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Loading... The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 1) (original 1988; edition 2005)by Tad Williams
Work InformationThe Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams (1988)
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Love the world-building and character development. Good read. ( ) Orphaned Simon grows up reluctantly in the kitchens and gardens of the ancient castle Hayholt, but his ordained future of brooms and pans is disrupted by a feuding royal family, a secret society, and the stirrings of a forgotten enemy to humanity. And there's elves. And dragons. I really liked the first third of this novel, which featured kitchen-boy Simon running amok in a huge and empty castle-state. My interest started flagging as soon as Simon left Hayholt and started going through the familiar epic-fantasy motions (e.g. dark forests, immortal evil, elves). It also features some familiar Williams tics, especially the Pynchon-esque vocabulary, enormous cast, and abundant figurative language. (You could probably develop an elaborate drinking game just from the frequency of objects compared, in the novel, to either apples or bees.) On the other hand, Simon is a realistically muddled adolescent, and his relationship with the troll Binabik is non-cloyingly sweet. I finished this book today. I started reading this at least one time before back in January 2022 and stopped fairly early in it. When that happens, it is not necessarily that the book is bad, rather it could mean that the book I abandon is not what I am in the mood for at the time. Or something popped up on my TBR that I just had to drop everything and read. Anyway, I have read this now and found it extremely good. I do not recall when I started reading it but it had to be about a month ago as this is a big book (the sequels are even longer). I had been reading 'The Children of Dune' which I abandoned and picked this up. Again, not that the Dune book was bad but I think I was getting tired of the world. This book has been described many times as being a bridging book between old Tolkien style of fantasy and what passes as fantasy today. Somewhat of a hero's journey story (so far) but not of the type where all the good people are good, bad are bad and the good live and the bad die. The character development and world building is all there and can get long but I think it is done well enough and it kept me engaged. I will say I am surprised this book and series is not discussed more than it is. Belongs to SeriesOsten Ard ((Memory, Sorrow & Thorn 1) 1) Belongs to Publisher SeriesDAW Book Collectors (797) Is contained inContainsAwards
In the peaceful land of Osten Ard, the good king is dying-and a long-dreaded evil is about to be unleashed. Only Simon, a young kitchen boy apprenticed to a secret order of wizards dedicated to halting the coming darkness, can solve the dangerous riddle that offers salvation to the land. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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