The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn) Mass Market Paperback – November 7, 1989

"Maybe we have seen the better days. Maybe there is nothing left now but a losing battle against creeping darkness."It is interesting. I have noticed other fantasy series I've read have stolen a lot of stuff from Tad, even pulling multiple names directly! This is the real stuff though. I mean to be fair Tad himself is borrowing from stuff like the LOTR in some ways, but he makes it his own. I love the writing style. All the characters are interesting. There is a feeling of depth to the world. The story is entertaining. Feels refreshing to read this after plowing through stuff inspired by this that simply isn't as good. I may have to lower the stars of some of my reviews for other books for consistency.

It’s always hard to rate the first book of a series. You don’t have enough time to bond with the protagonists and the beginning is somewhat slow.Well, this book is more like 2 books in 1, it’s quite large, so there is time for much.Our protagonists is a young orphan (orphans make a good case for main characters!) who is thrown sort of unwillingly into the thick of tremendous changes (for the worst) on the kingdom. Peace is no more and evil descends, slowly but surely. He bands with a handful of friends into a series of adventures while at the same time learning about himself (slowly).I did not overly enjoy the prose. The language and descriptions are rich, very rich, but since I am not a native English speaker, sometimes it tires me to truly understand.The pace is - not slow - relaxed more or less. Things do happen, but it’s like the author deliberately tries not to give too much. There are signs and tells about our MC that are not explored, or the story itself does not let him understand - no one to teach him, and no time to be frank. So if you wait for our MC to throw fireballs and cast down lightning, well, you are not getting that, yet(?).It’s also interesting to note that we do get other people’s side / story on many sub-chapters. It’s not just the MC Simon’s side we are exploring. This is done due to the fact that the whole kingdom affairs are progressing and Simon can’t be everywhere. I don’t consider any other a true protagonist, maaAybe the prince.The “bad guys” are quite well made. They are not morons, they are relatively realistic and scary each to his own degree. We don’t actually meet the endgame boss, but we do hear a lot about him - it feels like Sauron in a sense. In any case, the sense of urgency to fix the wrongs is there, humanity is truly in peril.What I did not expect is the amount of character evolution there was in a first book. It usually takes longer to show, but we see both our MC and the prince show signs of evolving - not forcefully because the writer mandates it, but because of their experiences in this part of the story.I did not lose my sleep over this book. That’s a good indicator for me on how good the story is and if the fifth star is worth it. That being said, whenever I picked it up, I enjoyed reading and was not bored at all. It was pleasant though not supeeeerbly engaging.This book has the ingredients to make a splendid “soup” so I am thrilled to move on to the next one !!

(added 10/20/2015 - available on the AmazonUK site as an audible file, but Audible USA isn't even answering enquiries as to when/if it will come to the US market. Disappointed that Audible says 'We'll get right back to you' and over a month later... nada. Even with reminders.(added 06/16/2015 - Searched for this in Audible while on my Kindle - apparently the audio is coming out August 2015? But can't find the page while on my laptop. harumph.) Rehabilitating a 60 year old farm means I'm alone most of the time, moving around 30 acres, often doing repetitive labour. I listen to alot of free audio books from my library and have an Audible membership (soon to be dropped). I'd love to listen to these stories and have read them to my kids.I'm on my second set of paperbacks for these books and have gifted them to family and friends from 11yo to 58yo. I've stopped trying to review books for their literary worth - is it "good". I dunno - but I have found these books Entertaining. Good set of books for a gift to a young adult or older adult that enjoys humour and fantasy. A nice take on multi-culturalism - Elves, dwarves, royalty and wizards are shown to be people. The habits and culture may be a bit different, but they all lead very real lives of love, loss, hope and failure. It's funny how well a fantasy can teach your kids about the reality of life, compassion, honor and strength.As an integral part of the story, the glamour of legend and story is shown to be just a glittery reflection of reality. Alongside of Simon, you experience the hungry, dirty, frightening reality that is war and intrigue. Not to the point where I haven't allowed my thirteen yr old to read these - no graphic sex or gratuitous gore. The "lovestory" portions are a reflection of reality - Foot in mouth awkwardness and misunderstandings leading to over sensetive reactions. No glory of war or heaving bosoms here.I was homeless for almost a year 20 years ago (19yo, no family, no schooling - no... I was not a hippy/druggy/"soiled dove" - just unlucky and lost everything in a house fire) and as someone who knows the worth of dry socks and a safe place to sleep, the reality of hiking cross country is well portrayed. Hiding in trees, heart pounding so loudly you can't tell if someone is sneaking up on you, is a lousy way to spend night after night. Don't try to impress someone first thing in the morning with bug parts stuck to your sleep wrinkled face.Well... sorry if this isn't the best review I've written, but we're bringing in the hay, baby goats are being born and I just came in to cool off - so not much time to proofread this. Upshot is, if you enjoyed Redwall as a kid, you'll enjoy these. be well sf

How did I not read this before? I've heard about it, looked at it in physical book stores and on my amazon account. Glad I finally picked it up. Great world building and characters. Really like this. The story did bog down a little with all the underground meaderings, but the author got the feel of being lost in cave right, it just got a little long. Other than that though, a fantastic read and looking forward to book two