Bone Gods by Caitlin KittredgeMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
2 stars on my scale is a book that I didn't enjoy very much. I did finish this book.
The book suffered from a several of weaknesses, any one of which would not be a problem but in combination undermined my experience of the book.
1) The plot was a standard fantasy "something really, really evil is coming" plot where the protagonist must uncover the details and foil the Eeville Evil™ from destroying everything™.
2) This apparently was book 3 of a series. That was not apparent based on the cover of the paperback that I bought, or I would not have bought it as I generally avoid series fiction these days. In any case, this book runs afoul of Dann's Dictum regarding multi-book series. It fails to deliver a good experience and the reader needs to know about the events in the prior books to make sense of some things.
3) The story is set in the U.K. I take it that the author, Caitlin Kittredge is from the U.K. There is a fair amount of U.K.-centric terminology that is used.
As with every other SFF fan on the planet, I have no problem with absorbing and understanding terminology that is specific to the setting of a book. However, given the other issues with the book, this was a minor irritant that just further detracted from my reading experience. I expect this will not be an issue for readers that are more familiar with U.K.-centric jargon.
4) Last and most important, the protagonist was weak. She was supposed to posses some magic power, but it could only be used if some other magic person filled her with magic in the first place.
I tend to enjoy strong female characters. The protagonist in this case only possessed strength if it was first given to her. She could not act on her own without someone else acting first. In this case, it was her erstwhile boyfriend.
Combined, these four factors simply let me with a "why bother" reading experience. YMMV.
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