The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon is her debut book and the first in a planned seven book series. The book follows a young clairvoyant woman named Paige through her trials as a prisoner in a supernatural city.
One of the main things I learned from Shannon was how to create a world gradually rather than all at once. For example, instead of explaining all of the different kinds of clairvoyant people at once, the different types are introduced as the main character encounters them. "He was a voyant, a medium." was used to describe a man, which didn't mean much until "Linwood flung his angel down the carriage." Just these few sentences made it clear that he had the ability to use spirits to protect himself. This happened in many other instances in the book, which really helped with understanding the clairvoyant world.
The second thing I learned from this book was the way you can develop setting through dialogue. The slang words Shannon created and mixed with the current British slang really made me, as the reader, feel as if I was in the story. Just one monologue from a character created a distinct voice: ""Perhaps you should clean up your game, little macer. And learn some respect for your Underlord... Whatever graces that mime-lord of yours puts on, all seven of you are nasty cheats and liars. I hear tell you're the downiest on the black market, little Dreamer.""
Finally, I learned that in order to create otherworldly plots you don't have to use a completely new setting and history. In the book, Shannon just reuses real settings and history to create a fantasy world. With history, Shannon creates a backstory for the empire that's created and creates an alternate timeline. "Almost two centuries had passed since Scion arrived. It was established in response to a perceived threat to the empire. The epidemic, they called it--an epidemic of clairvoyance. The official date was 1901, when they pinned five terrible murders on Edward VII. They claimed the Bloody King had...brought the plague of clairvoyance upon the world." Shannon used the theory Jack the Ripper murders were carried out by Edward to create a whole empire and fantasy world rather than starting from scratch with a made up event.
One of the main things I learned from Shannon was how to create a world gradually rather than all at once. For example, instead of explaining all of the different kinds of clairvoyant people at once, the different types are introduced as the main character encounters them. "He was a voyant, a medium." was used to describe a man, which didn't mean much until "Linwood flung his angel down the carriage." Just these few sentences made it clear that he had the ability to use spirits to protect himself. This happened in many other instances in the book, which really helped with understanding the clairvoyant world.
The second thing I learned from this book was the way you can develop setting through dialogue. The slang words Shannon created and mixed with the current British slang really made me, as the reader, feel as if I was in the story. Just one monologue from a character created a distinct voice: ""Perhaps you should clean up your game, little macer. And learn some respect for your Underlord... Whatever graces that mime-lord of yours puts on, all seven of you are nasty cheats and liars. I hear tell you're the downiest on the black market, little Dreamer.""
Finally, I learned that in order to create otherworldly plots you don't have to use a completely new setting and history. In the book, Shannon just reuses real settings and history to create a fantasy world. With history, Shannon creates a backstory for the empire that's created and creates an alternate timeline. "Almost two centuries had passed since Scion arrived. It was established in response to a perceived threat to the empire. The epidemic, they called it--an epidemic of clairvoyance. The official date was 1901, when they pinned five terrible murders on Edward VII. They claimed the Bloody King had...brought the plague of clairvoyance upon the world." Shannon used the theory Jack the Ripper murders were carried out by Edward to create a whole empire and fantasy world rather than starting from scratch with a made up event.