{"id":5293,"date":"2013-04-18T21:09:32","date_gmt":"2013-04-19T01:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=5293"},"modified":"2013-04-18T21:09:32","modified_gmt":"2013-04-19T01:09:32","slug":"a-throne-of-bones-by-vox-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=5293","title":{"rendered":"A Throne of Bones, by Vox Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nWhen I wrote my article on Christian Fantasy <\/strong>for the Intercollegiate Review<\/a>, I made a disparaging comment about \u201cwanabee George R. R. Martins.\u201d I received a friendly e-mail shortly thereafter from none other than Vox Day of the Vox Popoli <\/a>blog, wondering if I had had his novel Throne of Bones<\/a><\/i> in mind. I hastened to tell him that I hadn\u2019t. I\u2019d seen the book on Amazon and thought about checking it out, but hadn\u2019t done so yet.
\nThe upshot was that I sent him a copy of Hailstone Mountain<\/a>, and he sent me a copy of A Throne of Bones<\/i>. It should be noted for the record that if our reviews of each other\u2019s books are positive (I don\u2019t know whether his will be, assuming he does one) that we have both received free books in the deal and may have been corrupted thereby.
\nMost anyone who starts reading Throne of Bones<\/i> will realize that it\u2019s very much the same sort of thing as George R. R. Martin\u2019s Song of Fire and Ice <\/i>books, and Vox makes no denial of this. But he\u2019s trying to do the same sort of thing in a very different way, which for me makes all the difference.
\nThe story takes place in an alternate world called Selenoth (it has two moons). The general situation seems to be something like that of the Roman Empire in the late Republican period (as best I can figure out), though there are differences. The time period seems more medieval than Roman, and the Amorran Empire (spell Amorr <\/i>backwards) has believed in a religion which seems pretty much the same as Christianity for four centuries. The two most powerful houses in Amorr are the Valerians and the Severans, conservative and liberal respectively. The Valerians want to preserve the old form of the empire, while the Severans want to expand citizenship to the provincials. But General Corvus of the Valerians sets off a break within his own family through a necessary act of military discipline.
\nMeanwhile the Sanctiff of the Amorran church dies, and the conclave convened to elect his replacement is massacred by some kind of demonic attacker, something that\u2019s not supposed to happen in Amorr, where magic is strictly prohibited.
\nFar to the north, the Viking-like Dalarans are being driven from their home islands by the Ulven, a race of wolf-men. They agree to submit to the king of Savondir (a heathen land where magic is legal) if he will give them refuge and help them reconquer their homeland. But strange shape-shifters have appeared among the Ulven, and pose a threat to Savondir as well.
\nAnd Corvus\u2019 soldier son Marcus survives an army coup, managing to wrest control from the mutineers and finding himself, though woefully inexperienced as a commander, the general of an entire army, facing not only orcs and goblins but rebel Amorrans.
\nAnd there are dragons. And dwarves. And elves.
\nPretty much all you could ask.
\nI enjoyed it immensely. Vox Day isn\u2019t the prose stylist George R. R. Martin is, but he’s not bad. On the plus side we have a complicated, complex story with interesting and sympathetic, fully rounded characters. There are few out-and-out villains \u2013 everybody is doing what they think right. And unlike Martin\u2019s stories, the fact that someone is virtuous and noble does not guarantee them a painful and ignominious death. In terms of pure story, Vox Day\u2019s book is much more rewarding. And Christianity is treated not only with respect, but as a true part of the cosmos.
\nMuch recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I wrote my article on Christian Fantasy for the Intercollegiate Review, I made a disparaging comment about \u201cwanabee George R. R. Martins.\u201d I received a friendly e-mail shortly thereafter from none other than Vox Day of the Vox Popoli blog, wondering if I had had his novel Throne of Bones in mind. I hastened … Continue reading A Throne of Bones, by Vox Day<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,15],"tags":[78,948,1057,3283],"class_list":["post-5293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-reviews","tag-a-throne-of-bones","tag-fantasy","tag-george-r-r-martin","tag-vox-day"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}