City of Bones is a slowly accelerating adventure story with a hefty chunk of archaeological puzzle, a big dash of political intrigue, a few bits of theft and murder, and some complicated personal feelings to taste. Khat, a second (or maybe third) class member of Charisat society, is an expert in identifying and acquiring relics of the civilization that collapsed in brutal flaming catastrophe hundreds of years ago. When he accepts a job to help several members of Charisat’s upper crust reach an ancient ruin near the city—a task which should be child’s play—he winds up deep in a convoluted plot that will upend the world as he knows it.

Reading City of Bones after having so much fun with Murderbot feels a little like finding pictures of your middle-aged friend from their early twenties. You’ve only ever known them as a well-seasoned adult—they know what they’re doing, they’re comfortable, they’re pretty settled. This glimpse of their younger self is totally recognizable. You’re sure that it’s them, they just haven’t caught up to their future yet.

Fair warning: I’m going to mention Murderbot and The Murderbot Diaries a lot. They were my introduction to Martha Wells, and I love them. They feel like a fitting point of comparison for City of Bones. If you haven’t already read Martha Wells, or haven’t read The Murderbot Diaries, you have several treats waiting for you. 

Reading City of Bones after having so much fun with Murderbot feels a little like finding pictures of your middle-aged friend from their early twenties. You’ve only ever known them as a well-seasoned adult—they know what they’re doing, they’re comfortable, they’re pretty settled. This glimpse of their younger self is totally recognizable. You’re sure that it’s them, they just haven’t caught up to their future yet.

All of which is to say: City of Bones is a good book, especially if you already know that you like Martha Wells.

Wells writes prickly but sympathetic main characters with aplomb, and has honed the art of making insufferable side characters that I love to hate. She crafts detailed worlds and characters with depth without drowning her readers in exposition. She is judicious with her use of downtime in stories, especially in her novellas, as she propels plot with high tempo action and tense interludes. While City of Bones is longer and moves a little slower than her Murderbot novellas, the same underlying instincts are still present and the pacing feels comparable to her Murderbot novels; not too fast, not too slow, with enough time to breathe and anticipate before the next headlong rush or dangerous revelation.

What’s more, Martha Wells doesn’t waste time. I’ve yet to read a story of hers with anything I could recognize as filler. If something was included, it mattered. If it didn’t matter, it wasn’t in the story. City of Bones takes a little more time to meander atmospherically than Wells’ later work, but doesn’t feel like it’s wasting my time.

Despite City of Bones’ Indiana Jones vibes, and despite coming out in 1995, this book didn’t feel as dated as I’d feared. Yes, I’m sure a more discerning reader—or one who’s read more mid-90s fantasy more recently than I have—will be able to recognize parallels and dated genre conventions. Heck, I could dedicate a paragraph or three to the changing gender conventions of genre fiction and how this book illustrates them as a reprinted slice of the past. But where the 90s spawned epic fantasy series right and left, each entry hundreds of pages long, this story feels concise and contained (like Murderbot).

City of Bones doesn’t deliver its adventure in precisely the same way that I think made Murderbot truly shine, but many shared elements are still present, alongside other ingredients that pull the story in other fun directions. The similarities between Murderbot of The Murderbot Diaries and Khat in City of Bones feel so clear—each one a socially dislocated competent professional with complicated secrets and a penchant for violent conflict resolution, each one with awkward personal connections to the people they wind up protecting. Khat’s relationship with his companion Sagai, with his housemates and neighbors, and with the Warder Elen all feel like the diluted solution that The Murderbot Diaries concentrates into such a distinct tonic in Murderbot’s relationships with its preferred clients. I don’t mean that City of Bones is worse, or less than—even over twenty years ago, Martha Wells knew how to nurture a small story into a fun romp. It’s more that the flavors of City of Bones are less piquant, less fiercely honed, and perhaps more appealing to a broader range of palates. 

If you’ve read and liked Murderbot, you’ll probably enjoy the sense of familiarity as you dive into this story too. I certainly did. If you haven’t read Murderbot but what I mentioned above sounds good, I recommend giving Wells’ books a whirl. I love how Wells writes her characters; I admire her ability to both convey character in such economical terms, and to show character growth without that growth feeling like a shocking leap. It’s something she did masterfully in her Murderbot novellas and this book shows that she’s nurtured that skill for a long time.

City of Bones will be (re-)published on September 5, 2023.