I've seen so much about this series lately and I really had no idea what it was about before I read this chapter sampler so it definitely wasn't what I expected. Scion London sounds thrilling and terrifying at the same time and vaguely reminds me of cities you would find in the movies A.I and the Matrix. It's really cool that it's a futuristic world where people have gifts that aid them in their survival and day-to-day activities. It sounds so cool and I'll definitely be reading the whole book soon now.

In one chapter I can't really say much. But I did think the book was pretty interesting. I would definitely like to check out the rest!
It seems really creative and I liked the writing. Plus Paige intrigues me!
I always love books with magic / supernatural powers. They always leave me needing more!

<i>I’d like to Thank Netgallery for providing me with a digital sample of this book in exchange for a honest Review. </i>

I had heard high praise for the Bone Season and I can definitely see why readers have liked this book:
• The worldbuilding is very unique and does stand out. I'm a huge fan of complex fantasy worlds. There are maps and a chart at the beginning, which I love since I'm a huge map person. The concept itself did grab my attention with clairvoyants being shunned by the society of the Scion and being employed in an underground market.
• The futuristic vibe was something I also enjoyed, as this book is set in the future, so we do see a glimpse of advances technology in the first pages.
• It's also set in England, which is another setting I would love to see more of!
• The writing style is enjoyable, which makes reading very immersive and the pacing is good as well.

However, there were some things in those first couple pages, that put me off reading a little bit.
• There was a little bit of info dumping in the first pages, because as the world is complex there is lots of explaining to do. I did not mind too much, but you definitely can identify when the author tries to give too many information at once.
• I was confused most of the time. It wasn't super bad, but I still have not fully grasped the world as of these first dozen pages. There were too many foreign words that were partly not explained. Such as the world for normal person, that I only got to know via reading a Review. This particular word was too complicated to stay in my memory. In general there were many complicated words and abbreviations.
• I did not quite click with the main character.

https://lynns-books.com/2013/08/17/the-bone-season-by-samantha-shannon/

A bit too much backstory, not enough world building. A great concept so far, but it's a story that's been done and in a far more succinct fashion.

Lately I’ve been quite lucky in picking up books which have received a lot of hype before their release dates. Samantha Shannon’s The Bone Season had been promoted as the next Harry Potter and she had already signed a seven book deal even before The Bone Season had been released. As always I had my wary cap on before going into this book but after finishing this book I can safely say the faith that everyone had in Shannon in being able to deliver a stunning debut novel was fully justified.

I did admit I did really struggle with getting into The Bone Season, I was really intrigued by the whole concept and found myself drawn to our strong MC Paige, but there was just so much to wrap my head around. I think that if I had realised in the beginning that there was a glossary at the end of the book this would have made my reading experience a whole lot easier. So it did take me until about 40% to really get into The Bone Season, but I’m glad I continued with this book because the second half was so worth it.

The world that Shannon created in The Bone Season was just out of this world. The amount of detail she included to make this world appear so real was done wonderfully. I had no problem in imagining Paige practising with Warden in the fields, making her way through the woods or even battling her way through everything else. Some may say that Shannon added too much detail and created such a complex world, but I don’t think that this was the case at all. Without all of this intricate detail I don’t think this world would have been believable at all.

Paige found herself in Sheol I, Oxford because of her ability as a dream walker, if there were any dream walkers around they were either pretty limited, so Nashira the blood sovereign to the rephaim was lucky to finally get her hands on one. Nashira was one of those characters who were quick to evoke feelings of anger within me. (The same could be said on Suhail and the rest of her cronies too). Every time she made an appearance all I wanted to do was to scratch her eyes out, but being the blood sovereign that she was and having five angels by her side I knew she was a truly unstoppable force to mess with. But I admired Paige’s courageousness to continue to find a way out. She was left battered and bruised so many times, but she never gave up on going back home to Citadel. What I also admired about her was that she did anything she could for her friends, even if this resulted in her getting a beating. Paige was a truly excellent character in just the first book, so I can’t wait to see how her character will strengthen and develop in the rest of the series.

Paige’s relationship with her keeper Warden was a really complicated one. It didn’t help that Warden was such an enigmatic character, that I never realised until the very end what his real intentions were. But this rephaim definitely grew on me over the course of the book. What is it with big scary rephaim that always win you over afterwards? (view spoiler)

What I also enjoyed about The Bone Season was the way Shannon gave us Paige’s back story. We were treated to small stories over the course of the book which helped us understand Paige’s character a whole lot more; how she had matured into this incredible character and why she was the way she was. It was also a great surprise in discovering in how we were getting “access” to Paige’s memories in the first place.

The Bone Season was a brilliant start to what I believe will be a promising series. I would have loved to have the chance to get to know more about the seven seals, the glimpses we did get, were thoroughly entertaining. But I’m sure there’s plenty more to come from this fantastic bunch in the rest of the series. There’s nothing more for me left to say about this brilliant book but other than believe the hype.

The world this novel is set in is interesting but this chapter did not give me any motivation to read on. I couldn’t get into it, I had to read it a few times to get my head around it and then I got a headache. It’s seems strange to review just a chapter of a book, and not only that but a chapter of a book that’s already published and has follow ups.
This chapter did not maintain my interest because there was just too much information to take in. There were chunks of information (and one point a whole page) stopping the narrative, not short sentences but chunks. Half the time I didn’t even understand what the information was telling me or the relevance to that point in the story and it just disrupted my enjoyment- I wanted to skip ahead. By the end of the chapter I was just confused. There was so much going on and too much information to process, it’s a lot for a first chapter. There was a scene with a busker which I didn’t understand, if just seemed there to illustrate information about the story world. Most of the information which the narrator tells us was just information about the world: the mem-queen, the scion and Edward VII. It was all too much, I prefer books where the world is slowly unfolded for you amongst the narrative, so you can get the information you need and still enjoy the story.

I found the narrator/character’s voice intrusive because of all this information she kept giving me when I just wanted to know what was happening and what she was talking about.
The scene where she goes into the aether was interesting but there were some words they used which weren’t explained.
Then when it got to the fight scene I was put off when someone threw an angel at their attackers! I just thought where did that come from and since when can you throw angels? And use poltergeists like weapons? It didn’t make sense to me and I guess like the rest of the chapter I didn’t understand it.
It’s a shame really if this was split into two chapters or if some of the information wasn’t there I’d have enjoyed it more.
After reading that chapter I think that although this has an interesting ideas, I don’t think this book would be for me. The style of writing is not something that I find engaging. When you get a character narrating the story and putting information and their opinion in it stops you from enjoying the story, I have enjoyed stories with a story narrative character. But the first chapter has given me a bad impression of the rest of the novel Life’s too short to read books you don’t like.

This is a review for the first chapter of the book:

The Bone Season seems to be a book that has promise and feels oddly reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange. The plot itself seems interesting but all this new language for this new world is just thrown at you and it does feel a little overwhelming which wasn't what I expected.

It's a book I think I would read fully though.

I had already read The Bone Season once before when it was part of the Waterstones Book Club but I really enjoyed re-reading it to refresh my memory in time for the next book. I love this series, it's so original, the characters are great and the story line always keeps me guessing. Paige adapts to her environment with every twist and I really can't wait for The Song Rising.

I really liked this preview of The Bone Season. I've heard a lot of great things about it in the past, so I was really happy when this preview went up on Netgalley. I'll definitely read it now.

After reading the first chapter of this book I couldn't have been more intrigued if I'd tried. Clairvoyants, mediums, oracles. poltergeists and all sorts of weird and wonderful tricks up each of their sleeves - what better way to be thrown into a new fantasy. And the main character has already got blood on her hands! A pretty explosive first chapter.

I have to admit that paranormal books I often find hit and miss, they've been overdone, but this short insight really grabbed me. I love books with complex storylines, ones which you have to pay close attention to, books with fiery characters and even more so books with an interesting world with an original set of rules and creatures. This book appears to have all of that in spades. And a map - who doesn't love a good map!

A great first insight into what I imagine should be a really unique, fun read.

I found the first chapter of this book well written, imaginative and exciting.. I hope to read and review the whole thing before long!

I absolutely loved this book and could not put it down. The world of Scion, where anyone with a psychic gift is forced into hiding, pulls you in. What will become of the dreamwalker Paige and the mysterious, otherworldly Warden...?

Loved the sequel, The Mime Order, too and cannot wait to read The Song Rising when it comes out in March!

There is very little pre-amble with this novel, we are plunged straight into the murky and confusing world of Paige Mahoney, dream-walker. Living in an alternate London in 2059, Paige's simple existence is treason in a land run by Scion where psychic abilities are banned. To make matters worse, she's working in a criminal psychic syndicate The Seven Seals where her job is to find information by tracking other people's minds - she's the surveillance girl. Now all of this is just Paige's normal routine until one difficult day she finds herself in a railway carriage with two guards attempting to arrest her. Expecting nothing less than torture and public execution, Paige is surprised to find herself shipped off to Oxford, a city which has been strictly off-limits for the past two hundred years since around the time of the emergence of Scion. Upon arrival Paige discovers that her entire world is a lie, that Scion are merely the puppets of the far more sinister Rephaim, beings from another dimension who battle against an even darker threat, the Emim. We know that Emim are the ultimate baddies because they eat people alive. Complicated? Oh yes.

Samantha Shannon
The title of the novel refers to the once a decade ritual whereby all of the captured psychics from Scion are sent to serve in Oxford, generally as fodder for the Emim but also as a general servants for the Rephaim with the added bonus that their psychic auras provide nourishment. The Rephaim are sinister and cruel masters and Paige finds herself reserved as servant to Arcturus, the Warden and blood-consort to the blood-sovereign Suzerain Nashira. There is a heavy weight of jargon to this world, so much so that I found it hard to believe that Shannon planned to tie everything up within a trilogy. A universe this detailed would surely need a saga more the length of A Song of Ice and Fire but we shall have to see what the future holds. Much of the vocabulary has been derived from cockney slang of the Victorian era and Shannon is obviously trying to evoke that kind of aesthetic but it is elegantly done although I did worry initially that it was going to be a little too Doctor Who. In fact, it has been a very long time since I read a fantasy universe that was so vividly drawn.

Paige Mahoney is a classic Katniss Everdeen-esque heroine and even Katniss herself was not exactly ground-breaking. She is grungy and grumpy and rebellious against authority, she's an outsider yet somehow she still possesses incredible talent that amazes all those who meet her. Through flashbacks we see her as a scrappy school-girl, discriminated against for her Irish roots (shadows of Shannon's own experiences?), we see her recruited by the syndicate and witness the key moments of her life. The Warden takes her on as his pupil, putting her through gruelling training sessions to help her to succeed in her 'tests' which will decide her ultimate fate. At this point it starts to turn a little bit Fifty Shades of Grey. More pertinently however, in many ways this novel is a homage to Jane Eyre. Scenes such as the occasion when Paige tends to the Warden's wounds are very familiar and some of the dialogue closely echoes it - this is science fiction for fans of Victorian literature. There is naturally a danger for novels such as these that they can come to seem derivative more than an homage but the aether was a rich and fascinating concept for me. Meditation is part of my wind-down routine before sleep and I realised one evening that I was attempting to reach the aether - this world definitely reached my subconscious.

There have been so many spooky stories such as this one - for a long while I actually had The Bone Season confused with Mortal Instruments - but although there are clear parallels I feel that this one is head and shoulders above its peers. The threnody spoken to set spirits free was simple and beautiful, reading it during the week that my grandmother died was surprisingly poignant. It made me realise what the real difference was - Samantha Shannon is a confident and accomplished author with a real gift for description. The parallels to Harry Potter are obvious but for myself it recalled more His Dark Materials. I loved the idea of a crime syndicate assisted by the spirit of a dead Dutch artist, of a crumbling and decayed Oxford surrounded by deadly spirits. The Bone Season is a novel richly textured offering excitement, escapism and Gothic adventure. Inspired by grander forbears, this is a series with a great deal of promise.

The bone season by Samantha Shannon is a sci-fi and fantasy and teens ya read.
A dreamer who can start a revolution
For the past two hundred years the Scion government has led an oppressive campaign against unnaturalness in London.
Clairvoyance in all its forms has been decreed a criminal offence, and those who practise it viciously punished. Forced underground, a clairvoyant underworld has developed, combating persecution and evading capture.
Although this was only one chapter I really enjoyed this book. I can't wait to read the rest. Highly recommended. 5*. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this book from netgalley.