Caffeinated Reviewer

I love the Murderbot series and was excited to try the updated and revised edition of City of Bones by Martha Wells. I loved Khat, Sagai, and Elen and their adventures in the city of Charisat, a tiered monolith of the Ancients’ design, that sits on the edge of the vast desert known as the Waste. From the world-building to the characters, I was enthralled.

Before Martha Wells captured the hearts of MILLIONS with her Murderbot series, there was Khat, Sagai, and Elen, and a city risen out of death and decay…

The city of Charisat, a tiered monolith of the Ancients’ design, sits on the edge of the vast desert known as the Waste. Khat, a member of a humanoid race created by the Ancients to survive in the Waste, and Sagai, his human partner, are relic dealers working in the bottom tiers of society, trying to stay one step ahead of the Trade Inspectors.

When Khat is hired by the all-powerful Warders to find relics believed to be part of one of the Ancients' arcane engines, he, and his party, begin unravelling the mysteries of an age-old technology.

This they expected.

They soon find themselves as the last line of defense between the suffering masses of Charisat and a fanatical cult, bent on unleashing an evil upon the city with an undying thirst for bone.

That, they did not expect.

This updated and revised edition is the author’s preferred text.

This was one of Martha Wells’ earliest books and it has been updated and revised in the author’s preferred text. I did not read the earlier edition, but absolutely loved the characters and world that lie within these pages.

Our story follows Khat, he’s a black market relics dealer and historian. Khat is a Krisman humanoid and his people dwell in the desert. He lives in the city with friends and is working off a debt and hoping to be free. Khat works with his human partner, Sagai and deals mostly with the Warder. When an opportunity to score big occurs, Khat accepts the risky deal and the story that unfolds held me spellbound.

Wells did a stellar job of building the world and fleshing out the characters. It’s a brilliant fantasy with magic, artifacts, and an underlying race to collect artifacts for a purpose that is slowly revealed. It gave the story a quest vibe. The story slowly built until I could not set it down.

The ending was brilliant but left me wanting more stories of these characters and the Waste. I was saddened to see this is a standalone, as I would gladly revisit these characters and world. Fans of unique landscapes, magical worlds, quests and engaging characters need to add this one to your reading list.

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About Martha Wells

Martha Wells has written many fantasy novels, including The Books of the Raksura series (beginning with The Cloud Roads), the Ile-Rien series (including The Death of the Necromancer) as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, media tie-ins (for Star Wars and Stargate: Atlantis), and non-fiction. Her most recent fantasy novel is The Harbors of the Sun in 2017, the final novel in The Books of the Raksura series. She has a new series of SF novellas, The Murderbot Diaries, published by Tor.com in 2017 and 2018. She was also the lead writer for the story team of Magic: the Gathering's Dominaria expansion in 2018. She has won a Nebula Award, an ALA/YALSA Alex Award, a Locus Award, and her work has appeared on the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Award ballots, the USA Today Bestseller List, and the New York Times Bestseller List. Her books have been published in eleven languages.

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About Kimberly

Kimberly is a coffee loving book addict who reads and listens to fictional stories in all genres. Whovian, Ravenclaw, Howler and proud Nonna. She owns and manages Caffeinated PR. The coffee is always on and she is ready to chat. BlueSky | Facebook | Instagram

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