Chris Evans (1) (1961–)

After being disbanded in disgrace the Iron Elves, elite troupe of the Empire, is being reformed. The catch: the only elf being recalled is Major Kanowa, the person who caused it to be disbanded in the first place. The mission: find the fallen 'mythical' red star and claim it for the Empire. The problem: they aren't the only ones looking for the star, and myths are becoming a lot more real wherever they march.

The battle scenes, using guns and cannons, bayonettes and fists, draw you into an show more era of history not generally utilized in fantasy, adding a sense of freshness to the traditional elements employed. And the misfits making up the Iron Elves quickly start grow on you.

Chris Evans has the ability to paint a fully realized desctiption in a single sentence. You don't read A Darkness Forged in Fire, you watch it in your mind. My only complaint in reading this book was that I was forced to take too many 'commercial breaks', disrupting the flow of the writing and lessening the impact of the conclusion. So do yourself a favour and read this on a quiet weekend when you'll have time to really let the story take you away. show less

The Kingdom is fighting a war in Luitox, a land of impenetrable forests, deadly swamps, and unrelenting heat. The enemy, the Forest Collective (FnC) and their soldiers known as the Slyts, are fighting a type of Guerilla warfare that takes advantage of the landscape. They also have powerful magic and,most importantly, a sense of purpose. The Kingdom soldiers, trained in normal combat procedures, are unable to respond adequately. This is a war of time and attrition. Their weaponry is, for the show more most part, inadequate and their magics are no match for the Slyts. The one exception is their ‘rags’ or dragons that can fly over and whose fire breath can easily deforest any area. But they can only fly during the day and, when the rags are in the air, their size makes them easy targets. Worse,there is no way to communicate with each other. The Kingdom, however, is developing a new form of communication using thaumic crystals to allow communication between the rags that may change the nature of the war completely.

The Kingdom soldiers spend most of their time between stifling boredom and abject fear, seduced by the appeal of drugs or religion, waiting for something, anything to happen and, when it does, it’s fast and deadly. Their leadership seems more concerned with high enemy body count to appease the people back home than any concern for the soldiers and are willing to send them into danger zones just to get them. The soldiers, themselves, don’t care much about the Kingdom that has done little for them or their families at home or the war that makes little sense and seems to have no clear purpose or direction. What they do care about and what keeps them going is each other. They are brothers and their safety is all that matters in this gods-forsaken place. They want no soldier left behind.

The story revolves around the soldiers of the Red Shield platoon This is a large, diverse, and beautifully drawn cast of characters including Carney who spends his time, in a drug haze; Big Hog who sees everything in terms of farming; Commander Listowk who stands between the higher-ups who are mostly arrogant and incompetent and the men under him whom he wants to protect; Jawn, a recent graduate of The Royal Academy of Thaumology; Wraith who can appear and disappear like his namesake; Rag Driver Vorly with his young Rag, Caduus; Breeze, one of the only women in a combat role who is helping to create the new communication system; Rickets, the mysterious ‘Crowny’ who may be much more dangerous than he seems; and the dwarves, once slaves, now called ‘mules’ and allowed only support roles in this never-ending war.

For anyone who is old enough to remember or who has studied the Vietnam War, this may all sound familiar despite the medieval weapons, dragons, and magic. Author Chris Evan is a military historian as well as a fantasy writer and, in Of Bone and Thunder, he has created not only a compelling military fantasy tale but a powerful story of the nature of war, the relationships that develop between the soldiers, the ugliness of combat, how it effects those who fight, and how those in power take advantage. A must-read for fans of military fantasy. show less

Of Bone and Thunder, by Chris Evans, is so good that I wasn't quite sure what to say about it beyond "You must read this book!" It's a retelling of the Vietnam War in a Fantasy setting (including dragons). Though it deals with the horrors of war, it's not moralistic. It is vividly realistic, however, and not for those with weak stomachs. The story is told from several characters' points of view, which are diverse. I was pulled into what they were going through in such a way that I didn't show more know how connected I was to them until I was crying at one point, and almost snarling every time one of the characters came into a scene. I realized this isn't a book; it's a world to become fully immersed in. It's also a roller coaster, with well-timed lulls in the action for much needed breathers. I never had to take a break from this novel, and that's all due to the pacing, which I didn't even notice until I thought about it afterwards.

Two things I did notice while reading were his handling of race and gender issues. Again, this wasn't done in a moralistic way. He simply wrote about the realities during the Vietnam Era. The race issues are between men and dwarves. Dwarves are formerly enslaved, newly integrated into Human society, and derogatorily referred to as "mules". For the gender issues, women simply aren't present, mentioned only in passing, with the exception of a very few who have a hard won agency. They are looked down upon as being inferior by many of the male characters. Respect is slowly gained as the story approaches its climax, but there remain men who still espouse their beliefs that women belong at home. Though at first I felt annoyed at the lack of women, that was a knee jerk reaction. Now, I see it as refreshing to have an author face the ugly truth of sexism without being preachy.

I would love to recommend this book to everyone, but it's more for those who enjoy war stories or D&D type Fantasy. I'm giving it 5 stars, and adding it to my list of all time favorite books. show less

Received ARC via NetGalley

This book was absolutely amazing, though I do believe the comparison to Lord of the Rings is a bit misleading. Whereas Lord of the Rings focuses on the macro image of war and the struggle between good and evil, Of Bone and Thunder focuses on war at the micro level, taking a look at the toll it takes on the participants who have little time to sit and philosophize over the morality of war or good and evil as they try to survive. It is much more Apocalypse Now, mixed show more with hints of Heart of Darkness. The parallel to the Vietnam War is overwhelming, but presented with enough fantastical elements that it doesn’t stray out of the fantasy genre and into purely war and military fiction. Weapons are traditional, without a single firearm. There are wizards and dragons and elementalists/magicians with the ability to manipulate energies (called thaums.) Dragons supply air travel to the troops and firepower from the air.

Readers are thrust into the middle of a war that should have been won ages ago, according to main public of the Kingdom. We meet solider Carnan “Carny” Qillibrin, a crossbowman desperate to leave the jungle and beginning to tire of the war. He and his fellow soldiers have been climbing through the mountainside jungle in search of the enemy, natives of Luitox whom the soldiers call Slyts. We follow his unit through the war and through their losses. It feels frighteningly real and Evans did an amazing job capturing the feelings of anger, futility, and despondency, but also the sense of camaraderie and responsibility that begins to form between completely people from completely different upbringings due to battle. The soldiers vary from illiterate farmers, to bards, to killers, to simple villagers and religious zealots, yet they each play a vital role in their unit, the war, and the story itself. There’s Wraith, the expert killer who might not be a good soldier, but is an expert at tracking prey and taking them out quickly and quietly. The stereotypical soldier, Big Hog, who cannot read but is a man of the earth, able to follow directions, inspire others, offer comic relief, and still maintain enough faith and hope that the war will end soon and he will make it back home to his farm. Above all, we have Carny, the protagonist of the unit and the embodiment of the everyman, a poor villager who was thrust into a war because he had nothing else going for him in life. A boy who fights because to quit would mean death and when faced with the grim truths of war in reality, as opposed to war in propaganda, turns to local narcotics to numb himself.

In addition to the soldiers, we have dragons and their riders fighting in the war. While the dragons are treated as wild animals, and not as sentient, thinking, magical beings, it is nearly impossible not to care about them. I myself grew incredibly attached to the main dragon, Carduus, that by the end of the novel, I was frantically searching for news on his fate. They are described with such a scientific mind, that I was impressed at how well thought out they were and the “science” behind it made sense (at least to my non-scientific mind). The dragons are the main form of long distance transportation, used by the army to bring new soldiers into Luitox, as well as flying current soldiers deeper into the Lux. Maneuvering these dragons are their riders who have always relied on hand signals and intuition to drive them, and new additions to the dragon system, thaums – magical people who can manipulate energy. They are a recent addition as they try to perfect the dragon system. The thaums enable long distance communication between riders and are able to navigate through the air with better precision. The main rider we follow is Vorly, who rides Carduus along with thaum Breeze. Vorly cares for the dragons more than he cares for most of the soldiers and almost as much as he care for his own life.

Like the militants themselves, the reader never really has a firm grasp on what the war is about, or what the Kingdom hopes to gain from starting or ending it. We know as much as the soldiers know, immediately putting us in their shoes and creating an empathizing link. We know that there is a question of legitimacy regarding the current ruler of the Kingdom. We know there threatens to be a blood civil war at home in the Kingdom over how to deal with the illegitimate rulers and whether power should be given to one faction or various factions or the common man. What we never really know is why the Kingdom is invading Luitox. The land produces little that can be used by the Kingdom, all of the produce described as disgusting to taste by the soldiers. It provides no necessary trade route to a friendly country. The war exists only as a distraction from the troubles at home. An excuse to keep the peace within Kingdom borders intact. This is all we know about the war at the macro level. To some, it may prove to be a distraction and they may come to dislike the lack of information regarding the war. They may come to think of it as lazy writing, but it isn’t. It’s an incredibly well-constructed literary device to force readers to bond with the characters. Readers are not given an option to rationalize the war, or form an individual opinion about whether it is justified or not, just as soldiers aren’t. You are just at war and that’s the only reality you know because it’s the only thing that will help you survive.

Reviewing this book has been incredibly hard because there is just so much about it that I love, it becomes overwhelming at times. The prose is great, the descriptions are perfect and work really well at creating the suffocating atmosphere of Luitox. The characters are believable and sympathetic. The depiction of warfare is accurate, as is the effects it has on its participants. The dragons are fantastic. It is a heavy read, but definitely an enjoyable one and a book I look forward to buying a physical copy of and rereading often.

Of Bone and Thunder Review was originally published on By Lulu with Love show less