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The Bone Season

The Bone Season (The Bone Season #1) by Samantha Shannon

The Bone Season series aka Scion series, aka Paige Mahoney — by Samantha Shannon. 

NEW SERIES

Genres and Sub-Genres[]

Futuristic Urban Fanstasy, Dystopian Fantasy, Thriller, SciFi-Urban Fantasy, Dystopian YA/New Adult

Series Description or Overview[]

2059. Several major world cities are under the control of a security force called Scion. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London. Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare kind of clairvoyant, and in this world, she commits treason simply by breathing. But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city–Oxford, erased from the map two centuries ago, and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly–as soldiers in their army. Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind, and his own mysterious motives. ~ Author - The Bone Season

NOTE: The Bone Season is the first in a series of seven fantasy novels.

Lead's Species[]

  • Dreamwalker — a rare kind of clairvoyant

Primary Supe[]

  • Clairvoyants

What Sets it Apart[]

Narrative Type and Narrators[]

  • First person narrative told by Paige Mahoney.

Books in Series[]

Bone Season series:

  1. The Bone Season (2013)
  2. The Mime Order (January 27th 2015)
  3. The Song Rising (2017)

Shorts, Anthologies and Guides[]

none yet

World Building[]

Setting[]

  • 2059—London
  • Oxford

P​laces

  • Scion London: criminal underworld—part of a secret cell known as the Seven Seals
  • Oxford: voyant prison, a separate city—erased from the map two centuries ago and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race
  • Netherworld:
  • Aether: The spirit realm, accessible by clairvoyants. Also called the source.
  • Sheol I: A penal colony run by the Rephaite. Also known as the city of Oxford.
  • Scion London: Scion Citadel.
  • Marylebone

Supernatural Elements[]

Rephaim (otherworldly race), clairvoyants, Scion (security force), Netherworld, supe mob, otherworldly race, , , , , ,

Ability / Types:[]

  • Dream Walker (rare kind of clairvoyant),
  • Voyants: clairvoyants—
  • Rephaim: (Singular Rephaite) Creatures—biologically immortal, humanoid inhabitants of the Netherworld, known to feed on the aura of humans. Their history and origin are uncertain.
  • Querent: Any person that seeks knowledge of the aether. They may ask questions or offer part of themselves (e.g., blood, palm) for a reading. Soothsayers and augurs may use a querent to focus on certain areas of the aether, making predictions easier.
  • Dreamer: Shorthand for dreamwalker, typically used by Rephaim
  • Emim: Also known as 'Buzzers'. The purported enemies of the Rephaim; "the dreaded ones." Described by Nashira Sargas as carnivorous and bestial, with a taste for human flesh. Their existence is shrouded in mystery.

Glossary:[]

  • Dreamwalking: Dreamwalking is The Bone Season's version of the paranormal concept of OBE, or an out-of-body experience (also called astral or etheric projection, spirit-walking). In the book, the word is a contraction of dreamscape and walking.
  • Aether: The spirit realm, accessible by clairvoyants. Also called the source.
  • Zeitgeist: German word meaning the "spirit of the age"/ Literally "time spirit". Most voyants use the word metaphorically, but some worship the zeitgeist as a deity.
  • Underlord: Head of the Unnatural Assembly and mob boss of the clairvoyant syndicate. Traditionally resides in the Devil's Acre in I Cohort, Section 1
  • Dreamscape: The interior of the mind, where memories are stored. Split into five zones or "rings" of sanity: sunlight, twilight, midnight, lower midnight, and hadal. Clairvoyants can consciously access their own dreamscapes, while amaurotics may catch glimpses when they sleep.
  • Aura: aura is what identifies you as clairvoyant, understood to be a biological phenomenon. Aura is a clairvoyant individual's personal link to the æther, the means by which they tune in to the spirit world.
  • Syndicate: A criminal organization of clairvoyants, based in the Scion Citadel of London. Active since the early 1960s. Governed by the Underlord and the Unnatural Assembly. Members specialize in mime-crime for financial profit.
  • Numen: Objects used by soothsayers and augurs to connect with the aether, e.g., mirrors, cards, bones
  • Subliming: A process by which an ordinary object is transfigured into a numen.
  • Scrying: The art of seeing into and gaining insight from the aether through numa. A querent may be used.
  • Silver cord: A permanent link between the body and the spirit. It allows a person to dwell for many years in one physical form. Unique to each individual. Particularly important to dreamwalkers, who use the cord to leave their bodies temporarily. The silver cord wears down over the years, and once broken cannot be repaired.
  • Mime-lord: A gang leader in the clairvoyant syndicate, a specialist in mime-crime. Generally has a close group of five to ten followers, but maintains overall command over all clairvoyants in one section within a cohort. Member of the Unnatural Assembly

~ More: 

Groups & Organizations:[]

  • NVD: Clairvoyants bound to serve for 30 years before being euthanized.
  • Scion: official name for a system of government that has been implemented throughout nine European countries. Its policies revolve around the control and punishment of so-called "unnatural" individuals. Its symbol is the anchor. Countries under Scion rule are said to be under the anchor, while countries threatened by it are in the shadow of the anchor.
  • Seven Seals: secret cell—criminal underworld of Scion London

World[]

✥ Shannon's dystopian world is ruled by Rephaites, a supernatural race who set up a puppet government in London and kidnap, torture and imprison Paige Mahoney, a talented dreamwalker capable of breaking into people's minds. Their regular 10-year recruitment of clairvoyants into a mercenary army sees Mahoney come under the authority of the Warden, a humanoid with amber eyes and burnished skin. ~ Read more: Futuristic novel seals the deal

Protagonist[]

Paige Mahoney is 19, lives in central London and works as an ossista in an Oxygen bar. Since caffeine and alcohol are illegal mind-altering drugs, in 2059, "flavoured oxygen" is the convivial social lubricant of choice. Little does her nice, dull father know that his unambitious daughter has a shocking secret life. Talent-spotted as a schoolgirl by a sweet-talking procurer, groomed by one of London's most vicious mime-lords, she's one of the Seven Seals, the stars of a criminal syndicate: grifting a living in the forbidden realm of psychic powers. Paige, whose special talent is for dream-walking in the aether, runs the gang's surveillance: thrilling but dangerous work, since she tends to stop breathing when she's out of her body.

One night her luck runs out, and she's forced to use her powers to kill. Arrested, drugged, brutalised and brainwashed, she expects nothing less than torture and public execution–the Scion regime is savage in its persecution of "unnaturals". Instead she's shipped off to Oxford, a city abandoned and off‑limits since it was mysteriously "destroyed by fire", around the time Scion suddenly emerged, 200 years ago. Soon she discovers that everything she thought she knew about her world is a monstrous lie. Scion is a puppet government. The real rulers of the UK are the Rephaim, sombre-gowned, divinely tall, humanoid but inhuman beings from another dimension. who are plotting to take over the world. The derelict University of Oxford is their HQ, from whence they wage war on another set of invaders from the astral plane, disgusting, flesh-eating monsters called Emim.

In decadal sweeps known as bone seasons, Scion has been collecting and delivering human clairvoyants, to be used as Rephaite cannon fodder. Casualty rates are high, and the Rephaites are unpleasant commanders; manipulative, cruel and petty. Paige isn't due to be hung, drawn and quartered, but she's still in deep trouble – until Warden Arcturus, the gorgeous, brooding, blood-consort of the Rephaite leader, Suzerain Nashira, decides to make her his protegee. ~ The Bone Season – | The Guardian

Sidekick[]

  • Name: / What: / Sidekick-to: / About: / Book First Seen In:

Characters Chart[]

Characters What About
Paige Mahoney Dream Walker works in the criminal underworld of Scion London; scouts for information by breaking into others’ minds;
Rephaim creatures, powerful, otherworldly race value the voyants highly—as soldiers in their army.
Rephaite keeper Warden in charge of her care and training; her master. Her natural enemy

To expand the table, in Edit–Visual mode, right-press on a Row of the table or Column (Control-press on a Mac)—choose add Row or Column.

Samantha Shannon website image

Samantha Shannon

Samantha Shannon

Samantha Shannon

Shannon

Samantha Shannon, age 22

Author[]

Samantha Shannon

Bio: Samantha Shannon was born in west London in 1991. She started writing at the age of fifteen. Between 2010 and 2013 she studied English Language and Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford. In 2012 the Women of the Future Awards shortlisted her for The Young Star Award. The Bone Season is her first novel and has been sold in twenty-one countries. ~ Fantastic Fiction

I'm the author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Bone Season, the first in a projected series of seven. I was born in Hammersmith in 1991. From 2010 – 2013 I studied English Language and Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford, specialising in Principles of Film Criticism and the American poet Emily Dickinson. I'm now working on the second book in the Bone Season series. I'm a fan of old music, gramophones, silent film, good coffee, and real books. I have four siblings, four parents, and a male tortoise named Lily-Beth, some of whom live with me in west London. The Bone Season is my first published novel. My blog, A Book from the Beginning, tracks my journey to publication and my experiences as a debut novelist. Comments and discussion are always welcome. ~ A Book from the Beginning: About

Cover Artist[]

Artist: not listed

Awards[]

Publishing Information[]

  • Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
  • Author Page:
  • Bk-1: Hardcover, US, 466 pages, Pub. Aug 20th 2013, ISBN-1620401398
  • Bk2:

Trivia[]

Book Cover Blurbs[]

BOOK ONE—The Bone Season (2013): The year is 2059. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London, based at Seven Dials, employed by a man named Jaxon Hall. Her job: to scout for information by breaking into people’s minds. For Paige is a dreamwalker, a clairvoyant and, in the world of Scion, she commits treason simply by breathing. It is raining the day her life changes for ever. Attacked, kidnapped and drugged, Paige is transported to Oxford – a city kept secret for two hundred years, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. Paige is assigned to Warden, a Rephaite creature with dark honey skin and heavy-lidded yellow eyes. He is her master. Her trainer. Her natural enemy. But if Paige wants to regain her freedom she must allow herself to be nurtured in this prison where she is meant to die. ~ The Bookshelf

Goodreads: It is the year 2059. Several major world cities are under the control of a security force called Scion. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London, part of a secret cell known as the Seven Seals. The work she does is unusual: scouting for information by breaking into others’ minds. Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare kind of clairvoyant, and in this world, the voyants commit treason simply by breathing. But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city—Oxford, erased from the map two centuries ago and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly—as soldiers in their army. Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives. The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine—a young woman learning to harness her powers in a world where everything has been taken from her. It also introduces an extraordinary young writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.  ~ Goodreads | The Bone Season

BOOK TWO—The Mime Order: The Bone Season: Paige Mahoney has escaped the brutal penal colony of Sheol I, but her problems have only just begun: many of the fugitives are still missing and she is the most wanted person in London. As Scion turns its all-seeing eye on Paige, the mime-lords and mime-queens of the city’s gangs are invited to a rare meeting of the Unnatural Assembly. Jaxon Hall and his Seven Seals prepare to take center stage, but there are bitter fault lines running through the clairvoyant community and dark secrets around every corner. Then the Rephaim begin crawling out from the shadows. But where is Warden? Paige must keep moving, from Seven Dials to Grub Street to the secret catacombs of Camden, until the fate of the underworld can be decided. Will Paige know who to trust? The hunt for the dreamwalker is on. ~ The Mime Order (The Bone Season, #2) by Samantha Shannon

BOOK THREE—Untitled (2016):  ~ Goodreads | Untitled (The Bone Season, #3) by Samantha Shannon

First Sentences[]

  1. The Bone Season (2013) —  I like to Imagine there was more of us in the beginning.
  2. The Mime Order (Jan 27, 2015) — It's rare that a story begins at the beginning.
  3. Untitled (2016) — 

Quotes[]

Read Alikes (suggestions)[]

YA & NA:

See Category links at bottom of page

Awards[]

Trivia[]

Notes[]

See Also[]

See Category links at bottom of page

External References[]

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Summaries

Articles:

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