The Dragonbone Chair: Book Review

Today, we will be reviewing the epic fantasy novel The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams. This is a fantasy novel that has inspired a few popular fantasy novels that have become mainstream. We will be seeing just how good this novel and the series is so keep reading to find out if you should read this fantasy novel too!

The Dragonbone Chair Summary 

Simon is an ordinary 14-year-old orphan who works as a kitchen boy and servant at the Hayholt castle. After getting into constant trouble, he finds himself as an assistant to Doctor Morgenes, the castle doctor and wizard. He teaches Simon how oto read and write as well as the history of the world. 

King John Presbyter’s health is slowly declining and when he dies, his thrown is taken up by his eldest son Elias. But Elias is influenced by an evil cleric named Pryrates. Soon after, King Elias’ younger brother Josua disappears and bad things start to happen all across the kingdom.

One day while Simon is exploring the castle, he finds himself in the castle dungeons and comes across Josua imprisoned. With the help of Morgenes, Simon frees the prince and finds himself hunted by Pryrates. Simon must escape as he embarks on an adventure, uprooting his life and all he has known as he flees from the castle and Pryrates. 

Commentary

The Dragonbone Chair reminds me of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien for good reasons. But the plot and characters are different enough that it doesn’t feel like the same story. Williams does a great job of writing a story that you can’t put down, needing to know what happens next. 

The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy inspired George R.R. Martin to write his A Song of Ice and Fire series. And once you read this novel, you can see why. Martin generously borrows some things from this novel and makes his series a lot more R rated. But when you read this novel, it is a breath of fresh air of all the bloodshed that Martin is known for. 

Simon is not my favorite protagonist and that is a big driving force in the novel. Simon isn’t destined for greatness, he is a kitchen boy who can’t stay out of trouble and gets caught up in this conspiracy that leads him to an adventure he hasn’t signed up for or even been trained for.

There are a lot of themes that remind me of The Lord of the Rings but what I loved about this novel is that the bad guys are a lot smarter. The villains are actively trying to outsmart the heroes and have a plan in place. That is something that Tolkien’s novel didn’t have and makes this seem like a chess board instead of characters chasing each other before they arrive to their destination.

Conclusion

Trying to rank this fantasy novel and series is not easy because it is very influenced by Tolkien and has a lot of the typical fantasy tropes that the genre is known for. But it is still a great read even if the pacing isn’t always great.

There have been better fantasy novels written after it but for its time, this novel was great and did push the genre forward. I would recommend it to fantasy lovers but I do think readers that aren’t the biggest fantasy fans may not have the patience for this book. Happy reading!

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