The Bone House is the second book in the Bright Empire series. This is not one of those series you can just jump into. You need to read [b:The Skin Map|7776444|The Skin Map|Stephen R. Lawhead|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1277154992s/7776444.jpg|10685080] first. There is a cast of characters and summary of The Skin Map at the beginning of The Bone House, but I encourage you to read them in order.

In this book, we get more background on Lord Burleigh, as well as the Flinders-Petrie family. There is a lot of action in this story and there definitely aren't any dead spots... Well, maybe when Kit is staying with the cavemen. I could have used a little less detail there.

This is a fun book that always keeps you guessing. You never know who is going to turn up or when or where they'll be. We're also not sure about the motives of a couple characters. I like the historic aspect of the story, but that's not really the focus, so it's not as much of a draw for me. I think what I like best is just the mystery of not knowing what's coming next. I'm looking forward to the third book, but not thrilled that I have to wait a year for it.

I received an copy of this book for free from the BookSneeze review program.
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It is a great story and while it is getting more complex, it is also getting harder to put down. Parts of this are confusing if I try too hard to explain things based on my current understanding of the laws of physics and quantum realities. It reads best when I sit back to see where the story takes me. Things are being explained at the points where that is necessary.

I genuinely like the characters. I am anxious to see how some of the possibilities play out as I read the rest of the series. I'm not sure yet that we know who are the good guys and which are the bad guys. Such fun.

I particularly enjoyed the author's essay at the end of this book. He talks about his experience with the world of physics. He mentioned excitement when he visited Fermi National Accelerator Lab as we were bringing the Tevetron on-line. I work at Fermilab (18 years now) and I understand that excitement. While the Tevetron was decommissioned a few years ago, we are still closely involved with work at the LHC at CERN in Switzerland. And the new experiments that are developing at Fermilab very interesting. It is certainly and exciting time in the world of Physics. ( )

Fine more reviews like this on The Literary Phoenix.

Thanks to Mina, Kip and Giles narrowly escape death.

They leave their benefactors behind and race against time (or towards it?) to outwit the Burleymen chasing them. Mina, fortunately, has a plan. Actually, Mina seems to really have it all together when it comes to this ley travel business, something Kip himself cannot claim. Down to three, they continue their search for the pieces of the skin map, hoping to find them all before the nefarious Burley.

Meanwhile, in other timelines, we learn a bit more about Burley's unfortunate past and about Arthur Flinders Petrie, the man who wear the skin map himself. We travel from Egypt to the Stone Age to Victorian England and all back again, settling at home in Mina's imperial cafe.

I'm torn between fascination and boredom.

The ideas and the story are excellent, but because of the manner of the magical system in this book (the ley lines), Lawhead likes to jump all over the place with his narrative. We'll hear from Mina in the present and the past (and honest to goodness - she's the only one who has any idea what's going on), and we'll hear from Kit in the present then on to Burley in the far past, then forward a little to Arthur and man this is one of those books you really need to focus on or you'll get lost.

I really, really, really love the ley travel concept, and I adore the historic worlds we fall into. But there's a lot of explaining and re-explaining and there are times when I'm just done with it all and WHOOSH! into something really interesting and okay I'll hang around a bit.

The characters are a bit flat?

Each character has a rich and detailed history, but despite that they fall into the same monotone humdrum. This may fall to the narrator, who did not excel at differing voices. He was very easy to listen to, but I really had to listen to the qualifiers - okay, "Kit said," this is Kit. The characters fall into bowls where they can be summed up in one trait: Mina - intelligent, Kit - naive, Giles - frightened, Burley - grumpy. And so forth. It just wasn't very exciting.

Oh the other hand, we do have very interesting side characters at the various stops in history. The culture and setting are all shown extraordinarily well, so those can draw you in where other aspects may not.

I'm a glutton for punishment I guess so I'll grab book three.

I'm so torn between disliking the storytelling style and being SO, SO INTERESTED in the concept. I don't care so much about the skin map as I do about learning the ley system. Lawhead has put an incredible amount of research into this series - both historically and theoretically - and you can tell from the knowledge that seeps through the pages. I am fascinated, really I am! I just don't think that writing-wise, this is his strongest work. I found the King Raven trilogy a lot easier to swallow.

I hesitantly recommend this series - definitely starting with The Skin Map... this one is book two! - but with the precaution that you need to have patience and a deep interest in either history or time travel to really enjoy them. As it happens, I love both! ( )

a good 2nd novel in a series but leaves too many questions for me ( )

I just turned my brain off and went along for the ride.

Multiple timelines, multiple storylines. I didn't try to make sense of it.

And Kit is still the stupidest person EVER!!!!!!!!! He gets rescued, then all he has to do it stay in one place, but NO, he gets involved with proto-cavemen and gets lost in time/space.

I like the overall idea of the multiverse, but Lawhead's treatment, while very different from the scifi point that I am used to, is involving the theological, and I like that! ( )