The Bone House by Stephen R. Lawhead

One piece of the Skin Map has been found. Now the race to unravel the future of the future turns deadly.

I reviewed The Skin Map by Stephen R. Lawhead about a month and a half ago, and I said that I couldn't truly judge whether it was worth reading until I read the book that it leads up to—The Bone House.

First of all I would like to point out that this book is a direct sequel to The Skin Map. I highly recommend not reading this book out of order, as it starts exactly where the last let off. The first chapter could be considered the very next chapter, after the last chapter of The Skin Map.

First of all I'll point out what I disliked about the novel. It had numerous plot holes, though not as many as the last book. The characters are still quite less intelligent than you'd expect modern-day characters to be, though I'm thinking mostly of the main protagonist, Kit Livingstone. In addition, every other chapter seems to jump between perspectives, characters, and even times. The story could go straight from modern day to a hundred years ago without warning—without giving the readers any hint that it just did so. Overall, in other words, it's impossibly confusing.

But don't worry, the book isn't all about inconsistencies and confusing the reader to the point where they have no idea what's going on—or if what's going on even relates to the story in any way whatsoever. The book is jam-packed with all sorts of culture and it's overall... an intriguing book. It's very slow-paced, but makes you want to keep reading, though slowly. The fact that it draws you in but makes you want to read slowly at the same time was quite my downfall, and the reason why it took me so long to read.

If not for the intriguing nature of the book and the story that finally got good by the end of The Skin Map, I wouldn't like this book. But I because of these things I can say that I really enjoyed it and hate that I had to super-speed-read through the entire last half.

So back to the question I asked a month and a half ago: Would I recommend reading The Skin Map? Yes. Yes I would. The whole book feels like it's leading up to the story, and the story finally starts when it ends, but The Bone House is faithful and starts where it stopped. This series is turning out to be far better than I ever thought in the beginning.

The Bone House was publicly released on September 6, 2011.
This book was sent to me for free from Thomas Nelson Publishing. http://www.BookSneeze.com/

Reuben Horst