Jack Tripper's Reviews > The Throne of Bones

(Updated 12/29/24)
If corpse-eating ghouls lurking within vast necropolises are your thing, then this volume of interconnected ghastly tales from the late great Brian McNaughton should more than satiate you, especially if you don’t mind being revolted every so often. You’ll need a shower after a few of these. Possibly a memory wipe too.

While nearly every story here is stellar (the rest are merely great), I just wanted to say a little something about my favorite entry here, the novelette-length “The Return of Liron Wolfbaiter”, which caps off the collection, and which I revisit every couple years. It’s simultaneously one of the best horror/weird fiction tales I’ve ever read, and one of the best sword & sorcery tales, up there with Karl Edward Wagner’s “The Dark Muse” when it comes to combining and mastering both genres.

What starts out as a seemingly simple narrative of a young woman accidentally being entombed in a crypt while still alive, morphs into an ultra-creepy, reality-bending story that finds the realm of nightmares slowly encroaching on the world of the eventual protagonist Crondard, a barbarian-type on the run and hiding out in a strange, labyrinthine inn after having killed a guard captain. Reality seems to be breaking down around him, and being replaced by something horrific. Who or what is dreaming this? Who’s dreaming him?

Mindblowing. The entire collection is well worth the read, but I find it’s best in small doses, as it can be, at times, almost oppressively dark and depraved. But it’s so well-written, with such evocative imagery and delightfully fiendish characters (as well as a healthy dose of black humor) that I can’t help but be captivated. And the many grotesque b&w illustrations by Jamie Oberschlake spread throughout are a welcome bonus.

Absolutely essential for Clark Ashton Smith aficionados, as the imagination on display is similarly awe-inspiring, if not quite as florid prose-wise. But you best be prepared to get down with the sickness.