Road of Bones by Christopher Golden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A short novel that moves quickly, ROAD OF BONES is a grueling horror adventure that never lets up. Author Christopher Golden locates the action on the real-life Road of Bones, the Kolyma Highway in Siberia, Russia, a setting with a dark, tragic history. In fact, that history is so unsettling I kind of wish it had played more directly into the horrors with which Golden confronts his characters. However, the novel goes in a different direction, one that I found equally compelling. No spoilers here, but Golden dips into Russian folklore that dates back much further than the Road of Bones itself and even nods toward cosmic horror.
The characters are okay. You don’t get a lot of time to get to know them before they’re running for their lives, but none of them felt unrealistic or cartoonish to me. My favorite character, and also the character I think is the strongest, is Ludmilla, an old woman who has taken it upon herself to bless the spirits of the road. My only real complaint about the novel is that I wish she had played a larger role in the story.
Aside from its fast-paced plot, the novel’s atmosphere is its strength. You really feel the brutality of the subzero temperatures and unforgiving wilderness, and Golden doesn’t shy away from describing what those conditions can do to a person. Novels, especially horror novels, are made or broken by their endings, and here Golden absolutely nails it. When you reach the end, you won’t be disappointed, save perhaps for the fact that this high-octane, heart-pounding novel is over.
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