This is a review of the entire Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series, not just of this first book, the Dragonbone Chair.
I've read the series several times now, and always love it. It's rather slow in places and can get frustrating but I forgive it because of the rich world building and the time spent developing the interior worlds of all the main characters.
Simon, the kitchen boy who has grown up in a bustling castle, is thrown out of his comfortable existence when he gets embroiled in the struggle for the throne between Elias, the existing king, and Josua, Elias's younger brother.
This story is a sort of love letter to the Lord of the Rings, undeniably Tolkienesque, a secondary fantasy world set in a pre-industrial age. There are several non-human races, but they don't map exactly on Tolkien's framework. The most obvious parallel, Williams's immortal Sithi are clearly inspired by Tolkien's Elves, but the Sithi are fresh and different as well.
The story plays cleverly with popular fantasy tropes like "the chosen one" and "the evil object" without ever seeming to undercut the genre. The story is fundamentally hopeful and not cynical, which is something I appreciate.
There are several quite frightening villains, but you never quite know what they are trying to achieve. Unlike in the LOTR, where the heroes know quite early on exactly how to overthrown the enemy, the heroes and heroines of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn spend most of the story desperately trying to figure out how to fight their enemy.
I appreciated the thoughtful exploration of religion and faith, which I haven't seen in much of the fantasy I've read. Williams gets his characters to ask some quite difficult questions about faith in the face of suffering and unfairness. This is particularly powerful in the story of Maegwin, a princess who tries her best to reconcile her faith in her gods with her responsibilities as a leader of her people.
Another topic that comes up again and again is that of despair. When the odds are so obviously stacked against you, isn't it more rational to give up, than to keep struggling on? This thread weaves its way throughout the story. Many of the characters struggle with despair. Cadrach, the self-hating monk and scholar, Camaris the consummate warrior wracked with guilt, Josua, the Prince whose self-doubt undercuts his leadership, and many others. In fact, the struggle against the lure of despair and hopelessness is absolutely central to the story, to the point where the whole thing can be read as a exploration of depression and anxiety.
I particularly love the way that the story subtly undercuts tropes about masculinity and heroism. In this way, I feel, it is closest to the spirit of the Lord of the Rings. In the end, Simon and his friends find that the lure to be the glorious, conquering hero is exactly the force that draws them to the dark side, and that its humility, love, compassion, and forgiveness that help them to win through.