Dragon BonesDragon Bones by Patri­cia Briggs (2002), pub­lished by Ace. I enjoyed Moon Called and wanted some­thing else to read from Brigg’s back­list. An online pal said that the Hurog Duol­ogy would be worth check­ing out and it is. Briggs has writ­ten a very inter­est­ing hero whose POV dom­i­nates much of the book. Here is the synop:

Most every­one thinks Ward of Hurog is a simple-minded fool-and that’s just fine by him. But few peo­ple know that his fool­ish­ness is (very con­vinc­ingly) feigned. And that it’s all that’s saved him from death at the hands of his abu­sive father-who’s always seen Ward as a bit­ter rival for power. When his father dies, Ward becomes the new lord of Hurog, until a noble­man declares that he is too dim-witted to rule. Ward knows he can­not play the fool any longer.

To regain his king­dom, he must prove him­self worthy-and quickly. Rid­ing into a war that’s heat­ing up on the bor­der, Ward is sure he’s on the fast track to glory. But soon his mis­sion takes a deadly seri­ous turn. For he has seen a pile of mag­i­cal dragon bones hid­den deep beneath Hurog Keep. They are Hurog’s most pre­cious, pow­er­ful treasure-and Ward is cer­tain his ene­mies will kill to pos­sess them.

Dragon Bones by Patri­cia Briggs was a very engag­ing read. The story is char­ac­ter dri­ven and has plenty of action in it. It’s an adven­ture story full of magic and polit­i­cal intrigue (which I love a lot). I am sur­prised that I enjoyed it as much as I did because the story man­ages to have two things that I nor­mally despise in a novel: first per­son nar­ra­tion and shift­ing POV’s. There are maybe two or three chap­ters that are told in third per­son but the rest of the novel is told from the hero’s POV, which is a nov­elty of sorts in itself, since such nov­els are rare. Our hero is Wardrick of Hurog aka Ward; a young man who is a very reluc­tant hero of sorts who plays dumb in order to escape his father’s wrath.

Play­ing the fool ends up hurt­ing Ward. It is after his father’s death that he learns that his father wants him com­mit­ted to the asy­lum. Thereby pass­ing over his fam­ily home of Hurog to his Uncle and cousins. In order to divert this order, Ward leaves his home of Hurog and decides to make a name for him­self as a war­rior. His Uncle Duraugh doesn’t want Hurog Keep and wor­ries for Ward and for his well being.

Mean­while, Ward along with a few of his com­rades which includes a pow­er­ful mage named Bastilla, who flees to Hurog as a slave but isn’t all that she seems. Then there’s the wiz­ard of the keep, Oreg, who is also his friend, men­tor and advi­sor. Plus a host of other char­ac­ters. Ward’s entourage strike off for a city that is rife with ban­dits and raiders who are steal­ing pow­er­ful arti­facts to cre­ate dan­ger­ous magic. It is dis­cov­ered that Hurog has been the home of some pow­er­ful dragon bones that is heav­ily sought after by many. The fear is that if the dragon bones were ever in the wrong hands, all hell would break loose. It is that fear that dri­ves many to pro­tect the dragon bones at all costs.

This book is a keeper for me because I really liked Ward. He has such a good heart and is always shown to be think­ing of oth­ers before him­self. He’s hon­or­able, respect­ful, car­ing and he doesn’t tri­fle with love. He’s one the best heroes I’ve enjoyed read­ing. Another rea­son I enjoyed this novel was for the polit­i­cal intrigue and sus­pense that is very well done and keeps read­ers on the edge of their seat for the out­come. You cared about the ram­i­fi­ca­tions of the polit­i­cal games that were ram­pant and dan­ger­ous. Lastly, as a reader, I was engaged in this story and wanted to know the out­come of the char­ac­ters and hope that they make it alive. Over­all, this fan­tasy novel held me cap­ti­vated until the last page was turned.

On the down side, I think Briggs tends to spend a lit­tle too much time describ­ing the keep, the moun­tains, the towns, etc. At least for me because I’m always wait­ing to get to the action, dammit. There were scenes where the atmos­phere was really sus­pense­ful and creepy. The story has plenty of dark magic and fan­tas­ti­cal crea­tures. It’s your typ­i­cal well writ­ten fan­tasy novel. There’s not much of a romance in this one and I didn’t miss it. The author does a good job mak­ing you care about these char­ac­ters so that when a few twists and turns of the plot come around you feel the impact. Also, Briggs can and does pull on the heart strings just a tiny bit.

Over­all, Dragon Bones was a page-turner. Briggs is a very good sto­ry­teller. I’m read­ing the sequel now because I just don’t want to leave this world just yet. Pick this book up if you enjoy a well writ­ten novel full of twists and turns, action and sus­pense and polit­i­cal intrigue and mag­i­cal crea­tures. Highly rec­om­mend this book to read­ers of fantasy.

Tech­no­rati Tags: ,