Review of The Bone Sword

Book Review: The Bone Sword by Walter Rhein—êêê stars

Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book for the review. 

Warning: There are spoilers and hints of spoilers in this review.

Bone Sword is a fantasy novel focusing on two children and a swordsman.  The swordsman, named Malik, is something of an antihero who is on the run from his powerful mentor in an elite guard.  Malik manages to also anger the local nobility and church leadership as he tries to find a place where he can sell his skills with the sword.  The two children are local peasants.  Jasmine and Noah start the story tending to their sick father; when Jasmine heals him using her divine powers, she comes to the notice of the local priesthood.  They see her abilities as a threat to their rule.  When Malik and the two children are caught up in the same prison, they help each other to escape—but soon their plans take them further than that.

The Bone Sword is a fun fantasy story with well-actualized characters.  The world is well-defined with clear rules about how magic works in the world.  It’s a fairly low powered world, with only two people possessing magical abilities.  As I mentioned, the characters are very strongly defined, particularly the three main characters.  Malik, Jasmine and Noah in particular are three-dimensional characters.  Malik’s flashbacks do a good job of establishing the PC, setting up the final confrontation nicely.  The book is written in a style that is engaging and easy to read.

My issues with the book/story revolve around the choices that the characters make.  The story has a very definite plot and it achieves that story even when it maybe shouldn’t.  The best example of this is when a character is deemed to be worthy of ruling for reasons that aren’t really supported.  The character hasn’t proven that they’re worthy to rule but it’s remarked that the person is worthy and several people swear fealty before they’ve proven their worth.  Characters also make foolish decisions—all of the villains are either overconfident or mad.  The good guys make some foolhardy blunders from which they have to be rescued.

However, I should emphasize that I still enjoyed the story.  The story is tight and stays on focus, and even if that sometimes feels forced, it means that the story doesn’t deviate from its course or wander into unnecessary arcs.  The final scenes come together well in the end, drawing on elements throughout the story to reach the emotionally satisfying conclusion. I would recommend this book for a fun fantasy adventure.