As the war against Shadowwing continues, Camille and her
sisters find more and more on their plates. Stacia Bonecrusher, the demon
lieutenant is Shadowwing is still at large and plotting to get her hands on the
spirit seals. But it’s difficult to focus on her when the undead are running amok,
the portals to the Netherworld are open and ghosts and zombies need to be
returned to their rest – as if rampaging fae and demons weren’t enough.
But there’s more complexities with Smokey’s family
ferociously disapproving of his marriage to Camille – and Camille earning the enmity
of Smokey’s father, a dangerous White Dragon. And Trillian returns – which means
balancing her 3 lovers.
Then there’s further plotting the spirit seals – it seems
Queen Astaria is not content to just hold on to them and there’s growing
tension between the Otherworld Fae and the Triple Threat – the three newly
re-established queens of the fae. Camille finds her in the middle of demands
from both the courts of the fae, and summoned to Otherworld to see the plan
hatched with her father despite her misgivings.
Then there’s the Moon Mother, Camille’s goddess, who has
her own plans that may force Camille’s path.
In many ways Bone Magic was a much tighter book than
previous books in the series, There was much less unnecessary description, the
fight scenes were quicker and smoother without the huge pre-amble that used to
precede them. We have their daily life, but without it being bloated with
unnecessary detail dragging down the whole plot. It was tighter, it moved more
smoothly and there were less distractions. It wasn’t perfect – there was still
an unnecessary need to describe what everyone was wearing at all time and some
really massive geography info-dumps that weren’t needed or that helpful -
though I’m impressed at the sheer amount of planning and work that has gone
into creating this world. Yasmine Galenorn almost certainly has drawn maps and
it wouldn’t surprise me if she had a stack her own height of world building notes.
But we also have recaps. Now, the recaps, as far as
recaps go, are pretty good, they’re concise, they carry a whole lot of information
in the smallest possible space. But this is book 7 in a series – book 7 in a
series that has a lot going on, a lot of side plots and a lot of different
factions and powers and a vastly huge world. There is no way a recap can be
short and not be an info-dump.
