Friday, December 19, 2008

Dragonbone Chair Series, by Tad Williams

The Dragonbone Chair series first struck me as a classical fictional novel, filled with dragons, elven humanoids, humans, kings and of course, one powerful evil entity.
Yet surprisingly enough, I was draw into the thick volumes that my teacher had lent me. Despite the plot being cliche in my opinion (Due to seeing many others like it), I was pleasantly surprised at the comprehensive, and well-written story. The events that happen are far too rich and numerous to be contained in one book report, and still given the fairness that they deserve. The story consists of a trilogy known as "Memory, Thorn and Sorrow", and their significance is revealed throughout the story.


The adventure revolves around an ordinary kitchen boy named Simon, who had the (mis)fortune of being the apprentice of Doctor Morgenes in the castle he lived in. Let's just say, a story of treachery, a coup, and a crumbling kingdom follow. Heroes are hard to kill, and villains are even harder. In fact, the main villain of the book seems almost invincible towards the end, his death costs the lives of many other important plot characters in order to reach fulfillment. Rebellions are crushed, homes are lost, yet all is reborn in the end through the ashes. The turns the story takes are quite astounding, not recommended to people that get worked up over the deaths of favourite plot characters. Nevertheless, the story's ending is cliche as well, though by the time one is done reading the full adventure, any redundancy is dismissed by the epic adventure that unfolds.
Tad Williams has often been referred to as "America's Tolkien", which may be a fair statement despite my respect and admiration for J.R.R Tolkien as well.

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