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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780553590951
ISBN number: 0553590952
Label: Bantam
Manufacturer: Bantam
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 464
Printing Date: December 30, 2008
Publishing house: Bantam
Release Date: December 30, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 2224335
Studio: Bantam
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Hailed as “the very first important new SF writer of the 21st century,” John Meaney delivers a darkly luminous new thriller that blends futuristic noir with gothic fantasy. Here, in a city of the dead where desire is very much alive and murder a pleasure for connoisseurs, an honest cop must face his own darkest impulses just to have a prayer.
There have been four victims already. Famed for their beauty and one-of-a-kind artistic gifts, they were murdered in the most shocking ways imaginable and their corpses stolen. Now the famed diva Maria daLivnova is arriving in Tristopolis—a city literally powered by the massive necroflux generators that process the dead—and it is up to Lieutenant Donal Riordan to make sure she ends her limited engagement alive.
But Riordan isn’t the only one watching deLivnova. For the Diva is being followed by two other secret “protectors”: Commander Laura Steele—who’s made a more or less successful transition to para-life—and her partner, the invisible free-wraith Xalia. They are part of the necropolis’s vast underground network and they’ve mobilized against an unseen enemy for a battle of epic proportions. For a perverse death cult with powerful members in every stratum of society has learned how to distill from the bones of their sacrificed victims the ultimate thrill—a nectar that, once tasted, is impossible to resist. And the more precious the life, the greater the pleasure it is to take it away.
Soon Riordan will find himself in the unlikeliest of alliances as he journeys through a world of corruption—both aboveground and below—among gargoyles and zombies, spirit slaves and assassins, science and sorcery, in search of an enemy even the dead have every reason to fear….
From the Hardcover edition.
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Rated by buyers 
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Tristopolis is a dark city filled with secrets. Lt. Donal Riordan is a cop who seeks truth and justice no matter where it takes him. Assigned to protect a diva visiting the city, Riordan finds himself moved by her song and before he knows what's happened he's struggling to come back to himself -- changed more than he can comprehend; thirsting to make sense of what happened and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
It sounds like a normal mystery where the honest cop finds himself in a bad situation and, fearing his superiors are crooked, must work alone to clean house. However, Meaney has created a truly alien world. From page one, the reader is thrown into this universe where death and life seem to be concepts that have no sharp border between them. The dead power the city, bones make up the matrix of the archives, forensics is a science of reading bones for their messages, and nothing is as it seems.
It's not often that you open a book expecting a good science fiction mystery crossover and find yourself blown away by a world that's so multidimensional and textured that you have to keep looking up from the pages to make sure the sky is blue and the lights are on. The setting was so foreign, alien really, that it's hard to believe just how real it seemed. It seems that greed, power, lust, and cruelty are concepts that bridge the gap between our world and others -- to make the story come alive.
There's many books that tell a compelling story with realistic characters and a satisfactory end. There's many books that we say we couldn't put down. This book is one of those but it's also a story that doesn't let you walk quietly away when you close the book on the last page, because it's going to linger in your thoughts and your dreams -- the ideas, the relationships, and the people are memorable because of who they are and what they are willing to do to make the world a better place.
Rated by buyers -
Tristopolis is a city powered by the bones of the dead, churned in the generators of its grey iron and granite Downtown Core Complex. Other things, lifts, autos, trolleys, are activated by wraiths. In this dark city, Lt. Donal Riordan is a police detective, assigned to protect a visiting opera Diva from an international conspiracy that seems to be killing great artists for the sensations their bones can give to those that touch them.
Riordan, a simple human, is singularly dedicated, running to keep fit, visiting the firing range regularly, with no outside life to speak of other than a poorly furnished flat in a bad neighborhood. Despite his skills, he is little match for the powerful and wealthy and sorcerous who can afford to obtain these precious bones. His life is changed when he is bespelled and left hearing the bones singing in his head.
But a special department recruits him to pursue those responsible for the deaths and his own predicament. And he finds new life in the strange and assorted new colleagues and acquaintances, and particularly in his boss, the gorgeous, wealthy, deadly and para-dead zombie, Laura Steele. Fortunately, Riordan, unlike many humans, has never viewed wraiths or zombies as sub-human...
The primary focus is on the action and the conspiracy, but there are naturally dips into relationships and various characters. The world-building is mysterious, but substantial, there in the background. It's a dark world. Even though other countries seem to get their power by other methods than the dead, they seem to be equally dark and troubling ways, and one can't help but reflect on what price humans will pay for the power and energy to run their societies. But the tale is not at all preachy or pointed, and the reader can easily enjoy the action and suspense and characters and the bizarre world-building of this dark and haunted place.
There will be a sequel to this tale, so this may be the start of an intriguing series that is within the paranormal mystery/dark urban fantasy genre that many enjoy these days, but is certainly a bit more unique as well, for those looking for something slightly different and new.
Rated by buyers -
The strenghts of this book for me are the many new types of characters, the relationship between different "countries" and the likeable protaganist.
The weaknesses are similar to what I experienced reading some of Isaac Asimov's novels. The personal relationship stuff seems forced or weak. Not realisitic.
But the story and setting is strong enough to overcome that and I look forward to more in this world.
Rated by buyers 
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I finished this last night and have to add my bit to plug the book. He is planning a sequel. The imagery is amazing and I have to agree that the world is richer than the plot but that isn't a bad thing at all. Too complex a story line would almost get in the way of the images building in your mind. I do hope that the future plots are more involving with less glossing over motivations and that the author addresses the more disturbing elements of his world. The only books I have read that come close to this dark and very different world are the Inspector Chen novels of Liz Williams set in an alternate Singapore and the Chinese Hell. I recommend those too.
Rated by buyers -
Bone Song is interesting and different, it's also intriguing and chilling. The world is built with such a dark and dramatic flavor that it sucks you in and does not let you go...easily. If a book had a visual flavor I would compare it to Brazil, Gattica, and several other industrial/goth movies. The concept of bones as a power source is interesting, it also raises several moral issues that the author does not address directly. The moral issues are outside the story line, but you think about them as the characters think about them. The core story is about protecting a talented Opera Diva and the people behind the murders of several other artists. The chase is as interesting as the reason behind the murders. I also enjoyed several of the sub characters, you can see the author going further with this world and the sub characters. I can also see the author leaving the novel as a single volume, leaving the audience wanting more...
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