Jeff Smith produced once again a magnificent story arc with his
fifth Bone book, "Roque Ja, Master of the Eastern March." The
storyline revolves around Fone Bone, acompanied by his cousin
Smilay Bone, and their efforts to return their pet rat-creature
cub, Bartleby, to his fellow rat-creatures. Of course, there are
numerous problems to this endeavor. First, they are traveling in an
fairly unknown, hostile territory in the mountains east of "the
valley" (the valley is where the rest of the story takes place).
Second, the rat-creatures are carnivorous, ferocious creatures and
it is a deadly effort to try to deal with them. Third, Fone's
cousin Smiley is definitely reluctant to let Bartleby go, because
he has become very much emotionally attached to him. But most of
all, Fone's efforts are seriously compromised when the ferocious
mountain lion, the master of the Eastern March ROQUE JA steps in.
In the course of a wild action-packed summer day, the Bones step
continuously into danger, but make also a bunch of amazing new
discoveries. Of course, the ending is as suspenseful and thrilling
as it is surprising and gigantic.
This book is entertaining and captivating, and of course, as is the
case with most Bone books, it is at times very funny. But it also
worthy of note, more so than most of the story Bone story arcs, for
the questions it brings about on nature. Roque Ja's character is at
the center of this problem, because his pragmatic, naturalist world
view come into conflict and challenge with the other forces at work
in the story. In the end, actions speak louder than words, and
first-hand illustration of the philosophy of the characters is
presented by the events that take place in the course of the book.
Smith recently published his eighth Bone book and is about to come
out with the ninth and last Bone book. But out of all of them,
"Roque Ja" certainly stands out as one of the most remarkable. It
certainly counts among my all-time favorites, perhaps only beaten
by the excellent, unforgivable "The Dragonslayer," which preceded
it. I certainly hope that the ninth book, "Crown of Horns," will be
of similar calibre, and Smith has certainly taught his readers over
the years that high expectations are not necessarily foolish but
coming out with superior material over and over again. Of course,
it will be the very end of the saga, so the last big fight of the
story is about to begin...