Book Review: Priest of Bones by Peter McLean
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Priest of Bones by Peter McLean
Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Book 1 of War for the Rose Throne
Publisher: Ace Books (October 2, 2018)
Length: 352 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Hmm, my thoughts are complicated for this one. Priest of Bones by Peter McLean is garnering all kinds of praise and I’m happy it’s getting the attention it deserves, but I’m just not feeling as enthusiastic about it as I ought to be. It’s as if on some level, I know I should like this—everything about the story screams “me” and the premise sounds exactly like the kind of dark fantasy designed to push all my right buttons. And yet, I felt a bizarre sense of distance when reading this, like how when an overzealous salesperson comes on too strongly with their pitch and actually winds up turning you off from a product you had wanted to buy.
In this novel, which feels a lot like grimdark sword and sorcery meets The Godfather, we follow mob boss and army priest Tomas Piety as he returns home to Ellinburg after fighting in a brutal war, only to find his criminal empire in shambles. Someone else had moved in during his absence, using the confusion of the war to take over all his properties and rackets. Keeping his trusted lieutenant Bloody Anne at his side and his volatile brother Jochan at arm’s length, Tomas sets out to gather up his gang of Pious Men in preparation to reclaim what he had worked so hard to build.
But in doing so, Tomas unwittingly uncovers the secret of who has been bankrolling his rivals, turning his once beloved city into a hollow shell run by foreign powers. Though he is loathe to do it, Tomas agrees to work clandestinely with the Queen’s Men, a group of agents for the crown, if it means saving the kingdom from invaders.
Credit where credit’s due: Priest of Bones is action-packed and fast-paced, wasting no time in getting right into the thick of things. From my experience reading the Burned Man trilogy, I already know McLean doesn’t mess around. His prose is sharp as a blade, his dialogue acerbic and punchy. There is hardly any preamble as we are thrown headfirst into the raging turf war, with the violence escalating from fist fights to fire bombs in no time flat.
There’s a dark tone to this one, no question about that. But here’s where its entire concept also started to unravel for me. Yes, a lot of unsavory things happen in this story, including but not limited to murder, sexual assault, violence and cruelty towards men, women, children, animals, you name it. As an avid reader of grimdark, none of this is anything I haven’t seen before, and yet, something about it in this case felt…off. While I wouldn’t stay the amount of violence is gratuitous exactly, I would say it feels a bit perfunctory and done for its own sake. There’s a real sense of going through the motions when it comes to a lot of these sequences, and character actions also feel scripted like they’re only doing and saying the things they do because it’s what the reader would expect.
It was difficult connecting with Tomas, as a result. There was a lot of telling and not showing when it came to his motivations, which made him come across as disingenuous. Simply repeating something over and over does not make it any more believable, for example, as when Tomas kept insisting that he respects women because he made Bloody Anne his second and pays her more than his other men. His persona felt artificial, like the very heart and soul of his character was missing. It also didn’t help that he was such a practical man. Tomas is someone who does what needs to be done, tackling problems with an almost detached and calculating approach. There’s a marriage-of-convenience plot in this story which perfectly illustrated this, where the protagonist might have felt something more for his expedient bride, yet at no point did I actually feel convinced. While I could definitely see what the author was trying to go for with Tomas’ character, I just couldn’t get on board with it.
Nevertheless, I certainly don’t want to discourage anyone from reading this book, especially if it sounds like something you’ll enjoy. And to be quite honest, while I did not love Priest of Bones, I could still appreciate it for what it was: a fast-moving dark fantasy novel of moral ambiguity and intrigue that scores high on the readability and cool factor meters—and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Of course, it would have been nice if it had gone above and beyond those factors, but at the end of the day, this might just be another case of my misplaced hopes and hype.
The BiblioSanctum 
Interesting, I am even more curious to read this now after reading your review. I just read the first book in his Burned Man trilogy which was pretty good. We’ll see!
LikeLike
I liked the first Burned Man book too. This though…something just didn’t feel right.
LikeLike
I’m going to have to pass on this one. I’ve had far too much moral ambiguity lately in real life.
LikeLike
Tell me about it.
LikeLike
Ah I was curious about this one because I saw it around a lot. Sorry it wasn’t more though… Not sure I’ll try
LikeLike
If you like grimdark books, I’d still give it a look. If not, I would probably pass.
LikeLike
Intriguing review, indeed: I do wonder how it came to pass that an author whose writing is “sharp as a blade” and whose dialogue is “acerbic and punchy” ended up overselling the story’s concepts and the characters’ development in such a fashion…
I read the synopsis for this novel and was intrigued by the core concept, but now I will have to keep your warning in mind! Thanks for sharing 🙂
LikeLike
Too much telling and not enough showing, is my guess. I never really felt connected to the character…
LikeLike
And here I felt it was not dark at all! Rather light to be honest. So much better than those grimdark ones lol.
LikeLike
That’s so strange how that works out 🙂
LikeLike
Interesting… I action packed and quick paced sounds good, and I know our taste in grimdark tend to align pretty well, so your reservations concern me a bit on what I might think of it
LikeLike
I think you’ll enjoy it. I just couldn’t connect to the character, and the overall writing style felt kind of forced. And maybe I’m simply grimdarked out these days…
LikeLike
I know what you mean when you say you feel like you should love it because it’s generally your type of book. This has happened to me before too and it always leaves me a bit dismayed. Just goes to show how very subjective these things can be lol.
LikeLike
Yeah, everything about this book was up my alley, I don’t know why I just didn’t connect with it! Part of me feels like it tried too hard to tick off all the right boxes, and it just felt forced to me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh yeah, I think some of the ones that I feel like I should have liked, the reason maybe I didn’t was because it felt forced. Like it wasn’t organic. I get that.
LikeLike
Hmm I think I might take a pass on this for now! Violence done for the sake of violence isn’t something I particularly enjoy, even (or especially?) in grimdark.
LikeLike
I find that to be a common issue for a lot of authors breaking into grimdark. Hard to find the balance between what is needed and part of the story vs. what’s thrown in because “it’s expected”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hmm. I’m seeing quite divergent opinions on this one! Maybe I’ll have to give it a try, or something else by the same author…
LikeLike
Really, because I feel like I’m in the minority! The praise has been pretty universal, and I’m glad for the book and the author. It just didn’t work for me personally 🙂
LikeLike
I really liked this one for some reason – probably 4* for me. I never really felt this was too overdone in terms of the violence but I did have a couple of small(ish) issues. I found it a bit irritating that the main pov character kept repeating things. He was constantly saying xx was trustworthy – or wasn’t trustworthy. I didn’t mind it at first but it started to feel like he was saying it over and over and really the character’s actions should speak for themselves, plus it made me think is ‘xx’ going to betray him along the way. The only other issue in a book that is so bleak, it felt like Tomas was a bit too good to be true, he’s the antihero that isn’t really that bad deep down.
I did enjoy it though and found it a quick read and well written – having also read the Burnt Man series I wonder if I was just well prepared for the style of writing.
Lynn 😀
LikeLike
I’m glad you enjoyed it! I hear you about the repetition though, and in fact, that was one of my key issues. It really turned me off how the character just kept going over certain things again and again. Yes, it made certain plot points very obvious, and second, I just grew tired of the telling versus showing.
LikeLike
Amazing review! Wow, you just honestly hit the nail on the head in so many ways. Especially this:
“everything about the story screams “me” and the premise sounds exactly like the kind of dark fantasy designed to push all my right buttons. And yet, I felt a bizarre sense of distance when reading this, like how when an overzealous salesperson comes on too strongly with their pitch and actually winds up turning you off from a product you had wanted to buy.”
I was literally nodding at my computer screen like a weirdo while reading that bit, because that is EXACTLY how I feel and I could never seem to find the perfect words to explain it! I also agree with the point you made about things feeling scripted and Tomas’ actions being told over and over without anything to really PROVE them.
LikeLike
Thanks so much for your comment, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who felt “off” about this one!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Priest of Bones (War for the Rose Throne, #1) — Peter McLean – howling libraries
Pingback: Mogsy’s Bookshelf Roundup: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads | The BiblioSanctum