Anyway, I read Stone of Farewell, and now I have a bit of time to write about it. If you haven't read The Dragonbone Chair, the first book in this series, go do that.
The Dragonbone Chair left Simon, Binabik, Jiriki, and Sludig on a freezing mountain, and the suriviors of Naglimund wandering the woods of northern Erkynland. Miriamele had just embarked with Cadrach on a voyage to Nabban, hoping to convince Duke Leobardis to ally with Josua, not realizing that she was already too late.
When we return to Osten Ard, Williams picks up right where he left off. Binabik and Sludig are being held by the trolls under sentence of death. Simon is slowly recovering from his fight with the dragon Igjarjuk, and Jiriki's torn between speaking for his imprisoned companions and returning to his home to perform final rites for An'nai. Meanwhile, Josua's tiny kingdom of survivors flees Norns and Bukken and tries to recover from injuries with no treatment. And over it all, King Elias and Pryrates continue to do their best to destroy world order and replace it with the Ineluki's. But when Simon collapses during Binabik's trial, he receives a strange vision from Valada Geloe, and she tells him that their only hope lies in the Stone of Farewell, or Sesuad'ra, a Sithi landmark of great power and history.
To sum up that paragraph, Stone of Farewell Taddified me just as well as The Dragonbone Chair. Everything I said about concepts and world-building in The Dragonbone Chair gets even better in Stone of Farewell, as one would hope. In the second book, we get to see Perdruin, Kwanitupul, Yiqanuc, Jao é-Tinukai'i, and the Thrithings. We see more of the places in The Dragonbone Chair. Languages, cultures, and names expand into further believability and elegance. The gorgeous hand-drawn maps scattered throughout the book are now labelled in an actually readable font (thanks, Tad!). The setting description continues to glitter, choke, depress, astonish--whatever is necessary. Snowy wastes, stark mountains, dusty cities, open oceans, cold castles, deep caves, omniscient forests, jewel-bright havens--through Williams' writing, they become realer than the couch.
Speaking of setting description, can I please go live in Jao é-Tinukai'i, Jiriki's hometown? It may close its inhabitants off from the world, but it really is lovely. I'd even settle for the path to it, if I couldn't get the billowing sails of colored cloth and the butterfly-bedecked Yásira.
As usual, our characters are gorgeous. Some books run on characters; others on plot, or description, or the moral of the story. Williams' books depend on all three. There is no such thing as action-driven, concept-driven etc. in one of his books. That perfect balance between absolutely everything is what makes them brilliant. Stone of Farewell brings back all of my favorite characters from The Dragonbone Chair (Jiriki, Binabik, and Maegwin), and it also gives some more time to characters we didn't get to know as well. I completely fell in love with Deornoth, Vorzheva, Eolair, and Dinivan, and decided that Miriamele is more annoying than I thought she was. New characters were introduced, too: a troll girl from Binabik's past, a creepy Rimmerswoman, and Jiriki's sister, for starters. Williams also allowed for a few scenes that focused mainly on character development, so we get to see some of the characters grow and deepen through more than just how the plot affects them (at which Williams is still a master). I enjoyed reading a little more of some characters' history.
Stone of Farewell adds even more points of view (the series really is amazing, but it does make your head spin at times), leading to deeper, richer understanding of the story and all its parts. Williams does not just write novels, he invents something so complex that he could be chronicling in detail a particularly interesting period of history. He thinks of literally everything. We get perspectives of heroes and of failures, of civilians and of soldiers, of rulers and of servants, of good and of evil, of mortal and of immortal. We read in the head of Simon, trekking across the White Waste. From Miriamele's prospective, we traverse southern Osten Ard, visiting palaces, churches, and boats. We hear from Duke Isgrimnur, chasing after Miriamele. Rachel the Dragon gets her word in as a firsthand witness to the King's madness. Inside Deornoth's head, we run through the Aldheorte and watch Josua and his party swing between hope and despair. All the way down in the Wran, Tiamak tries to piece together the story and dramatic irony makes us want to scream, "HERE'S THE DEAL!!!" and proceed to tell him everything we know.
All of the perspectives leads to astonishing twists near the end, twists even better than in The Dragonbone Chair. They are more beautiful, more horrifying, more confusing. A month has passed since I finished Stone of Farewell, and I still can't believe the ending to some of the storylines. Most of them ended on a cliffhanger. *Miserable face directed at Tad Williams but mostly To Green Angel Tower but more mostly the giant stack of books that I still have to read before I can finish Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn; the stack that just grew yesterday by two books and today by four; ooooooooh*
I don't want to spoil life and such for you, but here is a fabulous line from Stone of Farewell: "'Ride on! I am married and an outlaw!'" If I tell you who said it, it would spoil life and such (meaning something that happens in the book), so I shall not. Sniff. Go read the book.
No complaints. There were less typos than in its predecessor; thank you, DAW! The cover was a tad prettier this time. I mean, the art is always great, but the color schemes hurt. Orange and green on The Dragonbone Chair was quite sickening, but I could handle the yellow and blue of Stone of Farewell a little better. Besides, it's got butterflies. Although I do think that Simon needs a bag. Carrying his White Arrow, Thorn, and Jiriki's mirror in his arms seems like a bit much.
In short, Stone of Farewell is an excellent follow-up to The Dragonbone Chair, and someday I will read To Green Angel Tower. Probably each volume at a different time (oh, nationally recognized private all-girls Catholic high school that will hopefully help make me a brilliant and amazing person and astrophysicist but that also steals all my time--breathe, and then say the--!).