R&R Review Wednesday: Galthain’s Bones by Krystine Kercher

Amazon  Goodreads  Book Depository  Barnes and Noble

Exile #1

Thank you to the author, Krystine Kercher, for gifting me with a copy of Galthain’s Bones in exchange for an honest review!

1.  The world.   This book takes place in a very interesting world.  It’s basically the human race, only a couple hundred years ago with a different history.  The author did such a good job describing the world just enough and letting it do the talking and just exist in the background.  The best thing a world can be, is natural.  You want a world that doesn’t seem like it’s trying too hard to be something and it seems to just be in the background.  This world accomplishes that.

2.  The characters.  I did really like the characters.  They were real and had really nice dialogue sequences that flowed wonderfully.  However, I frequently questioned how Bjorn (our MC) was only 13.  It seemed like he should be around 15 the way the adults were expecting him to act.  I appreciated said adults keeping him accountable as he is in a position of potential power.  However, sometimes I felt like there was a disconnect.  With that aside, I really liked Bjorn and his handling of being sent on this quest.

3.  The plot.  The plot essentially followed Bjorn on his quest to recover Galthain’s bones (a revered ancestor’s body) and all the little struggles in between.  While I did like the plot, when I reached the end, it was just meh for me.  It was a wonderful story but I just felt like something was missing.  Like the raw emotions were glossed over so I couldn’t really feel the ups and downs.  This is a nitpicky thing but I felt like it needed to be mentioned.  I also wish that the ‘levels’ were explained (squires, etc) because I didn’t really understand the significance of the quest in terms of Bjorn.

4.  The extras.  To my delight, when I finished the book, there was a map and a dictionary of all of the people mentioned!  I absolutely love it when fantasy writers include these because they help so much when you’re trying to remember strangely named characters (as it typical in fantasy) and the geography of the new world.

The Final Verdict:
A wonderfully developed fantasy story with well rounded characters.  I felt like the plot was missing a little spice but overall, a delightful fantasy novel.
4.5 stars