I have long been a fan of Samantha Shannon’s Bone Season series (and not because she has a fabulous last name 😀 ). I loved the first book so much that I recently wanted to start the series over again. Then, Ms. Shannon announced that her prequel novella, The Pale Dreamer, was available for free as an ebook, and it gave me the perfect excuse to immerse myself in the series once again.
The Pale Dreamer occurs two years before The Bone Season, and it gives readers the chance to learn a little more about Syndicate life within Scion. We also learn in detail how Paige Mahoney comes to be in Jaxon Hall’s employ and how she comes by her clairvoyance power.
At just over two hours in audiobook form and 100 pages in print, The Pale Dreamer will give you a good taste for Ms. Shannon’s writing style to help you decide if you want to learn more about Paige and the Seven Seals. For me, the audiobook reminded me how much I love Alana Kerr Collins’ voice. Her Irish brogue is strong enough to make her words sound like music but not so strong that she is unintelligible. Plus, it has the barest hint of someone who has lived in London for most of her life, just as Paige has. It is a beautiful voice, and I cannot wait to listen to more of it as I continue with the rest of the series.
I’m really sad that I came to The Bone Season at the wrong time. I loved the writing and I was hooked from the beginning, but ended up giving up about halfway through because the book was too similar to other books I’d been reading and I was tired of the same settings, themes, etc. There was another series that fell to the same problem in the same time period – I can’t remember what it was called but people loved it – and I feel like these just came at the wrong time for me. Perhaps one day I’ll go back and retry!
Please do! It is such a great series, and I love how she takes her time setting up her characters and the plot. Of course, when it is a seven-part series, you can do that.