The Dragonbone Chair

[very mild Spoilers ahead]

There are many elements to Osten Ard that made me want to like this book, but they are ultimately overshadowed by the terrible cast of characters, first and foremost the protagonist. Simon is sexist (as is everyone else in this world), racist, naive, whiny, jealous, arrogant, and both annoying and boring all at the same time... there is not a single redeeming quality to this guy. Most of the other characters lack build up and development. The only interesting ones were Elias and Josua, but their difficult relationship as brothers doesn't get enough screentime to carry a story that is otherwise filled with (100% male) characters that merely serve a purpose in the plot. There is also an abundance of fantasy tropes and cliches (to be fair, things like “dragon slaying swords” and “very old forest” might not have been cliche when this series was written) that get old very fast.

The world of Osten Ard is fascinating and I wanted to know more about the twisted history behind all the events in this book, but how that world is shown and explained to the reader is done rather poorly. Simon asks questions, wise old man answers questions, gets fed up with him asking so many questions. Repeat this 20 times and you have the structure of information dumps you will find in this book.

I will not continue this series, despite all the great things I've heard about it.