Greg Van Eekhout: California bones (2014)
302 pages
English language
Published Jan. 5, 2014
Years after swallowing a kraken bone fragment and then witnessing the killing of his magician father, Daniel endures a life of thievery until his crime-boss uncle compels him to steal his father's sword and fight a corrupt regime.
Not what I expected
Once I got over the shock of this book not matching the review I thought I read about it, I was able to get into it. The bits about Los Angeles, and especially Tito's Tacos, made it enjoyable for me. It's a very different kind of world-building and magic from your typical urban magic or fantasy.
Like if [a:Scott Lynch|73149|Scott Lynch|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1332432746p2/73149.jpg] wrote Ocean's 11.
But also: you know when someone is like "You know, when you think about it, teeth are really creepy"?
This is that, for the following: paleontology, Disney, california's water system, and in fact, California.
Despite that, it's not a very dark book? Considering all the cannibalism?
I started this book as an audio book a long time ago. Probably last year. I liked it, but because I don't do audio books anymore I never continued. Until now. I remembered the book and decided to finish it with my eyes instead of my ears. That went over pretty quickly. It's an easy, fast read. The story is nice. I particularly liked the idea of bone magic and having to consume stuff in order to get to the magic. The characters are pretty typical. Young, competent people who achieve what they set out to do. No surprises, but still fun.
