Bone Dance

If only Ms. Bull would write more! Lots and lots more. A stunner of a book, with a premise that at first looks well-used but then turns out to be stranger than you can imagine. And really, really GOOD. The language is amazing, the characters real and intriguing, and every time I finish this I want a sequel. It should be back in print--if The Secret Country trilogy is freshly on the shelves, why not this?

"Bone Dance" (along with "Falcon") has got to be one of my favorite all-time books. Emma Bull is an amazingly gifted storyteller with a sure, deft touch. If you haven't yet discovered her, you are in for a treat: complex characters, layered plots, detailed world-building, humor, and, above all, a compassionate yet clear-eyed understanding of human weakness make this an outstanding story, which, in my opinion, far exceeds "War for the Oaks" (perhaps her best-known work.) While "Oaks" is a delightful story, it is in "Bone Dance" that Bull really hits her stride. If you like Lois McMaster Bujold, Diana Wynne Jones, or Tanith Lee, then you will probably like Emma Bull too. This is a book that will haunt you long after you put it down. Thrilled to learn that this gem is finally being reissued on July 7, 2009 - Bone Dance: A Fantasy for Technophiles. Now, if they will also reissue "Falcon"...

Theres a secret in this book and none of us who've read it can tell you, but once you read it and find out the whole book changes. Emma Bull is a wonderful writer, period, but this book is amazing. This book is sci-fi-ish, reminds me a little of cyberpunk (the setting), and she also manages to throw in Voodoo. It all works wonderfully. Go forth and READ!

Like most of Emma Bull's work, _Bone Dance_ is better than 98% of everything that's on the fantasy shelves today. I didn't find it as fabulously built as _War for the Oaks_, but it was still a marvelous read. Bull takes a common theme (life after nuclear war and the breakdown of civilisation-as-we-know-it), and turns it sideways . To begin with, it takes place in a city, not the usual post-nuclear desert; for another, not everybody has turned into punk-rockers/bikers. Instead the city has become a multi-cultural meeting ground, with a government whose power seems to be based on control of energy and communications resources and an economy large enough to support an entertainment business and a trade in luxury goods (such as pre-war compact disks and videotapes). Add in a likeable protagonist, a lot of voudou, and a former member of the psychic clique responsible for the war, now on a mission of penance (she's spent the past few decades killing off her former colleagues), and we have a plot that more than fits the fascinating milieu. Best of all, Bull had abandoned the tired old USA-USSR backstory for her post-nuclear world; instead there was apparently a war between North and South America Particularly interesting is the fact that--judging from the heavy Hispanic and Afro-French influence in the un-named City--the two were apparently rather similar to each other by the time they came to blows.

This one's even better than Falcon, though I gave them both a rating of 9. Here Bull uses the first person narrative to spring a surprise on us -- the protagonist has a secret that's never mentioned but is perfectly obvious in retrospect, and that's all I'm going to say. We've seen the post-apocalypse setting before, but Bull makes it fresh again by bringing in references to voodoo. The lull after the first climax is the only thing that keeps this book from earning a score of a perfect 10 (and even the "slow part" has lots of interesting stuff going on, just not at the breathless pace that preceded it). GREAT read