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Title:
The Dragonbone Chair
Series: Memory, Sorrow
and Thorn #1
Author: Tad Williams
Rating:
5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages:
824
Words: 288K
Publish: 1988
Ahhhhh,
this was good. Williams was pushing the page count for epic fantasy
while Sanderson was still scarfing down peanutbutter and jelly
sandwiches. This is yet another of those books I grew up on and am
still enjoying re-reading.
I
had forgotten just how vexing and whiny Simon (the main character)
starts out as. He’s a 14 or 15 year old boy who is a daydreamer and
man, I wanted to slap him so many times. The good thing is that he
doesn’t automagically just “change” and become a Gary Stu. He
has some horrible experiences and you can see him growing through
those experiences. He doesn’t become another person, he slowly
changes. Williams knows how to write characters and it is a joy to
watch.
There
was so much detail I had forgotten since I last read this in 2011
that it “almost” felt like a new book. I like that feeling of
knowing the general outline of the story (which is comforting to me)
and mixing it with that new feeling (which is exciting). Having them
both at the same time is just great. When I was done with the book I
seriously considered just writing a review consisting of “I loved
this!” with a synopsis from Wikipedia. And really, if you parse
down everything I’ve said so far, that’s the essence here :-)
Not
everything by Williams connects with me. But when it does, it’s
electric. I never even noticed how long the page count was until I
started this review. I just knew I was enjoying the story the entire
800+ pages and it never dragged or was “world build’y” to pad
things out. That’s success in my books!
The
main reason I am reading this Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy
again is because Williams has recently finished up a sequel series,
“Last King of Osten Ard”.
I want to read that but am concerned that I will need a recent read
of MST to know what’s
going on. Considering how well this went, I don’t think that is
going to be a problem at all!
★★★★★
From
Fandom.com
For
eons the Hayholt belonged to the immortal Sithi, but
they had fled the great castle before the onslaught of Mankind. Men
have long ruled this greatest of strongholds, and the rest of Osten
Ard as well. Prester John, High King of all the nations of
men, is its most recent master; after an early life of triumph and
glory, he has presided over decades of peace from his skeletal
throne, the Dragonbone Chair.
Simon,
an awkward fourteen year old, is one of the Hayholt's scullions. His
parents are dead, his only real family the chamber maids and their
stern mistress, Rachel the Dragon. When Simon can escape his
kitchen-work he steals away to the cluttered chambers of Doctor
Morgenes, the castle's eccentric scholar. When the old man invites
Simon to be his apprentice, the youth is overjoyed - until he
discovers that Morgenes prefers teaching reading and writing to
magic.
Soon
ancient King John dies, so Elias, the older of the two sons,
prepares to take the throne. Josua, Elias' somber brother,
nicknamed Lackhand because of a disfiguring wound, argues harshly
with the king-to-be about Pryrates, the ill-reputed priest who
is one of Elias' closest advisers. The brothers' feud is a cloud of
foreboding over castle and country.
Elias'
reign as king starts well, but a drought comes and plague strikes
several of the nations of Osten Ard. Soon outlaws roam the roads
and people begin to vanish from isolated villages. The order of
things is breaking down, and the king's subjects are losing
confidence in his rule, but nothing seems to bother the monarch or
his friends. As rumblings of discontent begin to be heard throughout
the kingdom, Elias' brother Josua disappears - to plot
rebellion, some say.
Elias'
misrule upsets many, including Duke
Isgrimnur of Rimmersgard and Count Eolair, an
emissary from the western country of Hernystir. Even King Elias'
own daughter Miriamele is uneasy, especially about the
scarlet-robed Pryrates, her father's trusted adviser.
Meanwhile
Simon is muddling along as Morgenes' helper. The two become fast
friends despite Simon's mooncalf nature and the doctor's refusal to
teach him anything resembling magic. During one of his meanderings
through the secret byways of the labyrinthine Hayholt, Simon
discovers a secret passage and is almost captured there by Pryrates.
Eluding the priest, he enters a hidden underground chamber and
finds Josua, who is being held captive for use in some terrible
ritual planned by Pryrates. Simon fetches Doctor Morgenes and
the two of them free Josua and take him to the doctor's
chambers, where Josua is sent to freedom down a tunnel that leads
beneath the ancient castle. Then, as Morgenes is sending
off messenger birds bearing news of what has happened to mysterious
friends, Pryrates and the king's guard come to arrest the doctor and
Simon. Morgenes is killed fighting Pryrates, but his sacrifice
allows Simon to escape into the tunnel.
Half-maddened, Simon makes
his way through the midnight corridors beneath the castle, which
contain the runes of the old Sithi palace. He surfaces in
the graveyard beyond the town wall, then is lured by the light of a
bonfire. He witnesses a weird scene: Pryrates and King Elias engaged
in a ritual with black-robed, white-faced creatures. The pale things
give Elias a strange gray sword of disturbing power, named Sorrow.
Simon flees.
Life
in the wilderness on the edge of the great forest Aldheorte is
miserable, and weeks later Simon is nearly dead from hunger and
exhaustion, but still far away from his destination, Josua's northern
keep at Naglimund. Going to a forest cot to beg, he finds a
strange being caught in a trap - one of the Sithi, a race thought to
be mythical, or at least long-vanished. The cotsman returns, but
before he can kill the helpless Sitha, Simon strikes him down. The
Sitha, once freed, stops only long enough to fire a white arrow at
Simon, then disappears. A new voice tells Simon to take the white
arrow, that it is a Sithi gift.
The
dwarfish newcomer is a troll named Binabik, who rides a great
gray wolf. He tells Simon he was only passing by, but now he will
accompany the boy to Naglimund. Simon and Binabik endure many
adventures and strange events on the way to Naglimund: they come
to realize that they have fallen afoul of a threat greater than
merely a king and his counselor deprived of their prisoner. At last,
when they find themselves pursued by unearthly white hounds who wear
the brand of Stormspike, a mountain of evil reputation in the
far north, they are forced to head for the shelter of Geloe's forest
house, taking with them a pair of travelers they have rescued from
the hounds. Geloe, a blunt-spoken forest woman with a reputation as a
witch, confers with them and agrees that somehow the ancient Norns,
embittered relatives of the Sithi, have become embroiled in the fate
of Prester John's kingdom.
Pursuers
human and otherwise threaten them on their journey to Naglimund.
After Binabik is shot with an arrow, Simon and
one of the rescued travelers, a servant girl, must struggle on
through the forest. They are attacked by a shaggy giant and saved
only by the appearance of Josua's hunting party.
The
prince brings them to Naglimund, where Binabik's wounds are
cared for, and where it is confirmed that Simon has stumbled into a
terrifying swirl of events. Elias is coming soon to besiege Josua's
castle. Simon's serving-girl companion was
Princess Miriamele traveling in disguise, fleeing her
father, whom she fears has gone mad under Pryrates' influence.
From all over the north and elsewhere, frightened people are flocking
to Naglimund and Josua, their last protection against a mad
king.
Then,
as the prince and others discuss the coming battle, a strange old
Rimmersman named Jarnauga appears in the council's meeting
hall. He is a member of the League of the Scroll, a circle of
scholars and initiates of which Morgenes and Binabik's master were
both part, and he brings more grim news. Their enemy, he says, is not
just Elias: the king is receiving aid from Ineluki the Storm
King, who had once been a prince of the Sithi - but who has been dead
for five centuries, and whose bodiless spirit now rules the Norns
of Stormspike Mountain, pale relatives of the banished
Sithi.
It
was the terrible magic of the gray sword Sorrow that caused
Ineluki's death - that, and mankind's attack on Sithi. The League
of the Scroll believes that Sorrow has been given to Elias as
the first step in some incomprehensible plan of revenge, a plan that
will bring the earth beneath the heel of the undead Storm king. The
only hope comes from a prophetic poem that seems to suggest that
"three swords" might help turn back Ineluki's powerful
magic.
One
of the swords is the Storm King's Sorrow, already in the hands of
their enemy, King Elias. Another is the Rimmersgard blade Minneyar,
which was also once at the Hayholt, but whose whereabouts are now
unknown. The third is Thorn, black sword of King John's greatest
knight, Sir Camaris. Jarnauga and others think they
have traced it to a location in the frozen north. On this slim hope,
Josua sends Binabik, Simon, and several soldiers off in search of
Thorn, even as Naglimund prepares for siege.
Others
are affected by the growing crisis. Princess Miriamele, frustrated by
her uncle Josua's attempts to protect her, escapes Naglimund in
disguise, accompanied by the mysterious monk Cadrach. She hopes
to make her way to southern Nabban and plead with her
relatives there to aid Josua. Old Duke Isgrimnur, at Josua's
urging, disguises his own very recognizable features and follows
after to rescue her. Tiamak, a swamp-dwelling Wrannaman scholar,
receives a strange message from his old mentor Morgenes that tells of
bad times coming and hints that Tiamak has a part to play. Maegwin,
a daughter of the king of Hernystir, watches helplessly as her
own family and country are drawn into a whirlpool of war by the
treachery of High King Elias.
Simon
and Binabik and their company are ambushed by Ingen Jegger,
huntsman of Stormspike, and his servants. They are saved only
the reappearance of the Sitha Jiriki, whom Simon had saved from
the cotsman's trap. When he learns of their quest, Jiriki decides
to accompany them to Urmsheim mountain, legendary abode of
one of the great dragons, in search of Thorn.
By
the time Simon and the others reach the mountain, King Elias has
brought his besieging army to Josua's castle at Naglimund, and though
the first attacks are repulsed, the defenders suffer great losses. At
last Elias' forces seem to retreat and give up the siege, but before
the stronghold's inhabitants can celebrate, a weird storm appears on
the northern horizon, bearing down on Naglimund. The storm is the
cloak under which Ineluki's own horrifying army of Norns
and giants travels, and when the Red Hand, the Storm
King's chief servants, thrown down Naglimund's gates, a terrible
slaughter begins. Josua and a few other manage to flee the ruin of
the castle. Before escaping into the great forest, Prince Josua
curses Elias for his conscienceless bargain with the Storm King and
swears that he will take their father's crown back.
Simon
and his companions climb Urmsheim, coming through great dangers
to discover the Uduntree, a titanic frozen waterfall. There they
find Thorn in a tomblike cave. Before they can take the sword and
make their escape, Ingen Jegger appears once more attacks
with his troop of soldiers. The battle awakens Igjarjuk, the
white dragon, who has been slumbering for years beneath the ice. Many
on both sides are killed. Simon alone is left standing, trapped on
the edge of a cliff; as the ice-worm bears down upon him, he lifts
Thorn and swings it. The dragon's scalding black blood spurts over
him as he is struck senseless.
Simon
awakens in a cave on the troll mountain of
Yiquanuc. Jiriki and Haestan, an Erkynlandish soldier,
nurse him to health. Thorn has been rescued from Urmsheim, but
Binabik is being held prisoner by his own people, along
with Sludig the Rimmersman, under sentence of death. Simon
himself has been scarred by the dragon's blood and a wide swath of
his hair has turned white. Jiriki names him "Snowlock" and
tells Simon that, for good or for evil, he has been irrevocably
marked.
