Dnf @37%

A very interesting concept and cast of characters, but I feel like the story was missing the depth I love in epic fantasy books. It is a lovely book and fun story and would recommend light fantasy lovers to give it a read, but I wasn't hugely impressed.

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.” The low-key premise reminded me of Roshani Chokshi's Gilded Wolves—obviously I was intrigued by this fantasy novel because of that alone and overall, this novel wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be. Generally speaking, it was not terrible. Nor great. In layman's terms—meh...? There was great potential there and I am a little surprised the author decided not to expand this to a series considering how each character brought something unique and fresh to the table, and of course, the short description below that initially won me over when picking up what I originally considered a gem: “You’ve all heard the legends. There were five of us, tasked by the guild master to eliminate the threat posed by the rogue bone maker Eklor.” She held up one finger. “Kreya, our bone maker, a rising star in the guild, chosen for possessing a power that could rival Eklor’s— if she lived long enough to hone it.” A second finger. “Zera . . . that’s me, my loves.” Her audience cooed appreciatively, and Kreya rolled her eyes. “Bone wizard. Unknown until then, but soon to be unrivaled.” Third. “Marso, a bone reader, with a unique gift of seeing the truth of the past, present, and future that far exceeded the skills of other bone readers.” Four. “Stran, a warrior with experience in using bone talismans to enhance his already prodigious strength.” And five. “Jentt, a reformed thief, who specialized in using talismans of speed and stealth to win his battles.” “The legend says that the guild master tasked five, but he did not. He tasked only one. Kreya. She chose the rest of us. All that befell us is her fault. All the glory, and all the pain.” That sounded good on paper, right? But the author, in my opinion, didn’t deliver. I felt like I was just going through the motions when reading this and truthfully, I was a bit bored by the halfway point despite finally meeting the rest of the original crew besides Kreya, Zera, and recently resurrected Jentt, who are each dealing with their own struggles/new lives after their disbandment and war. More so, what made this a somewhat taxing read was the main character, Kreya. I honestly didn't care for her. And more times than not, my primary focus was on Zera, Marso, Stran and less frequently Jentt. I understand her husband died but for her to just abandon her crew/”best friends” after his sudden death (that she caused btw) and to then—after 25 years—go out to seek them for help/guidance in bringing back her dead husband and to save the world (again). Yeah no. I wasn’t feeling that. I would have gladly told her to fuck off. Altogether, what I disliked—Kreya, slow-going storyline, lack of perspective of the other characters minus MC, did I mention Kreya?, lack of world-building, the abrupt ending (WTF was that?!) that could’ve been more fleshed out, and despite it being an adult fantasy (40’s + 50’s aged team), the strong YA vibes I got was not my cup of tea. One of the few positives of this book that I really enjoyed was the concept of bone making, bone reading, magic, special use of talisman, etc. The magic system really intrigued me and it was something I haven’t seen in other adult *cough*YA with older characters*cough* fantasy books I have read thus far. I hope to see more of this in the future.

Sarah Beth Durst's The Bone Maker is a standalone fantasy which explores the notion of second chances and what comes next after a hero's journey. Traditionally, we often come across fantasy stories which has a definitive "the end" after the grand climax and the concept of forgiveness remains underrepresented within the genre, so seeing these in the premise piqued my interest. In this dark and haunting standalone, the concept is definitely the standout. In addition to the five heroes reuniting (which paves way for the novel to explore the hurt, forgiveness, and reconciliation), I thought the bone making magic system is pretty interesting - on how that comes with a great cost. I also think there are potentials for the different classed tiers in the city. On the flipside, I think the overall execution of the premise & the concepts are rather mixed. Conceptually, this book is dragged down by its incomplete worldbuilding. While there are some details provided about the city and its tiers, there aren't enough context given resulting in a feeling of vagueness & incoherence. Even in character-driven novels, I would expect the worldbuilding to at least reflect a character's emotional headspace. There's a sense of disconnect between the characters and the world they live in here. Normally when I read fantasy books over several days, I can tell the quality of worldbuilding based on how easily I re-engage with the story. in the case of The Bone Maker I felt increasingly disorientated when I picked back up reading the book - red flag that the worldbuilding is lacking. I also have mixed reception with the characters. While I liked the moral ambiguity and the overall character focus in the book, I found that the character development was quite uneven amongst the five heroes. For example I could easily grasp Kreya's emotional headspace but I barely had the chance to really connect with Marso as a character. I also think the 25 years separating the current and past timeline felt a tad under-justified due to the limited scope given the length of the novel. It's one of the cases where an author is trying to do a bit too much in a book and the end result appears stretched thin, which is a shame given the promising potentials given in the premise. Due to the major shorcomings I've mentioned above, The Bone Maker felt quite underwhelming to me. While I think the magic system and the redemption concept was interesting, I personally couldn't recommend the book because I found execution of the story to fall way short of what the premise promised. N.B. This book contains following triggering content: corpse, gore, death, and loss of loved ones (2.5 stars out of 5)

4/5 Stars I really enjoyed this book. It surpassed any expectations that I had for it. I will admit that it got a little predictable at times and I would have loved to see the author play around more with the magic system. I really enjoyed what we did see of the magic, it had me wanting to know and see more of what it could do, how it all works and all its limits. While we do get a glimpes, I just didn't feel like it was enough. That being said I enjoyed the writting in this book far more than the writing in the last book that I read by her. I would say she still has some work to do with her characters, some of them felt more developed than others did but they all seemed a little flat to me. Overall I had a great time and would recommend.