The Bone Maker
A Novel
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- €7.49
Publisher Description
"Durst consistently defies expectations."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
From award-winning author Sarah Beth Durst, a standalone epic fantasy set in a brand-new world of towering mountains and sparkling cities, in which a band of aging warriors have a second chance to defeat dark magic and avenge a haunting loss.
Twenty-five years ago, five heroes risked their lives to defeat the bone maker Eklor—a corrupt magician who created an inhuman army using animal bones. But victory came at a tragic price. Only four of the heroes survived.
Since then, Kreya, the group’s leader, has exiled herself to a remote tower and devoted herself to one purpose: resurrecting her dead husband. But such a task requires both a cache of human bones and a sacrifice—for each day he lives, she will live one less.
She’d rather live one year with her husband than a hundred without him, but using human bones for magic is illegal in Vos. The dead are burned—as are any bone workers who violate the law. Yet Kreya knows where she can find the bones she needs: the battlefield where her husband and countless others lost their lives.
But defying the laws of the land exposes a terrible possibility. Maybe the dead don’t rest in peace after all.
Five warriors—one broken, one gone soft, one pursuing a simple life, one stuck in the past, and one who should be dead. Their story should have been finished. But evil doesn’t stop just because someone once said, “the end.”
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this captivating stand-alone fantasy adventure from celebrated author Sarah Beth Durst, a magical warrior takes risks in battle—and in love. It’s been years since Kreya and her small band of fighters defeated an army of skeletons led by the evil sorcerer Eklor. Kreya lost her husband, Jent, in the conflict; now she’s tired and lonely. With her mystical powers fading, Durst’s heroine decides to use Eklor’s forbidden magic to resurrect Jent—sending her on a perilous journey to fix the cosmic imbalance that her wartime actions created. We were amazed by the rich detail and fascinating history of Durst’s fantastical world, where the power of magic is matched by the sheer force of the characters’ emotions. Awesomely epic and deeply moving, The Bone Maker put us under a deep spell.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Durst (Race the Sands) sets this richly drawn fantasy in a world where magic wielders called bone makers use animal bones to animate lifeless objects. Twenty-five years ago, Kreya Odi Altriana and her fabled team of heroes defeated Eklor, a corrupt bone maker who illegally used human bones in his spells, in the bloody Bone War which cost Kreya her husband, Jentt. Overwhelmed with grief, Kreya secretly turned to forbidden magic to resurrect her husband by trading years of her life for his. But the incantation won't last much longer without human bones, and Kreya convinces her former best friend, Zera, to help her steal bones left unburied on the Bone War's battlefield. They soon discover a threat that lurks within the skeleton-littered plains Eklor is alive and rebuilding his army. Now Kreya must assemble the remainder of her retired team to defeat Eklor once more. Though Durst relies a bit too much on the legendary reputations of her heroes and their actions in the first war, leading the present-day epic action to feel a bit unearned, the exquisite worldbuilding and inventive, macabre magic system more than make up for this flaw. Durst's fans will be delighted.
