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241st out of 250 books
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124 voters
Bone Shop (Marla Mason .1)
by
Tim Pratt
A prequel novel about sorcerer Marla Mason, heroine of a series of novels by T.A. Pratt published by Bantam Spectra from 2007-2009, including Blood Engines, Poison Sleep, Dead Reign, and Spell Games. Bone Shop explores Marla's early days in the city of Felport and her rise to power. Originally serialized online from June-October 2009, available as an e-book for the first t...more
Kindle Edition, 244 pages
Published
November 15th 2009
by Tropism Press
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Jan 11, 2013
Belen Schneider
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Fantasy Fic fans who like strong female characters
Recommended to Belen by:
Thad Engeling
It's always a tough choice...do you start a series with the first book the author wrote, or with the earliest prequel?
Katherine Kurtz's Deryni series taught me that choosing the prequel-first route gives you an added bonus: the author has their groove, the characters have their groove, and the depth you can get from their "backstory" can jumpstart your love for the series as a whole.
I suspect that Bone Shop is going to fit squarely in that category. I already have a pretty serious crush on Marl...more
Katherine Kurtz's Deryni series taught me that choosing the prequel-first route gives you an added bonus: the author has their groove, the characters have their groove, and the depth you can get from their "backstory" can jumpstart your love for the series as a whole.
I suspect that Bone Shop is going to fit squarely in that category. I already have a pretty serious crush on Marl...more
Bone Shop is a rather short novel (novella) that explains the origins of the character Marla Mason, and her rise from street rat to the head sorcerer-protector of the city Felport. It is told in short, bald sentences and stripped down conversations. Pratt's characters are demonstrated rather than described, and if you can't keep up, you are forced to go back and read that sequence again.
My opinion of Marla in Blood Engines is that she is a mostly-cold-hearted almost sociopath. This book explain...more
My opinion of Marla in Blood Engines is that she is a mostly-cold-hearted almost sociopath. This book explain...more
Bone Shop is an origin story for Marla mason, and so shares both the wonder and problems of all origin stories when you already know part of how things end up. Just like the latest remaginings of Batman or Spiderman can't completely ignore what's come before, Pratt can't ignore where his character must end up, and this is the only real flaw in the work. The last quarter (or less) seems a little rushed, almost as if Pratt realized that his character wasn't headed where she was supposed to go.
But...more
But...more
To anyone will listen, I've been gushing about these books. I haven't enjoyed an urban fantasy series this much since Dresden Files, and I've gotten extraordinarily picky too because there's so much that's rehashed in a lot of series these days. I really think that this series is incredibly creative and original.
I read this immediately after finishing Spell Games. I actually would recommend this order. The first four books reveal a lot of Marla's backstory in small snippets, and I feel like I mi...more
I read this immediately after finishing Spell Games. I actually would recommend this order. The first four books reveal a lot of Marla's backstory in small snippets, and I feel like I mi...more
Oct 01, 2012
Yolanda Sfetsos
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
urban-fantasy
After reading Blood Engines last week, I was looking forward to getting stuck into more Marla Mason stories. I've already ordered the paperbacks of the next three books, but found this prequel for free at the author's website and got hooked right away.
This is an excellent origin story.
It starts when Marla is sixteen and has recently arrived in the city of Felport after escaping a rough childhood. In this city she meets Jenny and they become friends, which soon leads her to the seemingly pervy A...more
This is an excellent origin story.
It starts when Marla is sixteen and has recently arrived in the city of Felport after escaping a rough childhood. In this city she meets Jenny and they become friends, which soon leads her to the seemingly pervy A...more
This book, like Broken Mirrors, needs some editing. More than Broken Mirrors does, actually. I don't know Pratt's work enough to tell which was published first. Does he get better at self-editing, or did he get worse as time/distance from an editor grew?
The ending was very, very, VERY rushed. Pratt pushed through in two chapters what could have taken 5 or more. These are MAJOR events in Marla's history (bet you can guess which ones, if you've been paying attention and have read all five Marla Ma...more
The ending was very, very, VERY rushed. Pratt pushed through in two chapters what could have taken 5 or more. These are MAJOR events in Marla's history (bet you can guess which ones, if you've been paying attention and have read all five Marla Ma...more
A fun prequel to the Marla Mason series, I am all for supporting Mr. Pratt during his financial crisis. Sad that such an engaging urban fantasy writer, who actually writes a female character who doesn't feel it's necessary to sleep with every supernatural entity she encounters, was dropped by his publisher.
Having heard that he was writing serial novels in the Mason universe to raise money, I certainly wanted to support him. While not the best novel in the series, it does offer some interesting i...more
Having heard that he was writing serial novels in the Mason universe to raise money, I certainly wanted to support him. While not the best novel in the series, it does offer some interesting i...more
This book was better than "Blood Engines" in terms of quality and writing style but I still hated it. There was no real plot. It was a book of three pieces of different plots strung haphazardly together.
Daniel's relationship with Marla was disappointing to me. They hate each other and the book continues, then suddenly they're screwing and we dont know how it came to that. If he had built a few more hints leading up to that and described their relationship as more than sex, and random affections,...more
Daniel's relationship with Marla was disappointing to me. They hate each other and the book continues, then suddenly they're screwing and we dont know how it came to that. If he had built a few more hints leading up to that and described their relationship as more than sex, and random affections,...more
I really liked a lot of things about this book. I liked that I could read a short intro into the characters and background of this series before committing to buying the first book. I liked the authors comments added at the end of each chapter. I liked that this was an adult book. Ive read so many young adult books lately that I wanted something a little darker. And darker I got! This was not something warm a fuzzy. Although I liked it, Im not sure if Im ready to dive into the series. I think af...more
Bone shop is about Marla's youth and how she came to be what she is. The book itself was entertaining and I liked what I read. I easily saw how she grew to be what she is on the other books.
Pity it missed something to get all five stars.
Pity it missed something to get all five stars.
This is a 4 - 4.5 star novella. Didn't like the beginning when Marla becomes a topless server at a strip club. I have a problem with this since she is only sixteen at the time.
Read for free here: http://www.marlamason.net/boneshop/
3.5/5 - I quite liked the world setup, and it's interesting enough to make me put the rest of the series on my to-read list.
3.5/5 - I quite liked the world setup, and it's interesting enough to make me put the rest of the series on my to-read list.
This prequel was really good! Yay, young Marla! It was fun hearing about her early adventures as a young sorcerer. It puts some twists on the earlier stories too, but not as big of a deal as some people have made of it. Short and sweet. :D
Pretty grim stuff for a modern fantasy escapist fluff whatever thing! Sadly, the publisher abandoned the series after this one. ::shrug:: I would have kept buying more.
A good read as is the rest of the series, and of special interest as it finally tells us how Marla got into her line of "business".
A good start.
I loved learning about the life of Marla before the events of the other books. It was actually very insightful, and the thoughts by the author at the end gave a lot of insight into the mind of a writer.
Structurally, this book is a bit of a mess, but--wow. It certainly explains a lot about Marla. I'm glad I read the first three books in the series (non-prequel) because the reveal is really nice. No wonder the woman is such a monster, sometimes. If you enjoyed the other Marla Mason books, I definitely recommend this one--it's especially interesting in the context of Dead Reign. (And it's availabe online for free!)
An introduction to the origins of many elements of Marla Mason's entourage and her universe. This will be of interest only to those already familiar with the Marla Mason novels, or at least dedicated to continuing on with the series. I doubt this was intended as a stand-alone read, anyway.
Picked up this for my Kindle. Love the Marla Mason series and wanted to read more. Though this was originally serialised it's now been put into one document, with the comments included.
It was enjoyed very much, kick ass Marla's beginning roots.
It was enjoyed very much, kick ass Marla's beginning roots.
May 14, 2013
Legato Darksummers
added it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
daddy-dark-s-baby-warrior-list
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