Review: CALIFORNIA BONES by Greg Van Eekhout

4.31 avg rating — 26 ratings

~ADULT WORTHY!

Next from the zipper case, Sebastian produced his torch. In outward appearance it looked very much like a cigarette lighter of burnished copper, but it was an intricate instrument with inner workings as complex as a fine watch. Sebastian thumbed it open and dialed the flame to a precise temperature. He applied to the bottom of the shell, and the flamed changed color fading from intense red to pale peach and then to an invisible heat. The flame wasn't just coming from he torch. Daniel's father was fueling it to, and his heat baked Daniel's face.

For a stretch of time, nothing happened. Sebastian remained perfectly still, holding the torch steady. Daniel's foot began to fall asleep, so he counted ocean waves to take his mind off the tingling. By the time he got to seventy-five,the kracken shavings had melted to a tiny pool of molten silver. Sebastian spit into the shell. He wasn't a tobacco user, but  his saliva was the same rich brown as the tar-infused bone handle of his scalpel. The kraken shavings burst into flame, with tall flickerings of gas-jet blue.

"Our bodies are cauldrons," he said, "and we become the magic we consume." 

He often said things like that, things that circled around the perimeter of Daniel's understanding, sometimes veering just within reach before darting away into ever widening orbits. Daniel could remember the names of osteomantic creatures and their properties __mastodon for strength, griffin for speed and flight, basilisk for venom--but he grew lost when Sebastian spoke of the root concepts of magic.

Daniel Blackland is the son of a powerful Oseomancer: someone who draws power from bone, ancient and new.  He lives in Los Angeles—the capital of the Kingdom of Southern California, a renegade country that has broken away from the rest of United States. Los Angeles is a city of gondolas and magic that is ruled by the Hierarch, a tyrannical leader. 

Daniel lives in hiding on th  margins of society. The Hierarch murdered his parents and ate his father to get at the power that lay in Sebastian's bones. Daniel would love to escape the city but it's not easily done. The borders are guarded and it takes money to pay one's way out and to set up in a new location.  And so he scrounges magic and with the help of a few friends, commits small heists and thefts.

Daniel is 'safe' because the government believes he died with his mother. However a fluke police scan turns up evidence that he is alive, and suddenly Daniel is both the hunted and the hunter, because he gets news that the sword his father made for him is deep in a vault beneath the earth. And the sword which contains part of Daniel is going to be used by the Hierarch unless Daniel can get it back.

It's not clear to me whether CALIFORNIA BONES is to be marketed as YA or just an Adult novel. The protagonist, Daniel Blackland, certainly is young enough to qualify as a Young Adult character.  But in any case, there is no reason that the audience for this book should be limited.  The writing is excellent and the story is solid.  

CALIFORNIA BONES has some of the best, most creative world building I've run across this year. Eekhout's handling of magic is outstanding.  And as a novel it's something of a hybrid, being part urban fantasy part heist-adventure.

Despite Daniel's being pivotal to the plot, the story is actually told in two narratives. One is his and the other is Gabriel's.  Gabriel, a mild-mannered bureaucrat, enters the story as the member of the government who stumbles upon Daniel's existence. And with the help of his hunter dog, Max (a magic altered human), he tracks Daniel and his friends, and it's a race to see who gets to the sword first.

I really loved this world.  It was just so well done, and Eekhout's writing is superb.  Not being a fan of heist novels the story dragged for me, and I actually became more attached to Gabriel and Max, than Daniel and friends. I think most readers of urban fantasy are going to rate this 5 STARS.

Read some sample chapters and decide for yourself.

Pam~


CALIFORNIA BONES
by Greg van Eekhout

Reading Information:
Page Count: 304
no reading information currently available
--sample pages and reviews available
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