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A review by jdhacker
The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton
3.0
Throne of Bones could be considered McNaughton's opus. The collection first put out by Terminal Frights (now defunct), with tantalizing hints that there is significantly more material set in this world, collects McNaughton's work centered around ghouls of the vaguely Lovecraftian sort. I say vaguely because, if you're familiar with that style of ghoul its a good starting point, but this expands greatly on the lore of ghouls, taking it in some interesting and unforeseen directions. Hence it being generally regarded as the 'Dracula' or 'Frankenstein' of ghoul stories. Its also McNaughton's foray in to serious worldbuilding, as these interconnected stories span multiple clearly well developed and thought through cultures and across time in a world that, while horrific in its own right, shows clear influences of early 20th century/late 19th century fantasy and sword & sorcery authors.
I was prepared for the explicity ghoul-porn (though there was far less of that than I was led to believe), I was prepared for the sometimes cumbersone/tiresome older/weirder fantasy world-building naming schemes, I was prepared for the weird/lovecraftian elements. What I was not prepared for was the humor. Because there's been some intense worldbuilding going on, the interconnected nature of the story telling gave McNaughton the chance to do more character development in these short works than we would normally expected from short fiction. Getting to know and understand the internal lives of necromancers, scholars, the bumbling nobles, and the ghouls themselves set up a great deal of dramatic irony for the reader to laugh at. And while much of the action sequences are well written in the sword and sorcery style, even there we get to see and frequently find humor in the exploits of one of our more reluctant protagonists.
Honestly, I think is really where McNaughton's work shines in this collection, though I'm likely to be in the minority. Not the world building, not the horror, not the exceptionally well polished and carefully crafted writing. But in showing us characters and events in the midst of a world every bit as horrific and grey as the skin of his ghouls that can make also make us laugh, and in a few cases, evoke sadness and pity.
Is it my favorite work of weird fiction? No. Is it even the best of the novel length collections Terminal Fright put out in its heyday? Not in my opinion. And I would say lovers of Robert E. Howard sword and sorcery are likely to find more to enjoy here than the lovers of Lovecraftian weird fiction I think its normally directed at. But there are definitely some things to enjoy here. If nothing else, I think the humor alone makes it worth a read. And even the old Terminal Fright hardbacks are out there on secondary markets for relatively low prices, let alone the newer editions.
I was prepared for the explicity ghoul-porn (though there was far less of that than I was led to believe), I was prepared for the sometimes cumbersone/tiresome older/weirder fantasy world-building naming schemes, I was prepared for the weird/lovecraftian elements. What I was not prepared for was the humor. Because there's been some intense worldbuilding going on, the interconnected nature of the story telling gave McNaughton the chance to do more character development in these short works than we would normally expected from short fiction. Getting to know and understand the internal lives of necromancers, scholars, the bumbling nobles, and the ghouls themselves set up a great deal of dramatic irony for the reader to laugh at. And while much of the action sequences are well written in the sword and sorcery style, even there we get to see and frequently find humor in the exploits of one of our more reluctant protagonists.
Honestly, I think is really where McNaughton's work shines in this collection, though I'm likely to be in the minority. Not the world building, not the horror, not the exceptionally well polished and carefully crafted writing. But in showing us characters and events in the midst of a world every bit as horrific and grey as the skin of his ghouls that can make also make us laugh, and in a few cases, evoke sadness and pity.
Is it my favorite work of weird fiction? No. Is it even the best of the novel length collections Terminal Fright put out in its heyday? Not in my opinion. And I would say lovers of Robert E. Howard sword and sorcery are likely to find more to enjoy here than the lovers of Lovecraftian weird fiction I think its normally directed at. But there are definitely some things to enjoy here. If nothing else, I think the humor alone makes it worth a read. And even the old Terminal Fright hardbacks are out there on secondary markets for relatively low prices, let alone the newer editions.