panguitch's Full Review: Tad Williams - The Dragonbone Chair
You can get a feel for what Tad Williams's The Dragonbone Chair is like without reading a single word of the story. Simply look at the two dozen pages that bracket the novel. At the back there is an appendix of names, places, and creatures; a guide to pronouncing six different invented languages; and a glossary of phrases from those languages. At the front there is a dedication, an author's note with a quote from Gottfried von Strassburg, an author's warning, a couple maps, and a foreword. This exuberance, together with the considerable heft of the book itself, leaves no doubt that The Dragonbone Chair is a Big Fat Fantasy Novel.
Setting
For me the strong point of the book is its milieu. And while it has the expansive richness expected in the epic fantasy genre, my reasons may be somewhat more esoteric.
The land of Osten Ard is analogous to medieval Europe. Four lands dominate, Rimmersgard in the mountainous north, Hernystir in the west, seafaring Nabban in the south, and Erkynland in the middle. But most of the book's action takes place in the wilderness, in the great Aldheorte forest, or the frozen wastes to its north.
When I say analogous, I mean analogous. The Rimmersmen evoke the Norse, Hernystiri the Welsh, Erkynlanders the Anglo-Saxons, and the Nabbanai the Romans or medieval Italians. It is a simplistic approach to world-creation. What impresses me is Williams's gift for language and names. He labels his world and characters with inventiveness, but also a superb ear for the cultures he's mimicking. His Einskaldirs, Gwythinns, Deornoths, and Leobardises add the flavor of authenticity and an impression of internal consistency. This is rare in contemporary fantasy, where too many authors create names by jumbling vowels and consonants on top of each other and sprinkling them with apostrophes. I did see apostrophes in Williams. But my fears were resolved when it became obvious he used them as clicks in a different language, not pauses and not cosmetics.
These hints at basic awareness of philology in Williams's nomenclature add depth and credibility. It may be a small thing for many readers, and some may even balk at reading something that sounds like it was peopled by the cast of Beowulf. But for me it was delicious, and far from the artificiality of cheaper fantasy.
This knack for names redeems Williams's world from the pitfalls its simplistic approach often leads to. The best example of these problems is the religion he portrays, which boils down to medieval Catholicism with the names changed. Examples less important to the story include references to a Robin Hood figure and the fudging of a few letters to rename the months and days of the week while keeping them recognizable. Personally, I find such things silly. If you're going to have Septander, Octander, and Novander, stop pretending and just call them September, October, and November. It adds little to lay such an insultingly thin veneer over the real world.
A word must be spared for the fantastic elements. I generally like the way magic is handled here. It's usually unobtrusive and not always helpful to the heroes. The Sithi are fairies, more or less. Real fairies, man-sized and more dangerous than cute. They're also less human than the elves that populate much of the genre, and more interesting for it.
Style
Williams knows how to use words. With his gift for names it's no surprise that his prose is often lovely. The problem is there's just so much of it! The Dragonbone Chair is definitely a book that lets you "see" everything. But not everything is worth looking at that closely.
The structure also reflects this long-windedness. Most books are halfway through by the time Dragonbone begins to even hint at its core conflicts. Even by the standards of epic fantasy it is an agonizingly long time before the story's big picture is painted to any degree. Instead, we see the protagonist's everyday life stretch across hundreds of pages in the slowest start I may have ever read. Many readers of fantasy luxuriate in this kind of book, gorging on detail and savoring the lush pace—inhabiting the world. For me the payoff does not justify my patience, and the frequent typos didn't help.
Characters
It might not be so bad, dogging after the protagonist as he does his chores, if he was more sympathetic. Simon is a fourteen year old scullion who likes to sneak around exploring the nooks and crannies of the castle. He has the mentality of a child five years his junior. He's dim, somewhat lazy, and his attention is easily hijacked by the nearest frog. I know I'm a grumpy old man, but Simon annoys me like a good for nothing neighbor kid who's always underfoot. Williams constantly calls him mooncalf, and for me it became less a term of endearment than a curse. Thankfully, Simon grows up when his life gets hard. Still, I never quite found him likeable, except for a brief, sweet kindling of young love.
In heroic fiction an unappealing protagonist can be a death knell. But with its huge cast of characters, The Dragonbone Chair should have something to interest everybody. Binabik, Simon's diminutive Eskimo-like companion who talks a bit like Yoda, can be entertaining or annoying, but usually the former. The two princes, Josua and Elias, are great characters. Josua, the bitter, one-handed younger son; Elias, the jealous older son. In all, Williams's characterization is pretty strong, benefiting from the time he takes to provide snapshots of so many people interacting in different situations.
Story
You've read almost 1,000 words of review and still don't know much about this story. There's a reason for that.
Simon, the aforementioned juvenile scullion, is an orphan with little potential. But Doctor Morgenes takes a peculiar interest in him. His apprenticeship consists primarily of listening to Morgenes tell stories about kings and battles from history, which certainly beats mopping a floor. One day, while snooping around, Simon sees Pryrates, the frightening priest who has become Prince Elias's counselor, sneaking through a secret passage. Simon follows and discovers that Josua, Elias's brother, is being held captive in a hidden dungeon. Morgenes and Simon manage to spring him, and Josua races north to his stronghold, Naglimund.
Pryrates comes down on Morgenes and Simon like a sledgehammer when he finds out, but Simon escapes and tries to make his way to join Josua. Civil war between Josua and Elias grows ever more inevitable, and the whole world starts taking sides. Behind this madness a dark hand seems to be guiding events, preparing for its own return to power after centuries in hiding.
There. Now you know more than I did even after reading the first two-hundred pages. Of course, The Dragonbone Chair is only the first volume of the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy. Even after processing its considerable bulk there is a long way to go before gaining any satisfaction.
Reactions
Williams begins his book by warning the reader not to make assumptions. Naturally, the strange blend of pretension and anxiety in this caveat piqued my critical lens, but hundreds of pages later I had found little to explain it, let alone to justify any further perseverance on my part. But I suppose even ill-wrought epics can inspire, and with heroic effort I did endure, and conquering, found myself not unrewarded.
There are some interesting characters, a rich setting, and moments of magnificent prose. But The Dragonbone Chair is weighed down by a lackluster protagonist, a council scene where the decision shatters credibility, and by blood-guilt—this book represents much more dead tree than it deserves. If you're the "get lost in a good book" kind of fantasy reader, you might adore this novel. If you prefer to spend your time well, as opposed to simply killing it, you might find yourself sick with impatience, as I sometimes did.
Depending on your tastes you'll find The Dragonbone Chair to be either lush or bloated. I think it's both.
Alternatives
For a more brisk medievalesque epic fantasy with a similarly huge cast of characters, try George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, which begins with A Game of Thrones. For a far superior coming-of-age story that also features a castle-dwelling orphan, try Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice. For a high fantasy that will stretch your mind with its matter instead of its mass, try David Farland's The Runelords: Sum of All Men. You might also try what I think is the best all-around fantasy I've read in the past five years, Lois McMaster Bujold's The Curse of Chalion.
The Dragonbone Chair is the story of Simon, a young kitchen boy and magician s apprentice whose dreams of great deeds and heroic wars come all too sho...More at Buy.com
The Dragonbone Chair is the story of Simon, a young kitchen boy and magician s apprentice whose dreams of great deeds and heroic wars come all too sho...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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