Synopsis:
Infusing Celtic legend into science fantasy… Despite being mortal enemies, a saint and her disgraced former commander must solve the mystery of a failing sky and find the missing children of their shattered world.
A panel of the artificial sky has fallen; a market town below suddenly destroyed. And while everyone on the Emerald—this small garden world of Shattered Earth—wishes to celebrate Yuletide, nobody knows if their entire sky is now about to fail.
Saint Alexandra, devout judge-errant, has been deployed to investigate. Find the true cause, and she’ll keep the lives of her people safe, including that of her custodial squire.
Scrounger, disgraced former commander, has been assigned to salvage the ruined town. While secretly looting instead, he discovers three of its boys are still missing. Find them, and he may be able to restore some semblance of lost honor.
Resolve the failing sky. Find the lost children. Challenging tasks for both, as they must navigate lab-brewed monsters, enemy saints, and all manner of thieves and mercenaries gathered at this year’s Yuletide festival… all while harboring resentment for past crimes inflicted upon one another.
Review:
There are books and stories filled with awesome feats of imagination, and there are stories brimming with heart and meaning, but finding a story that’s filled with both is always a treat, and Bolted to the Bone is unquestionably such a treat.
It’s the impressive and unique world that strikes first, echoing loudly of Celtic myth and legend, while still an entirely new creation, packed with mystery and wonder. Be warned, this is a story that doesn’t hold the reader’s hand, more than willing to throw you headfirst into a land of monsters, traditions, and history that require a bit of patience to untangle and understand. The reward is well worth the effort, though, for this is a one-of-a-kind world and a fascinating setting.
Bolted onto this world is a cast of characters deserving a reader’s attention. Alexandra is a saint encased in armor, tasked with protecting the land and its people. Scrounger, condemned to a geas, is forced to fill his days with grisly work. Their paths intertwine in the past and the present, but it feels to me the less said about them, the more rewarding the reading experience. Both are compelling POVs with depth and nuance, but I’ll confess that for me it was Scrounger’s half of the tale that elevated this story from really good to great.
So, who is this for? In my mind, Bolted to the Bone is best suited for readers comfortable being immersed in a rich and mysterious world where they don’t yet have all the answers. The world is truly unlike anything I’ve read, and unlike some worlds steeped in mystery, only becomes more interesting the more you learn. It’s also for anyone who appreciates and has experience with Celtic lore.
I enjoyed my time within these pages, and while I’ve spent quite a few precious words gushing about the world, it feels criminal not to say more about the characters. The word that comes to mind when I think of them-all of them, not just Alexandra and Scrounger-is “human,” and I mean that in the very best way. All are flawed, and some are occasionally funny. They can be generous and cruel. They bear their scars and find their way through a brutal and unforgiving world.
Come for the awe-inspiring world-building, but stay for the people you’ll meet.
A tremendous thanks to Bart Carroll for providing an advance copy to enjoy. I do hope you’ll give this one a chance, because it’s well worth the journey.
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