book 37: The Dragonbone Chair, Tad Williams
Title: The Dragonbone Chair
Author: Tad Williams
Pages: 766
from Amazon.com:
Simon is an ordinary kitchen helper who is taken under the tutelage of the magician Morgenes. When King John Presbyter dies and his son Elias ascends the throne, the way opens for a long-dormant evil to enter the realm. Elias, a pawn of the black magician Pyrates, moves to eliminate his brother Josua, and the brother-against-brother, good-versus-evil clash begins. Simon is thrown in with Josua and muddles through adventure and peril, maturing into a hero by book's end. Williams weaves all of the classic ingredients of fantasy into his tale--trolls, giants, elf-like sithi, and dragons. Simon must travel from drought-stricken lands to ice-bound peaks as he follows his far-seeing dreams. The land of Osten Ard is well created, and readers quickly become immersed in the story. Unfortunately, despite the high adventure and excitement, The Dragonbone Chair leaves many loose ends, so readers, like Simon, are left waiting--for book two.
A friend recommended this to me, as well (apparently I've gotten sick of scouring my bookshelves and making decisions, so I get other people to decide for me-it's working quite well!). I'm really glad he recommended this series. Coming off the two Dragons of Pern books, I realized that I'd been neglecting my "hard-core" fantasy novels (I use "hard-core" because I would call Harry Potter fantasy, but not the kind of fantasy you have to go to the sci-fi section to find.. you know what I mean). I was drawn to this series when I was intially told about it because it sounded like it had some parallels to Arthurian legend; and it kind of does, but it goes beyond that. Williams seems to draw from Arthurian legend, as well as possibly Celtic and Norse legend (there are many times I feel like I could be reading a story straight from ancient Ireland), and weave them together with Christian-like mythology-I realize this sounds convoluted and more than a little wacky, but it's really good, I swear!