Line #36 Literature/TheBoneSeasonSeries


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_bone_season.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: [[{{Irony}} There is no safer place than Scion.]]]]
3
4	->''Besides this earth, and besides the race of men, there is an invisible world and a kingdom of spirits: that world is round us, for it is everywhere.''
5	-->-- Epigraph
6
7	''The Bone Season'' is a seven-book series by Samantha Shannon. Set in a {{Dystopian}}, AlternateHistory England, the story follows a young clairvoyant woman named Paige Mahoney. Since 1859, when the phenomenon of [[ISeeDeadPeople clairvoyance]] first became public knowledge, England has operated under an [[ANaziByAnyOtherName oppressive and strongly anti-voyant government]] called Scion. Paige belongs to a class of criminal voyants who use their contact with spirits and the spirit world (called the æther) to make a living while avoiding the authorities. She is a rare kind of voyant known as a dreamwalker, capable of [[AstralProjection separating her spirit from her physical body]] and entering the æther in spirit form.
8
9	One night, Paige is subjected to a spot check by government agents and [[AccidentalMurder accidentally kills one with her gift]]. She is arrested that very night and transported to a secret [[PenalColony penal colony]] run by a race of [[HumanoidAliens supernatural creatures known as Rephaim]], who have been [[AncientConspiracy controlling Scion from the shadows]] for two hundred years and whose aim is to colonize the human world. Every ten years, a number of captive voyants like Paige are sent to the penal colony to be trained and indoctrinated. These decadal harvests are known as Bone Seasons.
10
11	Four out of seven books have been published as of January 2021, along with two novellas: ''[[NoodleIncident The Pale Dreamer,]]'' a prequel to the whole series, and ''[[AfterActionHealingDrama The Dawn Chorus,]]'' which takes place between ''The Song Rising'' and ''The Mask Falling.'' Each installment deals with Paige's escalating fight against Scion's tyranny and Rephaite control.
12
13	Be warned that not all spoilers on this page are marked.
14
15	For character-specific tropes, please go to the [[Characters/TheBoneSeasonSeries character page for this series.]]
16
17	!!For book-specific tropes, please click on one of the following:
18	[[index]]
19	* Literature/TheBoneSeason
20	** [[Literature/TheBoneSeasonTenthAnniversarySpecialEdition The Bone Season (10th Anniversary Edition)]]
21	* Literature/TheMimeOrder
22	* Literature/TheSongRising
23	* Literature/TheMaskFalling
24	[[/index]]
25
26	----
27	!!This book series contains examples of:
28	* AlternateHistory: Splits off with the main timeline around the [[UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain Victorian Era]]. In 1859, a rift opens in the æther due to a build-up of dead spirits, allowing the Rephaim and the Emim to enter the corporeal world. Forty years later, Edward VII is blamed for the Jack the Ripper murders and deposed as King, and the government of Scion is established.
29	* AncientConspiracy: Britain has been secretly controlled by the race of Rephaim since before Scion's conception.
30	* AstralProjection: Played with. Paige's spirit can leave her body and travel through the æther, but she can't see her own body or anything in the physical world -- just dreamscapes and other spirits. Her body stops breathing when she does this, so she can't do it for long without life support.
31	* AuraVision: "Sighted" voyants can see the auras given off by others of their kind.
32	* TheBerserker: A type of sixth-order clairvoyant that flies into an UnstoppableRage during spirit combat.
33	* BilingualBonus: For speakers of Swedish, Gaeilge and especially French, as Nick and Paige will occasionally speak in their mother tongues and all of ''The Mask Falling'' is set in Scion Paris.
34	* CastFullOfGay: Nick and Zeke are gay, Jaxon is asexual, Cutmouth is bi, Ivy is lesbian, Ognena Maria is a trans woman and Paige is demisexual, most of which is made explicit on the page. The author has also stated that the Rephaim, being attracted to their partners' ''spirits,'' [[https://sshannonauthor.tumblr.com/post/628804050917507072/hi-samantha-im-about-to-start-my-tbs-reread-and are the equivalent of pansexual]].
35	* ColorCodedWizardry: Each voyant gives off an aura with a different color, depending on their gift.
36	* CombatClairvoyance: The average voyant can bring spirits together into a "spool" and throw it at an adversary, temporarily stunning them. Powerful voyants such as binders and summoners can use especially strong spirits which are capable of killing their opponents. Dreamwalkers, however, are the ultimate incarnation of this trope, as they can leave their bodies in spirit form and directly attack other dreamscapes.
37	* EldritchAbomination: The Emim.
38	* FantasticRacism: Very much the Rephaim toward humanity. The ruling family's goal is to colonize the human world and install themselves as the apex predators of the Earth. Being ageless and immune to the ravages of time, [[HumansThroughAlienEyes they see humans as being in a perpetual state of decay]], as [[PunyEarthlings petty and weak and naturally subordinate]]. Even the [[spoiler: Ranthen, who share a common enemy with the clairvoyants of London and must work together with them,]] tend to belittle humans to their faces without a second thought.
39	* FateWorseThanDeath: A few, considering that death isn't as permanent to voyants as it is to regular humans.
40	** Nashira's murder victims become "fallen angels," spirits which are bound to protect her for eternity.
41	** Paige nearly gets one when she [[spoiler: tries to possess an Emite in ''The Mime Order;'' its dreamscape almost devours her spirit.]]
42	--> This was what we feared, we voyants. Not death, but non-existence. [[CessationOfExistence The total destruction of spirit and self]].
43	* FeministFantasy: The series takes place in what appears to be an equal-opportunity society. Besides a strong and willful protagonist who becomes [[spoiler: Underqueen of the London syndicate]], we meet a multitude of female characters in positions of power: Nashira, one-half of the Rephaite sovereignty; Terebell, sovereign-elect of the Ranthen; Hildred Vance, a seventy-year-old military commander and strategist; all the mime-queens; etc.
44	* FictionalDocument: Jaxon Hall's ''On the Merits of Unnaturalness,'' a pamphlet published several years before the start of the series. It goes into detail about every known type of clairvoyant gift and arranges them into a hierarchy. This pamphlet not only restructured the way clairvoyants everywhere thought of themselves, but set off a series of gang wars in London and resulted in the ostracization and imprisonment of the vile augurs.
45	* FlowerMotifs: A plethora of them.
46	** Amaranth, the only flower to grow in the timeless Netherworld, comes from ''Literature/ParadiseLost'''s ''amarant'' and means ''eternity.'' The blooming of the amaranth flower in the bell jar -- also known as the "flower of transgression," the Ranthen's call-to-arms -- is one of the central mysteries of the whole story.
47	** Paige's dreamscape is full of poppies, which signify sleep. After her experience in the penal colony, they change into [[ImmortalBreaker poppy anemones]] to reflect how guarded she must now be against the Rephaim.
48	** Every contestant in the scrimmage is required to declare their candidacy with a posy of flowers. Using the Victorian language of flowers, Paige puts her posy together using bells of Ireland for luck, bittersweet for truth, and poppy anemone for Rephaite-slaying, all of which denote the kind of leader she plans to be.
49	** In ''The Song Rising,'' Alsafi and Paige encode messages to each other using floriography.
50	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Several examples.
51	** In Paige's final memory, the one where she gets her heart broken for the first time, Nick whimsically points out the star Arcturus in the night sky. From Paige's perspective, this foreshadows her next great love.
52	** In another memory, Jaxon tells Nick and Paige that he is "further from the Archon than the cradle from the grave. Not that those two states are all that far apart." ''The Song Rising'' throws this into a new light.
53	** In ''The Mime Order,'' Nick gets oracular visions of a waterboard, one that isn't meant for him. The sequel has [[spoiler: Paige being waterboarded in the bowels of the Westminster Archon.]]
54	** Paige visits a soothsayer for a reading and asks her who the King of Wands is, already suspecting that it's Jaxon. The soothsayer tells her that the King of Wands is "seven." It's revealed later that [[spoiler: Jaxon is XVIII-39-7, the man who singlehandedly destroyed the penal colony's first rebellion.]]
55	** Paige remarks in an offhand way that when she found Haymarket Hector and his henchmen [[spoiler: dead, they'd been disfigured "Ripper-style"]]. We find out in ''The Song Rising'' that the poltergeist responsible -- the same poltergeist who tortured the Ranthen after Bone Season XVIII -- was in fact [[spoiler: the spirit of Jack the Ripper]].
56	* FutureSlang: Played with, in that the book is set 50 years in the future but much of the slang comes from Victorian English.
57	* GhostlyChill: Spirits draw on heat energy to sustain themselves, so it's always colder when they're around.
58	* GoIntoTheLight: When a person dies, they can either choose to stay in the corporeal world as a ghost or to go into "the last light," the final death, from which no spirit has ever come back.
59	* GreatOffscreenWar: It's mentioned a few times that the voyant syndicate of London was plunged into a series of bloody [[MobWar gang wars]] after the publication of ''On the Merits of Unnaturalness.'' We never learn anything more about it.
60	* GuardianAngel: A spirit that returns to the corporeal world to protect the person they died to save. There are also archangels -- guardian angels who stay with that person's family after their death, sometimes for generations.
61	* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Paige is five foot nine, which is nothing to sneeze at, but her Rephaite keeper / companion / partner-in-crime towers over her at nearly seven feet. She doesn't even come up to his shoulder. Luckily, he's a tactful sort who usually stands at enough of a distance that she doesn't need to crane her neck up at him.
62	* HumansArePsychicInTheFuture: The story begins in 2059 and revolves around the oppression of clairvoyants.
63	* ImmortalBreaker: The Rephaim are ageless and invulnerable to amaurotic weapons, yet their kryptonite is a tiny red flower called the poppy anemone. Simply touching one causes painful burns, while getting a small quantity of pollen to the face inflicts catastrophic physical damage akin to accelerated decay.
64	* ImmuneToMindControl: An unreadable is a type of clairvoyant who is impervious to all spiritual attack, including possession by a dreamwalker.
65	* ISeeDeadPeople: The whole series is based on the existence of clairvoyants, people who can sense spirits and interact with the spirit world.
66	* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Downplayed. Every time she possesses another body, Paige must first get through each "zone" of their mind to reach the centre, where the host's spirit lives. It never seems to take much longer than a second or two in real time.
67	* KingOfThieves: London's voyant syndicate is governed by an Underlord or Underqueen.
68	* LeParkour: How Paige and her more able-bodied allies prefer to navigate London, dodging street security by staying off of street level altogether. This skill serves her on countless occasions throughout the series.
69	* MayflyDecemberRomance: [[spoiler: Paige and the Warden]]. Also qualifies as InterspeciesRomance and ForbiddenLove.
70	* MentalWorld: The interior of someone's mind is called a ''dreamscape,'' which looks different for every individual depending on their memories and personal experiences; according to Warden, it takes the shape of [[HappyPlace whatever makes them feel safest]]. Paige's dreamscape, for example, resembles the poppy field from her childhood.
71	* MythicalMotifs: Several aspects of the series are inspired by ancient myths.
72	** Warden's history is loosely based on that of Prometheus, a figure from classical Greek mythology who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity. Like Prometheus, Warden risked himself to help humans (by staging the rebellion of Bone Season XVIII), and like Prometheus, he was punished for it with agony and torment.
73	** In the first book, Warden tells Paige the story of Adonis: Aphrodite's youthful, mortal lover, who was slaughtered by a jealous Ares. The lifeblood of Adonis begot the poppy anemone, and his spirit was permitted to spend half the year in life and half in death. This particular myth is implied to hold the key to the true nature of Rephaim.
74	* NoHonorAmongThieves: The London syndicate is comprised of dozens of clairvoyant gangs and petty factions "all willing to floor each other to survive." Most of them wouldn't blink twice at selling out one of their own for cash.
75	* NumerologicalMotif: [[RuleOfSeven The number seven]] crops up a lot, being strongly associated with the supernatural and the divine: there are [[BiblicalMotifs seven Seals]], seven orders of clairvoyance, seven books in the series, and seven tarot cards predicting Paige's future. The arch-traitor of Bone Season XVIII was XVIII-39-7. Also, Paige's London gang is based in Seven Dials, where seven roads converge on a sundial pillar. May also qualify as ArcNumber.
76	* OncePerEpisode: Paige visiting a certain Rephaite's dreamscape.
77	* PointOfDivergence: In the year 1859, Earth broke its ethereal threshold, allowing a large party of Rephaim -- led by the Sargas -- to cross over from the Netherworld. The Sargas were determined to establish themselves as [[TheRightOfASuperiorSpecies the new rulers of the Earth]], so they revealed themselves to the British prime minister of the era and convinced him that they were angels come to save humanity. Control of [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire the British Empire]] was effectively turned over to them. The Sargas then used this power to establish Sheol I and the government of Scion, both tools for controlling the clairvoyant population of the world.
78	* {{Poltergeist}}: An angry spirit capable of interacting with the corporeal world. Paige encounters several of them over the course of the series.
79	* PowersViaPossession: Certain mediums can use the abilities that the spirits possessing them had in life. An automatiste like Eliza, possessed by the spirit of a dead artist, would be able to paint in perfect imitation of that artist's style. A psychographer possessed by the spirit of a dead writer would write and write until the spirit had produced a new work of literature through them. When a medium and a spirit are familiar with each other and work well together, it's called [[SymbioticPossession symbiosis]]. Mediums are in regular danger of PossessionBurnout, especially when they get possessed by an extremely prolific spirit.
80	* PropagandaMachine: Scion has one, naturally, to justify their systematic butchery of clairvoyants. Unnaturals are blamed for every ill in Scion society, from theft to rape to murder, to the point where even Scion sitcoms are based on the triumphs of amaurotics over unnaturals.
81	* ProtectiveCharm: In the first book, the Warden gives Paige a sublimed pendant that repels poltergeists. It ends up saving her life many times over the course of the series.
82	* PsychicLink: [[spoiler: Paige and the Warden]] share a "golden cord," a spiritual connection that allows them to transmit emotions and images to each other through the æther. This connection is one of the central mysteries of the whole story.
83	* {{Psychopomp}}: A little-understood type of spirit whose original function was to guide spirits to the Netherworld. They're implied to have abandoned this duty after the ethereal threshold broke.
84	* RedAndBlackTotalitarianism: Scion's official colours are red, black and white.
85	* SignificantAnagram: "Archon" is an anagram of "Anchor."
86	* SupernaturalRepellent: Salt is used to ward off the Emim and to treat their bites.
87	* TheSyndicate: A highly organized underground society of clairvoyants has existed in London since the 20th century.
88	* TarotTroubles: In the first book, a cartomancer divines Paige's future using seven tarot cards: Five of Cups, King of Wands inverted, the Devil, the Lovers, Death inverted, Eight of Swords, and one that never saw the light of day. This reading will continue to haunt Paige throughout the series.
89	** In fact, these can be understood to represent each book in the series in chronological order.
90	*** Five of Cups is associated with regret, disappointment and pessimism; of being stuck in the past and unable to let go. In ''The Bone Season,'' Paige relives many of her own memories, most notably the one where she gets her heart broken for the first time.
91	*** King of Wands, inverted, represents ruthlessness and high expectations; for Paige, this indicates Jaxon, a figure whose authority over her she felt even in Sheol I. In ''The Mime Order,'' she struggles to break free of his control in order to be able to decide her own future and that of the London syndicate.
92	*** The Devil is associated with a force of darkness and hopelessness, one so powerful that we are tricked into thinking we can't break free of it. In ''The Song Rising,'' Paige struggles with despair [[spoiler: while imprisoned in the Westminster Archon and even gets a WhatYouAreInTheDark moment when Nashira asks her to betray the Mime Order]].
93	*** The Lovers is self-explanatory. In ''The Mask Falling,'' having been left alone with him in Paris for several weeks, Paige realizes the true depth of her feelings for Warden and reaches a far more honest understanding with him than anything they've had up until that point.
94	* UrbanFantasy: The series takes place TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture in modern-ish England, with trains, cars and mobile phones coexisting with spirits, clairvoyants, and supernatural creatures from another plane of existence.
95	* {{Whatevermancy}}: Soothsayers and augurs are classified this way in ''On the Merits of Unnaturalness;'' those who scry with mirrors are called catoptromancers, with ice -- cryomancers, with fire -- pyromancers, and so on. An uncommon example of the ''-mancy'' suffix, which stands for divination, not magic, actually being used correctly.
96	* WitchHunt: Scion's government is built on the systematic rooting out and execution of clairvoyants -- none of whom, of course, can possibly be human beings with the right to exist. Amaurotics tend to be very paranoid as a consequence, especially when Scion encourages them to turn in anyone they suspect might be unnatural.
97	----
98	->''"You know what they used to call the British Empire? 'The empire on which the sun never set.' That's the same empire Scion is built on. If it's us against the sun, who wins?"''

Context Literature / TheBoneSeasonSeries