City of Bones

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Kyle McCarley

Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Khat, a member of a humanoid race created by the Ancients to survive in the Waste, and Sagai, his human partner, are relic dealers working on the edge of society, trying to stay one step ahead of the Trade Inspectors and to support Sagai's family. When Khat is hired to find relics believed to be part of one of the Ancients' arcane engines, they are both reluctant to become involved. But the request comes from the Warders, powerful mages who serve Charisat's Elector.

Khat soon discovers that the deadly politics of Charisat's upper tiers aren't the only danger. The relics the Warders want are the key to an Ancient magic of unknown power, and, as all the inhabitants of Charisat know, no one understands the Ancients' magic.

©1995 Martha Wells (P)2013 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This finely crafted novel expertly combines several genres-SF, fantasy, horror-and, perhaps most impressive of all, even manages to avoid an overly sentimental ending." ( Publishers Weekly Starred Review)

As a casual listener, tough to follow initially

Took awhile to get into the story, which was unique, but I kept at it until the story smoothed out for me. The narrator was OK but not enough differentiation when a lot of characters were in the mix. I didn't get a good idea of what the point of the story was until about half way through. I enjoyed the dialog of the MurderBot series more.

Not the best narration but certainly not the worst

I found this book while I was waiting for the newest book in the Murderbot Diaries to be released - I'm officially a self-proclaimed Martha Wells fan. I love her world-building and unique character perspectives.

The narrator isn't my favorite and he did rob some of the characters of their ability to be taken seriously, giving them somewhat "cartoony" voices, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't finish listening or get fully immersed in the story.

Relics, Arcane Engines, Magic and a Wasteland City

<b>Relics, Steam Engines, Magic, and a Wasteland City</b>

Martha Wells’ <i>City of Bones</i> (1995) is a post-apocalypse steampunk alien contact archeological mystery fantasy featuring lots of action and lots of info dumping. Its imagined world is vivid. Fringe Cities are scattered around a desert wasteland left behind by some past calamity, as the Survivors’ descendants try to regain the lost knowledge of the Ancients by studying their relics and trading with each other via caravans sent on dangerous journeys through the desert and its city castoff pirates and poisonous predators. Then there are the krismen, genetically modified by the Ancients to survive in the desert, sun proof, needing scant water, immune to poisons, and possessed of marsupial-esque reproductive pouches (a nice touch that plays a role in the plot).

The City of Bones, Charisat, is the capital of the Fringe Cities. The city is eight-tiered, the eighth being the lowest, most impoverished and dangerous, the last stop before expulsion into the wasteland, the first being the highest, home to Patricians (aristocrats), Warders (mage warriors) and the Elector (ruler) and his Heir. The city also houses scholars (studying and teaching in the Academia), fortune tellers (burning bones to see the future), black marketeers (frequenting the Silent Market). The authorities consist of vigils, lictors, and the dread Trade Inspectors (who draconianly punish anyone interfering with trade or using verboten coins).

Warder magic consists of things like reading minds or manipulating thoughts or “seeing” in the dark or suddenly appearing or safely landing from high falls. Warders risk going “mad” if they access such powers too frequently or deeply.

The story concerns an ex-patriot krismen relic dealer called Khat and his ex-patriot foreign scholar partner Sagai living on the sixth tier, where the smell of sewage is not so bad. Their relics business is limited by the fact that as non-citizens, they must handle trade tokens (representing hours of artisan work) instead of coins. Being an outcast from his krismen Enclave (whose people scorn him for having survived capture by pirates) and shunned in Charisat (whose denizens view krismen as feral and soulless), Khat finds it difficult to trust other people, not unlike Murderbot. Also like Murderbot, Khat often thinks of doing bad things while acting ethically. Khat stays in the city because he likes books and relics and his partner Sagai (the relationship between the younger crismen and the older married scholar is neat).

The story begins when Khat is hired to guide a veiled Patrician into the Wasteland to investigate one of the Remnants (structures made by the Ancients and left scattered around the Wasteland for some unknown reason). The page turning plot then involves steamwagons, pirates, Ancient relics (from illustrated tiles and cryptic books to painrods and arcane engines), a young female Warder, a charismatic “mad” Warder, a vengeful gangster, a creepy Heir, betrayal, a race to find two stolen relics, a hint of cross-cultural romance, a little torture, a couple murders, some fights, some Silent Market action, inimical aliens, and a timeless doorway.

The climax is mind bending but (to me) disappointing, as Wells is writing a more traditional and less Adrian Tchaikovsky-like intercultural communication and acceptance story. Also, I found the novel a little longer than it needed to be with a few more infodumps (on bone takers, gates between tiers, veils, wind chimneys, the Silent Market, krismen pouches, etc.) than were good for narrative flow.

Here’s an example. Khat is trying to get half of his fee before guiding the party into the wasteland, while an asshole party member is trying to avoid paying him, and suddenly in the midst of their interaction, we get this:

“In Charisat and most of the other Fringe Cities, citizenship had to be bought, and noncitizens couldn’t own or handle minted coins unless they bought a special license to do so, which was almost as expensive as citizenship itself. And sometimes not worth the trouble, since Trade Inspectors paid special notice to sales made with minted coins. Trade tokens were a holdover from the old days of barter, and worthless without the authority of the merchants or institutions who stamped them. If a city became too crowded and faced a water or grain shortage, it could always declare all trade tokens void, forcing noncitizens to leave or starve in the streets.”

The information is important for the story, but it could be delivered more entertainingly or more in the voice/mind of a character.

On the plus side, the resolution is restrained, the characters are appealing, and the writing is clean, and there are neat places where (without explanations) we find out things like the people calling fish and ducks depicted on Ancient relic tiles “water creatures” and “water birds,” presumably because water is so scarce that there are no more fish or ducks. And Wells does effectively work in some world information by having Khat tell Elen, a young female Warder who’s forced by her master to work with him, about krismen, or she tell him about Warders. On top of all that, it's a rare self contained stand alone book!

The audiobook reader Kyle McCarley is fine, really, but egregiously overdoes the NPC voices and gets a LITTLE too excited for action scenes.

Fans of Wells would enjoy the book, though I am glad I got it for free as an Audible member perk.

I could barely put it down

Martha Wells dies superb world building and characters with depth and distinct character which draws you into their world and its entangled relationships. Additionally it provides commentary on many issues of humanity, rich and poor, friendship, trauma, and survival.

Sweet story great characters

Read this a long time ago and the audio is even better. Narrator does a great job.

Excellent characters.

I loved the story and the world. The characters were compelling.... well set up for a sequel. Filled with the usual tropes, but written well enough that I hardly cringed at all.

Good storming telling horrible narrative

The narrator sounded like he was reading a detective novel and the voices were aweful.

good story

good world building, characters you relate to, narrator sounds board, nothing more to say about it

Least favorite of all Martha Wells books

The story is ok. It took a few hours for me to stop thinking about the narration being a little annoying and just listen to the story. I’m a big Martha Wells fan but this book is just meh.

I'd rather read this myself

I love Martha Wells' books, but some have been sadly ruined by poor narration. This one is read clearly but without emotion, in a nasally New York intonation. I just couldn't listen past the first half hour. Going to get a kindle or paperback version instead.

Her worlds are so unique and well-imagined, they're usually a delight to experience. The Raksura series is my favorite, and well-narrated.