Bone Song

An intriguing but wildly inconsistent book.

Imagine, if you will, [a:J.D. Robb|17065|J.D. Robb|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1481138127p2/17065.jpg]'s "In Death" series redone with the deathworld of Chronicles of Riddick, the sensibility of a Batman graphic novel, and the magic of [b:California Bones|18490594|California Bones (Daniel Blackland, #1)|Greg Van Eekhout|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1393646834s/18490594.jpg|25312108]. It's an unusual combination, a Dagwood sandwich of a book if you will, and much of my reading was occupied by puzzling out the details of the world.

"Donal sketched a fingertip salute to the shadows beyond the stone steps. Stuffing his hands in his overcoat pockets, he looked up at the two hundred show more stories of police HQ rearing upward, dark and uncompromising. It was late and cold and the sky appeared deep purple, heavily opaque. Somewhere near the top, Commissioner Vilnar's office waited. And reading between the lines of this morning's phone call, the commissioner had a new job lined up for him--something Donal was not going to enjoy."

The plot is straightforward: someone is killing artists to use their bones sooner than a natural death would allow. Donal Riordan is a highly respected New York City Tristopolis cop, whose job is his life. If he isn't on a case, he's practicing his marksmanship, going for a run or resting in his crummy little apartment in a dangerous side of town. Commissioner Vilnar assigns Riordan the job of protecting a famed opera singer while she is in town. The first half of the book centers around the protection detail, while the second is nominally about finding the conspirator(s). There's a missing-person side investigation that ends up dominating the majority of the second half of the book. There's also supposed to be political underpinnings to the main mystery, but it is not well integrated.

It's the world-building that intrigues here. There's hints of a chronic, quick-silver rain that is toxic to the skin, to the extent that Donal tends to spend his time running in the sewers catacombs (what isn't explained is why there are catacombs if the dead are burned for energy?) There are death-wolves that guard the doors of the police precinct, and seem to act as independent police agents. The desk sergeant is literally melded to his desk. There are non-human races, such as the cat-like people that staff the hospital/healing facilities.

However, the flip side to all the ideas is the extent to which they are developed. Much of it feels like 'sci-fi/fantasy' in the same way that J.D. Robb's books do: replace any given object or basic function with something fantastical and call it world-building. There's a comment about '25/9' instead of '24/7,' streets go up to the thousands, taxis are purple and instead of armor-piercing rounds, we have chitin-piercing rounds with a silver load.

At times, there's a little more depth, which leads to interesting mental routes. Mechanical devices are powered by indentured wraiths and the dead bones that provide 'thaumaturgical energy'. Death seems to come in many layers, with the wraiths resembling a disembodied consciousness and the zombies are bodies reliant on the energy from the bones. Wraiths and zombies are viewed as less-than-human, but unfortunately, the writing around it is largely generic and non-nuanced, resorting to obvious -ist comments. It'd be easy to replace 'zombies' with any other group and have a non-fantasy story, and the wraiths have a strong parallel in slavery-based cultures.

This is a book that is all over the ratings map, even among reading friends, with two giving it one-star, and two awarding four and five stars. It's not one that would be easy to recommend, but I can see it appealing to people who enjoyed [b:Two Serpents Rise|16059411|Two Serpents Rise (Craft Sequence, #2)|Max Gladstone|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355469010s/16059411.jpg|21846173] by Gladstone. I was frequently struck at how vivid some of the scenes were in my mind; I feel like there's something almost cinematic about it. Recently, I was discussing the concept of stretchy-books that push one's reading. This felt like one of them, not in terms of ethics or boundary-pushing writing skill, but in the wealth of ideas and their combination. I wanted to play longer in the world, so despite a variety of issues with plotting and world-building, I'll be giving it a read. show less

As others have stated, the world building here is really good. There's a certain romance to Meaney's gothic-deco city with its 200-storey skyscrapers bathed in eternal twilight. A place where witches ride alongside police detectives, hexes are often deadlier than bullets, and zombies can find true love. But he seems to spend so much time playing with his set pieces that he neglects to flesh out the story itself leaving us to wonder the whys and wherefores of a rather serpentine plot....in other words, what the hell is going on? Add to that an annoying habit of interjecting sentence fragments ad nauseam: "Do you...?" "Can you feel....?" "...the bones?" and you have a novel with some interesting passages undone by stretches of tedium. show more Would probably have been better as a manga giving the visuals a greater impact. show less

An absolutely mind-blowing book, one of the best fantasies I've read in YEARS. Dark, dark, dark - this is a world powered by death, in a very literal sense. Wraiths and necromancy provide the security, technology, motivation, and power for the entire city...the entire world...and Meaney has developed an INCREDIBLY complex and engrossing cosmology around this concept. Add to that a very well-crafted police procedural/hardboiled crime novel, and you've got one of the most unique books I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Meaney pulls NO punches, and it's brilliant.

Setting, setting, setting - this author is damned deviously inventive when it comes to setting. Tristopolis is like nothing else out there now. But it comes with some characters that are sometimes as incompletely fleshed out as the zombies that inhabit this dark city. The love affair that Donal, the main character has feels too convenient. The situation provides him with everything that he would need as a sort of deus ex machina of amour. Donal doesn't have to lift a finger to achieve the relationship so it feels flat. It's also a rough transition when the story goes from Donal's perceptions to suddenly encompass the view points of the members of the team. This is not a bad thing, because there are a number of interesting characters. show more The plot of the story is intriguing and develops well and contains well drafted action scenes. But it's that setting, the completely thought out and envisioned world of Tristopolis that really sells things. Meany has a plethora of ideas and he tosses them out freely. What's even better is the follow up is an easier read, partially because he can now freely pursue these larger themes without the necessity of complex intoductions. show less

I enjoyed this book, which is a mystery with magic, a mysterious evil cabal, and political ramifications. The story is set in an alternate world, where death and not life rules.

The city, Tristopolis, is powered by magic and the bones of the dead. There are memories and lifeforce left in the bones. and their science allows them to extract it and make fuel (electricity, gasoline) which runs the city. The process subjects the bones to agony and so it is dangerous, and must be carefully managed (think nuclear reactor).

The story is of obsession and serial murder. A secret cabal of the rich and politically connected, are murdering the top flight artists and stealing their bodies for their bones. These rich collectors want to own and savor show more the artistic visions in them.

Donal Riordan is the main character. He is assigned to protect a visiting diva. He fails, but rather than punishment he is assigned to a task force that is hunting the killers. The story focuses on trying to find the one who is pulling the strings, not just the henchmen who kill. They struggle to gather proof and to determine who is on their side and who is engaged in double-crossing them.

The story focuses on the setting, the characters of Donal, his team-mates on the task force, and those he works with in the police department, Bone Listeners in the archive, and the Medical Listeners at the morgue. We see the bad guys and red herrings, but not in any depth.

The book is too short for a anything but selective depth. It also tries to be a hardboiled type of story.
Which relies a lot on tough guys/gals. Meaney also seems to have an axe to grind towards gays, or perhaps its just the hardboiled ambiance he is trying to flesh out, in either case its offensive. In the end he also kills off Riordan's love interest, who is also his boss and superior at the job, which is very old fashioned and cliched. show less

This is a completely different read to many others. While it falls into the Paranormal investigator slot it's not like many others,. in fact I'd say that it's pretty much alone in it's field.

It takes a while to get into the story, to get your mind around the fact that it's the dead that power this world, the energy stored in their bones is the fuel that makes this world work. The characters take this for granted so it took a while for me to get my head around some of it. This is both a strength and a weakness of the story. While I enjoyed the fact that it was so strange initially the feel of the story was quite mundane.

This is a story of a serial killer hunting the gifted and Lieutenant Donal Riordan who at the beginning of the book show more fails to save one of the potential victims and becomes involved in the investigation. He finds treachery and double-cross along with love and a purpose.

Once I got into the story I actually quite liked it. One of my best reads so far this year. show less

I was very impressed and intrigued by the world that John Meaney created between the pages of this book. It was full of details that just made you want to know more about it and what else was going on. While it was marketed as Sci-Fi I would label it Urban Fantasy, there are a lot of things that go 'bump' in the night and the dreary days as well.

While I found the world created to be great the story did not quite meet the same standards as the scenery that it was taking place in. I suspect that books 2 and 3 will improve the storytelling aspect since the work of world building is mostly done. Good book, enjoyed it and want to read the next one.