I've been looking at the cover of this book for probably 30 years or more at bookstores across the country. I think the size of the book kept me from buying it all those years. But this year I promised myself that I would take on some bigger books, on audio and these are all available on Libby so I went for it. Clocking in at just over 33 hours, this was the longest book on my audio wishlist. Unfortunately, I feel like it could have been 20 hours and been much better. The first 8 hours or so are just a kid running around the castle and a bunch of info-dumps. Then, finally, the adventure starts. So this definitely loses points for taking the length of a short novel just to get moving. Next it loses points for just taking Norse mythology and Catholicism and just tweaking them a little bit (changing names slightly) and calling it a fantasy world. This is the worst option in my opinion, with the best option being make up your own stuff, the next best being use existing myth. Just calling Odin, Udon and acting like it's something you made up is just dumb. Once the adventure started it was really fun. Lots of characters, cool bad guys, mysterious fae, Binibik is definitely my favorite character. Simon is okay, though I can't stand "reluctant heroes" and he dips into that sometimes. I'm expecting the 2nd book to be much better because it won't have 8 hours of world building at the beginning.
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
Book #4 for 2026
3 out of 5 Stars
Review in pic and alt-text.
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