Of Bone and Thunder
A Novel
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From Iron Elves author Chris Evans comes a groundbreaking stand-alone fantasy novel that blends epic fantasy with the dark allegory of the Vietnam War.
A land of thick jungle and mist-swirled mountains. An enemy moving unseen beneath the lush canopy. The growing threat of thaumics—a volatile magic wielded by few that threatens to destabilize an entire kingdom. The youth of a nation sent to fight in a faraway hell while back home, discord and disillusionment reign…
In the distant nation of Luitox—wracked by rebellion—thaumic users copilot mammoth armored dragons alongside fliers who do not trust their strange methods. Warriors trained in crossbow, catapult, and stealth are plunged into sudden chaotic battles with the mysterious Forest Collective, an elusive enemy wielding a devastating magic of its own. And the Kingdom’s most downtrodden citizens, only recently granted equality, fight for the dignity they were supposed to have won at home while questioning who the real enemy truly is.
Of Bone and Thunder is the story of Thaum Jawn Rathim, whose idealized view of war collides with brutal reality; of conscripted soldier Carny, drowning in a hallucinogenic haze of fear and anger; of Breeze, the ambitious graduate of the Royal Academy of Thaumology, convinced she can reshape the very nature of warfare—if she can win the trust of those around her; and of Ugen Listowk, a veteran crossbowman haunted by failure yet determined to lead his men through the darkest jungles.
Plunging deep into the heart of moral and mortal darkness, these reluctant soldiers must battle dragons, face a ghostly enemy, and confront the chaos of a jungle war that mirrors their own inner demons. With blood, magic, and unrelenting tension, Chris Evans delivers a powerful military fantasy epic where survival is the only victory—and war is fought not for glory or the Kingdom, but for one another.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Evans (the Iron Elves series) considers the grim consequences of a drawn-out civil war following the revelation that the king of a fantasy realm is illegitimate. His characters including lowly crossbowmen; a thaum, or wizard; and a royal ranger each have individual story lines that weave together as they make their way through a war that has no end in sight and often appears to lose any sort of moral imperative. The characters are a ragtag collection, thrown together by the fortunes of war and often at odds. In addition to the battle between the rival factions, there is a guerilla war against the humans by their non-human enemies. The hurry-up-and-wait pace of warfare is reflected in the structure of the novel, which focuses on the day-to-day minutiae of the characters' lives with occasional bursts of action. Readers will spot parallels to real-world ongoing wars, their horrors seen all the more clearly through the lens of the fantastic.
Customer Reviews
Interesting POVs on War in a Fantasy Setting
I would like to thank Galley Books & NetGalley for granting me a copy of this e-ARC to read in exchange for an honest review. Though I received this e-book for free that in no way impacts my review.
Goodreads Blurb:
"Apocalypse Now meets The Lord of the Rings in a bold new fantasy from the acclaimed author of the Iron Elves trilogy, filled with "heroic action that keeps fans coming back" (Publishers Weekly).
Channeling the turbulent period of the Vietnam War and its ruthless pitting of ideologies, cultures, generations, and races against each other, military historian and acclaimed fantasy writer Chris Evans takes a daring new approach to the traditional world of sword and sorcery by thrusting it into a maelstrom of racial animus, drug use, rebellion, and a growing war that seems at once unwinnable and with no end in sight. In this thrilling epic, right and wrong, country and honor, freedom and sacrifice are all put to the ultimate test in the heart of a dark, bloody, otherworldly jungle.
In this strange, new world deep among the shadows under a triple-canopy jungle and plagued by dangers real and imagined, soldiers strive to fulfill a mission they don’t understand and are ill-equipped to carry out. And high above them, the heavy rush of wings slashing through the humid air herald a coming wave of death and destruction, and just possibly, salvation."
This book was a slow starter for me, with too many characters being introduced only to disappear within a few pages. Luckily things began to turn around about a quarter of the way in, or maybe just a bit further. Once the bulk of the characters had been set up and were on the stage we actually began to get to know them, allowing for attachments - both positive and negative, and some few that remained a mystery all the way to the very end, and possibly beyond.
The land was a character as well, eliciting strong emotions from those there on behalf of the Kingdom, plus an understood emotion on behalf of the native peoples. In its own way it acted as a metaphor for the story, with a variety of different properties that reflected each of the players, including the power players that remained safely at home and out of sight. Across this diverse landscape a horrible game of political maneuvering was played out, with little, if any, regard for the individual lives being spent as the coin of the realm.
Watching the development and progression of several key players was intensely fascinating. Some of their stories were surprisingly uplifting, while others were a train wreck from which you couldn't look away. Lest you think that what you see is what you get, there were numerous surprises sprinkled throughout the characters, keeping things interesting even though the book is mired in the harsh daily realities of an unsustainable war. A war being fought for all the wrong reasons (are there ever any right reasons?), yet was continued long past the time when it was known to be un-winnable.
Evans created a gripping conclusion that left me reeling, and gave me a glimpse of what war is really like. There is no real rhyme nor reason to who survives and who dies. It doesn't matter how well you fight, or how devoted you are to the cause; when your ticket gets punched how you lived your life and how you fought have no bearing. It all comes down to dumb luck. War doesn't care about anyone or anything. It isn't a means to a end, though some seem to think otherwise. It is simply an end. Period.