Reviews

The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams

outcolder's review

3.0

Satisfying: lots of full characters, magic has a terrible price, unusual monsters. The faeries are more Irish than Tolkein. It starts off like a lighter [b:Titus Groan|39063|Titus Groan (Gormenghast, #1)|Mervyn Peake|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327871204s/39063.jpg|3250394] but after a hundred pages or so begins to go more high-fantasy epic. I like fantasy novels that make me want to work out more, and this isn't exactly Conan but there is more than enough physically demanding adventure. Female characters seldom appear and when they finally do, they tend to depart just as we were getting to know them. Another minus for me are the Rimmersmen, who are so damn Norse... he's got a lot of cultures and nations on his continent and it's all typical fantasy middle ages, and yeah, those guys are supposed to be like Italy or something, and others are harder to pin down exactly what inspired them, but the Rimmersmen are just so damn Viking... he could have made them a little more different.

The edition I read has a quote on the back from Xignals... the Waldenbooks advertorial for SF fans... wow. Remember hanging out in Waldenbooks and reading SF and fantasy for hours?

The main character is probably not going to prove to secretly be the rightful heir, I hope, and no one is calling him the chosen one or anything goofy like that, he doesn't appear in ancient prophecies... but we are constantly reminded that he has "been marked" and I fell like I have been marked... this freaking brick ate up weeks of my life. And now I have to read at least two more to find out how all it ends? Argh! Damn book marked me! Doomed to follow it to the end!

etfairies's review

2.0

The book was a pleasure to read but I gave up after reading 40% because there wasn’t happening anything interesting.

seba_reads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

5.0

lionrushton's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

4.25

pickpoppies's review

I got to chapter 6 and it was so slow and nothing was happening, the MC was really dull. I asked online if it got better and told by chapter 11-12 I won't be able to put it down. Got to chapter 13 and it picked up a little but not enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

paulvdh's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.75

tnv_135's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.0

selenajean's review

4.0

I started this book and quickly gave up. The main character wasn't very likeable and it was slow going. My mind kept coming back to it though and it's highly reviewed so I tried again. I'm so happy I did. It does start out slow but once it gets going it's awesome. It reminded me of King Arthur, Lord of the rings and game of thrones. Very innocent at first and old fashioned traditional fantasy. By the end it was more game of thrones. I'm glad I persisted.

ractorawk's review

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

_cthulhu's review

5.0

Great book for the lovers of Fantasy. A lot like the the R.R.Martin books but a little bit less complex with a maximum of 3-4 perspectives. However, the universe and the characters are very well defined, everything makes sense and nothing feels forced into place.
Difficult to stop reading :)