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_Bone Song_ by John Meaney
May. 9th, 2009 10:37 pmI have read thousands of books in my life; I think this might be the most unusual, unexpected book I've ever read. If I had to throw a genre name at it, it might be necropunk. You know how steampunk is nifty technology based on steam engines? The world of Bone Song is full of technology based on dead people. Much of the remaining tech is enslaved wraiths performing tasks.
You see, your bones retain the memories formed in life. Trained individuals can hear the memories and emotions from the bones--that's how they do autopsies--and the memories and emotions can be harnessed magically to make energy.
And along of all that there are also (and I quote) "non-humans, in-humans, and ex-humans". The aforementioned wraiths, zombies--which are not brainless brain-eating monsters but rather people who have died and been technologically brought back to life.
It was creepy, as you might have guessed, but the milieu was fabulous and imagination-inducing.
I've talked about the setting. So now to the plot. It's a police procedural/detective story: police lieutenant attempts to prevent a murder, fails, and then joins a special team which is pursuing the cabal who organized the murder.
You see, your bones retain the memories formed in life. Trained individuals can hear the memories and emotions from the bones--that's how they do autopsies--and the memories and emotions can be harnessed magically to make energy.
And along of all that there are also (and I quote) "non-humans, in-humans, and ex-humans". The aforementioned wraiths, zombies--which are not brainless brain-eating monsters but rather people who have died and been technologically brought back to life.
It was creepy, as you might have guessed, but the milieu was fabulous and imagination-inducing.
I've talked about the setting. So now to the plot. It's a police procedural/detective story: police lieutenant attempts to prevent a murder, fails, and then joins a special team which is pursuing the cabal who organized the murder.
