Some of the frames are stuffed with action. First, it seems as though there are more scenic shifts readers travel with a variety of characters episodically, which increases the tension and helps create the sense of a wider world surrounding our small favoured band of travellers. This is my second favourite of the Bone books. Smiley: “Cheer up, everybody, we’re on our way now and nothin’ can stop us.” It’s a longer way around, but it’ll get us there.”Īnd there’s a hint of irony, which is what carries me through, alongside my attachment to familiar characters. “We can’t go straight through to Atheia because of the ghost circles.

Which often requires taking the long way around. Now you’re messin’ with my girl! Let’s go– RIGHT NOW!”Īnd there’s lots more adventuring.

Perhaps it’s the particular kind of humour.Ĭertainly Bone proves himself to be ever-more Bone-ish, loyal to a fault. Nonetheless, I don’t feel too badly admitting that this (like the second volume) isn’t a favourite of mine, because my Buried-in-Print girls love this one. It feels like you’re letting down your new friends. Once you reach a certain point with a series, it’s hard to admit when a particular segment of it doesn’t tickle you. When we dream, we peer through a foggy glass into the river and see a world that is connected to all other living things.”īut mostly it’s all about the action and entertainment. “The dreaming is a great river that flows around us in all directions. There’s a good bit of explanation which gets a bit philosophical too, as readers start to understand more about the dreaming. It’s such fun (even amidst the doom and gloom our travelling band faces in this sixth volume of the series). But when this is all over, Granma Ben gonna squish me like a bug for disobeyin’ her.”Ī bug with the ability to laugh at his own bug-self. Not because he is the bearer of bad news such as this, having seen columns of smoke coming from the forest. That’s why I been lookin’ for you…” says Ted. Earlier this week I chatted about the the first three books in Jeff Smith’s Bone series (beginning with the wonderful prequel, Rose here) with chat of volumes 3 through 5 here, in which I became a convert.There are no spoilers here, but the names of main characters do appear (which might reveal that they’ve survived earlier scrapes).

Bone, Vol. 3 by Jeff Smith