This a book, a sequel, I actually bought, spending real money! Of Bone and Ruin is the direct sequel to T.A. White’s Dragon Ridden novel.
Image from the internet.
Title: Of Bone and Ruin (book 2)
Series: Dragon Ridden Chronicles
First book in the Series: Dragon-Ridden
Author: T.A. White
Genre: Sci-fi-fantasy hybrid
Synopsis: Of Bone and Ruin begins a little time after Dragon Ridden. Our female lead, Tate is back and struggling to adapt to the world she finds herself living in. Her memories, and thus her entire past, continue to be a mystery to Tate. Rather than continue struggling at school for developing magical skills, Tate is offered the chance to work. It is a dangerous, life-threatening job that will bring Tate in contact and conflict with the heads of various factions living on the planet. Tate’s nearly non-existent mediations skills are challenged when she is given the role of witness in settling the dispute of who owns rights to a recently uncovered archeological find.
What was good: Of Bone and Ruin continues Tate’s journey of fitting in and self-discovery, though I am not certain how much headway was made in that department. I suppose if you look at Tate’s relationship with her dragon, than things do improve over the course of the novel. We also learn a bit more about several of the secondary (or even tertiary) characters which is interesting.
What was less impressive: It seemed that some characters have information that they should not. There were a couple of instances when motivations and character consistency appeared off. However, I am not certain if this was done intentionally to make the reader think and look at the information in a different light.
I am both fascinated and put-off by the strange mix of science-fiction and fantasy. We have ancient, abandoned spaceships with crazy advanced technology and genetic manipulation alongside straight up magic. The need for blood, specific genetics, to use certain equipment is a difficult balancing act for me. Occasionally it seems artificial and randomly imposed into the story, while at other times it resonates strongly with the sci-fi mood.
This book certainly left me more confused about the difference between the Creators and the Saviours, which I hope is to be addressed in future stories. And while I really enjoyed the elements of sci-fi past coming through in the first book, Dragon Ridden, I found those moments nearly contradictory in Of Bone and Ruin.
Image from the internet.
How it compared to the first book: In the end, I still preferred book one. I feel like we got a better understanding of Tate and her extraordinary past in Dragon Ridden than in book 2, Of Bone and Ruin. It is that back story that has the greatest draw for me. So my biggest fear is that the author will tease only hints about the past in the vaguest way while writing an ever expanding and convoluted succession of sequels. I hope I am wrong. I hope that each book helps to shed light onto the origins of this world and is complicated past.
Prognosis: I find this world to be an interesting mix of sci-fi and fantasy. There is magic and genetic engineering. There are archaic elements to the civilizations mixed with more modern ideas, dress, manners, and language. It is different and that is perhaps the element that will bring me back for a third book – should another be written.
Rank and Reason: 3.5 out 5 – because I thought there were too many inconsistencies between this book and the first book in terms of who the world works and the past.