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A review by paracyclops
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I've been on a long search for epic fantasy that I really like. For reasons I won't go into here, I really should like it, but in practice very few books in the subgenre have grabbed me. Tolkien, Le Guin (Earthsea), George R.R.R.R.R.R. Martin, Mike Brooks God-King Chronicles and that's about it. I've read a lot of first books in long series, and rarely gone any further. The Dragonbone Chair was a bit of a surprise, then. It's the first published in a lot of books Tad Williams has written in the same setting, although they don't all constitute a singe storyline, so I'll have a lot of reading pleasure ahead of me, if he maintains the same standard throughout.
It's not the most groundbreaking world, being a fairly straightforward quasi-medieval setting, whose cultures are built from northwestern-European materials and languages, but it's constructed with close attention to detail, and it's a plausible riff on the theme of knights and castles. Williams make the effort to depict daily life in detail, and broadly, he gets things right. His characters seem very much to be products of their cultural and social context, and they're bound by the webs of social obligation that you would expect of real humans in a real place. His worldbuilding leans to the mythopoeic, although he does have a tendency to explain things, which drags it back towards the historical—he doesn't quite understand the importance of the distinction, in the way that Tolkien and Le Guin do, for example. The story is classic high fantasy fare, with ancient betrayals, magic swords, dragons, supernatural antagonists, and all of that fun stuff—it's well plotted, and pretty straightforward. The characters are likeable (when they're meant to be), and Williams spends a lot of time in a very closely zoomed third-person perspective, narrating their interiorities as much as their actions. He also writes well—it was possible to take pleasure in his prose, his metaphors, his images and so on. This is worthy of comment, as in my experience most epic fantasy writers have very poor technique. It's not good enough to carry the book on its own, but it brings some extra pleasure to the reading experience.
There were quite a few moments when I became aware that the plot had not advanced, and that I had not learned anything new about the world, for quite a lot of pages. However much I like the characters and the prose, neither are quite compelling enough to compensate for these lacks—and when I found myself waiting for the next thing to happen, neither seemed quite as entertaining. I think the whole book could probably be cut by a third without losing anything. However, the bits that do need to be there kept me sufficiently engaged to forgive Williams this failing, and overall, I enjoyed the book a great deal.
It's not the most groundbreaking world, being a fairly straightforward quasi-medieval setting, whose cultures are built from northwestern-European materials and languages, but it's constructed with close attention to detail, and it's a plausible riff on the theme of knights and castles. Williams make the effort to depict daily life in detail, and broadly, he gets things right. His characters seem very much to be products of their cultural and social context, and they're bound by the webs of social obligation that you would expect of real humans in a real place. His worldbuilding leans to the mythopoeic, although he does have a tendency to explain things, which drags it back towards the historical—he doesn't quite understand the importance of the distinction, in the way that Tolkien and Le Guin do, for example. The story is classic high fantasy fare, with ancient betrayals, magic swords, dragons, supernatural antagonists, and all of that fun stuff—it's well plotted, and pretty straightforward. The characters are likeable (when they're meant to be), and Williams spends a lot of time in a very closely zoomed third-person perspective, narrating their interiorities as much as their actions. He also writes well—it was possible to take pleasure in his prose, his metaphors, his images and so on. This is worthy of comment, as in my experience most epic fantasy writers have very poor technique. It's not good enough to carry the book on its own, but it brings some extra pleasure to the reading experience.
There were quite a few moments when I became aware that the plot had not advanced, and that I had not learned anything new about the world, for quite a lot of pages. However much I like the characters and the prose, neither are quite compelling enough to compensate for these lacks—and when I found myself waiting for the next thing to happen, neither seemed quite as entertaining. I think the whole book could probably be cut by a third without losing anything. However, the bits that do need to be there kept me sufficiently engaged to forgive Williams this failing, and overall, I enjoyed the book a great deal.