Reviews - The Dragonbone Chair

1.25k reviews for:

The Dragonbone Chair

Tad Williams

3.86 AVERAGE

domofgondolin's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

moodybeans's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

purplebubbles99's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark inspiring lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It's been many, many years since I read this book and truthfully I should have been writing this in 2024 (as that was when I originally planned to read through the whole Osten Ard saga including the ones I never got to). Then the Broken Binding released their absolutely gorgeous editions and after getting them I had excuses not to start

The story starts with Simon, a scullery boy of a mere 15 years of age (and yes, we've all read a variation of this story before). He's wishing for something more exciting, upset at all those around him who 'order him around' and 'don't understand'. In short he's a typical teenager.

Simon lives in the Hayholt (the castle of the High King) and when the King dies the succession is anything but smooth. The elder son (Elias) doesn't trust that his brother Josua has no ambition for the throne. His only child is a daughter and his wife is dead so he wishes to arrange a marriage for her so at the least he can have a grandson to pass the throne to (that is definitely not what she desires).

When this doesn't work out ('cause she runs away) he decides to solve his problem by other means. I wonder why he didn't just marry again. I mean, there's no unbreakable deathbed vows that he'd never take another to bed or anything. Still, if he'd taken that route there wouldn't have exactly been a story for me to enjoy

. One of his closest advisors, Pryrates, is definitely someone giving off bad vibes all around from the first time he's mentioned has the perfect plan(s) to solve his problem. Thus, we have the prime antagonists.

With all of this scheming, Simon gets caught up in events much bigger than him before he knows it and he's out in the big wide world (initially by himself but he soon picks up companions). There's a really pleasant weave between the sweep of kingdom level movements and the individual stories of some (about 5-6 iirc - i.e. not just Simon).

This is a really great read and is well deserving of the many recommendations floating around for it. Having read it when it was first released I do know one particular key plot point that's revealed in the last book of this arc

what happened with King Prester John and the dragon

and it's interesting to see how hints are dropped about it.

meanmugmrrogers's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

liamspinola's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

mewtenantworf's review against another edition

5.0

Rereading this book, which was one of the first lengthy epic fantasy books I ever read as a kid, I am struck by the thought that George Martin plagiarized the hell out of it. So many ideas that Tad Williams came up with in 1989 appeared in GoT in 1996.

The book definitely stands up to the test of time. I'm enjoying is just as much as I did the first 3 it 4 times I read it between the ages of 9 and 17.