The Bone Season
- Authors: Samantha Shannon
- Series: Book 1 in the Bone Season series
- Type: Novel
- Genres: Young adult fantasy
- Rank:Top 1000 in Best Urban Fantasy Books on AmazonTop 1000 in Best Paranormal Fantasy Books on AmazonTop 1000 in Best Romantic Fantasy Books on Amazon
- Rating: 4.2 based on 5,182 reviews
- Release Date: August 22, 2023
- Print length: 560 pages (Hardcover)
About the book
The New York Times bestselling first novel in the sensational Bone Season series, a heart-pounding epic fantasy by the author of The Priory of the Orange Tree.
Welcome to Scion. No safer place.
The year is 2059. For two centuries, the Republic of Scion has led an oppressive campaign against unnaturalness in Europe.
In London, Paige Mahoney holds a high rank in the criminal underworld. The right hand of the ruthless White Binder, Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare and formidable kind of clairvoyant. Under Scion law, she commits treason simply by breathing.
When Paige is arrested for murder, she meets the mysterious founders of Scion, who have designs on her uncommon abilities. If she is to survive and escape, Paige must use every skill at her disposal - and put her trust in someone who ought to be her enemy.
With its intricate worldbuilding, slow burn romance, and 'complex, ever evolving, scrappy yet touching' (NPR) heroine, the Bone Season series shows Samantha Shannon at the height of her considerable powers.
The highly anticipated fifth novel in the Bone Season series, The Dark Mirror, will be released on February 25, 2025!
Praise for The Bone Season
A dark and exquisitely rendered fantasy unlike anything out there. The Bone Season is a must-read.
In this special edition of her critically acclaimed debut, Samantha Shannon performs the remarkable feat of improving upon the original beloved text. The story is impossibly richer and more insightful, assuringly accessible, more moving than ever, and glitters with exclusive content. The Bone Season is why fantasy exists. This is a hypnotic journey that crackles with dreamlike energy. Of all the Oxfords that literature has conjured, Shannon's Sheol I intrigues and terrifies me the most. Her London is a fever dream. And I would linger in the aether forever if it meant spending longer with Paige Mahoney and Arcturus Mesarthim. Darkly thrilling, and dense with inventive detail, this lyrical dreamscape demands your presence. Come, dreamers-I dare you to lose yourselves in this one.
This series is the best... Paige Mahoney has my whole heart... Nobody writes like Samantha Shannon!
Epic, surprising, and impeccably imagined, The Bone Season seamlessly melds a near-future dystopian world, with high fantasy stakes, and a truly unique brand of magic. Perfect for those who enjoy intricate plots and eclectic casts of nuanced characters. Ten years on from its original release, Shannon's debut remains one of the most accomplished and original SFF novels I've ever read.
[A] dazzlingly brainy, witty, and bewitching tale of outrageous courage, heroic compassion, transcendent love, and the quest for freedom... the first in a thoughtful fantasy series by a brilliant young writer.
Part Lisbeth Salander, part Oliver Twist... the strong and resourceful Paige is a memorable heroine... One buzz book that just might merit its hype.
Blends dystopia, fantasy and the supernatural into something sprawling and entirely its own. It's a slow-burn rebellion, laced with psychic warfare and stolen futures.
This book is for those who like their dystopian science fiction multilayered, philosophical and complex.
Intelligent, inventive, dark, and engrossing... Shannon has remarkable talent for world-building... . but her most sublime otherworldly creation is the complex, ever evolving, scrappy yet touching Paige Mahoney.
Compelling... a heroine every bit as gutsy as Katniss Everdeen. J.K. Rowling's now-grown readers are the natural audience for this complex fantasy... There's great imagination at work here.
Shannon offers up a richly imagined debut...The internal mythology is complex and intriguing, the emotional struggle is captivating, and the pace rarely falters as Paige unravels the mysteries and dangers of her new home.
Engaging and exciting. It's energetic, imaginative, and engrossing... Buy it, read it, and enjoy.
A dystopian thriller that delivers... . [The Bone Season] gallops along... daring its readers to keep up even as it sinks in its hooks with crackerjack action [and] deftly-accentuated conflict... Shannon has a faultless instinct for the prerogatives of storytelling, for the engine that makes an adventure novel go... It's the sort of novel you inhale in two or three days.
Exciting... The future Shannon presents is frightening and well-imagined, and her complex hierarchy is fascinating.
The intrigue and high stakes keep readers flipping pages late into the night. With thrilling action, intense character growth, and a world full of secrets, this novel is hard to resist.
[The Bone Season] invokes both the political tyranny of George Orwell and the bucolic mythmaking of J.R.R. Tolkien.
About the author
