Series review: The Bone season and The Mime order

The Bone season
Author: Samantha Shannon
Published: August 2013
Rating: 4/5

Goodreads synopsis - The Bone season

The year is 2059. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London, based at Seven Dials, employed by a man named Jaxon Hall. Her job: to scout for information by breaking into people's minds. For Paige is a dreamwalker, a clairvoyant and, in the world of Scion, she commits treason simply by breathing.

It is raining the day her life changes for ever. Attacked, drugged and kidnapped, Paige is transported to Oxford – a city kept secret for two hundred years, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. Paige is assigned to Warden, a Rephaite with mysterious motives. He is her master. Her trainer. Her natural enemy. But if Paige wants to regain her freedom she must allow herself to be nurtured in this prison where she is meant to die.

Goodreads synopsis - The Mime order

Paige Mahoney has escaped the brutal prison camp of Sheol I, but her problems have only just begun: many of the survivors are missing and she is the most wanted person in London...

As Scion turns its all-seeing eye on the dreamwalker, the mime-lords and mime-queens of the city's gangs are invited to a rare meeting of the Unnatural Assembly. Jaxon Hall and his Seven Seals prepare to take centre stage, but there are bitter fault lines running through the clairvoyant community and dark secrets around every corner. Then the Rephaim begin crawling out from the shadows. But where is Warden? Paige must keep moving, from Seven Dials to Grub Street to the secret catacombs of Camden, until the fate of the underworld can be decided.

After reading The Bone season I waited, very impatiently, for the paperback edition of The Mime order, the second in what will ultimately become a 7 book series, to be released; that's how much I love these books - Samantha Shannon is, quite simply, a genius.

Beginning in the year 2059 and set in fantastical London and Oxford, this series follows Paige Mahoney as her and her fellow clairvoyants try to live and survive, albeit using somewhat rather illegal means, in a world where there are being increasingly and ever more aggressively shunned to the very outskirts of society. Sometimes, they are even removed from it entirely, without a trace. But this novel is so much more than just a fight for survival, although that does definitely play a fairly significant part of the story. This is a completely immersing, colourful, roller-coaster of a tale full on intrigue, secrets, hidden worlds and magical (for want of a better word) people. As you might be able to tell I'm not a good enough word smith to be able to effectively put across my love for these books and the reasons for it.

The Mime order
Author: Samantha Shannon
Published: January 2015
Rating: 5/5

The world itself proves that Samantha Shannon has an incredible imagination, and it is truly amazing but the characters are where I think she really shines, they are complex and obviously very well thought out and thus, every single one of them is relatable and believable each in unique and different ways. Each of the characters has very human flaws and fears.Even the protagonist. She is undoubtedly strong but, unlike so many books I've read where the female lead has to be strong and has decided (or needs) to save everyone  from whichever situation they may be in, Paige Mahoney was all of these but she was also scared, unsure and flawed. She made bad life decisions; she was sometimes insensitive and I loved it. She was so real and raw you couldn't help but love her and empathise and sympathise with both her mistakes and successes. That being said I was also, understandably, sometimes annoyed with her at the same time and for the same reasons. Just as much as I loved Paige's character and development there were some other characters that I really disliked and wanted to strangle - Jax, I'm looking at you. However much I did want to slap some compassion into select characters I still loved them, granted not for their personalities but for their depth. Very rarely have I come across such fantastic and realistic growth and, even more rarely have I come across a book with such a diverse range of characters, I don't want to give it away but seriously, there were so many different types of characters -- different ethnicity, religion, sexuality, language -- but what I found really interesting and really refreshing was that it wasn't obvious. I adored this because, not only was it sometimes a really interesting surprise, but it also highlighted something that should be remembered everyday, no matter peoples religion, ethnicity, sexuality or language they are still just people going about their lives. It was so nice that these differences were not unnecessarily pointed out for the sake of it. In no way was Samantha Shannon was using the characters as a way of shouting, 'Hey, guys I've written a book with diverse characters!' All the developments were needed and added yet another beautiful layer to the story, and another reason to the long list of reasons why I love this series.

The story also flowed incredibly well throughout each book and bridged that sometimes treacherous terrain between books effortlessly. Never did I feel that there was repeated information or that horribly patronising tone that I've found to be the starting gambit for so many sequels in the past. There obviously had to be some re-capping and it was welcomed. This series is so jam packed that despite my best efforts minor details are forgotten, but it was so clever and was used as a way of introducing new information that meant that the story simply continued; just as rich and wonderful as before,

As I mentioned, I really struggle to properly cohere why I love books that I love and this review is no different (although I have tried really hard), please, if you feel, as I do, that this review has been a bit rambly, do not let it put you off from reading these books. You'd definitely be missing out. I know I've used the phrase 'never have I ever', or some variation of it, a lot during this post but its perfectly true. Never have I ever come across a series that combines, so perfectly, so many wonderful elements -- role on book 3 and quickly!