McNaughton’s world feels very similar to the late Roman Empire. Between them a small middle class live in dual fear of the nobility and of falling into poverty. The rich and powerful lead lives of luxury, while the poor live in squalor. They are set within and on the edges of an old empire slipping into decay: crumbling cities, clashing religious sects, and feuding noble clans. The Throne of Bones contains nine short stories and the novella, “Throne of Bones” itself composed of six intricately intertwined stories. So if this review leaves you curious about McNaughton’s work, be warned: while it’s not sadistic or very frightening, it is strong stuff. Lots of the characters’ actions are motivated by sexual appetites that are many things - mostly disturbing - but never even remotely erotic. On the other hand, many of the characters are by far the most despicable I’ve ever met and their actions among the vilest put to paper. And it’s set in a vivid world, parts of which will haunt me for a long time. It contains some of the best writing I have ever read in fantasy by turns tense, dark, grimly funny, and occasionally majestic. The late Brian McNaughton’s 1997 collection The Throne of Bones is a book I want to on one hand praise and with the other hold it away from myself with a pair of iron tongs. They see their fellows as impediments to feeding, to be mauled and shrieked at when the mourners go home. It vaporizes delicacy and leaves behind a only a slag of anger and lust. Hunger is the fire in which they burn, and it burns hotter than the hunger for power over men or for the knowledge of the gods in a crazed mortal. 'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.For all their laughter, ghouls are a dull lot. The world that McNaughton has created in this book is the world of the ghoul and who knows but that The Throne of Bones will become the standard textbook for the care and feeding of ghouls just as Dracula has become that for vampires?'

'McNaughton seems to have mastered one of the most difficult of literary arts: to draw upon the classics of the field without losing his own voice. Howard, and Greco-Roman decadent works such as Petronius's Satyricon. Joshi, in the afterword to this collection of stories, notes the strong influence of Clark Ashton Smith, Lord Dunsany, H. You've got just a hint of the wondrous and original visions in the dark fantasy world of Brian McNaughton. Then throw in star-crossed lovers, crazed zealots, stalwart heroes, bloodthirsty renegade armies, hideous monsters, and likeable misfits. Imagine mephitic gardens where the sarcophage, selenotrope, and necrophilium bloom. Imagine earthy Tolkienesque characters in a setting full of cemeteries, graverobbers, necromancers, corpse-eaters-even a huge labyrinthine necropolis.

The throne of bones brian mcnaughton