Bone Magic Comes Up Short

The seventh book in Yasmine Galenorn’s Sisters of the Moon (sometimes known as The Otherworld) series, Bone Magic was one of the books I was most looking forward to this January. Eager to progress in the D’Artigo sisters’ story as they work to save the world from the threat of the Shadow King, this installment disappointed me. It lacked the progression and conflict of the previous books, leaving us with only the culmination of Trillian’s acceptance of being a member of Camille’s harem.

The series so far…

The series, currently at seven books and counting, centers around three half-fae, half-human sisters who, as members of the Otherworld Intelligence Agency, have crossed over from the Otherworld to Earthside and are living in modern-day Seattle. As the series progresses, they find themselves in the front lines of a brewing war between the Shadow King and everyone else in existence. The Shadow King’s sole goal seems to be ripping away the walls between worlds, allowing the badest-of-the-bad to roam the other realms, destroying everything.

The books cycle between each of the sisters serving as narrator, with Witchling (Book 1), Dragon Wytch (Book 4), and Bone Magic narrated by Camille Sepharial te Maria (D’Artigo), the eldest sister, a moon witch. Changeling (Book 2), Night Huntress (Book 5), and presumably book eight (due out in Oct. 2010) are narrated by Delilah Maria te Maria (D’Artigo), the middle sister who is a weretabby/werepanther. Darkling (Book 3) and Demon Mistress (Book 6) are narrated by the youngest sister, Menolly Rosabelle te Maria (D’Artigo), an acrobatic spy-turned-vampire. Each book spends time focusing on the love life of the narrator and specific character development of their characters as well as the supporting characters tied most closely to that sister. Additionally, the overarching storyline progresses in each book as the reader follows the sisters attempts to collect the seals that will allow them to defeat the Shadow King, and while they learn where their destiny is taking them.

What’s new in Bone Magic

We learn a lot about Camille’s destiny in this book, at least in terms of her connection to the Moon Mother, the Unicorn Horn, and her men. But that’s really about all there is to the book.

My biggest disappointment with this current installment is the lack of overall storyline progression. The sisters are no closer to finding another seal, nor did they go head to head with the newest big baddie. Camille’s character and lovers’ characters were further developed, and we finally learned more about their friend/housekeeper/Finnish house-sprite Iris’ background, however the book seems like filler written while Galenorn was more focused on the first book in a new series (Night Myst, Indigo Court Series, June 2010) to really progress the story line of this series. (A complaint I also had of Caitlin Kittredge with Nocturne City 3, Second Skin. She redeemed herself with book four, Witch Craft)

Also, a warning to the new series reader: while sex scenes are pretty de rigueur considering the series is paranormal romance, this book escalates from part-of-the-story-romance sex to make-me-blush-erotica sex, which caught me quite off guard. I suppose that’s what happens when your main character is married to two men and searching for her third, but I’m hoping that Galenorn can keep it toned down in the future, at least with the other two sisters whose characters do not lend themselves to the same level of erotic detail as über-sexual Camille’s does. The scenes in this book just seemed out of place in the series and in one or two cases, the book itself.

In fact, straight from Galenorn’s Web site FAQs:

I consider the series urban fantasy because the focus is on the action, the world story arc, and primarily, the sisters and their relationships to one another. While there is explicit sex, and relationships do play a significant part, those are not the main forces of the stories, and these are not HEA books.

[Emphasis mine] http://www.galenorn.com/Otherworld/#UF-PR

I hope she goes back to writing with that goal in mind on book eight.

What’s next?

I can’t speak for what will happen in the next book, but I assume the following:

• If it follows the pattern, book eight, Harvest Hunting will be narrated by Delilah. As a part of that, we’ll learn more about her ghost-twin Ariel.
• There must be a search for the fifth seal.
• We’ll see the beginnings of fallout from Chase drinking the nectar of life regardless of the narrator, but if Delilah is the narrator, it will likely be an important part of the story and development of their relationship.
• The sisters will have to sort out which Queen has their allegiance, and reevaluate their trust of some very close figures, including their father.

And there is surely even more. Far more questions were presented than answered in this book. It does make me anticipate book eight all the more, so I hope Galenorn delivers.