Empire of Bones

by Liz Williams

From Liz Williams comes a bold and provocative novel of the future in which the vast Indian subcontinent, home to thousands of gods, is visited by all-powerful alien beings from a distant world of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553583778
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Spectra
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 0.7" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

Empire of Bones

Liz Williams is a writer who deserves much more attention than she seems to be getting. As other writers fill the shelves with humongous, Tolstoyan epics that lumber on into multiple volumes, Williams has waged a guerilla war on mediocre fiction, wielding her pen in precise strokes that shape single novels of imaginative storytelling. Put simply, Liz Williams writes excellent novels, and brings a welcomed measure of creative craft to the genre. Empire of Bones is Williams' second novel, and deals with alien intervention in human affairs. This is a simple plot, and one that has been used by countless other writers. Where Williams really shines is in her ability to craft a compelling story that immerses the reader in an unfamiliar world, centers on interesting, likeable characters, and takes both hero and reader on a strange adventure of discovery. This last aspect makes her books readable in the can't-put-down vein, as each revelation brings the story that much closer to a satisfying conclusion. This is a remarkable talent to find in a second novel. Even more remarkable is the fact that Williams has written five novels in as many years, and not one of these is a sequel. Each novel is an entirely self-contained story, and based in a world unrelated to the others. Compared to the sprawling, multi-volume series that require thousands of pages for a complete story, Williams' concise storytelling is indeed a welcomed alternative. Williams is also a bold author. Her ideas can be massive, with the far-reaching ramifications that one looks for in a space-opera epic such as Dan Simmons' Hyperion; or they can be wicked, involving bad-ass weaponry and gadgets that Iain Banks is famous for in his Culture novels. Nor does Williams dole these out a few at a time to keep the story going. Each novel is full of these imaginative ideas, and they all combine to create a fascinating world that inspires the wonder and speculation that genre readers continually crave. The breadth of Williams' imagination is truly awesome . . . Read the rest of this review at GENREBUSTERS.COM

Empire of Red Tape

Liz Williams' fine "Empire of Bones" would probably be filed under "political science sf," and indeed it begins as if it's going to be a typical example of the naive and sentimental "downtrodden proletarian human meets the benevolent alien genre." Thankfully it quickly turns into something quite different. Set about 50 years from now it tells the story of Jaya Nihalani, an Untouchable and a freedom fighter (she's modeled after India's 20th-century "bandit queen" Poulhan Devi) who is wasting away from a mysterious disease in an Indian hospital. When she overhears her doctor talking to her arch-enemy, the army officer who put down her rebellion (he would have been perfectly happy under the Raj, and maybe Williams patterned him after the infamous British General Dyer), Jaya escapes from the hospital and quickly gets transported to the alien nano-techie "depth ship." Yep, the aliens have colonized us and now they've come to see if we're ready for prime time, and only Jaya . . . etc. etc.But quickly events take an unexpected turn, the POVs (and the settings) become multiple (Williams' depiction of the culture of the aliens, at least as hierarchical as Jaya's own, is especially fascinating), and the story becomes bitter and cynical (readers of Williams' previous novel, "The Ghost Sister," will hardly be surprised at this turn). The two main alien characters turn out to be neither moral nor immoral (they're neither the all wise and beneveloent Spielberg creations nor the "bug eyed monsters" of early-20th-century lore), but merely bureaucratic schemers, more concerned with their personal advancement and with "office politics" than with the fate of the humans who they've created in the first place. There are some great set-pieces: at one point a movie star (she's from Bollywood, not Hollywood--the Americans are always off stage here), who is to appear in a biopic of Jaya's life, arrives at Jaya's hangout on a cloned mammoth with her own private army (complete with a helicopter): she is led to think it's up to her to save the world (not hardly). Like the book itself, it's a great conception.It's bitter, sardonic, and a fast read. Political it may be, but it owes far more to Jonathan Swift than to Ursula LeGuin. You'll remember it a while.

Even Better than Ghost Sister

Liz Williams is simply one of the best science fiction writers on the contemporary scene. Like her excellent previous novel, The Ghost Sister, Empire of Bones emerges from a fascinating premise that is meticulously developed in a gripping story populated with rich characters, both alien and human. And she writes beautiful, direct prose that is evocative without being ostentatious. Few science fiction authors can pull all of this off, but Williams is batting 1000 so far. I am already eagerly awaiting her next book.

The Post-colonial Prometheus...

Empire of Bones is an extrapolation of my favourite Liz Williams short story, The Unthinkables. This short story, published in Interzone a couple of years ago, told the tale of an alien race that had a strict caste hierarchy, with the Unthinkables on the lowest rung. This had obvious overtones of the Untouchable caste in India, and in Empire of Bones, Liz Williams has made this comparison explicit, since her novel involves both the Unthinkables (or 'The Naturals') and the Untouchables. Elements of the earlier story resound. The Khaithoi caste is insectile, while Sirru's caste is birdlike. Readers of The Unthinkables will immediately identify with the likeable Sirru, and like him, will distrust the aloof and mysterious Khaithoi. The Khaithoi are far more educated than the Desqusai (Sirru's people), and exclude the lower caste by employing their higher concepts in a secret and exclusive language in Sirru's presence. Jaya Nihalani, on the other hand, exploits her membership of the Untouchable caste to feign ignorance of English whilst she is poked and prodded at in a UN hospital. She may be the object under examination by the English doctors, but she still strives towards subjectivity and empowerment by eavesdropping on their discussion of her. Despite the fact that this novel is published in America, and will presumably have a largely American audience, this is primarily a British post-colonial Science Fiction novel. This distinction is important: the aliens here have no interest in sullying the White House Lawn by landing there, as they might conceivably do in the archetypal American imperial popular science fiction narrative. My view is that the Americans are now producing popular science fictions that are the equivalent of those the British produced a hundred years ago, at a similar juncture: the imminent fear of the fall of empire. As is to be expected in a novel written by a woman, there is no misogyny directed at women. Indeed, the world's oldest profession is presented in a sympathetic light and has a valuable role to play. Having said that, although Anarres the courtesan is not threatened with death as punishment due to the open broadcasting of her allure, she and Ir Yth are employed very much as tools. Sirru and Ir Yth are the stereotypical 'dysfunctional' parents - it's no wonder that their young 'uns have gone so wrong (although these are not Ir Yth's progeny - she's more of the wicked step mum). Like many of the wives in the novel except Jaya, Ir Yth is unfaithful, and thus Sirru, like all the husbands, are cuckolded - although this must be even more humiliating if you do actually look like a cockerel. Unlike the American popular science fiction narrative, Sirru the alien is not presented as a threat. True enough, Jaya misunderstands his intentions, and like a vampire, Sirru can transform his body to hide from the gaze of humans so he can infiltrate his neighbours and surroundings with ease; but we know that he is

fast-paced science fiction thriller

In 2030 India, Hindu Fundamentalists take control of the government and reinstate the caste system. Riots erupt as the Untouchables try to reverse the political and social systems, but their caste and only their caste, are struck down by a deadly plague. This disease gives credence to the belief that the Untouchables are beneath the notice of the other, higher castes. Jaya Nihalani, an Untouchable, has fought against the government for much of her life and is regarded as a terrorist. When a mutated form of the plague strikes she is turned into a Receiver, able to communicate with a ship manned by those who seeded our planet millennium ago. Now Earth has evolved enough to be absorbed into the Rasatran Empire and Jaya must make sure that the assimilation goes well or Earth will be destroyed. EMPIRE OF BONES is a fast-paced science fiction thriller that shows what could happen when First Contact occurs. The homeworld of Rasatra's politics, culture and social structure is crafted in such intricate detail it feels as if Liz Williams is a native social anthropologist. Yet the talented writer never slows down the action while providing characters, both human and alien, that are believable and understandable inside the strong plot. All this makes for a great novel and easy conversion into an excellent movie.Harriet Klausner