World Famous Comics: Bone Volume 9 Crown of Horns (Bone Series)
Bone Volume 9 Crown of Horns (Bone Series)
By: Jeff Smith Publisher: Cartoon Books Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Cartoon Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 184 Publication Date: July 14, 2004 Reading Level: Young Adult
Product Description: Trapped in a dungeon while the fate of the Valley is decided by two raging armies, Thorn is haunted by the dangerous and mysterious object of power known as the Crown of Horns. Guarded by dragons, the Crown of Horns is the only thing that can stop the Locust and end the war... but how, and at what price? Fone Bone believes he knows the answer, and he must decide where his heart truly lies...
Weakest of the series... This is a good book, unfortunately it falls below the high standards set in the previous books. For two reasons.
1) The art. Jeff Smith's art is still good but in this volume it feels rushed. Characters and landscapes lack the attention to detail that Smith usually provides. If you don't believe me, just take a look at The Great Cow race and compare it to The Crown Of Horns. The art is noticeably not as good. In my opinion Smith peaked at The Dragonslayer and started paying less attention to detail from then on.
2) The plot. It just doesn't make a lot of sense. It feels like Smith started the series without a clear idea of how to tie everything together in a climax and had to introduce all these mystical plot devices at the last moment, just to wrap it all together. It wasn't quite satisfying and a little too weird in parts.
Still it's a good conclusion to an epic series that reaches greatness on many occasions. It just isn't up to the usual standards.
The end of a great thing [This will offer spoilers]
I can go on and on about how wonderful Jeff Smith's Bone series is. I'm more fond of this series than any other comic ever created, and collect only the hard cover books for my collection. Crown of Horns is the last of the series, and it delivers a pretty solid punch. All of our favorite characters make their appearance, and all the things we wanted to see happened pretty much happened.
Nevertheless, it was probably the weakest with storyline than all of the other books. It felt a little rushed, and was actually anti-climactic as a whole. The attack of Alethia could have been mined for at least a few extra comics on its own, without overdoing it. The release of Mim and her continued possession by the Lord of the Locust could have been a mini-series! But the action ended about halfway through the book, making everything except the "road home to Boneville" seem like a summary as opposed to the story itself. Since this was the last venture into the Bone reality, I really needed alot more!
I loved this book, and will read it many times before I finally put it on the shelf with the rest. In fact, I'll probably read the the series as a whole a few times before I give another series a go. Smith is brilliant in these comics, as no other writer and illustrator before him. Criticizing his work is almost like criticizing gold because it weighs too much. This is a must read, and a must buy. But take note, if you loved this series as much as I did you probably will be depressed over the same things I mentioned above, and a whole lot more.
The last of a great series... The Bone books are, to put it bluntly, really, really good. The art is beautiful, especially the forest scenes. The characters are funny, and imaginative, and the plot is very original, intriging, and all together, well, good. I can not think of a better comic than this. This comic rates up there with Tolkien, and I love Tolkien books. It is to bad that the series has to come to an end... other than that though, this is an excellent series, you are an idiot if you pass up reading these. Anyone who loves these books as much as me is my friend.
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