difficult to keep track of who's who. Also, due to the number of characters the reader tends to forget who certain characters are. One may go several chapters without a peep and then the entire chapter is about a person you dont even remember.

The large number of characters is also an issue in game of thrones, however those characters are much more interesting and well written. This book is NOT remotely on the same level as the ASOIAF series.

As I commented regarding the short story that was a prequel to this book, there are many interesting plot twists in Vox's book. While complex they are generally coherent and logical. The further I read into the book the harder it was to put down. As a vision of the overall story started to become clearer it also became more compelling. I didn't read the prior book set in this world, but intend to read it also.

The one drawback I found was the number of characters used for view points. For the most part it remained coherent, but I did catch a sub-character in two places at once according to the narrative of the reaver-princess. At points I'd have preferred "reports from afar" to the first-hand, first-person, but not knowing where the full story is going I am at loss to say who to reduce to a report.

In all, I found it a very enjoyable read and look forward to the conclusion of the story, whether it be in one or two more books.

I'm a Traditionalist Catholic and couldn't get past the first chapter initially. I follow Vox's blog and hold him in high regard. I needed to kill some time recently so I gave it another try. I have a love for history and once I got into the second chapter I was hooked. The differing countries and cultures along with the political intrigue kept me riveted. While it took a bit to figure out what was going on with each chapter changing characters and countries I started enjoying it. I haven't read a fantasy novel in a long time and this was a pleasure to read.

Looking forward to the next book.

From Tolkien through Jordan and beyond, intricate world building has become a hallmark of epic fantasy. However, in the last few years, some authors have tried to innovate in a way that has made them "lose the plot", as it were.

When I read "A Game of Thrones," the one thing it accomplished was to inspire me to never pick up a book by George R. R. Martin again. By contrast, Vox Day has overridden the skepticism I had about taking on yet another series of insanely large fantasy books, and has made it relatively likely that I'll need to continue the series.