Priest of Bones

Wow! Talk about a dark and satisfying read!

McLean has pressed all the right buttons. A cynic, a soldier, a gang leader, a spy for the Queen's Men and a priest. That's Tomas Piety, returned from the body and mind breaking horrors of the recent war to reclaim his territory in the city of Ellinburg.
Along with those who fought by his side and survived, like Bloody Anne his sergeant, and now his "second in the Pious Men and his most loyal friend", and Billy the Boy, a young child survivor found amongst the horrors of Messia. Billy though has 'cunning' (something akin to a hedge witch skills) but becoming more powerful.
Of course the Pious Men survivors are a tight knit, experienced group who know how to fight, and have every reason to.
The show more Queen's Men have not finished however with Tomas. It seems his homecoming has strings, or maybe that's fishhooks attached and securely embedded. Tomas discovers that once a Queen's Man, it's a life sentence.
Tomas knew taking back and extending his holdings was always going to be bloody but it seems that there will be more than even he bargained for. I am reminded of Steven Erikson's Malazan works and some of David Gemmell's Drenai tales, not in storyline but with the oppressive atmosphere lightened by moments of understanding and benevolence, even as violence becomes the byword.
I must admit I'm asking myself how did this first in the series slip through my net? However I was able to read this and the next in the series, Priest of Lies, back to back. That's a win!
I loved every word! Thank you Peter McLean!

A Berkley Group ARC via NetGalley show less

It’s a good sign when the introduction of the dramatis personae has you chuckling before you even get to the story. Priest of Bones is just a little bit different from your typical fantasy, and that’s a good thing. Thomas Piety is an army priest on his way home from the war along with his brother Jochan and some of his soldiers. He’s returning to the Ellingburg streets he used to run as a thug/crime boss/businessman. Things have gone to hell in his absence, but the Pious Men are home now, and they mean to take back what’s theirs.

McLean keeps the plot continually moving forward even as he fleshes out his many characters. Descriptive nicknames are helpful placeholders for some of the characters until you get to know them better. show more The Piety brothers, Bloody Anne, Ailsa, Billy the Boy, Fat Luka are all characters that have both depth and mystery. The action is bloody, but it is never mindless. Politics are at play behind the scenes and Thomas Piety is caught up in the middle of it. There is a thoughtfulness to when violence is called for as well as consideration of its consequences. The marriage of this violence to politics is what draws comparisons to The Godfather.

Peter McLean has created a story with criminal complexity, layered politics, bloody violence, intrigue, and a surprising amount of heart. He has created a place in Ellinburg that feels real. From its gambling dens to its mansions to its taverns and the muddy, cold streets. He conveys the devastation that sickness and war have wrought on the city and the country. The action moves quickly from the beginning but hits another gear for a high-octane ending.

This first book in the War for the Rose Throne series is a great story, but it’s the characters who will hook you and have you coming back for more. This is a really good book. Highly recommended.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher. show less

I really enjoyed this tale. McLean set me in this world with great assurance, and I could feel the dirt and grime as well as the stakes of this crew of gangsters and thugs returning from a war full of atrocities to try and take back their crime syndicate. The characters, especially Bloody Anne (who deserves her own series, frankly), were interesting and, for such a brutal environment, surprisingly fragile. My one caveat is that the magic seemed like a bit of an add on, not central to the story or the world.

This is quite grim. There's a high body count and a lot of messy wading through blood stuff going on here.
They conscripted Tomas Piety and while he served in the Army he became a priest, almost by default. Now he's back to his home town to find it changed and to find that there are things he will have to do to save his business, his town and possibly his country. His life will never be the same again and politics will take him from his ordinary life.

It's interesting, grim but you can see the reasoning for the grim, there is some of the violence that is a little over the top but he's a mob boss trying to reclaim his territory, this is all pretty much par for the course. Many of his underlings are well drawn and I cared for some of them. show more You can see Tomas' motivations and while some of them weren't things I cared about I could see where he was coming from. He cares about his people and will do anything for them but his definintion of his people is mutable.

It's interesting and well done and I'm looking forward to more in the series. show less

It's sad that so many people hear the phrase "fantasy" and automatically associate it with lack of quality. In reality, "fantasy" describes a setting as much as anything else - once you accept that your setting is fantastical, then it is a fantasy novel. Everything else is "sub-genre".

Ishiguro and Atwood are being - sadly - realistic when they try to avoid the label, as many people won't bother if the book has that label attached to it. It would be nice, however, to once hear a "literary fiction" author who has written a sci-fi/fantasy book say "yes, it's fantasy/sci-fi, and it's great - it's deep and thought-provoking and filled with themes of love and loss and an exploration of memory and truth, as are all of the best books, including show more many books in this genre. I believe mine is better, of course, but that's because I'm a great writer, not because of the genre I write in." With so many 'literary' writers using genre themes and settings, from Paul Auster to Jonathan Carroll and indeed Atwood (who seems to have come to peace with genre) to Ishiguro (who may yet see the light one day) sometimes it’s hard to understand where SF (Speculative Fiction) lies.

Still, indeed, who cares, really? That battle has been fought and 'story' has won. Not all the old generals may have noticed that the fight is over and some will claim the Tower is still standing strong but soon enough the Ivory knights will look like those people who do those Civil War reenactments (be that the American Civil war or the War of the Roses - some of those knights are really crusty...) On genre's side we should really stop to be so bloody defensive - and yes, precious. It would be rather ironic if we now would try to build some genre High Church, with dedicated priests who would guard the Eucharist with rituals and dogmas and anathemas: "Thou will call it SF: SciFi is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord!" et cetera.

In short, it's all story, and it's all good, as long as the writer is any good at his/her craft.

I've just finished “Priest of Bones”. It's a lot cleverer than the description fantasy would suggest even when we take into account that it’s Low Fantasy (a sub-genre a very much prefer over High Fantasy). And I love it when we get a “in media res” in SF! It allows the way McLean slowly unfolds the story and introduces some of the characters slowly in a way to give me a feeling of collective history and memory that's been lost to the mists of the Dark Ages and turned to legend.

But how can you separate a genre from its stylistic features? The features are what make the genre; it has nothing to do with the quality of the writing or whether it can be considered "literature". If the features don't constitute the genre, it must therefore be possible to have a fantasy story without using any of those features whatsoever. But then how would we know it was fantasy? I feel the problem is that fantasy, or specifically heroic/high fantasy, is full of very lazy works that don't do justice to the genre as a whole. The reason is that it's just easier and simpler to create your own - shallow - world than to try to adapt your own work into an existing world with preset rules. That's why fantasy like Tolkien or George R. R. Martin (or even “His Dark Materials” by Pullman, even though he's no fantasy writer) have done so well: they have put time and effort into creating a real, deep world, complete with languages, cultures and history.

Writing good fantasy, be it Low or High, much like writing good historical fiction, takes time, effort and research. Writing quickly just results in bland heroic fantasy that gives the genre a bad name. Low fantasy, on the other hand, has to somehow fit into our current understanding of science and history (vide Joe Abercrombie and now Peter McLean). This usually leads to magic being secret or hidden, leading to a grittier story. Why? You got to explain that the dragon in Lisbon was invisible and it didn't hurt anyone because it was bound by a magical oath…It’s a pain I know, but it’s the only way I’ll read Fantasy. The Low Variety, not the High one, so to speak. show less

Not really a 10/10 book, but definitely the fantasy book I most enjoyed reading these last 2-3 years.
It has an Abercrombie feel in its worldbuilding and a Black Company in its characters and it might be described, as many did, as fantasy Peeky Blinders. It might also be described as 85% grimdark (not full cause there are clearly good guys and bad guys and the good guys win) and, even though not that complex, it is not simplistic, either.
It is for me much, much better than Locke Lamora, but it would definitely appeal to that series' fans (as to Brent Weeks ones and definitely Cook's).
It also sports a truly diverse cast which for once does not seem forced fed to the reader just cause it's a must, like in most fiction lately, but show more naturally occuring.
Recommended. I'll start on the sequel right on. show less

I absolutely loved this book. This was one of those books that I was able to lose myself in for just a little while. This book first fell on my radar when it was listed on First to Read. I signed up for a copy but let it expire before I got around to reading it. As luck would have it, my local library had a copy and I was able to give it a try. Let me tell you, I should have read this book as soon as I had a chance because it was fabulous!

This was a fantasy that I found very easy to slip into its world. It is a rather dark story and you can expect to see a fair amount of blood and violence. I was hooked by this story pretty much right away. The story follows Tomas Piety who happens to be an army priest. The war is over and his group of show more soldiers that have looked to him for leadership still wish to follow his lead. The group goes back to his home known as the Stink where Tomas plans to put everyone to work in his businesses. When he arrives home, he finds that all of his businesses have been taken over by others and he will have to fight to get them back.

I liked Tomas right away and the more I read, the more I liked him. When necessary, he delivers swift justice but overall he is a fair leader. He is incredibly smart and is a natural leader that seems to know exactly which job would be the right fit for all of his men. He inspires complete loyalty from his men which he returns in full. Tomas is put in a position where he not only needs to reclaim his territory but must also work with a powerful group to help prevent another war. It is a delicate balancing act that he is able to maneuver with finesse.

I thought this book was really exciting. There is plenty of action to keep the pages turning but I found the strategizing to be equally entertaining. The entire book was really well paced. The characters were very well developed and I not only liked Tomas but also really grew to care for the other members of his crew. There were a few magical elements that I found really well done as well.

I would highly recommend this book to fans of darker fantasies. I was totally drawn into this wonderful story that I found almost impossible to set aside. I cannot wait to read the next book in the series!

I received a digital review copy of this book from Penguin Publishing Group via First to Read and borrowed a print copy of the book from my local library. show less