Seduced into sorcery by an agent of the Dark, the promising Bard Cadvan of Lirigon recklessly unleashed the terrible Bone Queen, bringing destruction down upon Annar. Cadvan, cast out of the Schools of Barding for his crime, now lives in exile, burdened by memories of his dealings with the Dark. At Cadvan’s former home, his mentor, Nelac, and his rival, Dernhil, begin to suspect that the Bone Queen may yet lurk in Annar, and a young Bard, Selmana, is plagued by an ominous presence and an unsettling new ability to step between worlds. With darkness gathering and Bards giving in to fear and paranoia, a guilt-ridden Cadvan must earn back the Bards’ trust and Selmana must gain control of her newfound powers to bring peace to the living and the dead.
Prequels are never easy. Even (especially?) when they are prequels to beloved series. As far as movies go, Star Wars and The Hobbit are the two that stand out for me. No matter how much effort and love and care goes into them, I still suffer prequel-itis. No matter how much I want to enjoy prequels, there is just something inherent that prevents me from liking and enjoying them. I tried with Star Wars (well, I tried with III). I tried with The Hobbit (more I and II than with III). And I tried with The Books of Pellinor Quartet. Oh, man did I really and truly try to get into this.
The writing is great. Alison Croggon has one of the best narrative voices going in high fantasy today. Her writing skills have remained excellent from the main four Books of Pellinor. But you could have the best writing style, the best world-building, the best narrative flow, and I would probably still suffer a prequel. No matter how hard Croggon tried, I couldn't get into this story. I love Cadvan so much, he probably carried much of the story, but I couldn't get into the story. I didn't really need to know what happened before he met Maerad. Mainly because I already knew what happened when he discussed it with her. While it was nice to see some of his origins, and see old characters, there was little else that connected this story to the rest of the Pellinor story, except, perhaps, the origins of the Darkness returning to Annar. But again, I didn't need to know that. I didn't want to know that.
I enjoyed the characters in this book. It was great to see Cadvan again, as well as some other characters, but as much as I enjoyed the new characters introduced in this book, I couldn't connect to them on the same way that I was able to connect with Maerad because they disappear after this outing and are never mentioned in the main quartet. As much as I wanted to enjoy Selmana, and I did enjoy her, much was detracted knowing that she isn't in the other books.
I really and truly tried to love this book and get invested in it. But it took me almost two weeks to finish this book, whereas the other four took me a total of a week to finish. Croggon's writing style, world-building, and character development continue to be nothing short of incredible. Cadvan remains an incredibly developed character, but we don't really learn anything that new or exciting. It might be the fact that I suffer prequels regardless of their quality and whether or not I want to like them. I'm giving The Bone Queen a 3/5. I really wanted to like this one. I thought this would be the prequel that would end my suffering of prequels. It didn't add anything that I didn't already know.
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