The Dragonbone Chair: Book Review

I just finished reading The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. This is the first book in his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series. As described by Mike's Books Reviews, this series is about what happens after happily ever after. King John Prester is a great King that is loved by all. Legends are being sung about his exploits, when he rose to power. But now, he is old and dying, and he has two sons that do not love one another. One is destined to take the throne, while the other is suspected of wanting it for himself. But matters are even more terrifying to behold than that, as an ancient evil seems to be awakening in the north, and humanity is woefully unprepared for what is to come. Amidst all of these machinations is Simon, a lowborn scullion, who is a bare fourteen years of age. He is always lost in his head, fantasizing about romantic adventures, and finding excuses to escape this or that task at hand. But, as you can imagine, he is eventually swept up in an adventure of his own that carries him across half the continent.

So, what did I think of it? Let's find out!

No Spoilers

Bridge

What you will see in many other reviews of this book is that this is a bridge from old fantasy into new fantasy, and this is exactly true. But what does this mean? Old fantasy involves long stretches of adventure, where characters are going on quests from point A to point B, while new fantasy involves heavier elements of court intrigue, which highlights the cussed nature of man, rather than simply relying on evil fantasy races from somewhere. The older fantasy elements feature much heavier, especially where Simon is involved, with the court intrigue acting as subplots that feature in the background.

Building off of the point that this is a bridge to newer fantasy, one of the reasons that I wanted to read this is because GRRM cites this as one of his inspirations for his own series A Song of Ice and Fire. And certainly, it was interesting to look at some of the similarities in the storytelling. Superficially, we have Pryrates serving as inspiration for Melisandre, Ingen Jegger serving as inspiration for the Hound and maybe Roose Bolton, irregular weather patterns with an eternal winter on the horizon, a comet in the sky foretelling change, the Norns and their similarities to the white walkers, and more I undoubtedly forgot to mention.

Aside from those similarities, we can return to what was discussed above. A Song of Ice and Fire takes the court intrigue and the cussed nature of man to another level. Rather than being subplots within his novels, they are actually the main plots. The adventure plots are then inverted, as well, and relegated to the subplots. And this leads to what I think is the first main critique of the story. I lament bringing up a critique so early, but this is only because this is the perfect time to do it. I don't really think intrigue really works as a subplot in a story. This is not simply the fact that I prefer intrigue over quests, though that is undoubtedly true; I find court intrigue really hard to follow when you don't have that much exposure to the characters involved in the story. Pages upon pages are spent detailing the trees and the hills and the valleys that Simon and his companions travel through during their quest, and then we briefly hop over into an often barely known character's head for a time to learn about some intrigue going on with other characters that we barely know, and I am left befuddled by it all. Intrigue requires the reader to keep track of a lot of names, and so it requires more page time. It quite simply cannot be a subplot. Even worse, there were twists and betrayals at the end of the story that I guess were supposed to be meaningful, but I was just left feeling confused, wondering if I knew these characters. I thought I did.

And I think GRRM does a great job building on these foundations to create court intrigue that can actually be followed. While we were jumping into character perspectives, seemingly at random in The Dragonbone Chair, GRRM rightly grounds you in a defined few that you stick with from the beginning to the end of the story. This allows you to become connected to the characters in question over the course of the book, and to the various factions involved, without their inclusion feeling arbitrary. GRRM also has skill as a short story writer, so his ability to write shorter narratives for each character, which then weaves together into the greater whole, helps develop them, even with a smaller page count.

Either way, this counts only as a minor critique because we are only talking about subplots within the story. What of the actual meat?

The Main Story

The main story covers a stunning amount of ground, in retrospect. At the same time, it is firmly rooted in the old style fantasy that is long winded and slow paced. It is very much a slow burn story that takes its time to get moving. Many reviewers make apologies for the beginning of the story, saying that it is a slow start, but I think this is misleading. The story is pretty slow, all around. And I don't even think that this is a bad thing. The story as a whole is quite simply a slow burn. And when you finally finish, you look back in shock at how much ground was actually covered. Not only this, but I thought the beginning was actually pretty engaging. There was actually a fair amount of tension in the story building up, as you knew something bad was about to happen, alongside hints of political maneuvering that were going on in the background. It was not until I got to the beginning of part two in the story that I felt the story was beginning to drag. The story began to feel aimless because Simon himself was aimless. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with this. Simon was in a particularly vulnerable position in the story, at that point, but it went on too long; and after that, the travels with his new companion could probably have been cut back a little, as well.

This would have allowed for more of the story to focus on the subplots, like I was mentioning above. Keep in mind, I am not suggesting that the story has to go as heavy as ASOIAF does with the court intrigue. Williams has his focus and his interests, and I will let him tell the story that he wants to tell. At the same time, we can use the structure of his own story to show how he can balance the quest and intrigue. Part three, for example, has a much better balance of these elements than part two does. And I think this is why part two feels like such a slog. Instead of getting the occasional narrative summary of Simon's travels to cover more ground over less pages, and then using that time to jump over to other characters' perspectives throughout Osten Ard, we are treated to long, long chapters with pages and pages of travelogue. They were not the most necessary, and while I did not find them unbearable, they were definitely of their time. I think there is a reason fantasy has changed, at the least. And it became more frustrating when part three came along and we started to jump into more perspectives, especially ones that were becoming more consistent, but were new relative to part three, and I was just wondering who the hell all these people were. Character X betrayed character Y. But it's literally character X, because who tf is he again? If they had been fleshed out in part 2, then this would have felt very different.

Characters

The characters are workable for what they are. They aren't as deep and well realized as GRRM's characters, but that is a high bar.

We have Simon at the fore, and he is an everyman character. Not particularly clever or interesting on its face. He's just a generic character that goes through a coming of age tale, one in which any young man can relate to in a story. He starts out whining about how he wants to go to the Tashi Station to get those power converters (yes, I stole this joke), and by the end, he's much, much more. I quite enjoyed the catharsis of his coming of age, as well, so if you enjoy those kinds of character arcs, you might enjoy this one. A thing that does stand out is when he kills his first man and his reaction to that, especially. I won't spoil the details here, but this did stand out to me.

We also have Binabik, who is Simon's companion throughout much of the story. He is the loyal protector and friend who seems to know a whole lot more than he lets on. You learn that throughout the story, and I have no doubt you will continue to do so. I will discuss some of this in the spoiler section.

Prince Josua is another standout. He is the brooding, and dutiful, younger brother of the newly raised King of Osten Ard. He is suspected of wanting power for himself, and this motivates much of the actions of the events of the story. But it is the complexity of his character that is most interesting, as you find that he is not as simple as you can imagine. I will also discuss him in the spoiler section.

There is also Malachias, who starts out rather enigmatic, and turns into something far more interesting over the course of the story. Unfortunately, I can't really talk too much about him in the non-spolier section. That alone should be intriguing enough.

From there, I can name drop Isgrimmnur, Brother Cadrach, and Jiriki. I think all of these characters are interesting and have potential in the future of the story.

King Elias is unfortunately lacking, so far, given the role that he is playing in the story. I wish we had a better picture of the man before the events of the story, perhaps through the eyes of his daughter and brother. As it stands, there is a lot of word of mouth about how King Elias used to be different, but telling and showing are not the same thing, as you can imagine.

As for the rest, many of them are just unknown vessels. Not much can be said about them, which is unfortunate, given the intrigue elements of the story.

Prose

Tad Williams' prose is widely praised for its beauty. I've become increasingly convinced that there is a certain beauty in simplicity and also in rhythm, and the way in which this story is told follows neither of those philosophies, so the prose did not stand out to me in the same way as other people, but it still works well. It relies heavily on descriptions of basically everything, with lots of adjectives, but not so hackneyed that it was awkward to read. At the very least, I take it over workman-like prose.

Williams' prose lends itself well to the overwhelming length of this novel, with pages upon pages of description of landscapes. None of the descriptions were excessive for me, however, so I wonder if I have acclimated to the storytelling style of this kind. I have been avoiding revisiting The Lord of the Rings for some time because of its reputation, but the last time I tried that was when I was thirteen, so I doubt there will be as much problem this next time.

Ending

The ending of the story is what carries this novel. The entire project is worth it because of the climax that comes at the end, which honestly feels like a climax for a series in its own right. When I finished this book, it felt like I had finished a mini-series, and I was incredibly satisfied with what I received. Williams knows how to structure his series with highs and lows so that they come in at the right point in the story for the right characters. I am reminded of the catastrophe that was The Force Awakens and how Kylo Ren was defeated by Rey in the first movie of the trilogy. Just imagine if Darth Vader had been defeated by Luke in A New Hope. What tension would there be in the later movies? The hero needs to experience victory, and the villain needs to have their threat preserved for later parts of the story. The Dragonbone Chair manages to deliver on the threat of the villain while also giving a certain victory to Simon all at once, and in a way that doesn't imbalance things like The Force Awakens did.

Conclusion

Overall, I thought this was an enjoyable, but somewhat bloated, read. I think I will give it a 7/10.

Spoilers

Predictions

It's pretty obvious from both a meta perspective and an in-story perspective that Simon is a long lost heir to the (or a) throne, and that he will marry Miriamele at the end of the story to bring peace back to the Kingdom. I can't remember who the character is, but there was some back story about a King who was defeated by Prester John, if I am remembering correctly. I immediately guessed that he was Simon's father, and I am kicking myself right now for not actually writing down the information so I could actually relay it here, because there is no way I am going to be able to find it now. Either way, Doctor Morgenes knew Simon's father, and he passed that information to Binabik's superior and to Binabik, himself. Perhaps, Prince Josua knows now, as well. That might depend on the theories I have on him below.

In comparison to R+L=J, this is far inferior, because ASOIAF had the benefit of having multiple protagonists. While GRRM has his own problems with his story, as you can imagine and easily articulate, we are focused on a story with multiple Stark characters, as well as other non-Stark characters. The story works for the first three books, and then loses its focus in the fourth and fifth. But I guess I'll have to wait and see how this series actually plays out against GRRM's currently unfinished series, before we actually compare them. Also, I won't actually declare R+L=J the winner, as long as it remains a figment of GRRM's imagination, or the dumpster fire dropped thread that is the TV show. Which is a shame, but that's how it is.

As for my speculation about Prince Josua, this is something that is much more complicated. For the first step, the speculation is more plausible. It is about his relationship with King Elias' wife. In this book, he was merely in love with her, but he never actually acted on his love. But I think it is plausible that he is lying about this. We never actually see inside his head, we just hear his account of the relationship. I suspect that something more might have happened, which would add complexity to the relationship between King Elias and Josua, as the latter would have had an affair with his brother's wife. Perhaps Miriamele's parentage is suspect.

This leads to another, more speculative theory. Perhaps Prince Josua's motives are not so noble as they seem at the end of the story. If we remember, he was introduced in the beginning as being a threat to Elias' claim to power. Even Doctor Morgenes was suspicious of him. He was adamant until the very end of the book, when Elias called the Norns down from the north, that he did not want the throne, however. So much so, that you forget about this initial suspicion. But I do wonder. Why did Morgenes suspect him? What if there is a twist near the end suggesting that Elias' corruption is downstream of Josua's manipulations. Not that King Elias has no agency, but that the situation is much more complicated than it seems on its face. Perhaps the drought is Josua's fault; or Pryrates is in Josua's hand in some way, though the latter is something I don't really take seriously. I don't know, Josua just seems to be perfectly poised, plotwise. He believes all of the myths and the looming threats. He's too perfect. On one hand, Simon is meant to subvert him. On the other hand, perhaps no one believing in the white walkers in ASOIAF is GRRM's commentary on how Williams wrote this series. We will have to see.

This also has important implications regarding Miriamele, as she might be his daughter, and also in on his schemes. It seems a bit too dastardly, though. A man can dream.

Conclusion

Overall, I thought this was an enjoyable, but somewhat bloated, read. I think I will give it a 7/10.

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