48 pages • 1 hour read
The Bone Season
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Background
Genre Context: Blending Fantasy and Dystopian Fiction
The Bone Season occupies a distinct place in the fantasy genre and includes many of the standard conventions: supernatural spirits, practitioners of magic, and otherworldly creatures. In a classic example of the “Chosen One” trope, Shannon’s heroine, Paige, must develop her rare magical ability in order to challenge the formidable Nashira, a textbook fantasy villain in the mold of Maleficent or Marisa Coulter of The Golden Compass trilogy. Paige’s training under the tutelage of Warden is another familiar trope: the apprentice-in-training who is groomed for a heroic destiny.
At an even more basic level, The Bone Season’s theme of rebellion against oppression—good versus evil—embodies the mythic ingredient that drives so many fantasy narratives. However, The Bone Season diverges from these familiar elements in its deliberate blending of several different genres. As the plot develops, it works as both fantasy and post-apocalyptic fiction, incorporating elements of both. Rather than the swordplay, wizards, and swashbuckling knights typical of the fantasy genre, Shannon’s characters drive cars, use phones, and fire guns. Although these narrative elements ostensibly run counter to the fantasy genre’s attempts to take readers outside of the contemporary world, they do fit the post-apocalyptic mold perfectly. Shannon handles this potential contradiction between genre conventions by simply designating a different city to embody each flavor of narrative; Oxford represents a fantasy world, and London stands as a unique blend of both fantastical and post-apocalyptic trappings.
In the year 2056, Shannon’s London has seen the rise of an authoritarian government to rid its streets of voyants who are vilified as dangerous criminals, and ironically, this very trend has forced such voyants to seek the protection of criminal “mime-lords” in order to evade imprisonment. Thus, Scion London is populated with criminal gangs and corrupt security forces who share the streets with voyants—a blending of the stark futurism of post-apocalyptic fiction and the magic of fantasy. Once the narrative moves its protagonist to Oxford, however, the surreal and the strange take over. Shannon introduces the Rephaim, the Emim, and portals between worlds, elements that firmly ground the story in the fantastical. Only when characters return to London do the genres overlap once again. Shannon thus employs a variety of narrative devices here—the street urchin with a special destiny, the oppression of a marginalized group, and rebellion against an evil Overlord—but by blending elements of fantasy and apocalyptic fiction, she creates a unique narrative that has appeal across genres.
Historical Context: References to British History
Shannon frames her narrative loosely around several historical periods which can provide important context when reading the novel. Despite its future timeline, a close look at 19th-century London sheds light on the specific vernacular used by voyants of the Syndicate. Her creation of the “cant” (thieves’ slang) is an amalgam of several different historical origins. The purpose of this cant is to create a secret means of communication accessible only by members of the club. Like the voyants of the Syndicate who must conduct their business under the radar of Scion security, the thieves’ uniquely coded language allows them to pass freely among their own kind without fear of reprisal. Shannon’s use of this vernacular adds a tone of historical realism to an otherwise fantastical tale and roots it in something familiar.
The other more explicit example of historical context is Shannon’s not-so-subtle allusion to Northern Ireland’s “Troubles,” a period of roughly 30 years (from the late 1960s to the late 1990s) during which Ireland’s Roman Catholic population sought independence from British rule. The references are clear in Shannon’s depiction of Paige’s backstory (she’s Irish but is forced to flee her homeland) and in her feelings of inferiority to the dominant culture of Scion London. One of the characters, Antoinette Carter, is depicted as an “Irish fugitive,” a leader of a dissident faction. Because Carter seeks to overthrow the tyranny of the Scion government, she is labeled a criminal, much the same as Irish dissidents seeking to evict British troops from Northern Ireland were painted as “terrorists.” Thus, Shannon uses real-world historical precedents to draw clear battle lines: on one side are Paige and Carter (both Irish) alongside members of the Syndicate; on the other are the Rephaim and Scion (the officially recognized government of London). As these elements begin to interact in earnest, the connection between Shannon’s fictional world of ethnic oppression and the reality of Ireland’s recent past becomes ever more apparent.
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