Skip to main content

Short Fiction Friday: The Osteomancer's Son

The Osteomancer's Son by Greg van Eekhout, Clarkesworld #101

 Last year Greg van Eekhout published his first book in the Daniel Blackland series, California Bones. Which was for me highly enjoyable book and showed a highly inventive new idea in Urban Fantasy: Osteomancy. Special people are able to suck on bones or smoke or digest them in some way and gain special powers associated with those beings. Now I was looking in Clarkesworld issue #101 and I saw that Greg van Eekhout was in it with his story of The Osteomancer's Son. Now the Daniel Blackland series directly came to mind and was hoping to read another blast of a story. Which I got! But I also found out that The Osteomancer's Son isn't actually a prequel to California Bones. It featured as the start of it all! 

In The Osteomancer's Son you are introduced to Daniel Ludeking as a young boy who wonders with his father on the beach and stumble on a bone, and not just an ordinary bone, the bone of a Kraken. Here you learn that Daniel's father isn't an average kind of guy. He is an Osteomancer, a person able to ingest bones and get powers. Daniel's father wouldn't be a Ludeking is he didn't start the process early with Daniel himself and soon Daniel finds the powers of the mighty Kraken raging through his body. From this point on the starts in the deep end of it all and you seen just how nasty the world is.  Because everything is far from roses and sunshine when it comes to the powers of Osteomancers, Daniel looses his father and is tasked by his uncle to visit the lair of the Hierarch, the most powerful Osteomancer alive. In this confrontation there is powerful display of the forces at play and already see a lot of the versatility in between the different sources of the bones. 

 After reading this short story, though there was overlap with California Bones, I am once again reminded that this is really cool premise. I also just found out that the sequel to California Bones, Pacific Fire, was published just this January by Tor. I so want to read this book! Greg van Eekhout has really thought of a cool promise and truly makes it come to life in his books. I am glad to see that Greg van Eekhout turned this short story into not one book, but a whole trilogy!

If you are unfamiliar with California Bones, visit this link to Clarkesworld and read the story for free.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Short Fiction Friday: Selfies

Selfies by Lavie Tidhar "Selfies", by Lavie Tidhar, is a creepy little horror tale about the fate of a young woman who makes the mistake of a lifetime when she buys a new phone in the local mall. It is only a few weeks back that I read a different but very interesting short story of Lavie Tidhar, Dragonkin . I found this story directly to my liking, the synopsis and build up of the story was unique and got me excited by it's less is more writing style. In the end this story for me had so much going on that I hope to see Lavie Tidhar exploring it even further. That aside, now its time for Selfies . I think I can now safely say that Lavie Tidhar is an author to watch out for, his stories will get you thinking and will scare you twice over.  I have been thinking a lot of the current situation with always being connected on social media and the likes. It's unavoidable. One thing that is connected with all of this is of course your smartphone, yes no longer a cell
Post a Comment
Read more

Author interview with John Gwynne

Author interview with John Gwynne Author Bio: I was born in Singapore while my dad was stationed there in the RAF. Up until he retired that meant a lot of traveling around, generally a move every three years or so. I live with my wife and four wonderful (and demanding) children in East Sussex. Also three dogs, two of which will chew anything that stands still. I have had many strange and wonderful jobs, including packing soap in a soap factory, waitering in a french restaurant in Canada, playing double bass in a rock n roll band, and lecturing at Brighton University. I stepped out of university work due to my daughter’s disability, so now I split my time caring for her and working from home - I work with my wife rejuvenating vintage furniture, which means fixing, lifting, carrying, painting and generally doing what my wife tells me to do... And somehow during this time I started writing. I’ve always told my children stories at bed-time, and they pestered long and hard for me to
Post a Comment
Read more

Author Interview with Christopher Fowler

Author interview with Christopher Fowler. Author bio:  Christopher Fowler is an English novelist living in London, his books contain elements of black comedy, anxiety and social satire. As well as novels, he writes short stories, scripts, press articles and reviews. He lives in King's Cross, on the Battlebridge Basin, and chooses London as the backdrop of many of his stories because any one of the events in its two thousand year history can provide inspiration In 1998 he was the recipient of the BFS Best Short Story Of The Year, for 'Wageslaves'. Then, in 2004, 'The Water Room' was nominated for the CWA People's Choice Award, 'Full Dark House' won the BFS August Derleth Novel of The Year Award 2004 and 'American Waitress' won the BFS Best Short Story Of The Year 2004. The novella 'Breathe' won BFS Best Novella 2005. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Christopher, welcome over to The Bo
Post a Comment
Read more